a laugh a minute

nothing to see here...

2008-08-05T08:14:00.001-05:00

man, this joint is a bitz graveyard.
i know i'll come back here sometime, but for now, i need a little break.

the good news?
go here instead.

we'll meet back here in a little bit.

ladies? all the ladies? louder now, help me out...

2008-04-10T23:59:00.002-05:00

the beginning of february did bring some good things, one of the best being a panel discussion for women in improv. and i, thissss guyyyyy, was on the panel.

the panel, hosted by an organization called C-WIF, was honestly so fun i couldn't stand it. i had so much fun. on the panel with me was jet eveleth, susan messing, amanda davis, anne libera, and rachael mason. that's some fuckin' good company.

as i looked around at the del close theatre, at a room full of women, i felt excited for so much...
1, that so many women were doing improv,
2, that there were so many good layers of discussion happening and so many bits surrounding the discussion that were even better, and
3, that i, after however long, was a person now on a panel.

february. you're doing okay so far.

dating is hard, part 9000

2008-04-10T23:33:00.001-05:00

and speaking of months in the interest of full-er disclosure (martin), for about a month in this little window, i dated a guy named erik.

erik lives in seattle. we met while i was on ski tour. erik was kind, giving, sweet, and 1800 miles away. we gave it a go. he visited one weekend in the beginning of february. we had a lovely time. spent a lot of time together, got some meals, saw a little of the city, and so forth. then, about a week after his visit, we sorta - maybe i - gave up. i hope he's doing well.

we're getting there, aren't we?

2008-04-10T22:56:00.002-05:00

the end of january, the beginning of another.
the end of january brought quite a bit; a film/promotional shoot for the soon to open csz, a couple rehearsals, and all the catching up that needed to be done both with friends and general repair...visiting doctors, paying bills, getting haircut, general betterment. this marks the first week we'd been back in almost a full month, jan 28th thru feb 1st. it felt like christmas.

february 1st, we flew to liberty, missouri. now, you may wonder here - why on earth did you fly to liberty (5 hours away) and not to a place like, say, tennessee (9 hours away)? this question can only be answered by the gods of second city, so i have nothing for you. all i can figure is that liberty was followed by a saturday matinee, so they shipped us in and out quickly.

...or tried to.

february 1st was insane at o'hare. we were delayed by a massive snowstorm. massive. we were sure - absolutely sure that our trip would be cancelled - so much so that one cast member didn't show up for call at 7am. we were released at 7:15, and told we might be called at noon to try again to fly. all cab service stopped in chicago, so several cast members fit all their luggage and selves in sniffen's tiny jeep, and we trudged north. as we reached lakeview after about 30 minutes of driving, we were told to turn around and head back to sc. we were trying again.

the day was spent, 7am until 4pm, waiting at the airport. we couldn't even go past security, because some of our passengers had been put on standby since our first flight was cancelled. we sat outside security like a bunch of a-holes until about noon, looking like wet cats and bitters. finally, we got a flight, crossed our fingers, and hoped for the best.

soon, we rode to liberty, a cute town maybe outside of kansas city. this is one of those gigs you don't really appreciate until you do - we were absolutely ill from traveling all day and all month, and were terrified to even attempt being funny after a grizzling day. however, we got some sandwiches in us, and as we arrived backstage, the house had held for us to perform. they began clapping, frenzied and appreciative that we had tried so hard to arrive. despite the hotel after (a renovated comfort inn of sorts with construction going on - downsides: 1st floor, backhoe in my window; upsides: teddy grahams and milk in lobby for free - huh?)everything was up from there. what a relief.

though we were tired, it was a better beginning to a better month. the first day of something new. that was something i was ready for.

taxicab confessions

2008-04-10T00:48:00.003-05:00

there's so much to write about. but, for now? here's what is important...

the musical taxi just drove by under my window. it's a taxi, lit up, with stickers all over it and stuffed animals crammed in the window and - oh, it's really something. this fanciful taxicab, probably operated by a killer of some sort, actually pipes out music similar to a christmas candlabra's caliber - sorta ice-cream-truck-ish. it has made a strange path as of late, passing by about once a week, and now my window is open on this chilled evening.

here, dear readers, is what was playing at the stoplight:

1) the godfather theme
2) (a slowed version of) you are my sunshine
...and the piece de resistance?
3) we wish you a merry christmas

so, don't say i never gave you nothin'.

"iowa f*cking city"

2008-04-01T20:18:00.003-05:00

here's how stupid it is to travel so much - within a few days of ski tour at the end of january, we went to iowa city to do two nights at a pretty theatre right in a pedway mall. i am dumb, because I HAD BEEN THERE BEFORE, IN THE SAME PEDWAY, STAYING AT THE SAME HOTEL, BUT HAD NO IDEA.

oof.
joey and i had gone about two years earlier to help out the people of gayco (a second city outreach troupe that does sketch comedy primarily focused on the glbtqa community). it was a super fun gig, i think taking place in june of 2006, maybe?, right in the middle of pride. we had fun, and slumber partied all night, one of my favorite times with pals.

what a doof that i forgot what city it was in.

anyway, we had lots of fun at these shows. we strolled around town on saturday afternoon, awaiting our show sat night. we found a great little shop called White Rabbit, which had tons of screenprinted shirts and homemade journals and comic books written by locals. aimee mckay bought everyone on MightyMightyBlueCo buttons that read "iowa f*cking city"; i found a black hoodie that i love with little white screenprinted owls high across the front. it was 20 bucks, a steal of a deal, and i snagged it. it has become my top three fave hoodies (i have a lot of hoodies, i realized). only recently was my image of this hoodie changed when i walked into csz rehearsal the week following, and pat dwyer said -"oh, i get it - hooters!". he was right. that's why they were there.

i like it even more now.

we all do.

2008-04-01T08:35:00.001-05:00

somewhere along the way, on some flight, i found this:
there is a god.

no rest for the weary

2008-04-01T08:19:00.002-05:00

we had a homeshow the next day at sc. this meant we were there again, from 4-11pm, doing the same show we had just done, with only a rest in our own beds between. the good news? tim sniffen rejoined our cast this night, and did a good job picking up fast on this show. it was good to see him again. that's all i have.

on tuesday, i couldn't have been happier to go to comedysportz rehearsal. sweet god, i missed those guys. seeing 30-40 of your friends in one room does a lot to raise your spirits. we rehearsed at the new space, not yet open, and got excited about really being there for the first time.

home.

sweet home, chicags

2008-04-01T08:14:00.002-05:00

january 20th.
i cannot tell you how thankful i was this day.
i felt insane. and i may have been one of the last to snap.
we rode a prop plane to salt lake and then jetted it home outta there.
those rides were the longest of my life.
waiting at the airport for bags was the longest 20 minutes of my life.
i couldn't BELIEVE we were home.
nearly 20 days on the road.
never again.
i learned a lot. i had a lot of fun too.
...never again.

the homestretch - yippee ki yay, motherf*ckers.

