The Performance

I'm not going to recount the performance, but I thought it was great. Not perfect, but it demonstrated to us, as a team, that we can can be consistent. I know that sounds like weak praise but it isn't. It means that we have a very very solid base to work with. We showed that we fully understand the Herald and can only keep getting better at it. We had so great moves and great energy and little fear. I am insanely proud of ourselves.

I have to say that I am uber-happy with how my scenes went. At risk of sounding like an ass, I thought I rocked. In no small part due to John Roberts setting me up so magnificently. He gifted me with so much and so unselfishly... he basically wrote himself out of the scene by making me the most interesting thing. I'm just happy I didn't drop the ball. (For the curious, I played a young man is disgusted by old people who has just got job at a S&M club/retirement center. The bennies were just too good to pass up.)

PappaSix came out which was great. Sadly he had to return the 3 Rivers... so he missed another interesting night at the Garden. Highlights (in no order): Listing to the dichotomy of Casey's and Abra's music choices; Summer Lovin'; Larry and I running away from weird Marine/Washington Heights bar owner, leaving Casey alone with him... and then get Abra to go save her; Ginger-Balls; The Simpsons Movie trailer; and Vin's amazing interpretive dances.

All in all a great night.

(Oh, one final shout out to Chris Gethard. Great great teacher. Thank you for an amazing eight weeks.)

A night of little sleep

A bit of the old insomnia last night. No reason really. I started with some emails and then a bit of forum posting. Then a bit of pre-NaNoWriMo-pipe-flushing writing, which led to going to those forums to ask a random question. And then I started checking out Lulu.com, which is basically a print-on-demand vanity press. Very very simple (except that you have to do all the formatting and it is a bit pricey... but there is no up front cost). So I got all wrapped up in that for a while. Made a cover, which was an interesting experience. See, my old copy of Adobe Illustrator doesn't work on my new mac. So I used the draw program in NeoOffice, a free open source MS Office type program. Worked out okay for what I was doing, just not very smooth. Again, I was just playing around.

Then I started to read about online worlds. You know, World of Warcraft, EVE, Second Life. I really appreciate these "games," I just can't play them. Way way to much time to devote to them, with little dramatic story. (I will write about my feeling on them in more detail later this week.) But I do love to read about what is going on in them.

I tried to write some sketches for next weeks podcast and failed. The theme is "Home" and I am just not getting a good idea. Blah. I am starting a sketch writing class on Wednesday at The Magnet. We'll see. I'm not a big fan of most writing classes. Too much "all ideas are god ideas" crap. Blah

Then I slept for a bit but woke up after 3 hours for no reason. So I blog-surfed for a while. And then I updated my links on this blog since they had all been flushed when I switched over to the Blogger 2.0 beta. Then I decided i didn't have enough links, so I searched for blogs by improvisors I like. Okay, right now it's mainly just folks who have taught me. (Improvisors are a bit of ass-kissers.) Then I played with some of the features in the Blogger 2.o and after an hour ended up basically were I started. (Changed my sub-title to better suit my current state of mind... that "from the edge" thing was pretty lame.)

Then I looked at sinks.

Now it is 8:30am and I have practice class at 12:30. I could sleep for another hour or two, but I know that won't happen. So I shall wrap this up, take a shower, do some laundry, go out for breakfast and the NYTimes and see how much coffee I can drink.

(Oh, I never said how Thursdays class went. Good. Still hard, I'm not actually over the hump, but I do really feel like I'm peaking of the top. I made some lame moves... or at least incomplete ones, but I also made some that I was proud of. And I'm not thinking about it as much. Looking forward to practice in 4 hours. Hopefully we'll have more people.)

Oh, rainy Wednesday

Went out today unprepared for the weather. My bad. And it is one of those Fall Damp Rains, that once it gets you wet you just want to get inside with hot chocolate and a quilt and read. But I have now hot chocolate, the quilt is being washed and none of the books I have are holding my attention.

Well, here's Tickle Me Harder starring TMX Elmo. NSFW if you're a muppet.


Anyway, went to Harold Night at UCB last night. It was good. I still have a crush on Ellie Kemper, but it is an audience / performer type crush. And I am purposely not actively searching for anyone. But crushes are good. I'll just pimp her show on Thursday. It's a double header with Hot Sauce. That's a spicy meatball of improv sexiness. I won't be there as I have class, but you should go.

I've been keeping an Improv Body Count of all the deaths I (or anyone who wishes to report them) has witnessed on stage during improv performances since 9/24. I'm at 61.5 deaths. Last night Gregory Tuculescu was chopped by push lawnmower Shannon O'Neill. See Greg had had a torrid affair with a riding mower and his wife, Ellie Kemper, had and affair with the neighbors push mower. Kemper also had two baby lawnmowers from the affair. She breast fed them. As I said, meatball... spicy... sexiness.

LOST will be on in about ten minutes. Man, is that a hard addiction for me. I can just talk about LOST for hours. But then I realize that I am over analyzing everything. And when I get into a conversation about it there will be one person there who doesn't like the show or just doesn't get it. It is not the type of show you can watch casually, like say CSI or Law & Order or House. You watch it or you don't. So I'm kind of tired of it.

Oh, there is a new episode of The Terrible Red Show up. Back on track. It's getting there. Step by step.

Practice, practice, practice

We have a "practice group" set up for our improv group today. I'm very excited but unsure how many folks are actually going to be there. Hope we get at least five. I get very intense in class, trying to absorb every little nugget of knowledge. Today I want to play. Characters! I need to play characters! Perhaps I will play a sea captain/pimp today. Pimps at Sea! (If you know what I am referencing, you are officially a nerd. Go nerds!)

After class it is another recording session for The Terrible Red Show podcast. Looks like we're going to get more actors which is good. I wrote half a dozen or so sketches this week but not all that many on topic ("School"). I also have no idea if any of them are funny. There's a dueling one I like, but definitely not on theme. We shall see if any of them make the cut. Luckily my ego isn't tied to them so I'm not concerned.

On that topic, go to the TRS forums and vote for next weeks theme. If you vote for "Obligation," the dueling sketch might get on.

The Terrible Red Show

Not only did this go up on Monday but it went up early early Monday.

Someone once told me when I said that I wanted to do a podcast, "No one wants to hear you." Prove them wrong.

The Terrible Red Show.


Oh and here's some cat heads on human bodies performing Hamlet.

Going On's

Just got back from doing some voice work in some sketches for a podcast. I mean, you isn't at this point?

It was fun. Apparently the episode should be up tomorrow (which is pretty quick turn around). I am guessing John Robert doesn't sleep. Sounds like it may be a regular gig. Yeah, like I need another non-paying gig. Actually, I do. Gets me out of the house. Here's the site: The Terrible Red Show. Enjoy or not. See if I care.

I'll be hitting Harold Night at UCBNY on Tuesday. I'm doing the whole night because I'm excited about seeing Sensory Depravation at 11pm. Improvs with out sight and improvs without sound. Of course not at the same time. Improvs with just the senses of smell, touch and taste would probably end up messy.