Nathanael Philip Mosher is "The Paraprosdokianist"
"Finding the funny on the way to wise and the wise on the way to the funny".
Welp… I’ve been thinking about doing a newsletter for years and I finally sent one out a few weeks ago. I started thinking about making a Substack ever since I heard about it through a sportswriter on the Bill Simmons podcast about a year and a half ago. So here goes…
My name is Nathanael Philip Mosher and I’m officially introducing myself to the world at large (or at least those who find me on the vast interwebs) as
"The Paraprosdokianist" Finding the funny on the way to wise and the wise on the way to the funny
For those of you who haven’t seen my one man show yet, you’re probably wondering, “What the hell is a Paraprosdokianist?”
Welp… it’s a made up word. Well, partially. See, I started out doing comedy writing one liners, a type of joke which is short and straight to the punch, for example,
“Lately, I’ve been playing a lot of Marco Polo alone ‘cause I’m just trying to find myself. Thank you, that joke is called, ‘Marco Solo.’”
The technical term for a one-liner is “paraprosdokian” which is Greek for “against expectation”. A paraprosdokian is a phrase where the second part turns in an unexpected way, making you reevaluate the meaning of the first, also known as a turn of phrase.
I think paraprosdokians are a lot like life because life turns in unexpected ways making you re-evaluate the moments that came before changing your perspective. I think pain can lead to purpose leading to perspective and that process can be summed up in a paraprosdokian.
For example, “I write today so that tomorrow I remember yesterday.” I read that on the back of a poet’s business card and it sums up why I write. I was originally a gifted math whiz as a child who secretly wrote poetry on the side, so here’s an equation to explain what I call, “The Process of the Paraprosdokian.”
(Pain x Purpose) ^ Perspective = Paraprosdokian (Substack has an equations editor so here is it again down below)
Jokes aren’t the only type of paraprosdokians. Any great quote, lyric, or line of poetry is usually a paraprosdokian. That’s why it gets stuck in your head, because the second part of the phrase makes you re-interpret the first part, resulting in a perpetual loop of inexhaustible meaning. I first started writing in my journal through poetry, got obsessed with one liners, ended up writing song lyrics, then I discovered spoken word poetry. Now I realized I write “paraprosdokians”. People ask me all the time, “Which one is your favorite? Poetry, comedy, or music?”
I explain it this way, “They say, ‘Tragedy + Time = Comedy. Tragedy + Rhythm and Rhyme, that’s Song. For me tragedy in the moment, that’s Poetry.”
Tragedy + Time is another way of saying, you need patience to get through the pain.
((Pain + Patience) x Purpose) ^ Perspective = Paraprosdokian
Now, I wrote a whole show about paraprosdokians and I can’t tell it to you in less than an hour. I can tell you that to finish the show, I had to go through a whole lot of pain, learn a little bit about purpose, gain some perspective, and discover a whole lot of paraprosdokians.
I can sum it up with the final paraprosdokian of the show, “In the end, I went to hell and back so I could pass out maps. Better yet, guided tours.”
– which is another way of saying, “I write today so that tomorrow I remember yesterday”.
– which is another way of “Don’t go around playing Marco Polo alone, you’re gonna get hurt.”
- which is another way of saying:
((Pain + Patience) / People) x Purpose)) ^ Perspective = Paraprosdokian
Or in plain English:
“The patient endurance of pain leads to purpose and shared perspective summed up in a paraprosdokian, but none of that is possible without people.”
I’ve been living my whole life according to this equation unconsciously. So, for the past year, I decided to do it consciously. As I applied the process to my life, I realized the equation also reads as:
((Life Lessons + Life Lesson Prep)/ Life Offering) x Life Teaching ^ Life Preaching = Life of Prayer
Over the course of that same year, 2023, I lost three peers to suicide and young men ages 18-34 have experienced the highest suicide rate in this country’s history. This process has saved me from the brink of collapse far too many times whether I knew it or not and I wanted to share it with others. I didn’t know how. So I tried to figure it out one of the only ways I know how, through relationships… and writing… and creating stuff….
