I work at home, in an office on the top floor of my house. I listen to music non-stop while I work, but from January 3, 2006 to March 2, 2007, I listened to a radio talk show.
Penn Jillette, of Penn and Teller, hosted Penn Radio every weekday afternoon during that year and a third. He and I are friends, but I don’t get to talk to him much since he relocated to Las Vegas, so listening to the show was a way to keep in touch. I even called in a few times to answer a question he asked on the air (sometimes I’m faster than Google).
After a few months, the show developed some semi-regular themes, one of which was Monkey Tuesday, a feature so popular it had its own Wikipedia entry. Listeners would call in and tell funny stories involving monkeys (or other primates).
Recently, while working with a client to post his Penn Radio podcast appearances, I located my own call-in Monkey Tuesday story. It’s from October 3, 2006, and is about an incident that occurred when I worked at an alcohol and drug abuse research center:
http://blog.belm.com/belmblog/audio/monkeytuesday.mp3The day after I told the story, I was forwarded this email from co-host Michael Goudeau:
Hello Penn and Michael,
I just learned about your show a couple weeks ago through a friend and I have been listening to about 4 shows a day via podcast. I work in Scranton, PA at a Christmas card design company, but my real passion is horror illustration. Needless to say, your show helps me get through the daily onslaught of Nativity scenes, snowmen and that damned St. Nicholaus.
I listened to your show LIVE for the first time today and was inspired by the drunken rat/coke-head monkey story. The image I’m sending you was sketched out on a stickie note immediately after I heard that hilarious tale.
Keep up the great work. Your show is fantastic!Joe ——–
Horror Illustrator
Monkey Tuesday Junkie
This is the attached sketch:
Joe’s talent is wasted on holiday cards. I’m happy to have given him an opportunity to express his twisted inner self.
Every now and then, I still find myself saying “It’s Monkey Tuesday!”