I have a large collection of notebooks. Some* would say too many. It is an all consuming ever growing collection. All different types from years and years of ideation.

*My Girlfriend

I still have the first notebook I had in high school. It holds my precious first movie script ideas.

Hits like:

• An alcoholic scumbag who gets his hand chopped off and has to get it back.

• A samurai that makes his way through Las Vegas gambling and doing fun samurai things.

• Some sci-fi idea, that I still don’t understand what it’s about. But I was really high and 14 years old when I came up with it, so it’s got to be genius. And probably has a samurai in it.

A large chunk of these notebooks are from my time doing stand-up comedy. Just endless little pocket-able books that I would bring on stage. Or sit in the back yard and smoke a million cigarettes, while I thought about bits like “What if someone from the 1700's travelled all across the ocean, but had to go back home because they couldn't remember if they turned their fireplace off.” You know? Classic stand-up. Relatable and easy to explain on stage.

I have notebooks filled with poetry. Really bad poetry. I did this thing for awhile, where I would write a poem each morning. I've never wanted to be a poet. But “Devin” Means “Poet” So I figured I should stay true to my name, and look at the world poetically before I interact with it. It was a great experiment in stream of conciseness prose. And an excellent way for me to realize I’m bad at poetry.

I have books filled with drawings. Some with just one single drawing on each page. During the pandemic I would wake up and draw a single drawing. Just something dumb, fun and quick. A picture and a little blurb. It was a silly abstract idea I don’t know why I did. It really seems I just did it to slowly kill the planet with my silliness.

Lately I’ve come into a new era of notebook accumulation. Oh sure, I still have a mass of books I draw in and of course, I have little pocket sized notebooks hidden in every room of the house.

But my new favourite notebooks are these yellow lined legal pads. I actually spent so much time finding the ones that work just right. Because a man who has all these notebooks must of course have a million different types of stationary. And I need my Pilot Metropolis pen made in Japan that I refill with fountain pen ink to properly work on this paper. So I can wake up every morning and write down a list of 27 different perfectly dumb ideas. Yes I do this. I wake up most morning and jot down 27 silly sketch ideas.

You: “Why 27?”

Me: “Because that’s how many lines are on the page. Duh.”

And you know what I do with those pages when I’m done? Of course you do. I fold them over and never look at them again and just write new ideas on the next page, and the next page. Almost every morning. No page ripped out. Just filled up with the dumbest sketch premises I can think of.

Sure, sometimes I might peak at a previous days jot down. And lots of times I use the pages to write other zany ideas. But there’s this odd thing in me that just hordes these ideas of mine. Maybe hoping that when I’m old and out of ideas I can revisit them and find that perfect nugget of my youth. I recently for this very newsletter looked back into an old notebook and what I found from maybe about 5 years ago was the nugget of my street fringe show “Everything is a Condo” So what it means is, I’m just repeating myself in these books. Letting the ideas permeate.

You: “Devin, why not just use a computer or even more modern, your phone.”

Me: “You, shut up”

My phones notes app is filled with ideas. My laptop has files upon files of scripts, songs and ideas. Some of which have even been completed and that I’m proud of. So chill.

But in the end. I love cooking up ideas. I love paper and I love pens and sure, maybe this is the first step in admitting I have a problem. But maybe, just maybe. This is just an excuse for me to brag about how many notebooks I have. And in writing this I can now justify their existence.

Do you have notebooks?

What do you hoard?

Let me know!

Again this newsletter is intended to come out once a month and I’m just trying something new. I hope you like the glimmer into my inner insanity.

Thanks for reading or skimming or just scrolling to the bottom.

I have some shows coming up!

September 13th @ Last Supper Books

October 25th @ Exchange Brewery

I don’t have links for those shows! Sorry. I’ll either get better or much worse at promo.

~ Devin