Why I'm Wrapping Up Fork Full & Taboo Table Talk
I'm ending the podcasts I've been producing for 10 years. Here's why.
After 10 years I’ve decided to close the chapter on Fork Full Of Noodles and Taboo Table Talk. This doesn’t mean that I’m done with comedy or content or podcasts or any of that. It means I’m moving in a new direction and a new chapter in my life.
Fork Full of Noodles started in 2013 and evolved in the damn near decade long run I had with it. In the beginning it was a news commentary and sketch show with characters. Almost like something you’d see on Adult Swim or something. There were elements of magical realism involved and it taught me to write in a new way.
After a while I wanted to write a straight political commentary show like Lee Camp, Jon Stewart or Jon Oliver. And I had started touring a lot more, so it was easier to do that style of show as well. I would write a few episodes at a time and film them when I was in town with my friend Alex Murphy. I owe him and all the cast in that first 2 years a huge debt of gratitude. Hell one of the characters has continued on to have his own web presence.
Then it evolved and became more in-depth and took me longer to write the pieces. But there was also a lot of production behind it and I’ve always really been the only employee on this show. During the pandemic it was a show over zoom and focused on using comedy for historical purposes and break myths spread by imperialists.
Taboo Table Talk started because I wanted to share the cool conversations I was with people on the road with everyone. Eventually to keep up with the light-speed pace of news, I added a new segment the show where I discussed important news stories with jokes.
I did these shows while I was in an abusive relationship that led to an abusive marriage and a divorce. Both these shows are a lot of work and I love the work that I did, but now, I’m tired. Over the last year it took a lot of effort to put ink to paper, so to speak, and get the motivation to do these shows. I found myself looking for ways to get out of producing them. My heart wasn’t in it anymore.
Over the past few weeks I’ve contemplated and realized what I really like is writing, drawing, creating posters, not audio & video editing. I like the other periphery skills one acquires with when self employed, but now I’d like to get paid better for those skills. So that’s what I’m doing.
I’m looking for full-time where these skills I’ve acquired over a decade of content creation and touring can be a full time gig. The goal is to find a job that I don’t hate. And I’m finding that out there. Full time work means less time for these podcasts. And thats ok.
It’s not the end. Just natural progression. A positive continuity.
So what’s next? I’m going to keep working on providing historical contexts with a comedic but also write short stories. I want to tell these stories I’ve had in my head for a long time. I want to get back to drawing…painting…illustrating and all of that. These will be released right here on this email list and on my website.
I’m also going to keep focusing on my karate training, spending time with those I love, DnD and all the other things I had to give up in order to maintain a life of never ending touring. In fact some of the physical health work I’m doing is to undo some of the negative effects of that.
I want to read books and comics and mangas. I can’t really do that when I’m bouncing from city to city and have to focus on surviving. I gave myself entirely to comedy and made that more of my identity that I needed to. I’ve been rediscovering things about myself and this is the right direction for me to go.
So what happens to the sustaining members? I’m going to keep my memberships open till the end of May. If you’d like to keep contributing to the work I’ll be producing, that would be amazing and always appreciated. If you no longer want to, I 100% understand that and I hope you’ll stay on the email list and still check it out. Donations are not necessary, but always appreciated.
Thank you to each and every one of you who supported me along the way.
To positive continuities.