Homeless

You could put yourself in their shoes if they had any.
 

“The homeless problem”.   I remember when we called them homeless people. Apparently the word “people” became cumbersome.

It must be easier to ignore a problem without the reminder that they’re us and we’re them.  There are 50,000 homeless PEOPLE in Los Angeles.  

This city is full of people who move here from towns smaller than our homeless population.

Hollywood has more than enough money and power to take care of this tragic reality. It’s a problem that can’t be ignored. So why is it?

This town is full of fake heroics and false bravery. Everything is scripted and safe. They think living in reality is working on a reality show. The closest thing to kindness we’ll get from this town is “Empathy” The Movie.

If anger is an energy than I could power a nation. I don’t want to hear from an ostrich that I’m too negative.  Sorry it’s not a blissful beer commercial or a rave.  I hate to interrupt your naïve decadence with facts. Homeless people are an epidemic in Hollywood. The only time we care about who’s in our streets is during a parade.

Maybe homeless people won’t be taken seriously until they’re on a parade float.

With 50,000 people on the streets, everyday is a parade.
 

Homeless people live an average of 20 years less than us.

It’s as if the rich have had the empathy bred out of them. It’s a known fact, poor people give more than rich. (notice I didn’t add people)

We bail out banks. Why not bail out people? After all they’re potential consumers and voters. Maybe we like to see people worse off than us to feel good. I’m not very religious but which bible says, “F the homeless”?

We have places to take stray dogs. Let’s try homeless adoptions or take a homeless to work week.  Find The Homeless Whisperer who can train them to behave.

Convert Bell Air tennis courts to homeless shelters. And there’s enough unused SUV space to keep 100,000 homeless in comfort.

This town loves to ramble on about what a “character” is thinking and feeling. Never ending detail into the story of pretend people. Actors drive to the set, memorizing their lines and fake feelings. Passing countless real lives picking out of garbage cans. Homeless is not a motif.

This town protects pavement over people. I am bitter. Bitterly honest. More money is spent on satellite TV and Botox every year than our homeless.
 

There’s always a flip side. Like a cruise ship that dumps it’s garbage in the ocean. Is it really a party when someone else pays the price?

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Randy by Nature

I love trees and gas guzzling muscle cars. That's why I drive the new Ford Hypocrite. It goes 0 to judgmental in 4.3 seconds.

 There has never been a comedy show based on eco topics. That’s why we continue to make episodes of Randy By Nature.  Because no one has ever done this, all the comedy is new frontier.

Explaining the idea of combining comedy and the environment got fatiguing. It was met with many blank stares. I decided it was time to stop telling and start showing. That’s how RBN started.

I’d like RBN to evolve into a 30 minute show that does for eco issues what the Daily Show does for politics. Ultimately branching out to use our fan base toward affecting change.

Creating jokes from planetary concerns gives us the ultimate license. The license to say and do anything necessary for laughs.  Including anti environmental comedy. We want to be equal opportunity.

I’ve hugged trees from the Arctic to the rainforests. My life has brought me to the Redwoods with tree sitters and I’ve given my two cents at wilderness hearings. I can’t repel off a bridge to hang a banner about clear cutting. Addressing envelopes at Green Peace has the same appeal. I could stand on the street corner with a different sign every week. But that’s not good for my back.

My best foot forward is Randy By Nature.

Nothing else makes any sense to me.  Watching documentaries about the planet tend to be disheartening. RBN is funny first, Earth second.

I’m hoping people will feel like activists just by watching.  I’m hoping you’ll learn new things without trying.  And in time I’m hoping our viewers become a power base for change.

 

I’d like viewers to send us videos about their local issues.  Eventually RBN will go all over the country and the world. There are endless stories, and just as much comedy.

The goal is to combine all the different ideas that work and put them into a 30 minute format per week. Maybe some brave network will take a chance. Maybe not. Either way I’m going to keep making them. Ready or not, here I come. 

 

 

by comedian @randykagan