Previous Entry

Blog Home

Next Entry    

Entry 6: Addendum to Ed Piskor's "Grand Design" reviews

Yikes, this is a soup sandwich all around.

For those not in the know, Ed Piskor apparently committed suicide recently. He had been accused of what could politely be referred to as 'improper relationships' with women and teenage girls. He denied the accusations, of course, and deleted some social media accounts and such. He then said he was 'murdered by internet bullies' before taking his life.

Someone taking their own life while accusations of impropriety surround them is never a good look. The accusations had made him lose professional relationships and business opportunities and apparently reporters were physically going to his parents' house to ask them questions(?!), but the end result doesn't help his case.

Regardless of the truth of the matter, the creator of something I genuinely liked has taken his life under circumstances that don't look good for him or his legacy. But I am going to leave up the reviews I made of his work, because it is important to highlight that lessons can be taken from even the worst of us (not to say that Mr Piskor was guilty; I believe women, don't get me wrong, but the fact of the matter is that we won't see him get his day in court so all of us excluding his accusers will never get to know with any finality what actually happened).

I hold this same outlook with people like Bill Cosby - I have CDs of his and genuinely think his approach to comedy is one that more comedians should emulate: if you listen to his body of work, the vast majority of his comedic jabs are against himself (either now or as a younger person) or his immediate family or at ficticious characters that he has created. I will, of course, never buy a CD of his again, and haven't since before the accusations against him became known to me, but I still think his comedic approach should at least be studied by people trying to break into the world of standup comedy.

Likewise with Ed Piskor. For all his faults, he was at least good at something. Don't downplay his transgressions and don't downplay his competence.