Fauna Flash Fiction

Flast Fiction: Write in 20 minutes to present to an audience.


I had an opportunity last Sunday evening, on the eve of Lupercalia, to see a comedy show. My friend Jonathan Cohen, published author of the book Bear Like Me, was the guest speaker for a Flash Fiction comedy show.

The show starts with pieces the authors present, largely comedians including the Crispy Minis girl, that they had, presumably, written themselves in 20 minutes. My ability to enjoy the down right hilarious, well written and performed pieces was impeded greatly by my incredible need to piss. Notes for next time: don't drink ~750ml of water before any sort of captive audience affair. It's just good science.

David (thickslab) and I were the token bears in an audience that was largely straight and metro. I'd never been, like, out'ted as a bear in a non-gay public space really. It was kinda neat, I wish I were still in love with the identity as much as I was when I was 19. I wish beards were something you could smell rather than see and have to explain to people all the time:

"Why yes, we do have passionate lumberjack-on-lumberjack mansex. So, what do you do in the sack?"

It was still cool to see such an open minded audience who seemed genuinely interested in the concept of alternate gay identities.

At the intermission the MC calls for audience members and past speakers to come up and volunteer to write. It was during this juncture that I ran to the washroom to take the largest roaring rip-tide piss of my sober life.

The resulting fiction was actually surprisingly good. Almost akin to people reading their blog entries aloud. Most of it personal and humorous straddling the space between fiction and non-fiction. Almost magically real and in many cases coming to abrupt segues and pausing for tangental riffs. Neat stuff. Next time I will moderate my Dansi® intake and perhaps participate.

Afterwards we went for drinks with the cast. What a funny group of people to hang out with. Such talent.