Storytime with Gary: My Pandemic Show on Grafenberg TV

UPDATED JUNE 2025:

During the early days of the pandemic, I started a weekly solo show called Storytime with Gary for Grafenberg TV — a digital content stream launched by the Grafenberg Theater. The theater audibled to online programming to stay alive. Every Thursday night at 8 PM, a lineup of performers would take to the internet to keep live performance alive, and I did my best to contribute something meaningful (or at least funny). I pitched Storytime With Gary. Fridays 6 PM.

I made a stage and I was convinced I was going to do puppets every episode.

I’ll be honest: I didn’t know what I was doing. I figured it was like Weird Al's UHF we'd just find shows and have fun with it. I liked reading so I figured why not do a storytime and make it fun. I wasn’t very active on social media, and I’d always looked at it more as a necessary evil than a creative tool. I was resistant to Instagram in college and usually pick up trends when they’re already on their way out. Social media would change rapidly during the pandemic. I wasn't ready. I looked at this show as temporary — something to do until I could get back to live sketch and improv. In my head, it was “beneath me.”

But a few things shifted my perspective.

Watching Bo Burnham’s Inside hit me like a ton of bricks. His ability to create something raw, honest, and technically masterful, completely on his own, reframed how I thought about solo digital work. I retroactively looked at the show I was producing and realized I wasn't digging deep or pushing myself. Around the same time, SNL was producing its own COVID-era content. For the first time ever, big media looked doable to me. I was seeing digital creators outpace legacy media institutions. I was completely behind the eightball and I didn't have the foresight to see it. Solo creators were making killer content with nothing but an iPhone and a ring light. My respect for them shot through the roof.

A Screenshotted Tweet

SNL's Zoom Episode (For reference)

Storytime With Gary's Zoom (for reference)

What Storytime with Gary taught me was how to create alone. How to find a rhythm. How to make something without waiting for permission, a team, or a theater. It was the beginning of me realizing: If I want to make things, I better learn how to do a lot of it myself.

In hindsight, Storytime with Gary was giving me exactly what I needed — even if I didn’t see it at the time. We had our Dads Comedy live slots lined up. It felt like everything I’d been working toward was finally happening. But this little show was teaching me the most important creative habit of all: write and create something every week, no matter what. It didn’t have to be perfect — it just had to get made. Every Friday. Written. Shot. Edited. Formatted right. I made mistakes. A lot of the content wasn’t great. And nobody watched. But there was something freeing about that. I wasn’t chasing views or validation — I was just doing the work. We care way too much about social media and content creation. But you have to be cringe. Cringe is internalized. And once I stopped caring if I was failing, I found real creative freedom.

It felt a lot like running. At first, you’re self-conscious — worried people will see how out of shape you are, how hard you’re breathing. But eventually, you stop noticing what anyone else thinks. You just keep going. And all that matters is the distance.

Reading for the audience

Thanks for your time.