2008-04-01T07:53:00.005-05:00

days 16 -18: hailey, idaho.
oh god, oh god, we made it. we pretty much made it.look how tired i am again. cute, but tired. and probably drunk. and half the woman i once was (har, har).

our last stops on ski tour were housed in the town of hailey - a place funded by bruce willis and demi moore. the theatre we performed at both nights was funded by bruce, which you wouldn't necessarily know unless you noted a few pics just in the greenrooms. he had signed the wall, too. look, i've had a crush on bruce willis since moonlighting, so - i was pretty stoked to be there.

the shows were great. lots of fun.
shad and i taught a workshop here on saturday, and it was a blast. a woman who i loved (who since gave me her headshot - please ask me about it if you are in town, you must see this thing) brought me and shad a tray of cookies. we spend a lot of time pushing the community troupe/actors, and then spent some time just talking about what performing was like over oatmeal raisins.both nights, i got semi-trashed. i was over it. both nights, the night ended at "the Mint". i don't know how to describe this place. think coyote ugly, no mechanical bull.

i met a cowboy named aquila.
this is all i will say.
shut up, shad.

helena, montana

2008-04-01T07:48:00.003-05:00

oh helena, i hate to tell you this - you are my 14th day on the road and i don't remember you. i remember driving tooooooo you. evidence:
please note how markedly tired we all look in this photo. i really, really can't believe how weary we look. this should wrap up this tour more than any pic.

sweet god, get us home.

don't judge a book

2008-04-01T07:38:00.003-05:00

salmon, idaho. jan 15th. day 12 of roading.

we. were. terrified.
salmon, idaho, was a town of about 500. we were performing in city hall, next to the elderly home. we stayed at a place called the stagecoach inn, which is exactly what you think it's like. we passed the venue the night before we had to perform in it, and - well, essentially? - panicked.

100 people were coming.
we called second city and asked if we had considered doing a scriptless, a show where we do only improv and games for more community-oriented venues. they said they booked the real show. after our experience in lander and 12 days on the road, we were nervous. i was markedly the least nervous, because i was sure i had done shows in worse places, but certainly not a show like this one.

boy, were we all wrong about salmon.
salmon was hungry as hell to see a show like ours. it was a community of shut down mines and old fishing industry, and also a community of artists who purely did art for arts sake.

fuck us.
we were assholes about salmon.
salmon ruled.
the whole trip, in this tiny community center with 100 people, this was the most appreciative, laughingest, kindest audience we had ever had on the trip.

after the show and improv set was complete, we met lots of members of the community, one of which was annie, a masseuse and therapist in the area. annie BROUGHT HER TABLE TO THE STAGECOACH INN AND GAVE HALF THE CAST MASSAGES AND ACCUPUNCTURE.

salmon.
for real?
yes.

jackson hole, part II

2008-04-01T07:14:00.000-05:00

look at how cute meghan teal is.
this is a stop at the mangy moose in jackson hole.
this place had good gifts and moreover, provided fun pics of us doing moose bits.
not much else to ask for, here.

jackson hole, thank you

2008-04-01T07:13:00.010-05:00

...for making us feel taken care of, finally.

jackson hole marked our 9th/10th straight day on the road, and we were all a little weary. the holiday run into new years into home show into travel had become a lot to take. we needed a breather. in came jackson hole - beautiful, and we had a dope ski resort called snow king, and finally were happy as clams.

we also all took fun pics on top of mountains where we look like snowboarders, annnnd we got to finally wear our "snowveralls" (victory!). it was 7000 ft up, so it was absolutely necessary... it was cold as balls.

the people of jackson hole were the best - super warm, really kind, and since we were there for two nights, made us feel really at home. we were recognized in town and a local coffeehouse bought us our breakfasts; a local improv troupe came to our show and bought us a round of drinks the night of our show. the hospitality was amazing. i'll also say this - jackson hole wins the hotttttest guys award from defran - everyone was all ski-y and curly haired and tall and dark and sporty and... mama like. and they were everywhere. and they were very, very anxious to meet women, but not in a sleazy way. these were cute, lodge-y, sit by the fire type dudes. supposedly, there are the highest percentage of hot eligible guys here in the west. you could tell these guys didn't see a ton of girls very much. ladies, get on it.

brian and i taught a real fun workshop here to people of the community, that was fun. some of us went tubing and skiing, that was fun. and we also went on the scariest ski lift ever, which was beautiful and amazing and ABSOLUTELY HORRIFYING. katie and i held hands all the way up and she didn't even have to take her anxiety meds. i sang her spirituals on the way up, and then hit on a bunch of guys (and one girl) on the way down on the other side of the lift (brave, no?). i'll do anything.

you may have noticed

2008-04-01T07:10:00.002-05:00

...that for some reason, i'm blogging at sunrise.
i don't know why, i just am. sorta had a rocky night of sleep and woke up and thought - man, i have so much i wanna talk about... i gotta gun it through that blog and get on with it. i won't feel right if i don't catalog these trips. so, hi.

today is pretty so far. you'll like it.

prom queen of pinedale

2008-04-01T06:44:00.002-05:00

well, the cleansing worked; our next stop the next day? pinedale, wyoming.

here's what was mindblowing about pinedale - the set up was EXACTLY the same. exactly. we were performing in the high school auditorium (probably like, a 400 seater) in the middle of what one would guess to be a relatively conservative area. the difference? the people. pinedale had advertised our show as nc-13 or something, a term that doesn't really exist, but that we were psyched about - that meant no kids (or babies) at our show, and the whole crowd had been warned about what they were going to see. they came, they laughed a lot, our contacts were great, and we were happy as clams.

better than even a great show? the best night out maybe ever. we were staying at a lodge next to a sinclair gas station (something i think i've only seen out west- the stations with the green dino on top), about a block down from the cowboy-est bar ever made. picture it: sicily, 1931. wait! picture it: we walked into this bar, pretty much the only game in town, and honest to god prrrrretty much heard the record screech sound you hear in every promo to alert you something has gone horribly wrong. city folk! then, every patron in this bar recognized us right away, cheered, and bought us a shitload of beers.

chicagoans, imagine a "real" carol's. that's where we were.

here's the cast of characters i met in pinedale that i can remember:
*catie, the bartender - this woman was maybe my favorite of all stops on this trip. brassy, ballsy, mid-forties platinum blonde with a nice rack, the kind of mouth a sailor would be nervous about. she wore her hair in a bouffant, had a farmer's tan, smeary black eyeliner, and a voice like fine sandpaper. she was the kind of lady that took no shit, but then quickly realized we were cool and was all winks and smiles. she got drunk with us and did a bunch of shots one for one and talked to us about the city. she had tattoos of her chakras up her back and pulled her tank top up to show us. no shame, nothing but perfect. she said she might come visit. this is my dream.

*scott christiansen, the marlboro man - a silver fox of a cowboy, a man i was just sitting next to, i believe, at the beginning of the night. he did not see the show (he's a fucking cowboy) but noticed the stir of all of us coming in. we all struck up a conversation, and before i knew it, i was wearing his hat and two stepping a bit. i don't really know what happened here. i know at one point, he said something like, "i'm old enough to be your daddy", and i was like, mmm, i guess?, but i kissed him anyway. just a little one, don't freak out. HE WAS A COWBOY.

*lulu, the bisexual girl of wyoming - earlier in the evening, as we were going into the bar, i saw a semi-butch baseball capped woman walking into the same bar we were going to. after about 10 seconds, i realized it was a guy. to meghan teal aloud i said "well, the only lesbian in wyoming is a man". she lost it, and we continued to wonder if there were any gays at all around us that were out; i found her, about 3 hours later and 8 miller lites in. lulu, the 22 year old native american bisexual. long dark hair, had a lot of words for me. i kissed her too. SHE WAS A BISEXUAL.

