addicted to pot

you know what's effed?

this.

many actors i know talk about neti pots and how great it makes them feel. so after some serious sneezing in virginia (to be catalogged soon), i bought one after my chicago return and dropped the waterbomb tonight.

mostly, i just felt like i gargled salt water and unplugged my nose in a swimming pool.

still though - a couple of hours later - i think it sorta worked.

anyone done this noise?

i just shoved a teeny teapot up my nose.

congrats, csz team!

rizzutto, moffitt and i drove to quad cities (about 3 hours away) for one day to check in on this year's csz tournament players (prouty, dewaegeneer, washington, and elwell) and see their show. csz is such a great place, and being there one day certainly makes you want to have time to stay and meet all the others from the 19 other cities that come to playfully duke it out.

one thing i really love about csz that some other joints don't have?: that. the camaraderie. you can always kinda play with another city. it's like someone invented a new universal language and you all sorta speak it. the language of bits.

i know my schedule is probably only bound to get worse, but i'm crossing fingers to go next year for the whole four or five days. it's like camp. sportzcamp.

hi to you all.

as you can see...

i'm trying to cover all my july ground in one big clump. man, this month has been busy. and we haven't even gotten to camp yet...

more to come. say hi and keep readin'.

swartzy, crawf, and thomps

...you all made my day on the 12th. look at these beauts!

i haven't gotten flowers for years.

i feel like a laaaa dyyy!

the aftermath

on the 10th, after a fun stay downtown with the fam after shows and some rest, we woke up, drove up to orange, and had some breakfast. we took a little driving tour by wrigley and my bro took a photo, which he evenutally photoshopped into this:

come on.

after the tour, we decided to head to the art museum to get in a little more culture, and saw a shitton of stuff we liked a lot. a docent we met told us a little bit about what we couldn't miss (i hated myself for not going there more often, of course, as she told us). she recommended the standards to my fam and also slipped in the fact that she loved caillebotte the most.

"he was not a pig like monet," she scoffed. "monet rolled in his money. caillebotte gave it away. i have worked here for 27 years, and with my first paycheck, i bought a print of caillebotte to remind me what matters."

i liked her. i liked her conviction and liked thinking that claude monet was just a jerkoff.

we saw as much as we could. we were there for hours but there was no time for more than 20% of that place at a decent clip. man. chicago, right?

after a stop at garrett's p-cornfor their trip home and a quick bag pack, my fam dropped me off in the midst of a major downpour and hit the road. i cried when they left when i got upstairs.

but i'm glad they came.

birthdo

this year, there seemed like little time to organize anything for my birthday. with the holiday and csz going to six flags just days before + work and shows in springfield, the day approaching seemed like it may be over before it began. only, with no bar party or friend dinner or romancin' in sight, the best thing happened - my fam came to town.

in the morning, we went to - let's face it - what was cleverly disguised as birthday breakf... my family loves a little restaurant called toast, a place in lincoln park that serves delicious things like breakfast burritos, intelligentsia coffee, eggs benedict, and french toast stuffed with marscapone cheese and topped with fresh fruit. it really is heavenly, and the only time i think i've ever been without them is on rare breakfast dates with my friend ithamar. so, i was itching to go back.

we ate and strolled later around millenium park, wandering past the famed bean and weirdass spitting water columns. nick, my mom and kathy were all impressed, and we took the obligatory photos of both. adorable.

i dropped them off at a boat tour and ran over to sc, just in time to make my 2pm rehearsal. we crammed until 6pm, grabbed some quick eats across the street (which i received gratis - thanks, boston mark!), and came back to get ready for the show.

the show was fun and my family seemed impressed. something was going on with the air in the building, and as our director noted, it definitely affected the crowd. however, it was still fun to know my family was right out there. i couldn't believe that they were there, seeing my first (official) blueco homeshow on the mainstage, right there with me.

even cooler?

about 15 friends all came to the show, getting to meet my family and hang with me across the street at corcoran's afterward. the coolest thing ever.

for not planning anything, you guys sure did ace it.

happy birthdo.

voting help, #2

time is running out on this one as well. we're a contender for a mr. clean magic eraser spot - with a prize of 10 grand (i know!). for this one, you don't need to do anything but click on the 5star rating to help, i believe.

please go here when you can!

you'll see sam, robyn, deanna, hans, and rance in that video.i'm not in it, but helped with the concept on this one. the high ratings help us in the event of a tie, so it's still relativelyimportant to vote.

