Historical clue formulations

• Fizzling out — 2026-05-17
• Going out, as embers — 2024-01-23
• Like a phone down to 1% — 2019-07-03
• Flopping at a comedy club — 2010-04-13
• Faulkner's "As I Lay ___" — 2007-09-17
• Not getting many laughs, as a comedian — 2002-06-22
• Declining, as embers — 2000-06-06
• Bombing, as a comic — 1998-10-01
• Subsiding, with "down" — 1995-11-22
• Declining, as a fire — 1995-04-16