From the vault: my fourth Instagram post ever. November 30, 2016. Caption: “Butterfly’s do fall in love with trash Cranes. #origamicrane”
First, we need to talk about the gap. Post number three was in August 2014, and then I went quiet for more than two years. Either I was building suspense, or I forgot I had an Instagram. Both are equally possible.
When I came back, I did not come back with a joke. I came back with poetry.
Look at this photo. In front, in focus, inside what looks like a glass jar, there is a butterfly with orange and black wings hanging next to a little origami crane perched on a twig, with some dried flowers down below. In the back, all blurry, there is a stage washed in red light, string lights up top, and a performer with a microphone who is completely out of focus.
So the butterfly gets the close up, and the human being performing live gets treated like background furniture. Bold choice.
The caption is where I really went for it. “Butterfly’s do fall in love with trash Cranes.” I do not know what a trash crane is, I do not know why the butterfly loves it, and I definitely did not check the grammar before I posted it. I just saw two little fake creatures next to each other in a jar and decided this was a love story, and that the world needed to hear about it that night.
That is a very specific phase of being an artist, where everything feels symbolic and you are pretty sure you are being deep, when really you are just a comic in a room with a jar.
Same guy now, on the roster at Comedy Works, won their 2026 New Faces Contest, out on the road hosting THE DOSE. The posts got more regular, the captions got less mysterious, and I mostly leave the butterflies alone now.
Nic
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BNdg5pMhz6j/, see the current tour dates at nicdean.net