*the sheriff and his underling: bulletproof vested cops came in around 2 to make sure the peace was being kept. we took pictures with them and they threw us around a little while. i kissed them too - THEY WERE SHERI - just jokes.

brian jack, after my drunken debauchery and ragtag crew of fans, named me the prom queen of pinedale. i love this title. i really hope i win again next year.

upon stumbling back to the hotel, meghan and i were so drunk that we fell into the lobby. like, fell. and katie went to get us 14 packs of gardetto's, something i'll always be thankful for. we found a rye crisp the next on our bedspread, and i laughed harder than i think i ever have.

ski tour part 3: the cleansing

2008-03-11T11:59:00.003-05:00

now, when we last left BlueCo, as you may have guessed, we were a wee bit discouraged. some of the struggle of touring a best-of show where only 10% is original material? well - you get the thrill of doing this tried and true stuff that works and was written by people you admire, and also, you get blamed for material you commit to, perform hard, but didn't even write.

we stayed the night in lander, and i really actually enjoyed that night. once we were out of the space, i felt fine, and we all decompressed in our (shitty) hotel rooms about the show, and how lander had the balls to let children in (!) - something unheard of at the homeshow or on the road, usually. the stress level of a few members was through the roof, so aimee offered to give everyone "healings". this is something i love about aimee - she is in a couple sort of metaphysical courses in town, and you could easily argue this is something that doesn't fit her at all. somehow, though, it does, and it's so endearing; we all said yes to trying it after the week we had.

for those of you who have never had this dharma and greg-like experience - essentially, it consists of sitting in a chair, feet grounded, palms down, while aimee clears your energy by swiping at the air around you and pulling "bad" away. semi-craisins? yes. but what do i fucking care? like most things, i don't necessarily believe, but i don't NOT believe. i went last of the girls, placed my feet on the ground and waited, as aimee hovered magically around me cleansing my aura. i did, yes, actually feel something... kind of the way, i assume, you feel something when someone else is present right next to you. i remember playing this game - this game where you would put your palms up towards another persons palms, close your eyes, and get closer... and kind of call it when you could feel the other person's heat/energy/static/whatever. is that even a game? well, whatever it is, it felt sort of like that.

when aimee was done with just me, i felt badly and asked if she was tired being on her third healing of the evening, each of which took a solid ten minutes or so. no, she said, i actually feel better after yours. like you gave something back. that's the dream, isn't it?

moving on is where it's at.

ski tour part 2: Lander of the Lost

2008-03-10T21:43:00.002-05:00

i actually wrote this entry long ago. it was significant enough that i wanted to have record of it, so i wrote it on my laptop in the van.

here's that archived business for your reading pleash.

january 10th: Lander, WY
This town is a perfect example of how a SC show isn’t a good fit for everyone.

We had done a bunch of bits, for no real reason, about how we were going to hate Lander. It was really just because none of us knew where it was, but we made up a lot of stories about what happened in Lander and what the people were like, how much they’d hate us, or how we were gonna trash the town. Well…

In an archival scene called LIES, the ubiquitous game of two truths and a lie is played. The scene starts with a boyfriend meeting a group of old pals, and one character suggests they should play the old game. Everyone does, but each character has two truths that are insane and a lie that is ridiculously benign. The benign - as you may have guessed in a pure comedy turnaround - is the one that is true. This sketch is – bar none – usually one of my top ten favorite scenes to do, some because of the fun involved, and some because of audience reaction.

During one of these later chunks (I think I'm fourth), my character screams a very simple, funny line in retort to another that often gets enormous reaction – in fact, I’ll write it out right here, so you can see it for yourself:

Susan: Okay, okay, my turn - I got one. I was the leader of my Christian youth group -
Andy: You better have been.
Susan: I have seen naked pictures of Brad; I have injected myself with Brad’s sperm using a turkey baster.
(pause)
Jack: Youth group!
Susan: I HATE God!

…and then all the characters in the scene prance around and do semi-ridiculous actions that mirror that statement. Some of us grow devil horns, throw rock signs, shoot pea soup and have my head spin around, stuff like that. This is a very delicate scene to direct because if it gets too gross, crass, or the physicality of the scene gets too “wild”, then the audience has gutteral reactions to the admittals that often result in complaints. For instance, us doing the things listed above are approved, however us showing Jesus on a cross is okay at home but not away. Another example of this comes in the scene when a character admits they’re “not Chinese” and we run a series of bits like bowing, karate chops, and rickshaw running, but cannot use an affected accent or do something insane like slanty-eye kid bits. These last two things DID happen on the home show stage in the original revue, but are prohibited on the road. Interesting, no? That one's for you, comedy geeks.

Anyway, during this scene, we used precaution and expected nothing crazy. The scene had been running really well on the road and all was well. When we came upon a line before it, however, they seemed grossed-out by another person’s reveal (that they have gonorrhea and syphilis) – it may have been a forewarning for my next, but it wasn’t. When I said my line and all actors proceeded to react to it, the audience went ballistic. No less than 30 people booed and about 20 walked out. My castmate Katie was really shocked by this, and luckily, there were about 350 people there so I sort of didn’t notice, and just barreled through.

Obviously, the people that boo at this line are idiots. It’s a show. It’s a comedy show. And the sheer audacity of the line is supposed to exemplify how insane and unreal these people are, as evidenced by every ounce of the scene. So, if you are reacting strongly to that line, you’re obviously missing the whole point.

We won’t be back to Lander.

tdometer: nietzsche-esque - comedy is dead

ski tour, 2008; part one

2008-03-10T06:28:00.015-05:00

okay. this has probably been what has caused the delay. i'm going to go for it, here.

thinking about ski tour is like - hmm, like, opening a can of worms. were there a ton of problems?mmm, no - but, it was inordinantly long, we missed home, shows were complicated in places; however, scenery was beautiful, we learned a lot, and had some fun (half glass full - if you were a bird, you'd go bonks over a can of worms).

we left for ski tour (the name given to the longest tour you can get as a member of TourCo that travels through several snowy, western states) on january 4th, i believe. we had a home show on NYDay, as well as several holiday shows on the 27th, 28th, and 29th that week too, so we were already a little spent before we traveled. still, though, we turned our holiday show over completely to a holiday-less one (for the most part), and we were psyched about the road and went for broke.

instead of a zillion posts, how about i just summarize some together and make these the longest posts in the history of time? we all on board? good, good.

january 4th & 5th-

we leave chicago at like, blip o'clock. we arrive to sc so early, mind you, that a news crew was outside getting footage for like, the 5:30am news. i think it was about the primaries and barack v. hilski. katie, chuck, and i all ended up on nbc, but didn't see it because we arrived that day in our start point, salt lake city.

salt lake was beauts. just beauts. tons of mountains, and as katie said many times, it looked like the land of something from star wars (nerds, i don't know). look how pretty the drive in was:

we flew into this town, packed up two cars and hit the road to park city, utah, the home of our first show about 2o minutes away. let's rank days by a new measurement system - won't that be fun? let's call it the tdometer (preferred pronounciation tid-ahh-meter, but tee-dee-o-meter also accepted).

tdometer for park city/salt lake city: excited

park city was cute, and we walked around and shopped and did shit like that. i fell in a snowpile within seconds of hitting town, but it felt like falling on a bed of peeps (done it). i laughed and laughed and we had lots of fun, had some good lunches, did generally fun things. look!

i was also excited because of these bullet points: on first night, bjack got a call that he was being held for a michael mann movie (great!), we knew we were close to olympic park (picabo!), and super stoked because i found out i had lots of friends from the provo, utah comedysportz coming to our SC show. super fun, super exciting. they came the second night of shows at the egyptian - ten cszers, only two i had met before. now, that's adorable. here's those jerkz with three of us:

hi micah! hi trent! hi, WCL! it made my day that all these guys came out.