thanks! and i'm sure i'll ask again for some new help in the next few weeks.

voting help, #1

hey...
so while you're watching videos at work (don't act like you aren't), please vote for this new gem:
http://www.whatsmyscore.org/contest/videos.php
seven8nine has an entry we filmed called "Credit Always Scores". if we win, we get 5 grand! please give us 5 stars and rate the others lower. this will effect the outcome of the contest.

i signed up with my junkiest e-mail and haven't gotten any spam yet, just fyi. we need a hundred votes this week in order for it to count. help!

seven8nine in 60 seconds

well, hey hey, we won!
rance's script won a contest entitled "my day in 60 seconds". we got 500 bucks and a new camera, along with some other fun software and stuff to keep going. yeah!

to see the video, go here. let us know what you think.

rockin' in a church van

what it's really like, part 1 (or 4000):

tourcos travel via plane a lot, but they also travel in a shitty van that has broken down several times and sits abandoned in a parking lot a lot of months out of the year. this time, when we left, the van driver's seat didn't move forward or backward. meghan strained to reach the pedals and drove us for about a half hour until an unidentified object flew off the van, then about 14 minutes later, the weather stripping came dislodged from the driver window. it whipped the van for another hour or so until we all tucked it back in.

on sunday, when we headed back to chicago, we hit the last leg of 55. with skyline in sight and my family waiting downtown on their visit, our front passenger side tire exploded cartoonishly, leaving shreds of rubber and tire carnage in a trail of tears behind us. meghan drove off the road very steadily and well, but then we sat helpless as the fast lane of cars whizzed by only inches away. we knew we had a spare, but no flares and no room to change it.

one hour and twenty minutes later, after going through chuck's (music director's) pictures on his mac and going after lehrer for just about everything, a random tow truck stopped to help us for 35 bucks, beating both triple a and the cops.

rockstars.

heart in hands

i'd be lying if i said through all this, my mind hasn't been totally consumed by other things.

my brother vince is doing well. since things are calmer now, i'm thinking of going home in august and enjoying a long weekend with the fam and just being. still, i'm having a lot of trouble admitting i live here and can't get home that much anymore with the schedule i keep.

when i signed on with second city, they told me that as of september, i was theirs. i know that things will change and i'll be gone all but 6 days that month. and for someone who already travels a lot, it's a mind blow to think it will increase.

in columbus, when i visited, and always when i visit, i feel a pang to stay. and i'd like to be there. in a perfect world, i'll have more time to get there, and once i get out of financial peril and find balance, hopefully i'll travel home more and stay for long spurts on off-times. but when your family is all there, it feels like a million miles away.

my brother nick told me recently after seeing a show that i had to stay here. even though it's not true, because nothing is necessary except the basics, it made me feel like being here was a better decision than i allow myself to think it is.

sold out in state cap

my first road show with blueco as an official member was july 7th. though he has another home show left, this also sadly happened to be jordan's last time on the road, so we did everything up right.

the show for 300 was super fun - the house had a lot of energy and liked everything. blueco is quickly getting a name for itself on being the "most political" company, primarily from the direction of david pompeii. it's fun to be relatively edgy for a touring comp, so we've sort of basked in how ridiculous that is. i had to sing a song from the SC show Red Scare called "Big Spender", a song where i belt out some mean (yet true) shit about GDubs. i got a partial standing o (rare!) and one boo (fun). i guess that one booer feels pretty stupes.

the ryders (tim's parents) and some friends came. they were fun to visit with after the show.

in other news, we had to drain a huge jug of ernest and julio gallo wine for a scene called faux pas, so we poured the wine into water bottles and chugged it all after our show was done, squirting it down our gullets. uh-oh, someone was drunk fast at the college bar we ended up at! good thing there's not much to do in the state cap but stumble home drunky in a cute pedway.

blueco 1

jug 0

appalachian trail

hey, y'all.
sorry i've been missing for a bit - i'm in virginia, teaching kids improv and drama in the appalachian mountos. i'll be back on here with lots to report as soon as we have internet and stuff again. my love to all of ya.

it's my birthdo!

happy birthdo, self! and everyone rules for their texts, e-mails, phone calls, and best yet - some of my fam came to see my first official homeshow at SC tonight. rules. RULES!

love you, friends.
love you, fam.
love you, life.

