I thought making people laugh was easy, but I’m having enough trouble finding my own sense of humor. Hosting this Third Thursday Spoken Word is fun in theory — and should be a way of ensuring I finish at least a couple new pieces each month. In fact, although I did have fun, the crowd was tougher than I expected. I didn’t want to write about myself, my life, Nick’s diabetes or doing radio or surfing, but I couldn’t drag my mind away from all that weighs so immediately heavy. Failing to create something humorous, light or surreal, I opted instead to simply hostess. Unfortunately, without that security blanket of text in hand, I became more of a dying comic than a fellow writer. Ultimately, I got them laughing. Unfortunately it took some really bad jokes. Dan read a poem featuring electrons. I said it reminded me of some terrible jokes I know. Someone hollered out, “Tell them!” So I did:
Proton walks into bar, orders a beer. Bartender says, “You sure?” Proton says, “I’m positive!”
Neutron walks into a bar, orders a beer. Bartender brings it. Neutron asks, “How much?” Bartender says, “For you, no charge.”
I said they were terrible.
Maybe everyone only laughed to get me offstage.
early morning fog, partial clearing 
particle physics jokes are cool. I wish I could have heard the poem about electons.
They may have laughed because, despite the hackneyed “guy walks into a bar” format, they are funny.
Here’s another awful one –A three-legged dog walks into a bar and says, “I’m looking for the man who shot my Paw.”hahahahahaha!And my favorite bar joke of all time:A rabbi, a priest and a minister, and a penguin and a nun, and three blondes, and Superman, and two lesbians, and a piece of string all walk into a bar. Bartender looks around and says, “What is this? Some kind of joke?”