Behind the Sketch: Burgles & Lovedong
I recently got back into podcasting, starting a new show with my lifelong best pal, Zane. I’ll write more about that soon. But, one of my favorite parts of doing it, besides spending hours each week with my best friend, is that it’s got me writing sketches again.
I grew up watching SNL, the State and Mr. Show with Bob and David, among others, so I’ve always loved sketch comedy. Through my 20s, I was lucky enough to be in a group that was able to perform sketches live somewhat regularly. Sketch has just always been something I enjoy, but it’s a tough thing to love because opportunities to do sketches aren’t super available.
So, when we decided to do a podcast about friendship and nonsense, I figured I’d utilize the nonsense portion and start writing sketches to put in each episode. It’s an audio only medium, which is a challenge, but I’m having a ton of fun with it.
Enough about my love of sketch though, this post is about one specific sketch. We released our first episode last week, and the sketch in that episode was one about an old country duo from the 60s named Burgles & Lovedong. Nothing extraordinary, not the most original idea ever, but the evolution of how the sketch started in my brain and where it ended up, along with how it affected everything that came after was very exciting to me, and is a perfect encapsulation of why I love writing.
Before I get too into it, here’s the sketch by itself, since it will make more sense with context:
This started off with just an idea. The simple, silly idea of “What if Zane and I were country music stars?” That was the basis for it. I figured we’d speak in poor southern accents and introduce some of our greatest hits. So I took that idea, and figured I’d start writing song excerpts, then build around that.
It started juvenile enough, with the songs Your Cornhole’s Hungry and Ride That Horse Like It’s Your Wedding Night. Stupid, silly songs written at a fifth grade humor level. Still no direction for the sketch though. Until I came up with the name for the next two, Covered In Hay and Boots On Sugar, Sugar On My Boots. When I write fake country songs, or fake songs in general, I usually come up with a title first and go from there, then change the title if needed after the lyrics are done.
Boots On Sugar, Sugar On My Boots came first. I had the first few lines, but then needed to justify why there would be sugar on their boots. Then it hit me! Obviously the sugar on their boots is to keep witches away. As that came together, the line “the Witches can’t find you when you’re covered in hay” just felt right. Those two songs came together very organically, and tied together way better than expected.
All of a sudden, we had a direction. We had something to tie everything together. So, from there, I took the idea of this country duo being scared of witches and built everything else around it. The last few songs really lean into the witch aspect, and the idea of them mysteriously disappearing was born, and I was able to use that to tie the rest of it all together.
It’s silly, it’s dumb, and I realize that a country duo being hunted and eventually bested by witches isn’t the most original idea for a short audio sketch. But, that feeling of just having a simple idea and letting it grow naturally and letting it guide you to somewhere is a rush. It put me in a great mood for the next few days.
That wasn’t all that came out of this sketch though. It also made me fall in love with AI Music. Yes, I know AI is icky and gross and awful and despicable and will eventually rule us all, but I love music and the ability to create it with just a few clicks is pretty amazing.
The original idea of the sketch was going to be about an acapella country duo. I could write the silly lyrics, and have us sing them. But, I’m not skilled enough to put them to music, and can’t afford to pay my friends who are skilled enough to make fake country songs for me. So, I started messing with AI Music and fell in love.
I didn’t want the full songs to be all AI, I still wanted us doing the vocals. But, I have a general understanding of songwriting, so it was easy enough to give it an idea of what i needed and then fitting the vocals into that. It was a wildly fun experience.
So, spoiler alert: as future episodes of My Shoes Hurt are released, there will be a lot more AI music involved. Sometimes a sketch will be built around it, sometimes it’ll just be slightly involved, but it’ll be there somewhat regularly. And some of them may even have more pointless blog posts like this written about them. There’s a “musical” I wrote that won’t go up for quite a few weeks, but it’s been a blast and I’ll probably wanna blab about that when it’s time. But, don’t worry, I won’t be singing in most of them. That nightmare is over.
Anyways, that was a lot of words about a silly sketch about a country duo and witches. But, for this simple dude that loves writing sketches and making music in any capacity, it opened up a whole lot of things for me and I figured I’d share.
Until next time, keep an eye out for those witches.