News II: Profile Piece

This is probably the most fun piece I wrote throughout the semester, allowing me to use lots of creativity. I know there are a lot of areas to improve (including the end, which I am still working on), but here it is for now!

Mike Guns: A Comedian Sharp Shooter
He’s Funny Whether You Like It or Not
By: Kelly Martin

The day had finally come – it was Mike Gunsiorowski’s first comedy class at the Funny Bone, in Newport, Kentucky. Trying to keep his composure, Mike waited anxiously for people in his comedy class to begin introducing themselves. Beads of sweat covered his entire body, as if he just ran a marathon outside in the sweltering heat. Sitting next to his friend Alex was his only comfort, as he did not know anyone else in the room. Looking around at everyone, he wondered what he would say when his turn came to introduce himself. What could possibly be interesting about me? he wondered.

When it finally came his turn, Mike stood up and delivered—everyone applauded him with laughter. One of the first reactions came from his friend Alex.

“Man, I have never seen you that confident aside from when you’re drunk,” Alex said.

It certainly was a sobering experience for Mike, with or without alcohol. He felt the beads of sweat start to disappear as he breathed a sigh of relief. As his nervousness faded, so did some doubt he had about himself in the comedy show business field.

Mike Gunsiorowski, a unique stand up comedian, finally feels comfortable at where he is in life. After dropping out of the University of Louisville due to bad grades, he now has a driving yet challenging force in his life – that of comedy show business.

Not knowing what to do with himself with not being in school, Mike endlessly flipped through television channels. There was always one channel that caught his interest – comedy central. Mike and his friends started watching comedians perform and constantly made fun of them. Just like that, it dawned on him – he wanted to be that comedian on stage. Little did he know, he was going to soon realize it is much easier to make fun of a comedian than to be a comedian.

On Feb. 7, 2006, Mike was to take the stage for the very first time in Lexington at Comedy Off Broadway. Backstage before the show, he paced back and forth, scribbling notes on his outline like a mad scientist. He crossed out this, edited that. He pumped his fist in the air, ready to take the stage—or so he thought. He frantically added more notes on his paper. Ok, he thought, now I’m ready. Mike went out on stage, and instantly saw comedian and friend Mat Stanton out in the audience and smiled. His head was now lifted a little higher. All the sudden, though, the stage’s lights seemed to be suffocating Mike. His hands started to shake, sweat started to form, and before he knew it, his act was over. What just happened? Mike thought to himself.

“It was like a blur. It was like I had a repressed memory and didn’t want to remember what I said,” Mike recalled.

Still in a haze, Mike walked to a table near the bar with other comedians. “Write your stuff on your hand next time,” a comedian told him afterwards. Mike realized, though, that he just needed to rehearse. After the whole event was over, Mat patted Mike on the back, saying, “Sometimes people like it, and sometimes they don’t. Just stick with it.”

About a month later, he made his second on-stage appearance at the same place. He showed his ability to bounce back by joking about his last visit.

“The last time I was here, I blacked out, although I’m sure everyone in the audience wished they did instead,” Mike said.

I guess Mike became aware of one way to stop talking – get in front of a crowd for the very first time.

“Comedy is something that takes a lot of time to master. In comedy, you need to find your voice as a writer and a performer,” Mat said.

Mike found out that it certainly does take time to find his voice in comedy. In February of 2007, Mike sat alone backstage at NKU’s Greaves Hall, waiting for the Apollo Night show to start. His eyes were glued to his paper, only pretending to be glancing over his material one last time; he wouldn’t look up to anybody. After what seemed like days, he finally heard his name get called. “Give it up for Mike Gunsiorowski,” the MC exclaimed. Strutting proudly out on the stage, Mike moved a piano out of the way so he could maneuver easier. “Mike Gunsiorowski! Come on out!” the MC shouted again. Mike stared at the MC to infer that he, indeed, was the next comedic act. Looking at his rugged, worn clothing Mike was wearing, the MC confusedly accepted the fact that he was to perform next.

Brent Smalley, a comedian and friend of Mike’s, said that since his looks are really original, most people wouldn’t think he was a comedian. Brent also added, “He has such a dry and monotone voice, also.”

Mike still put on a smile as he began his first joke, thinking that he would do well. Suddenly, the audience began booing when he was still building up his story. “It seemed like I got booed off stage before I even started,” Mike said. “I remember I said how I like Bugs Bunny, and it only got worse from there.” Not knowing exactly why he got booed, Mike ended his act about a minute later. Maybe the audience didn’t like his style of wearing old clothes. Maybe they weren’t in the mood for Bugs Bunny. Whatever the reason, it would make him wonder if comedy was cut out for him.