we did two shows here at a lovely theatre called the egyptian, katie and i bought "snowveralls" at sportmart (a purchase i still really love and are strangely sexy). we got caught in a snowstorm driving from semi-closed olympic park (sads), so we worked back to salt lake to switch out said cars to cars with 4X4 for rest of trip. boing!

january 6th and 7th, travel days.

the 7th marked the BCS game between osu and lsu.

td-ometer: wet cat

january 8th - Gillette "the best a man can get", Wyoming.

td-ometer: still doing lovely/chipper as fuck, i guess

our first venture into wyoming. to be honest? i don't remember shit about this venue. we realized something about this trip early on - too many days off are killer. the 6th and 7th made us anxious for more shows, as idle hands are the devil's work. the days off consisted of a lot of car talks and naps, indigo girls interpretive dancing (pictured below),

and reading the shit out of usa today and horrible rags - say, Stars ARE just like us!

man, what happened in gillette? oh! i know what this place was. the show was fun, all was well. i only remember the green room here and not really the stage, so - i blew it there. i do remember meeting a really nice local waitress at applebee's (i said it) who gave us free junk after my horrible ride of the BCS gamewatch. she came to the gillette show with some comps we gave her and her husband. she was lovely, and had just moved to gillette, so was really eager for activity.

this performance night marks the first night of cast discontent, one initiated by a few parties wanting to do seperate things with our days off. luckily, it was figured out, and we decided to all take a long, long day trip to mt. rushmore in south dakota the next day. see?

i'm really glad we went, if only for the bit.

this was january 9th. i drove this whole day to south dakota from wyoming, and honestly, i'm not sure why i did. we swap driving here and there and teal is great about it, but today including all activities i drove a solid ten hours. we laughed a lot at mt. rii, and i decided here to begin getting a patch for every state we touched in tourco. i still like this idea.

td-ometer: driving to kill the pain, but generally still together

later, we rounded back to devil's tower, site of close encounters. the girls and i rode into the park at dark, and this may mark one of the most ridiculously scary moments that isn't that scary in my life. it felt like a slumber party; for instance, when we rounded the corner and saw the tower far off in the sunset for the first time, we all screamed.

td-ometer: scared shitless, but still braver than most those fux

we wanted to learn as much as we could but no one would move. i honked the horn of the car for warnings - like bear chimes in my head - and ran out of the car to read the sign aloud to the car. essentially, it was like - this is a holy ground for native americans, paranormal activity is thought to have happened here, blahblahblah and oh - watch out for rattlesnakes, ya dipshit.
and ooooOOOOooooo!, that's where i'll leave you for this afternoon. more coming tonight.

this is going well.

so... in retrospect...

2008-03-10T06:22:00.002-05:00

and maybe i did give up a little.

i thought about my year so far - and, yeah, there are some positives, but generally? i'm motherfuckin' tired. thinking of blogging and looking back on these past two months makes me wanna curl up in a ball and just... ugh.

you get it.
it's 6:23am and i've been up all night.

my friend heather just reminded me i hadn't done this in a while.
i'll get there. maybe today.
for fuck's sake, i'm over everything.

see, now...

2008-01-29T23:41:00.000-06:00

...in months past, this is where i would just give up because i still have a solid two months to catch you up on. but not this time! it's time to forge ahead!

December, 2007

you know, maybe for this post, i'll just make it a dooz and write everything i have to post in one month right here, so it's all categorized and shiiii. yeah, let's try that.

december's hot topix!:

1) csz and iO out the wazoo; sc being sorta rescheduled

2)holiday parties!

3)dating someone again - Yowwww?

4)my family and how they rule.

okay, #1. as addressed in the other post below, things were all topsy turvy at sc because of the breach of contract, right? well, we were paid mostly for our original run and only scheduled to actually perform the week around christmas - meaning a few days before and a few after, plus double new years eve. fine. in addition, well, the good thing was i got to do about 5 iO roadshows and some DelTones and a taping... and at CSz, it was back to old times for this one, playing several csz shows a week. i loved it. lots of remotes, lots of buyouts - and let's not forget about early rising for the holiday season classic, Breakfast with Santa. this year i was a coneheaded mrs. claus, accompanied by either dreamboaty Nutcracker Prince Sam Super or Mike Kosinski. these mornings are early and sort of not worth it financially, but you're always happy at the end of the month to see that stuff add up. plus, it doesn't feel like Christmas now without seeing those kids. or, frankly, seeing mike kosinski grizzled. fingers crossed!

which brings me to 2,

holiday parties!

this year, i went to a couple private parties, but company-wise only felt up for hitting the SC party on december 10th. csz "postponed" theirs, meaning it's not really coming, all due to new space and pressure of all that. iO's came and went - something happened that night, i don't know what - it snowed a lot or something, and i just wanted to huddle up. SC's party was fun & standard - a gift given to the casts/workers (a thermos and travel mug, as well as a hoodie later to all touring members), a fun show put on by the box office/staff that is a parody of the two stage shows, and a helluva a lot of drinking. also, blueco's aimee mckay snapped this gem, for which i am now legendary:

look, i know. i know. but you have to hear how stupid this is - aimee was getting us to do like, american apparel bits earlier than this photo, like, after practice was done. we were all covered up, but coke addicty and smeary-eyelinered and bendy, you know - like american apparel. then, we got dressed for the party, and we found this red wall. we all took pics sorta goofy or emo-y, but then she asked me to "flip my hair and give sex mouth", so i did, as a bit. and then, this came out.

one friend (samantha) told me i looked like "a sluttier mariah carey" in this shot.

seems fine. fellas? speaking of fellas...

3) look, dating people is hard. i dated someone for maybe a month-ish here who was totally "not my type": ex-navy, nuclear physicist, full of tatts, kind of an introvert. south side irish rough-and-tumble kinda guy. this guy was lovely in many ways, and i actually sorta reveled in how he wasn't my type - since the people that are my type end up being relatively bad for me. as one friend said, i pulled a costanza and did the opposite*. it worked relatively nicely, we had lots of fun, he gave me a key to his house, i panicked, and yeah. it was a lot too fast. so, i tried to deal and then some strange things all sorta happened in a row. a lot of it had to do, long story short and anonymity here - with the military making people pretty unwell. it ended. good guy. generally good guy. every time i type good guy, i think of eric lindberg. lindberg, you reading this? he always used to say "nice girl, real sweet kid" right after he wanted to break up with someone or called a girl a cunt.

there's that.

*i can't believe i am quoting a seinfeld episode. america, please - please don't relate to life by noteworthy seinfelds. this is one of my pet-peeves in large doses. pot? hi, i'm kettle.

4) i went home for christmas to visit fam from the 23rd-27th, and it was the best. i got lots of hangtime with my nephs and niece and serious rock-banding. that ruled. my bros and their gfris rule. and my mom is the cutest thing ever. as one of their gifts, i got everyone involved a "Flip Cup Tourney" t-shirt with their names printed on the back. if you wanna know more about this new DeFran tradition, click here.

thanksgiving ruled.

