Joan Jackson Johnson Saint Or Sinner? See Page 16 2 City Pulse • February 12, 2020
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February 12 - 18, 2020 www.lansingcitypulse.com Locally owned • A newspaper for the rest of us Joan Jackson Johnson Saint or sinner? See page 16 2 www.lansingcitypulse.com City Pulse • February 12, 2020 Announcing How to contribute: Credit Card • Online at www.lansingcitypulse.com • Call (517) 999-6704 Mail checks to: City Pulse Fund 1905 E. Michigan Avenue Lansing 48912 Please make checks out to City Pulse Fund. We will mail you a receipt a 501c(3) nonprofit All gifts are tax approved by the Internal Revenue Service. deductible. City Pulse • February 12, 2020 www.lansingcitypulse.com 3 Favorite ings Dan Currie and his comedy notebook Dan Currie is a local comedian who’s performed hundreds of stand- up gigs across the state over the last few years. As co-host of Mac’s Monday Comedy night, a long-running weekly event in Lansing, he’s not only honed his own skills as a comic, he has also helped dozens of up-and-coming com- ics cut their teeth on stage. Currie chatted with City Pulse about a prized possession: My favorite thing is a notebook I acquired back in 2014. Over a four- year span, I’ve had it at hundreds of shows. My friend and fellow come- Courtesy photo dian Carl Johnson booked me and Stand-up comedian Dan Currie. a group of other comics for a tour everywhere. So, I really needed this in Canada. He bought it for himself, little notebook. but was disappointed when he found Flipping through, I also see dif- it was basically graph paper on the ferent phases. The goal with comedy inside as opposed to it being lined. I’d is to actually have fun. I think when been looking for a small book to write you start, you’re doing it for fun, but set lists on and take on stage with me, when you get a few years in, you start so he gave it to me. to take it almost too seriously. You Owners, Principals and Managers I finally filled the book a year or two beat yourself up when a joke doesn’t of Lansing-area ago, and each page represents a show work, you beat yourself up about a Marijuana Businesses where I was trying new material or bad set. A good comic makes it look strengthening material. I started com- easy. When you’re trying too hard, edy in 2007, but I think between 2014 the audience feels that. They’re like, and 2018 was when I really started to “Man, whew, this guy cares way too figure out who I was as a comedian, You are Cordially much.” But once you step back and and this represents that. realize that, you start being able to The thing is, I wouldn’t actual- have fun up there again. The begin- ly write jokes in the notebook. I’ve ning of this book is when I was really Invited to a found I’m better at “writing” on stage. trying too hard. The end of the book Complimentary Lunch and I have an idea, and I put it on the is when I started to have fun again. list for that night. Then I go on stage Another thing I noticed in there is a Discussion of and work it out. I don’t sit and write rough idea for a joke. I jotted down, Advertising Guidelines because I become too attached to how “I’m always afraid I’m doing some- For Marijuana Businesses every word is supposed to be. I sound thing wrong.” This is on Nov. 10, robotic. It’s easier to write down one 2014. At that point, I was struggling Hosted by City Pulse quick thing and then just riff on it. I to talk about my anxieties and things Lansing’s Alternative Weekly sound more natural. I don’t write the like that, but that’s where I see my first way I talk, and the way I talk is how I attempt at it. I was like, “Oh, that’s THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 2020 should do comedy. when I first started talking about at noon till 1:30 pm Looking back at this particular note- anxiety — and it didn’t go well!” So, book, I can definitely see a growth and for the next few pages, it’s some jokes at River View Pub a change in the pages. The first page about Cap’n Crunch Oops! All Berries Lansing Center has five joke ideas, and none of them and other not-personal subjects. 