“Just stick with it,” Mat Stanton reassured Mike.

Apparently the crowd didn’t like Bugs Bunny as much as he did, but that didn’t stop him from continuing on with his shows.
Besides, perhaps he’d find a crowd more interested in the carrot-eating friend.

In the summer of 2007, Mike was to perform at the upscale and classy Wine Cellar, in Mt. Adams. When he arrived, he scanned the crowd – they were mostly old, upper class people.

“I knew the people there wouldn’t like me, but I didn’t care,” Mike said. “I was just going to go out there and piss them off.”

Walking over to the bartender, he asked for a glass of wine.

He would’ve preferred to have a beer, but being at a wine cellar made it a little more difficult.
Stepping on the stage, with his nose tilted in the air just like the audience, he took a small drink of his wine. “Just to let you know, I won’t leave the stage until I’m done with my drink,” he said pompously. The audience seemed to not like that, nor did they like how he talked about George Bush.

And that’s the way Mike liked it.

“The great thing about Mike is he will blatantly try to make people mad,” Brent said.

Even though Mike didn’t care that the crowd wouldn’t like him, he still got a very familiar result– negative reaction with a crowd.

As Mike drove home that night, he couldn’t help but hear that one, calming voice in his head.
“Just stick with it,” Mat Stanton comforted Mike.

“Mike was always smart and I think comics are some of the smartest people around. You can never pick out a comic in the crowd and that is what makes them sospecial,” Mat said about Mike.

Mike now knows to take the good in with the bad, and that each show is not going to go perfectly. He just recently had an audition to be an MC at Wiley’s in Dayton, Ohio, where he got a good response from the crowd – but didn’t get the part. Driving home, he started wondering why he is even in comedy at all; it seems as if he is just stuck and not moving forward in it. If I can’t even be an MC, the lowest level of comedians, then what can I be? He thought to himself.
Even though Mike still doubts himself from time to time, he always thinks of Mat’s advice to not give up; to stick with it.

“Mike is growing as a person because he is starting to look at life in a different perspective. His mind is opening up to new things and he is becoming a wiserperson because of it,” Mat Stanton said about him.

Brent told me how Mike’s last name actually helped form his popular nickname, ‘Guns.’ At the end of most shows, Mike said, “My name is Mike Guns, and you just got banged.”

News II: Feature Writing

Since I will be posting my story and ad ideas/drafts on this blog throughout the semester, I figured I'd give everyone a taste from what I did in my News II class a year and a half ago. While I have been most proud of this piece and a profile piece (which I will post as well), I am still open to any critiques/suggestions.


From Zero to Hero
The University of Cincinnati’s Varsity Village Provides New Future for Football
By: Kelly Martin

Some people may not remember the year 1954, but the University of Cincinnati’s (UC’s) football team can’t seem to forget it. It was during this year that the team won its first eight games of the season, marking the team’s best start in school history. It was also the first time that the Cincinnati Bearcat’s football team was ranked in the top 25. It may have taken over a half century for the Bearcats to re-live that year’s excitement of winning streaks and rankings, but they finally did. With winning their first six games of the 2007 season and being ranked as high as 15th in the AP poll, the Bearcats showed everyone that they had not, in fact, forgotten about the 1954 Bearcat’s team. They brought it back to life.

The University of Cincinnati’s Varsity Village wants to do just that – bring their sports to life. And not just football; they want to include all sports. Varsity Village, a project that was completed just last year, included extensive upgrades of all of UC’s athletic facilities and the construction of some new venues. The new venues include a baseball stadium, tennis center, and a swimming and diving team training home. The centerpiece of this project is the Richard E. Linder Center, serving as a home for all of the sports programs as well as centralized support services. UC’s quarterback star, Ben Mauk, has been part of the football team’s success this year after graduating from Wake Forrest.

It was about eight years ago when Mauk first stepped on UC’s campus in 1999. He was a sophomore at Kenton High School when he visited the campus with his mother. Mauk was visiting to decide if he would possibly want to attend UC in the future. Being an elite football player even in high school, Mauk wanted to go to a college that not only made him feel welcomed as a student, but also as an athlete. During the visit, however, his mother decided that she would not let him go to school there because of its unsafe feeling and how it looked. She thought it gave off an image of being run-down and dirty; it looked to her as if the university did not show that they cared for its students and student-athletes enough. And that was that – Mauk knew he would not be attending UC.