2008-01-28T01:21:00.000-06:00

there. i said it.

i saw my family, and besides being stressed beyond belief that SC had cancelled christmas (!) and my adorable croatian uncle mike asking me why i wasn't married yet, it was just lovely.

my nephews are 14x bigger and 8x my size. what happened, fellas?

my family is where it's at.
i love you guys.

silver linings

2008-01-28T01:16:00.000-06:00

now, since my shows with SC were cancelled, i had the opportunity to do something AMAZING.

my brother vince came to town with his girlfriend candace, you know, just to take a weekend away. we watched the OSU-Michigan game, we drank, we hung, we sightsaw. and guess what? i picked up a comedysportz show and we got all their in-town friends to come... and they got engaged! right on stage at comedysportz, with vince's little sis as referee.

come on.
it was the best.
there's video of this somewhere! we'll find it.

two bros engaged. how about everything!

another one half-bites the dust

2008-01-28T00:41:00.000-06:00

this is tim sniffen. he is very funny.
and because of some goings-on internally at SC, he was pulled from our show to stay home to run critically acclaimed Between Barack and a Hard Place for the holiday months after our Revue we had all written together.

if you're keeping count at home:

4 -teal (sm), defran (actor), mckay (actor), kunkle (1 month in);

4- lehrer (leaving, replaced by brian jack), haskins (leaving, replaced by katie rich), sniffen (temporary replacement, homer marrs), pompeii (left, not replaced, headless beast).

uh huh.

matt hovde swooped in quickly and whipped our holiday show into shape, until we found out that it was.... GASP!... cancelled that whole weekend. and then? remember the plans we made to see our family, only home for one day a piece, coming back to the city to do our holiday show by friday morning? oops! it was cancelled again the weekend after. and then, the weekend after.

the ccpa owner had breached contract. absolutely unheard of in chicago, really, and certainly unheard of with a powerhouse like second city. now, remember - actors aren't rolling in it. we looked forward to that money for months to help us get by - to help us pay for stupid stuff, like food and health insurance (tm, second city).

panic ensued. we booked out of everywhere else!, we cried - we have no work! you must pay us! please pay us! we have no leverage! sweet mother of god, what will we dooooooo?!!??!

spolier alert!: it all went well and we got some money. now the good part is, i took a zillion odd jobs, we had a lot of time in chicago, i hosted a chili-cook-off and taught deloitte and douche nimrods and played CSz and iO until my eyes bled. money actually was better in december than it would have been. but all that worry - well, it caused a lot of sheer madness throughout the entire month of november to mid december.

holidaze!

cliffhangers seem to work, huh?

2008-01-28T00:33:00.000-06:00

by november 12th, we had to completely turn over to our holiday show. problem? well, we just lost our director (david pompeii, america's sweetheart - a black man with dreds i do an incredibly accurate imitation of) to LA, we were losing sarah to LA, and lehrer to vegas. all that original material we wrote? YIKES! it was really up in the air with only one day at home after sturgis. we were nervous.

now, in a half glass full kinda joint, i'll put this out there - we used that pressure to get us there, and completely turned over 1 1/2 hour show in one rehearsal. one! that's pretty amazing. things like this make you believe you can and will be able to write in a pressure-cooker, or not panic in crazy set-ups. we did a homeshow full of new material for 450 people with hardly an ounce of sweat, because that's what's expected. neat.

that being said,
GIMME A MOTHAFUCKIN' BRRRRREAK~!
so much turnover, so much terror, and a show to open that weekend for a six week run at the Chicago Center for Performing Arts...
or was it?

so...

2008-01-28T00:21:00.000-06:00

hey, you guys know i'm super positive, right? like, i'm pretty positive?
the second week of november (and really, the rest of the year, except in pockets) ate a cock.

we'll focus mostly on the pockets, because that's the right thing, but yeah - let's get through the shit right now...

haskins, dear pal, wrapped her second city experience up with us. it was sad to do so, and the week was full of lots of drinking and lamenting and lots of excitement of what was to come next for her. second city announced a pretty big shake up that affected people in our cast and the like, so we were a little spinny. in this week, tourco also went to sturgis, MI, with new addition katie rich (hi, rich!) who i adore and who has been so fun since. but, we're not there yet. on this trip, we also learned that michael lehrer was going to go to vegas, i think, along with my great pal robyn norris (greenco) to their resident stage there. another cast member gonesy!

sturgis ate it - i'm sure the show was fine, the show is always fine, no matter difficult probs, because everyone is so professional and wonderful. but i was in a bad place and felt down about some personal things and just wanted to get the hell outta dodge. this isn't like me too much at all, all of you know, but in the van for the first (and hopefully last) time, i was janey ipod and sniffles. we got through it. there was a lot of serious shit going on.

but don't worry! it only gets worse!

crawfordsville, indiana

2008-01-28T00:12:00.001-06:00

november 2nd.
we went here.
whoops, i sure don't remember it. at all.
i do remember colleen doyle was in for sarah, and she was a gem. oh! i remember it was fall-y. and that we had a fun show. otherwise? yikes. all gone. oh, it was all dudes. it was an all dude school, somewhere.

see?
this is why you should blog on time.

speaking of halloween...

2008-01-28T00:07:00.000-06:00

this is what i was dared to wear had i been in town that friday night:

my friend heather and i thought it'd be good promotion to walk amongst the sexys (sexy cat, sexy nurse, sexy nympho, sexy janitor, sexy moses) and promote csz in sexy ref uniforms. problem? well, i wasn't home, and secondly, i would've been arrested.

scandalous, y'all.

y'all ready for this?

there's only one october

2008-01-27T23:33:00.000-06:00

so, yeah. let's finish october.

i got to play a comedysportz remote - that was fun, and got to hang with some pals. i think this remote was downtown somewhere, and i don't remember for who, but i do remember prouty, blanders, and rizzutto were on it. this never happens, so, yeah. i was stoked. show was fun, it was nice to be home, blahblah.

so, we went to loras college in dubuque, IA, on october 26th. i'm pretty sure this marked our last tour out with haskins on the road, so we wanted to have some fun. none of us knew what to expect from dubuque, but i'll tell ya, we were pleasantly surprised. there was an incline! there were candy shops and free t-shirts and an old place with a working train set that shad almost cried at! it was nearly heaven.

we were only slightly bummed to be away from the city on partytown halloween night - the friday before, when several improv parties happen. this was good and bad - halloween seemed to spread itself for many more days than were necessary this past year, but we were bummed to not hang with pals when we returned the next day. these are the downsides of touring, i supposed - but look at the upsides!:

this remarkable bar, a hole in the wall with so many locals it'd make your head spin. we quickly befriended the bartender (a cool broad who we mistakenly called karen all night who hated people, but then loved us and made us grilled cheese after we put on "suspicious minds") and a woman named connie i believe (who played a video slot machine and had the voice of a thousand cigarettes). they made our lives better and more insane, respectively.

who knew?

we then came home to do a matinee, say goodbye to the soon-moving sarah, watch the red sox win the world series, and get adjusted to some home time again.

the civil war stops

2008-01-27T23:17:00.000-06:00

oct 19th - hattiesburg, MS
oct 20th - vicksburg, MS

lemme be honest here. i have no fucking idea what happened in hattiesburg. seriously, what happened there? haskins? any idea?
here's what i do know - i got drunk on one of these nights, because i was depressed or some shit (healthy, no?). i also know the 19th was my mom's birthday (she's the best), so i called her and i felt far from home and missed my family.
i also know that vicksburg was easily in my top three hardest tourco shows, a funny way to end our southern leg. we went to the civil war memorial in jackson, maybe?, and then had the show that night. the show had NO tech support and we were essentially in a gym with only 5 mics for the 6 of us. we had a casserole-ish sup and we hung out in our mini-dressing rooms as we waited for hell to start. notables on show: crowd was super drunk, it was essentially a corporate buyout that our tourco was doing, and some guy in the middle of sarah & i doing an improv scene said something remarkably dirty about me wanting to bend over more to think about doin' me and workin' my ta-s. comedy?

