(Sunday Paper, Volume II, Issue 28)

These guest posts have been such a hit that I'm going to extend some of my summer time off from the Sunday Paper and keep them going for a bit...this week's Sunday Paper is written by my brother, Matt.

John has been asking me to be a guest-blogger for The Sunday Paper for a couple of months and while I said “yes” immediately I definitely made it difficult for him to lock down a date.

Turns out it’s his birthday weekend so isn’t it fitting that I wrote about him.

John Sucich is one of my biggest fans if not the biggest. Rarely does an @esmatteo promotional tweet go un-retweeted, a new Matt Sucich single un-promoted, or a Boston-area performance un-attended. It’s with this that I can safely take the crown of “tougher cookie” amongst the Sucich boys as returning the favor comes a little less natural for me. It’s not that I don’t support my big brother in all that he does, I’m just a harsh critic. Or to those who don’t know me: a curmudgeon. When John told me he was dropping everything to focus on writing he had my complete support. He’s a fantastic writer and it’s most obvious, though not exclusively, when he’s writing about his passions (family and sports.) When he mentioned pursuing comedy, however, I can’t recall exactly what I said but I remember it being less than encouraging.

I’m a musician. I’ve been doing this for a long time and at varying stages of intensity (the last 7 years being the most aggressive and focused.) In this time I’ve seen a lot and have had some unbelievable experiences. The highs are remarkable and the lows are incredibly dark. Additionally I’ve seen plenty of comedians “just starting out” and it’s the farthest possible thing from entertaining. I’d rather peel the price tag off of a new mug and scrub the residual glue with a warm sponge than sit through a beginner comedian’s set. When I have this discussion with people, which is pretty often come to think of it, I’m always quick to give this example: A musician who fumbles through a song, sings without confidence, and doesn’t know how to engage with an audience will, at worst, still receive a pity clap from a confused & disappointed audience. An inexperienced comedian, on the other hand, will be left in front of an awkward, slightly-hotter-than-5-minutes-ago, silent room. End of story. Taking this into consideration, immediately upon hearing “I’m giving stand-up comedy a try” <eye-roll>, my protective instincts kicked in.

John, and our sister Maryann, are the models of good behavior in the family. Excellent grades in school, impeccable track records in adulthood, and A+ parents to beautiful children (no pressure from here on out, guys.) This is not to say they haven’t taken risks in life or made mistakes. It’s just that they’ve done so with better posture, smarter brains, and less publicity. Allow me to be the one who causes the undue stress for our parents. Please, by all means, let me handle the confrontations with authority figures. Rent? I’ll figure it out tomorrow. I can go on with other cliche characteristics of the black sheep but it would be filler and there’s no word requirement here, or paycheck for that matter, so I’ll just move on.

Regardless of the traditional "older-brother/younger-brother” dynamic (see photo), I puffed my chest when John decided to embark on a path of inevitable heartache & rejection. I tried to explain that it’s going to get ugly and I didn’t want to see him get hurt. Comedy is a schoolyard bully and I didn’t want to have to jump in and tell it to get off of my big brother. To be more direct, in the words of the “inconceivable” guy from The Princess Bride, in the role of "blackjack dealer in National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation," I wanted to say: “Here’s an idea: How about you give me half the money you were going to bet then we’ll go out back, I’ll kick you in the nuts, and we’ll call it a day!” Nevertheless here we are, there he goes, and the moral of the story is as nervous as I was to see John perform, I left impressed and proud. He didn’t even come close to bombing and, more importantly, I laughed…more than once. I also walked away with a lesson in empathy. As my good friend Mitch has no problem reminding me every chance he gets : “This isn’t about you.”

Love you, John. Here’s your damn Sunday Paper.

<references all previous Sunday Papers to see what he has to write next…still for free>

Music

*As stated above John is my biggest fan and is constantly promoting me so if you’re reading this right now but have no idea who I am, you’re a terrible <choose one: friend / family member / follower> or you simply don’t like me, which is totally cool.

For those who are unaware I’m primarily a songwriter & singer. Not a songwriter in the sense that I’ve written songs for other people to sing (never) and make famous (not even close,) but in the sense that I write songs for myself to sing (mostly based on me, sometimes based on you) at small venues around the country for a demographic that skews, according to Spotify metrics, 43% male / 56% female / 1% not specified - mainly ages 23-34.

My latest singles Fire on Bowery and After the Fire can be heard, along with the rest of my music, wherever music is streamed. I often promote Spotify. You should totally follow me there, and listen to me there, and tell your <choose one: friends / family members / enemies / pastor / coworkers> to do the same.

Here’s my website: www.mattsucich.com

Here’s a video for the song Montauk that I’m still really proud of.

I just returned from a little tour and don’t have any future dates booked, but that always changes so keep in touch. Unless of course I decide to quit music and pursue a different means of staying alive which is entirely possible (don’t get all smug with me like you know what you’re doing tomorrow.)

Comedy

*I was on The Tonight Show once.

What I've Been Enjoying

*Two eggs and avocado every morning. I like to break up that trend once a week with a toasted whole wheat everything bagel, lox, cream cheese, and tomato. Twice a week if I’m feeling fat.

*Mabel, particularly on Sunday mornings at Central Park.

*New albums from Jason Isbell, Dan Auerbach, & Jeff Tweedy.

*Old albums by Kathleen Edwards & Rayland Baxter, and this 2 year old EP by a project called Alohaha that was just brought to my attention.

*A nice glass of rose and some grilled octopus.

*This GIF of a raccoon stealing cat food.

Notes

*I don’t have anything new to note really, but apparently I’m feeling generous with my pro-bono time.

*Thinking about changing the alarm sound I wake up to in the morning, I’ll see if John lets me write another Sunday Paper when I make a decision on that.

*I had a really great encounter with David Crosby recently that I won’t detail here for several reasons, one of which is named “mom.” Happy to tell you in person though.

*I’ll be pouring beers this summer at Big Alice brewery in LIC, hit me up if you wanna hear that David Crosby story and I’ll let you know when I’m going to be there.

*The leather jackets in this photo of John and I as children are fake.