Two years later, Mauk decided to go to Wake Forrest where he did exceptionally well before suffering severe arm and shoulder injuries in his junior year. This inevitably ended the season for Mauk, who had to recover over his senior year as well. After graduating from Wake Forrest, he enrolled at UC to pursue a master’s degree. He was still able to play football because of an NCAA rule that allowed him to play without sitting out a year as a transfer.

“I may actually still have another year left with UC, since I was redshirted [sat out] as a Freshman at Wake Forest and got hurt in my junior year,” Mauk said.

Upon deciding to go to UC to pursue his master’s degree and play football for the Bearcats, Mauk noticed a tremendous difference in how the campus presented itself. It did not seem like the same campus he had seen as a sophomore in high school. One of the first things he noticed was Varsity Village, located in the heart of campus. Even though he already knew he was going to UC, Mauk’s decision to come was confirmed when seeing Varsity Village.

“It’s all close together and lets you know how the athletic department is ran and how all of the athletic programs are very supportive of each other,” Mauk said.

After practicing outside on the field, the football players would walk to the Richard E. Linder Center to go over the playbook or watch films to prepare for upcoming games. Being in the middle of campus, the center is easily accessible to both students and student-athletes. It has benefited Mauk in how he doesn’t have to walk a far distance from classes to get to Varsity Village.

“It gives you more time to prepare for games and I think that translates into more success for the season,” Mauk said.

When Mauk walks around UC’s campus, he knows that he is in the right atmosphere and mind-set when seeing the Varsity Village. Being his first year at UC, it has given him a great first impression of just what the school is about. It lets him know that the athletic department is dedicated to its student-athletes and it believes in them to do well, with having top-quality athletic facilities.

I think it may be safe to say that Mauk may now have more support from his mother in attending UC. And if not, at least Mauk can come home to show her and everyone the changes it has brought about in their football program.

Besides Mauk, UC’s current free-safety, Haruki Nakamura, was also a contributing factor to their team’s success.

In the spring of 2004, Nakamura, currently a senior, decided to go tour UC to see if he would be interested in attending for college. Construction was everywhere on campus which made it hard to get around and not so visually appealing. When he decided to attend UC and play on their football team, he noticed some obstacles for the team – the weight room was very small, their equipment was mediocre, and the team’s morale wasn’t the best.

It was during his sophomore year that Nakamura started to notice some changes taking place in athletic facilities. Nippert Stadium, their home football field, had their old field-turf replaced and additional seats were put in at one end-zone. Also, a catwalk was built, allowing fans to easily walk from one side of the stadium to the other. In his junior year, the Linder Center was finally complete, housing all of the athletics’ needs. Not only were structural changes evident on UC’s campus, but also the football teams’ overall performance.

“When we got our new weight room, you could actually see the difference in the quality of work that we were putting in week and week out,” Nakamura said. “I can definitely say that we benefited from not only the space but from the new equipment that we received.”

Throughout his years at UC, Nakamura has also noticed a complete change in his teammates’ attitudes. When he was a freshman, the team didn’t have the facilities that they have today, and certainly did not have a winning record. Most of the time, Nakamura and his teammates would want to win, but did not fully believe that they could. They would always second-guess themselves into thinking they might lose. In their minds, they had already lost. Now, however, Nakamura said the team actually believes in themselves and has formed stronger bonds with each other. He also said that having a bigger weight room and better facilities has definitely made the team feel more important and motivated them to prove themselves out on the field.
Nakamura thinks that not only has Varsity Village given more life to athletics, it also has given more life to the overall campus – an appealing aspect to recruits.

“It feels like Varsity Village has not only given UC more life, but it’s made it a lot more attractive,” Nakamura said. “When recruits come into our campus, they’re in the middle of everything – not many schools have a football stadium that is right in the middle of the university.”

The Varsity Village, which includes all varsity athletics, is actually part of a bigger plan - that of UC-21. UC-21 is the university’s strategic plan for charting its academic course for the 21st century, and has been implemented since 2001. Greg Hand, UC’s public relations coordinator, explained how UC-21 has six specific goals laid out for the road ahead, one of which is “establishing a sense of place.” With the addition of the Varsity Village, it is clear to him that a growing number of student-athletes, especially the football players, now feel connected with the campus more. Thus, Varsity Village was an integral part of establishing the sense of place for students, especially that of student-athletes. It also emphasizes the need to take their athletics to the next level.

“If we’re going to bring people to campus and if they’re going to have a good experience, we should have high quality athletics,” Hand said.

Since UC-21 is an umbrella plan for the university, covering many different aspects from developing research techniques to improving first year retention rates, it also has a specific plan involving athletics. This plan, called catapult, basically stands for “championships and athletics together.” Hand said one of the goals of catapult is to win a conference championship in every sport over next five years. While UC’s football program has done exceptionally well this season, it is a part of the catapult plan which encourages all sports to do well.