the fourth this year for me was sorta non-eventful because of other things going on - shows on all the days before it, a new show to learn, and a csz outing on the 5th starting in the early morning. i was delighted and sad when my family called from near the UA parade, all together and cooking out but me. nothing is better, though, than finding out part of your fam that doesn't come to chicago much is coming on your birthday to see your first real SC tourco show on monday. my mom, my bro nick and his gfri kathy are all coming on sunday. that rules! so suddenly, the fourth didn't matter much at all. i travel to our state's cap today to do my first non-understudy show away. when i get back, it's fam time. maybe we'll go celebrate on sunday night togeth.

having my family here sounds like the most fun ever. i've gotta think of fun things to do. millenium park, maybe a boat tour, that sort of stuff.

as a sidebar, i've been to the hancock twice this month, and i think there's probably another time in store on sunday or monday. three times in four weeks. and i hadn't been for years.

rock the 'cock, y'all.
that's my motto for life.
i should think that one through more.

chrissy, my great friend from hs, left last saturday - back to maine and a mini-vacay to see her lovely fam in c-bus after a month long rotation in chicago.

having chrissy here this last month was so fun and so lucky - when do you get a chance in adult life to live like you're in high school again (or, well, like, close to what it felt like, plus jobs)? i got to see amy and tara more, we did lots of things in the city that i wouldn't have made myself do. we were tourists in our own city again and appreciated everything; she was there during my bro's stuff and a breakup and it was just the best. she was comforted through some recent hard times for her and made the decision to move here next spring after her last year in maine.

i never want time to go faster (barring chicago's blistering winters), but i wish i could leap ahead to a year from now to see her 4 times a week again. it ruled. come b.

sometimes, when girls date, they might wear the same thing by accident when heading from their offices to a Chicago Sky game and don't have time to check in about it, preventatively.

sometimes, this makes your other two friends snap cell pics and laugh uncontrollably all night about how you're failures.

palmer, by the way...

...is like "venetian vanilla", whatever the hell that is.
as we were walking by the chicago-famous rainbow cone booth, we all noticed that there are five flavors: strawberry, chocolate, pistachio, orange sherb, and palmer.

onslaught of bits ensued about disenchanted, unaffected liplined girls dancing on the cone.

the Taste

so, comedysportz has done two days worth of shows at this year's annual Taste of Chicago. the shows have been unexpectedly fun as can be - super cute crowds and lots of fun bits both days. i've done my part in all four shows, but if you're at the taste tomorrow and want to catch some comedo, see some pals at the sports/international pavillion for either of two shows between 1-2:30 pm. it was a blast.

i kind of hate the taste, though. i'm all for revenue for the city in fun ways and all for new booths getting seen, but now it's just sorta pizza for 8 tickets and crowds out the wazoo. hmm. well, why complain? i had fun, no matter. see!: copper cowboy, the original tin man, and the robinson's ribs booth. robinson's ribs by far gave best show of day singing the whole time they served to get customer attention - nothing set - just things like whooping "baby BAAAAACK!"/"oh! oh!"/"what we GOT?" to the underscore of a shitty radio.

chicago.

adventures in internet dating

it's really happening now.

so, i had a breakup not too long ago and a couple friends outside the bizzzz told me to try something new and go online. yow. now, i know that even writing about this here means a., people can google my shit (already happened thrice) and find out i'm doing this, and b., people could find out what i think of them through this blog after we have said date. garg. i know. but life is interesting, right? and this is the sorta shit people wanna know, let's be honest. so, seeing how things go, i'll let you in on little nooks and crans.

so far so good. have had four dates with gentlemen, all of which have gone pretty mothafuckin' well. i think i won't have a ton of time for more in july. in one scenario, things got a little more intense than i would've liked quick - though i was really down with this guy, so, i'm just sort of seeing what else there is. let's all calm down a little bit.

this is all i have for now. be cool, everybody.
they are probably all reading this now.
are you?
fuck.

gringo prouty

while my friend chrissy was in town, rich got us all tickets to go see the chicago sky play at uic. he's the guy that does fun interstitial games at the timeouts and gives away prizes.

just look at him.

he's really doing it.

we all are.

thanks.

thanks to everyone who sent e-mails and checked in about all that stuff. i'm trying to pass 'em along to my broham, who is finishing his bedrestin'.

more on that later...
let's have some fun for now.