Week 12: The Single Most Intense Experience I've Ever Gone Through
Your heart is worth much more than you can ever imagine, because it's priceless.
When Jay Leno was starting out as a stand-up comedian, he'd put 50 dollars on a table, then ask the owner of the the bar/ club if he could take the mic and perform a set. He wouldn't get the money back unless he made the crowd laugh.
Well, here goes:
My name is Nathanael Philip Mosher and I'm a comedian. Don't ask if I'm funny, you be the judge. Don't ask me to tell you a joke, my life is one.
Delivering my testimony (in Christian-ese this means "story of your life and how you found God") has been one of the single most intense experiences of my life. It's like ripping your chest open and holding your heart out for auction. At the end, everyone comes together to sew you back up and hugs you into a new level of compassion, praying that your story can now uplift others the way it has them. The heart that gets put back in is much, much bigger than before. It also feels a whole lot more. It also loves a little bit better.
Once you come to from the unconscious revelry you had to enter into to do something so scary, vulnerable, and yet deeply meaningful, you find out your heart is worth more than you can ever quantify, because the price people were assigning to it kept going up, until a Man in the back raised his hand and said, "Stop the bidding. No one can pay what I will pay for this man's heart, because this man's heart is priceless."
Today, I received news that Sean Conrad and I have been taken off the waitlist in order to perform our testimonies at the Orlando Fringe Festival. It's some of the best stand-up I've ever written. I cried a lot while writing it, which is how I know it's hilarious. It's dedicated to Jak Knight, who was someone I always felt like I was competing with, rather than a human being who needed compassion and love just like all of us.
We'll now be doing the NY Fringe in April, Orlando in May, Winnipeg in July, and finally Victoria again in August. And the way these things have gone in the past, people are gonna ask us to do more. I'll also be finally taping my solo show, "Nathan Mosher is Injured" (Orlando Fringe 2021, Edinburgh 2022, Vancouver 2022) at the Hero Workshop in Culver City on April 26, as well as UCLA on May 3rd. I'm in the process of creating the event as we speak.
I have absolutely zero idea how I'm going to accomplish any of this, not to mention fund it all. I have enough to fund the operation just barely, but have to call in a lot of favors, and have zero marketing budget. I have put my full faith and trust in God that He will come through. I know He will, because the Man in the back of that room is Jesus himself, and he's paid for my heart with his own more times than I can count.
The truth is, I don't have 50 dollars to give away to every single person reading this post in order to bet on making you laugh. Here's what I'll do. I'll give you my heart in the form of a story.
Here are four Google Docs containing four full length scripts to shows I've performed:
1) My Hilarious Testimony - https://docs.google.com/.../1FnlQpTnDLsFxL43nVaip.../edit...
2) Nathan Mosher is Injured - https://docs.google.com/.../1b6xnYulzWMESLXI8VCfq.../edit...
3) "Who Would You Be if You Weren't Afraid of Suffering?" - Ep. 1 of Nathanael Philip Mosher Has Friends - https://docs.google.com/.../1fxF4C5K7XjvWMOoreYFg.../edit...
4) "What is Fun To You?" - Ep. 2 of Nathanael Philip Mosher Has Friends - https://docs.google.com/.../1rC8DiWiZREIoViBawmtk.../edit...
If at any point you think my heart was worth anything, you can send a donation here:
buymeacoffee.com/ppdkproductions
You can also make a recurring donation by subscribing to PPDK Productions, which you’re currently reading. It’s is a production company built around other people telling their life story. The reason it’s not under my name is because it’s not supposed to be just me posting everything. Right now, that’s just how it is, because some of the team members are going through some difficult times. It’s not easy putting your heart out there, and I know with time I won’t be the only one doing it. Until then I keep writing and trying.
Share this with anyone who struggles to give their heart way, especially if they're feeling heart broken. Let them know their heart isn't broken, it's only broken when they can't feel anything at all.
No matter what, I’m going to keep giving my heart away, because it was never mine to begin with.
Sincerely Yours,
Nathanael Philip Abad Mosher
AKA The Paraprosdokianist
"Paraprosdokian + journalist" = "Paraprosdokianist" Or: one who pens journalistic columns of paraprosdokians. Paraprosdokian: Greek for "against expectation" a rhetorical device in which the second part of the phrase makes you re-evaluate the meaning of the first, otherwise known as a one-liner or turn of phrase, joke, lyric, proverb, parable, quote, wise saying, or piece of life itself summarized in the shortest unit of story resulting in: one's expectations being upheld, subverted, affording one a renewed perspective and sense of compassion.
We want your story. Please connect with us. If you want to see what we’ve been up to this week, go to our website: ppdkproductions.com