333 E. Michigan Ave., Lansing, MI had any legs. Some are jokes I wouldn’t Now, I have a whole section about 517.483.7400 even think of doing anymore. As I turn my anxiety in my act. In November through, it’s fun to run across a joke 2014, I wasn’t ready to handle it or RSVP BY TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25 I still do, then see a joke I only tried deliver it correctly. I feel much more to [email protected] once or jokes that lasted for a brief comfortable talking about it now. Last time, but then faded from existence. year, that chunk of my act got me 2nd or 517.999.6704 Before I was given this in 2014, I Place in the Funniest Person in Grand had a big notebook I’d write in — a Rapids Contest. Moleskin with the folder in the back. (This interview was edited and con- I had that and I would write things on densed by Rich Tupica. If you have scraps of paper and then shove ’em in a Favorite Things suggestion, email there. I had all of these papers spread [email protected].) 1905 East Michigan Ave. • Lansing 48912 517.999.5061 • [email protected] 1905 East [email protected] Ave., Lansing 48912 517.999.5061 • 4 www.lansingcitypulse.com City Pulse • February 12, 2020 VOL. 19 ISSUE 27 (517) 371-5600 • Fax: (517) 999-6061 • 1905 E. Michigan Ave. • Lansing, MI 48912 • www.lansingcitypulse.com ADVERTISING INQUIRIES: (517) 999-5061 or email [email protected] PAGE CLASSIFIEDS: (517) 999-6704 EDITOR AND PUBLISHER • Berl Schwartz 19 [email protected] • (517) 999-5061 ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR • Skyler Ashley LatinX Film Festival: Five days of foreign fi lm gold [email protected] • (517) 999-5068 EVENTS EDITOR/OFFICE MANAGER • Suzi Smith [email protected] • (517) 999-6704 PRODUCTION • Abby Sumbler PAGE [email protected] (517) 999-5066 22 STAFF WRITERS • Lawrence Cosentino [email protected] • (517) 999-5065 Kyle Kaminski • [email protected] Eric Johnson's adventurous photos (517) 999-6710 SALES EXECUTIVE Lee Purdy • [email protected] • (517) 999-5064 PAGE Mike Piasecki • [email protected] • (517) 999-6707 29 Contributors: Andy Balaskovitz, Justin Bilicki, Capital News Service, Bill Castanier, Ryan Claytor, Mary C. The Dish goes to Black Cat Bistro Cusack, Tom Helma, Gabrielle Lawrence Johnson, Terry Link, Kyle Melinn, Mark Nixon, Dennis Preston, Carrie Sampson, Nevin Speerbrecker, Rich Tupica, Ute Von Der Heyden, David Winkelstern, Paul Wozniak Cover Distribution manager: Garrett Clinard • (517) 999-6704 Art Delivery drivers: Garrett Clinard, Dave Fisher, Dale Gartner, Jack Sova, Gavin Smith Art by Vince Joy Interns: Matthew Stine • [email protected] NOW AT 10:00 A.M. SUNDAYS on City Pulse • February 12, 2020 www.lansingcitypulse.com 5 PULSE NEWS & OPINION FOR Schor’s time is now DESIGN Halfway through Mayor Andy Schor’s As much as we like Schor, it pains us to first term in office, it’s time to take stock The CP Edit also note his well-publicized challenges in of his administration’s efforts to move the navigating the sensitivities of race relations. city forward. There is much to like about Opinion Having dismissed Bernero appointees Bob our new mayor. His low-key, engaging Johnson and Mary Riley at the outset of leadership style is a sharp contrast with his his administration, then muddling through predecessor’s muscular persona. We have a public spat with former Fire Chief Randy no complaints about Schor’s more easygo- Talifarro, then catching heat for hiring an ing approach. With the understanding that all-white class of new firefighters, Schor running a city comes with a steep learning managed to create the impression — fair curve, we see both positive and negative or not — that he is uncomfortable working in the results that Schor and his team have with people of color. While the evidence Reveal: Art-o-Mat, delivered thus far. makes clear it was the right thing to do, his On the economic development front, recent suspension of Human Relations and Whole Foods, East Lansing the mayor has cut plenty of ribbons in his Community Services director Joan Jackson A few people recognized last first 24 months. Schor highlighted many Johnson reinforced that perception. To his month’s Eye for Design as the of them in his second State of the City credit, Schor has hired a diverse cabinet art vending machine inside the Address last week, including the Red Cedar and staff that largely reflects the community Green State Bar and Grill at Renaissance, Pat Gillespie’s 600 Block hotel it serves and retooled the process for hiring Whole Foods in East Lansing. and urban grocery store, new mixed-use entry-level firefighters to ensure a more However, the fi rst person to developments on Michigan Avenue and on diverse department. correctly identify it was Jeremy the old downtown YMCA site, Rotary Park Taking a cue from his ubiquitous mar- Herliczek. Please stop by the City on the downtown riverfront, the long-awaited keting slogan, we think the time is now for apparent progress has been made in repur- Pulse offi ce at 1905 E.