>>Did you hear about the guy who was a dyslexic,agnostic insomniac?
>
>John, that is such an old joke ... plus, I'm pretty sure you've used it before!!! <g>
>

I thought the same thing, then realized John probably heard it when it was new (gd&rfjh).

I read a really interesting piece by Steve Martin in The New Yorker on the train yesterday. It was apparently an excerpt from his upcoming memoir and describes how he got into the comedy business. His first steady work was at the age of 18 in a variety show at Knott's Berry Farm. He had a 3 or 4 minute slot 4 times a day, 5 times on Sundays. He started out doing mostly thinly recycled jokes, gradually working in some of his own. Then he decided he wasn't going to do anything derivative at all and was going to succeed or fail based entirely on his own material and style. He said he was scared to do so because his act was thin already and he had to start by throwing away most of it. But somehow -- probably due in part to some college courses he was taking in philosophy and (really!) logic -- he came up with an act consisting of jokes, magic, and banjo. He took off from there. I love stories like that! The story of an unknown rising to fame, how they did it, never gets old for me.