Original Commentary
Oh Kimberly... I give you points for trying to turn things around at the end there. But this was most definitely point Brisbane. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
You know how you can tell this is fictional?

The convention has the guest list finalized and published before it opens. I swear, I'm trying to figure out who's supposed to be there and what's going on - especially who's in Artists Alley - and there's nothing. Like, if I'm lucky it's "Check out our Instagram. Maybe we posted something there". - Terrence

Original Commentary
I know there's been a collection of money and jokes to get Brisbane on-stage. Sorry, folks. This is how I've been planning things for at least a month. Basically, this boils down to the difference between being a fan of something and being in something - Brisbane has decided that being in vaudeville isn't his thing, so he's going to be someone who enjoys vaudeville. - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Because sometimes your dreams take you to unexpected places. What's this about? It's about reflecting on ten years of webcomics, but also accepting that maybe it wasn't going to take off and be my full-time job.

That was how I wanted it to go when I started back in 1999 - Me and Isabel and all our friends against the world. You can follow your dreams but sometimes they take you in unexpected directions and it's best to appreciate what you've got. - Terrence

Original Commentary
I had tried to work this gag in during the first part, Ten Minutes, but it just wouldn't fit. I know Sofia said "Maybe they saw his act" then; I meant to use it another time or two, but no point forcing it - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Brisbane's venture into show business didn't bring him fame or fortune but he has a steady job, a place to stay, and a loving wife. That puts him ahead of where he'd be if he went into performing full-time.

He doesn't need to get on stage for one last bow. He knows he was there, back in the day and it really doesn't matter if anyone else remembers him from it.

So I wrote this to process my feelings on this and talk myself into accepting things as they are. It mostly worked - Terrence

Original Commentary
I'd had the idea for the world's most boring strongman for a while. The name, Jacob Lurch, is from a Robyn Hitchcock song, Wax Doll. I was going to have the talk be "Unlock Yourself: Make money selling cosmetics out of your home", another reference to the same song. Then I figured it'd seem unusual to anyone who hadn't heard the song, and anyone who had would get it from just the name. Besides, "unlock yourself" is Alan Breeze's line - Terrence

Modern Commentary
In the song, Jacob Lurch is just a name. No details given. I like grabbing those kinds of names the best. Robyn Hitchcock explains it a little more in this blog post from 2025. But not much. He was a character from a novel that Robyn hasn't fully written.

Did Kimberly man her booth all the time or did she watch the show? We know she wasn't going to pay anybody else to run it. She probably snuck in to watch a few acts when things were slow, and she probably sold a lot of snacks when a boring act was onstage. - Terrence

Original Commentary
That's what this arc is about, really. Brisbane's growth as a person and him accepting that he's out of show biz. I think he might technically be a vice president or something by now, just by owning a good chunk of the company. If he were smart, he would've given himself a new title when Ms. Taylor was out - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I had previously worked at a bank where a full third of the people working there had a title of "Vice President".

Cheaper than raises. - Terrence

Original Commentary
The original hot soup routine is from week 12 of Unlike Minerva. I had forgotten about it until I went back to do commentary. I'm not sure if it was the first routine they wrote back then, but I suppose it is now. With most endeavors, it's hard to say which one is really the first. I mean, the "first song I wrote" is probably the twentieth or so, if I count all the ones that were too awful to play or I abandoned halfway through writing, and when you get better at things there's an instict to say "this one is the first - the others, I was just playing around earlier. They don't count.". Or to restart a webcomic when you're six months in - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Is the Hot Soup routine good? No. But it shows that Brisbane has grown that he recognizes that any humor in it comes from shouting excitedly in an unrecognizeable accent.

I have a rule about dialect humor and about phonetic accents: Don't. Unless you're Walt Kelly. You are not Walt Kelly.

I tried once or twice and fortunately it sucked and I realized it sucked. If I had thought it was any good I might have kept at it. - Terrence

Original Commentary
Terrence hasn't been feeling too great over the past few days which has caused him some difficulty when writing. He wanted to have more comic time between the big reveal to Brisbane to the actual event, so I'm going to do a bit of filler to give him time and to give Brisbane and Kimberly some screen time together just talking to each other. It's been a bit since we've seen them together without something falling apart. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
I hate it when the mid-comic joke is better than the actual punchline. I like the plot that the comic covers but I wish I had put a bit more into the fourth panel.

But it gets Brisbane and Kimberly back to their usual state - Terrence