I don't think I've really talked about improv in a while.
I had a power weekend this time around. Friday started off with a Johnny Roast Beef show at I.O. and something was amiss with the electrical system. It was the last show for the first group. Right after their opening the lights went out. Everything was dead in the control room. It ended up being that a breaker got triggered, but this team was left to do their last show in the dark...until they came on...and until someone went back to see what the problem was by turning on the computer and tripping the breaker again. That team got the lights blown three times. We followed their show and had zero light problems...go figure. We had a great show. Big time fun. Katie Nahnsen, ladies and gentlemen...keep that name in your brains. She's funny and will go places. Emily is funny too, but she's too comfortable in her day job to take the risk of low paying opportunities.
I went straight from their to reffing at CSz. The longest show I've reffed in a while. Just a weird coincidental show where not a single game we played was short.
Saturday meant two CSz shows...reffing, then sound. Yep...3 CSz shows and I didn't play in a single one. The show I reffed was phenomenal. I told everyone before the audience even started coming in that I smelled a good show. I was getting suggestions for 5 things and this kid, who had given me plenty of suggestions, gave me "Liquid Nitrogen." I took "mud" instead, but told him if Molly said "Liquid Nitrogen" I would give him a dollar. 5 things ends and I'm telling the audience what their half-time options are when Molly stands up and says "Ref Rance? I have an announcement...Liquid Nitrogen." During the second half I gave that kid a dollar.
Tonight (Sunday) was a partial surprise. Rich text messaged me to see what I was doing. I had shoots in the afternoon and an 11:00pm show at IO. He said "we're going to play in the set at SC". See, SC is Second City. They do an improv set after their shows and they let guests play sometimes. Tonight was my second time. The first time was with Deanna and I was nervous and boring. This time I was getting some good ones in there. It was fun and the cast is very, VERY nice about welcoming and thanking guests. Thanks SC!
From there we went to IO to see Bill Arnet's one man show (I think I spelled his last name wrong), and Meta Five before I did my Super Fun Times show. Super Fun Times is a group that just kind of got together to start doing shows in this 11:00 slot. I got invited two Sundays ago and played in the last three shows. And tonight, since Rich and Molly were there for Bill's show, we invited them to play with us. It was nice for them 'cause Molly is on Mainstage SC and her and Rich don't get to perform together as much as they used to.
EVERYONE WINS!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
Killing Time
Eric Lindberg wrote about this and I feel compelled to as well. Last night we had a three hour rehearsal with a guy who started Poetry Slam in Chicago. He was talking to us because he was working with our artistic director to combine CSz and Poetry Slam...into PoetrySportz. I haven't been free on a night it has played, but I hear nothing but great things.
He is at our rehearsal to help wit our poetry based games. The first hour was all him talking about history, which left me instantly disconnected. I should start by saying that Spoken Poetry is one of my least favorite forms of "entertainment". It is sort of a bastard middle ground between poems on paper, and songs...both of which I like. I like writing poems, I like reading poems, but watching someone theatrically express their poem? Poison. It's good to see in order to represent it on a comedy stage...but not on a frequent basis.
To those who love it. Good. Great! That's why it's still around! You love it!
It just makes me cringe...and apparently, it makes me lose my train of thought. Bu-bye.
He is at our rehearsal to help wit our poetry based games. The first hour was all him talking about history, which left me instantly disconnected. I should start by saying that Spoken Poetry is one of my least favorite forms of "entertainment". It is sort of a bastard middle ground between poems on paper, and songs...both of which I like. I like writing poems, I like reading poems, but watching someone theatrically express their poem? Poison. It's good to see in order to represent it on a comedy stage...but not on a frequent basis.
To those who love it. Good. Great! That's why it's still around! You love it!
It just makes me cringe...and apparently, it makes me lose my train of thought. Bu-bye.
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Days 12 & 13: Beloit, WI
My dad emailed me for the ending to this epic adventure. Apparently my life is Harry Potter-esque...except there's no magic or school or dead Dumbledore's (if you didn't know this, keep up...c'mon).
Not a super eventful ending to the adventure. Beloit, WI. I like to pronounce it "Bloit". It was far enough away that we needed to leave Wednesday night and shoot all day Thursday. The drive was not in a corporate jet...it was in Rich's car. Pretty standard...a few rounds of 21 questions.
It was snowing the day we left. Nothing major...minor accumulation. It was the kind of snow I like...you look outside, you see snow, that song from A Charlie Brown Christmas when they're ice skating starts playing in your head.
We get to Beloit. It is still kind of snowing...but it's 12 degrees. Twelve. Degrees. Ugh.
We wake up early the next morning and head over to the main office. We had to shoot our opener and closer of the whole piece. All of the other stuff we were shooting was the stuff that went in the middle. It took us until about 7:00. I was sooooo hungry by the time we were done. I was so hungry I felt like I was going to throw up. We stopped at some place...Ruby Tuesdays? Our server had a thick Wisconsin accent...so that was fun. We were pretty out of it from a long day. We got back and I was done.
The other three have one more shoot. Tomorrow as a matter of fact.
It was fun times. I may have a different gig in March for a different client, but no video stuff.
Oh, on the way home, Dumbledore died. The End.
Not a super eventful ending to the adventure. Beloit, WI. I like to pronounce it "Bloit". It was far enough away that we needed to leave Wednesday night and shoot all day Thursday. The drive was not in a corporate jet...it was in Rich's car. Pretty standard...a few rounds of 21 questions.
It was snowing the day we left. Nothing major...minor accumulation. It was the kind of snow I like...you look outside, you see snow, that song from A Charlie Brown Christmas when they're ice skating starts playing in your head.