anyway, after watching play-by-play baseball on my phone all night backstage and gritting our teeth through the show, we gunned it outta there, but not before i could charm the waitstaff and snag a thousand beers from the kraft services people. imagine me just continuously nodding and talking about the show, but stuffing numerous brews in my shirt and pants. this is pretty much what happened, though i shotgunned a few. i ran outside and brought them to the cast decompressing outside afterwards, they went bonks, and then i'd go back in and do it again.

that night we went to a bar in town - shad was protective about my heart-choices, lehrer eyed the locals, and aimee mckay found a real love for techno. so, that's something.

continuous travel

2008-01-27T23:15:00.000-06:00

...sure makes it hard to catch up on this thing. it's a dumb thing to lament over - like, oh no, i'm making more memories! my life is fun! poooooor meeeee! so, excuse that - only know it's making me crazy to not have caught up on tours from last year because i'm gone 25 days in january (BOING!).

so, back on board. let's at least finish the old year before we get to the new.

drinking hurricanes brings tornadoes

2007-12-31T11:02:00.001-06:00

oct 18th: mississippi state.
we arrived on campus at mississippi state to a beautiful student union type hotel, a nice treat after two nights at a "rape-motel" (doors leading directly outside, first floor, window, truck stop) in hammond. mississippi state was a big campus, with lots of fun things to do while walking around - like go to borders and junk like that. we were happy. we weren't happy, though, when the campus was struck with a tornado upon our arrival; we tucked in for a bit while alarms went off, then all cleared and we went to tech.

truth be told, i don't remember anything about this show, i only remember the aftermath. we met a college improv troupe - they were fun and joined us later to dart off and watch the red sox (win, josh beckett, game 5). i also remember that we had ridiculous chairs for this show at first, like, throne-like chairs that we had difficulty moving around during chair sets and were hesitantly switched by the staff to much easier to manage plastics. this show is also the show where we learned our beloved haskins was being offered a job with Current, a writing position in LA, just an hour before showtime. she was going to take it if it was offered, and then, it was.

jazz it up

2007-12-31T09:54:00.000-06:00

the second half of oct brought much more travel, shows, and baseball - but most importantly, it bought us on a surprise trip to new orleans!

oct. 16th started our "southern renegade" tour, a tour we had no idea landed us so close to the city. we had a show in hammond coming up on the 17th, but hadn't really noticed that n'awlins was within 45 minutes, a delightful surprise as we rented our cars and headed directly in to the city. i had never been before and always wanted to go; i had not been in louisiana before except for during katrina at an evacuation hotel casino nearby (really something, another story for another time). needless to say, i was happy to be back. so many fun things came as a result of this trip:

*we drove straight to the thick of it, and had a "real" southern dinner - alligator soup, red beans and rice, stuff like that - at a place called frankie and johnny's. it was super fun, kind of a dive with real cooking from scratch. made our day.

*a carload of us (we had two cars) decided to drive right into the quarter instead of going straight to the hotel, since this was one of our rare travel days the day before the show started. i was jazzed to get to the city, so me, teal, chuck, shad, and sniffs all went in.

*this was a tuesday night, mind you, but things were pretty much still hopping. i was wasted within about an hour or so on hurricanes and juleps, as was the whole crew. sniffen slowed down and became our designated driver five hours later, and was amazed at how goofy we'd all become.

***when i say "wasted", i mean pretty much what i'm saying - i passed out in the car on the way back, but before that? i went to a live sex show with teal and the boys, and we paid 7 bucks for a miller lite to watch two girls not do things we all had. borrrrring. we took off from there and went to a strip club instead, at which i got more drunk, stuff some girls panties with dollas, and then proceeded to strip myself outside on a lightpost.

(there are not pictures of this, but should be.)

also, we went to a few gay bars then watched the red sox tank this night at the world's coolest old bar, a bar i don't remember the name of. (blue? help me out.)

the next day before the workshop i taught with shad back on site, aimee, sniffs, hasks, teal and i ventured back into the city to cafe beignet for - you guessed it - coffee and beignets. we stopped for a bit to check out an old mosoleum graveyard. it was pretty run down but still really charming; we couldn't decide what part was just weathered from time, and what had been hurt by 2005. in any case, it was a good time suck, walking around and seeing the graves of first-black-mayors and voo-doo priestesses. amazing.

rocktober - the first half

2007-12-30T23:50:00.000-06:00

now, october was a month of a lot for me, but

for the life of me-hee, i can not remember

(RIP, verve pipe)

much - and i think some of that is selective memory. a lot of tough heart-breaky things were starting to happen by the end of this month - and additionally, tourco life changed a TON almost overnight for our company. how's that for teasers?

in touring life, for the first two weeks, i only had one SC show in Naperville, IL - a major change from the month before two weeks in. this gave me lots of time for lunches with pals, csz, and a couple DelTones shows at iO, all of which were really fun. and sleep - i got to sleep some.

in the first two weeks and beyond, however, i watched a shit-ton of baseball - i mean like, a shit-ton - while my friend chrissy was in town to apply for a position in oak park. that was the greatest, that part. amy, tara, chrissy and i watched our loved cubbies take a major nose-dive, which ate one, but chrissy and i also rooted on our beloved sox*, which had a much more desirable outcome. uh ohhhh! spoiler alert! if you have a time machine!

*my family almost disowned me for this picture, even though they knew it was coming. sorry, defrans, cleveland is two hours away. give me a break.

the homestretch

2007-12-30T23:31:00.000-06:00

september 29th: bloomington, IL.

our final stop on a full week of touring, which would bring our 10-states-in-one-month spree to a close. we performed in a big 3000 seat auditorium on our last night with an uber helpful tech staff, which really made the last night on the road much easier.

most of us also wanted to bone one of the stagehands, a guy who's name is escaping me now three months later. blue, if you're reading this, advise. the dudes wanted him too. jake? lars? sven?

the most lovely part of this evening, though, was when meghan (stage manager, friend) and chuck (musical director, period) (kidding!), did our scenes off book back to us best they could after watching the same show for almost a month. they were honestly not too shabby, and we all laughed at the imitations of us, both for the accuracy and for the sheer inaneness that they had memorized all of our facial expressions and idiosyncracies due to all the time we had.

from bloomington, we gunned it back to chicago the two hours, and got to sleep in our own beds very, very late. yes.

the day the music died

2007-12-30T23:16:00.000-06:00

being on tour for 21 days in one month was amazing, but we had seen a lot of the motherfuckin' midwest for a while. because of this, you gotta stop here and there at interesting places to make it all distinguishable.

on the road into or outta iowa, we stopped at the Surf Ballroom, the site of the last concert of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens played before their ill-fated crash later that evening. the place was a relic, but not in a sad way - it was well-kept, with all the original wallpaper and flooring inside. when we walked in, the big 3-s music was piped through the speakers tucked in each corner, and some vets on a bus tour were watching a movie in the main dance hall about the artists that seemed to conjure some nostalgia. the place was itching for another sock-hop.

we bought t-shirts, hoodies, posters and stickers, and then went along our way, listening to buddy holly until we hit the next state.

so, where were we?

