A few years ago I was getting annoyed with me for not writing new material more quickly.  I decided to take a look at how long it took me to make a new joke into something that created the level of response that I wanted.  Here it is as I do it now:

WIND CHIMES

“Now I’ll do my impression of wind chimes for you … click, clang, clang, clickety clang CLANG.  Yes, bars of metal that smash into each other, let’s hang that shit on the porch.  No.  Let’s not.   I have purchased a head lamp and scissors, I go around at night and I quiet my town down – one chime at a time.  If you need my help, I am here for you.  I own a ladder.”

Here’s the timeline:

June 7, 2009 – First time I ever did the joke and it was just my impression of bars of metal colliding.

November 2009 – I started talking about cutting them down with hedge clippers.

December 2009 – I made the big decision to use the word “scissors” instead of “hedge clippers”.  Things were looking up.

February 2010 – Added “head lamp”.

June 2010 – Things were shaping up and I moved it much later in my set.  I added “walking around at night”.

January 26, 2011: “I quiet my town down one chime at a time” came together.

Kathleen Kanz is the winner of the 2016 Vermont’s Funniest Comedian contest and the first woman to hold that title. She’s performed in the Bridgetown Comedy Festival and the Women In Comedy Festival and has opened for Ryan Hamilton, Todd Barry and Gilbert Gottfried at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington, Vermont.  She hosts and produces a showcase in Montpelier, Vermont known as the Kathleen Kanz Comedy Hour.  She has jokes in two books – “She’s So Funny” and “Squeaky Clean Comedy” – and was published in the debut issue of Swivel – The Nexus of Women & Wit.