We get to Beloit. It is still kind of snowing...but it's 12 degrees. Twelve. Degrees. Ugh.
We wake up early the next morning and head over to the main office. We had to shoot our opener and closer of the whole piece. All of the other stuff we were shooting was the stuff that went in the middle. It took us until about 7:00. I was sooooo hungry by the time we were done. I was so hungry I felt like I was going to throw up. We stopped at some place...Ruby Tuesdays? Our server had a thick Wisconsin accent...so that was fun. We were pretty out of it from a long day. We got back and I was done.
The other three have one more shoot. Tomorrow as a matter of fact.
It was fun times. I may have a different gig in March for a different client, but no video stuff.
Oh, on the way home, Dumbledore died. The End.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
Days 9-11 of 13 (+?): Texas
The Journey continues. This time we are missing our corporate Lear jet, as well as Sarah and Paul. We meet early at the airport to check our luggage and go through security...things that have been rendered foreign to us previously.
After the flight, we drive from the George Bush Airport in Houston to Stafford, TX. I've asked myself to pass the following message along to the State of Texas from my mouth, "Your roads and tolls suck!"
Oddly enough, with our track record of driving, we made it there without a single missed turn! AMAZING! We had one car this time, so Rich and I got to see the navigation chaos up close instead of just following and wondering what they are doing. Here is how it works. The director is driving. As I said earlier, I thought he was the problem, but we found out later it was the camerman, Rich. So Rich (the cameraman...I'll refer to Rich the actor by his self-given nickname, "Draggin'") sits shotgun and has the google map. He gets easily distracted by stuff outside or by his own stories. Dan the sound guy sits behind them with a handheld GPS system. GPS! He bought this because of how bad they are with directions. But, they still don't listen as much as they should. Regardless, we get to the hotel with zero problems.
After a meal and sleep we pack up to head to the branch of the store we're shooting for. It's Texas, and it's warm. I didn't sleep well because I'm coming down with a cold. The first shoot they want to set up doesn't require either of us...this ends up meaning a two hour nap in the van. Awesome. So the shoot didn't really start until 10:00am...but we would be hitting two locations during the day.
We finish at our first location and head to the second. Rich and I get to meet AJ Foyt, Jr...four time Indy 500 winner. We're shooting at his garage. There are about 9 indy cars in there...Rich got to sit in one! Neither of us are sports fans...and racing is somehow included in sports. We also meet his newest driver, Felipe Giaffone (I think that is his name). We're just happy to meet him...but it isn't a big deal to us. Later I find out Deanna told Rebecca H. about us meeting him and she flipped out and called her dad. He's big news.
Enter Black Friday. The weather went from warm to cold and windy really fast, and then we headed out to a new hotel closer to the airport. In comes the usual driving. I'll say we took five wrong turns, and I might be missing some. We kept turning too early...all the while, Dan was saying "we need to go down further according to the GPS". He was right.
We ate. Slept. And shot some stuff at the airport...then hoped on the Commercial flight home.
We have at least one day of driving to the last(?) location and one day of shooting. There may be one more thing after that, but I think next week's 1.5 days will be the end of this job.
It has been great.
PS. I'm watching The Colbert Report on Comedy Central right now and he has referred to Oregon as "California's Canada" for the second time now.
After the flight, we drive from the George Bush Airport in Houston to Stafford, TX. I've asked myself to pass the following message along to the State of Texas from my mouth, "Your roads and tolls suck!"
Oddly enough, with our track record of driving, we made it there without a single missed turn! AMAZING! We had one car this time, so Rich and I got to see the navigation chaos up close instead of just following and wondering what they are doing. Here is how it works. The director is driving. As I said earlier, I thought he was the problem, but we found out later it was the camerman, Rich. So Rich (the cameraman...I'll refer to Rich the actor by his self-given nickname, "Draggin'") sits shotgun and has the google map. He gets easily distracted by stuff outside or by his own stories. Dan the sound guy sits behind them with a handheld GPS system. GPS! He bought this because of how bad they are with directions. But, they still don't listen as much as they should. Regardless, we get to the hotel with zero problems.
After a meal and sleep we pack up to head to the branch of the store we're shooting for. It's Texas, and it's warm. I didn't sleep well because I'm coming down with a cold. The first shoot they want to set up doesn't require either of us...this ends up meaning a two hour nap in the van. Awesome. So the shoot didn't really start until 10:00am...but we would be hitting two locations during the day.
We finish at our first location and head to the second. Rich and I get to meet AJ Foyt, Jr...four time Indy 500 winner. We're shooting at his garage. There are about 9 indy cars in there...Rich got to sit in one! Neither of us are sports fans...and racing is somehow included in sports. We also meet his newest driver, Felipe Giaffone (I think that is his name). We're just happy to meet him...but it isn't a big deal to us. Later I find out Deanna told Rebecca H. about us meeting him and she flipped out and called her dad. He's big news.
Enter Black Friday. The weather went from warm to cold and windy really fast, and then we headed out to a new hotel closer to the airport. In comes the usual driving. I'll say we took five wrong turns, and I might be missing some. We kept turning too early...all the while, Dan was saying "we need to go down further according to the GPS". He was right.
We ate. Slept. And shot some stuff at the airport...then hoped on the Commercial flight home.
We have at least one day of driving to the last(?) location and one day of shooting. There may be one more thing after that, but I think next week's 1.5 days will be the end of this job.
It has been great.
PS. I'm watching The Colbert Report on Comedy Central right now and he has referred to Oregon as "California's Canada" for the second time now.
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