2007-12-30T23:00:00.000-06:00

ah, yes.

pella, iowa : september 28th.

after a lovely stay in a strange town with a car for a bed, we moved on to pella iowa. pella was by far one of the more conservative places we had been, a town full of christians, windmills, tulips, and something called a "dutch letter". shad ran to the closest/best bakery nearby that had the town staples, and bought them for us. apparently they are only sold in a handful of towns across the US, those with a high amish constituency. sort of dense but flaky croissant-ish dough is shaped into a letter of the alphabet, and filled with a sort of chocolate spread inside. the spread is the consistency of something like nutella. the cast went apeshit over them; i only thought they were fine, but was adoring of their cuteness.

i took a little lap around town during our break and bought a lot of souvenirs for family and friends here. for some reason, this was the leg of our september tour that everything started weighing on my mind, and i needed a little alone time. it's probably the reason i haven't blogged about anything since this point - i can't remember it because some moderately personal stuff kinda fogged my brain up here, and honestly, probably for the remainder of fall months. still, touring is always fun.

our show was well received in a beautiful, old little theatre - something we didn't expect after the on-site contact warned us that the year before people had complained about some over-liberal content (read: a song about bush not caring about education). (racy!) during the intermission and monitoring crowd reaction, we all confirmed that we would indeed do our most terrifying number, Censor, in which i rap offensive bits with a partner and the FCC cleans it up. they liked it, and we were duly surprised. that was really something.

and here we go...

2007-12-30T22:56:00.000-06:00

as a mini pre-resolution to myself, i wanted to wrap up my touring experience on here for the year before we start what is hopefully a great new one.

here come the updates...

speaking of thanks...

2007-11-22T00:23:00.000-06:00

happy thanksgiving, ya turkeys.

love the ones you're with.

once i get back from columbus, i'll try to get on some serious updating, okay?

thankf. for you.

blown it.

2007-11-22T00:19:00.000-06:00

there's a few reasons you haven't heard from me in a month, most of them boring, some substantial.

i have so much updating to do that it's been daunting.
but after the weekend, i'll be back.

hang in, friends.
and thanks for asking how i am - just fine, thanks - i'll check in asap!

if the car is a rockin'

2007-10-08T22:28:00.000-05:00

upon arrival in winona, minnesota, this is what awaited in my room:yep.

nothing is really better than walking into a best western (standard) and having a chevy for a bed. a chevy! is this a chevy? it doesn't matter! it was a bed car! no one knows why we had them! but we did! and i slept in it!

waking up in this thing, however - the room littered with neon, checkerboards, and a weirdo cherry red hot tub - well, it made me feel like cheap trick swallowed me whole. worst image award: achieved.

on second thought, the worst image award is me swallowing cheap trick whole. can i get a witness?

apples to apples

2007-10-07T22:17:00.000-05:00

on the road from wisconsin, the grand debate began on whether we would stop at an apple orchard or pumpkin patch on this grand fall tour of tours. as i rallied for both, i understood why the rest of the cast voted orchard, since you can't really carve pumpkins and take them anywhere in a van (sidebar, i beg to differ).

we stopped at a lovely orchard right before the state line of minnesota that, to our delight, had just about every apple you could imagine. honey crisp, macintosh, golden whatnot, and most importantly, caramel. weird tree.

the boys ate some slices of pie and ice cream while the girls ran through the orchard hunting and gathering. i took home a bunch and even snagged a caramel guy for myself, with nuts, thank you. i almost always choose nuts.*

*since 2003

(get it?)

(it's a bit.)

(is this on?)

oh, claire

2007-10-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

september 26th: eau claire, WI.

i drove the kids in the big blue van the 4 hours this am to eau claire, a beautiful town with lots of liberals, pedways, music stores, and antique/gun shops. this drive was super wonderful for me; there's something sort of romantic of watching your pals nod off in the early morning and looking at the scenery, iPod in, being in charge of the travel-weary. meghan is always so thankful when someone else drives, so i want to try to make a habit of offering. reminder.

we were pleased upon arrival in eau claire to a., find that our hotel was only a block from the venue and a killer coffee shop called acoustic cafe, and b., see that the poster hanging outside for our performance was huge, vinyl, and actually OF US. this rarely happens. after our photo shoot a few weeks back, these guys must've gotten a copy of one of our press packets, and there we were. we yoinked the poster and it's rolled up in my bedroom as we speak, soon to be displayed proudly someplace.

nice work.

september show down

2007-10-04T22:05:00.000-05:00

the week of sept 24-30th was merciless.

the 23rd brought us a day of travel, and the 24th gave us the homeshow and a rehearsal, leaving us just enough time to squeeze in a half day or so of overnight laundry and maybe seeing a friend or sig other for a handful of minutes. the homeshow was fun to do and made us feel slightly connected after almost a full month of touring our show. the crowd was appreciative and kind; this homeshow also was david pompeii's quick last, which sucked.

i'll get to that later.

but first... the first day of travel. the 25th took us to rhinelander, wisconsin, about a six hour drive from chicago. none of us really knew where we were heading, but were pleasantly surprised as we headed north that the trees became everything you hope they will in september.

rhinelander was the site of our smallest venue of the month, Nicolet College. The theatre held about 250, which honestly, is still a lot of freaking people. once you get used to big cavernous spaces, though, that feels almost like an intimate cabaret. we were hungry for the chance to actually see the faces of the people in the audience, so it was nice to set the space.

nicer than the actual show itself was the scenery. come on, just look at this shit. incred. incred.

we pulled up in our big blue van and took in all the surroundings, and walked into the frank lloyd-wright-y theatre. the only thing that could make this better would be a lake or something, we all mused. oh, there's one right out back!, our contact proclaimed. feel free to check it out.

fall. fall, y'all.

newsies

2007-10-04T15:33:00.000-05:00

speaking of some of these events, here's an article on us from hanover. yeah!

blackjack is born

2007-10-04T08:42:00.000-05:00

sept. 22: ball state-ish.

ball state is the alma mater of david letterman. it's a fun school tucked in muncie, indiana, about 3.5 hours from chicago. this was my third trip to the campus, my first with SC. joey bland, rich prouty and i had gone years before to perform in a big improv festival the school had as sort of the chicago representatives, and i went back the next year (last) to teach a big workshop to one of their teams, absolunacy.

anyway, here we were. we were technically performing off-campus at the muncie civic theatre, a pretty theatre house that could hold about 500 or so. two improv teams came to see the show. we had a meet and greet with them at applebee's after (you heard me) and then the rest of us went back to a gay bar called "the Mark" across from the theatre to see one of the raunchiest drag shows i've ever seen. it was super fun. i proceeded to get super drunk, along with some of my fellow castmates, and make a wonderful sleu of mistakes that i will never live down. alas, this is the woe of touring, and i have accepted said fate. you only live once.

the next day, we retired back to chicago. it was awesome, just awesome to be home, if only for 24 hours or so.

hanover, indy

2007-10-04T08:09:00.000-05:00

the 21st: Hanover College.

we arrived in hanover, indiana after a long morning of driving around 2pm. upon driving into this town, our tourco hit panic mode, noting that all the scenery around us was quite conservative and modest. we passed what looked like relatively severe churches and rode a good long stretch on a two lane road, twisting past farm houses, cornfields, and not much else.

we were sure we were about to get run out of this town.

however, upon our call of 4pmish, we got in the van and drove five minutes to Hanover College campus, a mecca that popped out of a twisty, wooded area. hanover reminded me immediately of my own alma mater, Ohio University - an Ohio Valley school with red brick buildings, trees dressing the landscape, and an overlook of a river, the mighty Ohio.

we got through tech with little problems - the stage was a pipe and drape, a term used by groups like ours/musicians to mean that the set up is an elevated staging area with literal pipe and drape curtains to form a performance area. think of it like a carnival coming to town; you've still got a pretty awesome ride, but it might topple down at any moment. anyway, this pipe and drape was a great set up - set in a huge auditorium holding 2,000 or so, all the mechanics secure and well secured. great.