So here I am starting a new beginning as “The Paraprosdokianist”.
I’m here to create paraprosdokians of all types whether it be joke, lyric, poem, song, story, prose, terse aphorism, profound quote, proverb, zen koan, haiku, whatever it may be that God provides to me that day. Most importantly, I’m going to share with you all the pain I’m enduring patiently through the help of people to do my best to engage with my purpose, share my perspective, and hopefully live to tell the story.
I believe a poet to be a “journalist of the interior” and so what better place to operate as a journalist than on the frontier of cutting edge independent media, Substack. I’ll be using this platform to write, reflect, share, do lots and lots of podcasting (which will be available on all other platforms, namely YouTube and Spotify), and to update everyone about all the amazing ways in which this process has allowed me to truly enjoy life.
Here are some of the projects I am actively working on/ in the planning stages of…
Flagship Podcasts (everything will be released on “The Paraprosdokianist” channels on all platforms):
Nathanael Philip Mosher Has Friends
“Nathanael Philip Mosher Has Friends” is a live show/ podcast where I, “Nathanael Philip Mosher” welcome you to my home and my wonderful talented, thoughtful, and engaging friends. For episode 1, we had Richie Rosales and Tom Bajoras as guests. Each show has a unifying theme in the form of a question and this episode’s was: “Who would you be if the fear of suffering was taken away from you?” Each guest answered the question through their work and was interviewed after by yours truly. I also did crowd work at the beginning getting the audience’s answers (all of them were my friends), and we answered the question cumulatively at the end. I also answered the question through my material which include jokes, song, and poetry. Much of the material was written directly for this show and was presented for the first time for this audience…
This was the first time I did the show and it was a truly incredible experience. Everyone was amazing, insightful, and I learned so much about and from people whom I love so dearly.
The show will eventually be on YouTube, Spotify and cut up across all sorts of social media platforms. I’ll be releasing the podcast as a standalone special on YouTube first to get over my fears of getting on the internet. I also made an action step with my health coach that I would post something on 5 different platforms before we next meet (next Wednesday…). Here’s a sneak peak rough cut of Richie Rosales’ full set and interview. I hope you enjoy this and it helps alleviate some of the suffering in your life.
Did I mention that I’m directing and producing a documentary about Richie that will also function as his first stand-up special?
Follow him on TikTok: Richie Rosales and Instagram: Richie Rosales to get updates!
The Process of the Paraprosdokian
This will be a weekly livestream/ podcast where I will go throughout my week and share with you all the lessons I’ve learned from patiently enduring the pain with the help of people such that I can engage with my purpose, share my perspective, and live to tell the tale. I’ll be sharing with you any new ideas, experiences, techniques, readings, pieces of knowledge/ wisdom, or stories that got me through the week. I’ll also be sharing exclusively with my Substack subscribers all the material that was created in the process!
Other Ideas (not necessarily regular/ flagship, but releasing as I go):
Standup in general
I’ll be releasing standup clips as much as possible on all different platforms and on Substack I’ll occasionally post longer reflections about the story behind the bit/ the reception afterwards.
Here’s a clip from a little while back at UCLA just to prime the pump!
I have a ton of other projects in the works regarding my one man show, “Nathan Mosher is Injured”, a stand-up special that combines old footage from when I was younger with newer footage from now, a monthly show I’m co-producing with Richie Rosales and his manager Nick Robbin, and so much more!
I’m also going to be on the east coast in August and might be doing some shows out there! Stay tuned!
Welp…
Many years ago a friend Akila commented on a FB post I wrote about my 5 year anniversary of deciding to pursue stand-up that I should start a blog… 5 years later, here it is.
Let me know what else you’d like to see/ hear from me!
Yours Truly,
Nathanael Philip Mosher
AKA “The Paraprosdokianist”