“Besides football, there has actually been a lot of success in UC’s swimming and track & field,” Hand said.

Together, Varsity Village and UC-21 have helped UC’s football team, along with other athletics, come back to life. With the football team’s bowl game against Southern Mississippi coming up on December 22, the team can only hope to cap off the season with the same enthusiasm they have already put into the season. Being Nakamura’s senior year, he realizes the importance of finishing the season strong.

"Going into this Bowl game is huge – we have to understand the meaning of this game and what it means going into next year; we haven’t won 10 games in a long time,” Nakamura said.

If the team happens to play with as much intensity as UC’s 1954 team, winning the bowl game should be the least of their worries.

The Beginning of the End

Yesterday marked the first day of classes of my final year in college. And wow - I am going to have one heck of a semester.

While most are going to be a challenge, I am so excited about them! With finally having the chance to pick some electives for classes, I am looking forward to seeing just where they take me - especially my feature writing and advertising classes. I haven't had my ad class yet (it's on wed. night), but from reading the online syllabus, it is right up my alley! We get to create advertisements while critiquing other ad campaigns... umm, hello. If I could create any class in the world for me to be in, that would be it!

I had my feature writing class yesterday - the first of the day. What a way to start off the day! We basically have four big features to write throughout the semester, with only getting guidelines of what type of story to write. Everything else is up to us - sources, ideas, everything. We basically are going to get a taste of what freelancing feels like.

I also am taking sports marketing, business policy, and a geology class (yeah, I know.. it's my final gen. ed class). I figure that I will post any drafts/papers/ad ideas on this blog, though, to see if anyone has suggestions/critiques.

Here's to an awesome rest of the year!

Real Change Embraces Liberty

So I'm doing something that I normally don't do on a normal basis - discuss politics.

Along with religion, it's one of those things you usually just don't bring up all the time.. but the more I read about the Libertarian party, the more I can't help but want to talk about it!

As the two major political parties become more and more similar, you just can't help but wonder what the point is anymore. Democrat, Republican.. Obama, McCain.. it's almost like these two could run together (well, once McCain "catches the hope"). Both parties have increased government's size, along with its spending. While government just keeps getting bigger, our liberties and freedoms keep getting smaller. When will the time come for us to take matters into our own hands and control our own life? Ahem, social security reform... (oh, maybe THAT'S why a universal health care system wouldn't work... social security funds will probably be depleted by 2041).

Do we really want g'vt running both of these? Or do we perhaps look for reform in other places? Chile seemed to get out of the government-run system pretty nicely.. why can't we?

When I decided to research the Libertarian Party and its platform on issues, I was amazed to see how well it fit with me. Of course, you will have extremes in any political party; but for the most part, Libertarians seem to be the best fit for me. Advocating a high degree of both personal and economic liberty - unlike Dems or Republicans. Protecting personal liberties and being socially tolerant, all while being responsible for each and every decision we make.

I won't ramble on too long about this, as you can find out more info on your own time if interested. I recommend going to bobbar2008.com - see what the Libertarian candidate is endorsing and how it stacks up to other other candidates. Go find out what it would be like to have the power put back into our own hands.

As Ronald Reagan once said,"You and I have the ability and the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and determine our own destiny."

The Meteor Shower of Life

Do you ever have those moments in life where you wish time could stand still? Those moments that you wanted to replay over and over? Those moments that seemed to slip right through your fingertips?

Watching a meteor shower last night/early morning reminded me of how precious certain moments in life are. Life, like the shooting stars from meteor showers, is there and then gone. Just like an intensly quick flashing light, life comes at you. And it's up to you to take notice of it - each and every day.

Slowing down to appreciate the finer things in life is really important. How often do people think of sitting outside to watch a meteor shower until nearly dawn? I can say that I never even bothered or thought about it until last night.. and it was so peaceful. If everyone just slowed down and let off the gas pedal in life, I think it's safe to say we'd all be a little more happy.

Some shooting stars are radiant and bright, while others seem more dull and lifeless. Such is how life can be. No matter what it pulls you through - good and bad - you need to make sure you are able to see everything; this way, eventually you will learn to appreciate what makes for the best moments in life.

And of course, let's not forgot about the whole make-a-wish on shooting stars. If we all just took some time to unwind and not constantly worry about daily obligations, we would all realize that this, indeed, is what we were wishing for all along in some way or another - peace and happiness in life.

Take hold of life's reins and make sure you stop to look around once in a while - it may be worth it.