we were there on behalf of a new president, a huge event that rivaled a homecoming of sorts. the president, named Dewine, was a woman who was super outgoing, charismatic, and excited about the transfer. aimee and i in an improv portion of the show in the first act went after Dewine, much to the audience's delight. at intermission, a man came back to tell us a little more about the president, that her name was Sue. and that she taught at an Ohio school prior to the transfer. and that she led communications. and soon, thereafter, i realized I HAD HAD HER. she was one of the outstanding teachers of my second major InCo, a sort of business comm major that teaches you marketing/stats skills and how to be charming. she taught a huge, 400 person lecture class i had as a sophomore.

the show went off without a hitch (even though this was one of those "no f" shows, something we had to remind ourselves of), and after, we had a big meet and greet with the audience. sue dewine found me and had heard word that i was an alum; we celebrated and she invited me and our tourco to the president's home in the morning to tour campus and get free tshirts. we snapped about a zillion pictures for the Ohio University alumni magazine, laughed a bunch, and caught up a bit. not so bad, hanover. you were full of surprises.

on the road again...

2007-10-03T10:58:00.000-05:00

this week (sept 18th-23rd), our tour takes us through some random places: clarksville, tennessee and double stops in indiana. some of these were "no f" shows, a show where we have to literally not say fuck, but anything else goes. i will never understand this rule, because we say much worse things in this particular show than the f-bomb.

here's me, in our greenroom in tennessee, post a scene called "dirty baghdad". you're welcome.

this trip was a driving tour, as the others have mostly been all month, and we made the best of a nine hour drive to clarksville by lots of road bits (pretty much going after shad), a fun stop here and there (see metropolis, ky, right), and grazing at meghan teal's favorite chain restaurant, outback. outback was just the reprieve we needed from a long drive down - a little food that tasted semi-real, and gave lehrer a chance to hit on a cute waitress moving to LA to become an actress* (standard).

(*=stripper)

in clarksville, lehrer and i taught a workshop to the kids of Austin Peay College, my first with SC TourCo on the road. it was a blast. the kids were theatre/arts kids and were super hungry to learn about improv and stuff. michael and i asked them where to go later, and they told us about a bar on a little college strip they went to, so most of BlueCo joined them there that night after the show. cute.

during our lunch outing before the show, though, the thing that will stick with me most from this trip - we had a delightful server named Angie at a pub we went to on the same strip as the bar. teal and i were both wearing SC shirts to lunch, and she got excited to see some chicago people in the tavern. she told us she was moving there soon, and that she had lived there a while back. she started to get choked up and immediately apologized. aimee grabbed her hand and the rest of us quickly snapped from bits mode to compassion. "i'm so sorry," she said, as she wiped tears of her cheeks, "my husband is being deployed tomorrow morning. he just came in for lunch and it just started hitting me." her vulnerability was super endearing and we told her we'd love to take care of her once she moved to the city again, something she was doing in the 18 months her husband would be away. we gave her a number and meant it when we said for her to call. i hope she's doing well now.

remember other people?

2007-09-30T08:55:00.000-05:00

somewhere in this period, seven8nine met for a quick meeting. under the guise of work, it was fun to catch up for a minute.

having talented friends that get taken everywhere sure can be a snooze.

sometime soon, i think our schedules might slow, and hopefully we'll see more of each other again.

major time out

2007-09-28T23:45:00.000-05:00

hold on.
i'm trying to go back, here, and write about everything and update... but, in real time? it's sept 28th, and we all just found out about the cubs win/brewers loss aaaaand red sox win and yankees loss. SPORTS! ARE! ACING! IT! tonight is the best night ever!!!

i miss wrigleyville right now. ...or maybe i don't.

the last leg

2007-09-27T10:53:00.001-05:00

Michigan brought us everything we needed- and how.

The day before, we had spent a long time driving to Hammond, Indiana, after the FoD. We had a sort of strange show. Chuck Malone (MD) had a lot of his family there, and that was nice. Most of the weirdness came with a rough tech where not a lot was in order, and had extremely low energy after a couple members lost a battle to a bad Arby’s. in tech – a period before the show where you run tops and bottoms of scenes, there was a buzzing sound that didn’t let up and continued nearly the whole time the show progressed, which drove Malone nuts. Meghan scrambled and did well with the space, but there was only so much she could do. we just went for it and sorta got through it. Interesting to see that even when you’re the Temple of Satire ™ that things don’t always line up exactly as you thought they may. made me feel a little better about the shitfires that other theatres i know and love have been through with riders and stipulations unmet.

the next day, the 15th, we drove to Alma College, MI. A few friends from a group called Mission:IMPROVABLE had told me this college was a fun place to play, and they were right (for once). (you heard me, dudes.) we met with a professor and his high school son at the bottom of tech, and that was nice to see someone so excited about the show, just from watching the tech part.

but the biggest reward came after the show: a stay at a bed and breakfast in the town. it was a beautiful place called Saravilla, a gorgeous renovated mansion of a house with a wrap around porch, private bathrooms with clawfoot jacuzzi baths, a ping pong table, a hot tub, and a homecooked delish breakfast. downside: the owners, who were batshit nuts, and had about 90 faceless angels in the living areas (we counted). i’m nervous that they’ll google my ass and see that, but it’s worth it. Sniffen took a major shine to doing impersonation of the female, a witch like voice that ended in a soul-sucking sound, which was startlingly accurate and terrifying. even though they were pretty strange, they were relatively lenient with the downstairs space; when we were done with our show, we retired to the B&B with a case of beer and lots of drinks. we played a homemade version of apples to apples which made us laugh so hard we cried, quite literally. Sniffs lit about a zillion candles, which only made the faceless angels all around us seem even more faceless.

back to Chicago the next day for a whopping two days off. it felt good to end this leg on such a high note… but really, besides the lack of sleep, none have been low.

no, it's iowa

2007-09-25T16:07:00.000-05:00

after many, many late nights about midway through our tour of duty, we had hit the exhausto wall. everyone in blueco is so kind and playful, and that makes a world of difference. because of that, i thought this would be the kind of group that would maybe go for the idea that - just an hour or so out of our way – lay the Field of Dreams.

pitching this idea (har) was a real risk. i’d never been and didn’t know if it would be worth it, and the cast was on their last leg after two weeks of straight touring, van rides, airports, and early calls with shows each night. still though, Field of Dreams is one of my favorites of all time, and i had the hopes that even if i annoyingly prodded everyone to go at 7am, we would show up and – like the movie promises – be as happy as children upon arrival.

We were.

once we got to the winding roads of Dyersville, IA, we all sort of started to perk up and get psyched about what was in store. we busted into a McDonalds and a worker there held the door for me because of the baseball cap i was wearing (go sports teams!) and it felt like a good omen. we grabbed coffee and rushed to the field.

it was exactly what we wanted. the farm, the house, the field perfectly kept, the corn as high as an elephant’s. we ran from the van and squealed (field of driiiiiiis!) and burst onto the field – some of us running the bases and snapping photos, some disappearing into the corn and avoiding crossing the foul line, moonlight graham style.

we bought lots of junk and learned the owners of the farm do quite a nice business for themselves, which made us happy. a corporate jagoff had bought the other side of the field years ago and tried to turn a profit on the land, but this year, the original owners were able to swipe it out from under them again. Field of Dreams, indeed.

thanks, Ray.

it ain't over until you perform in an opera house

2007-09-25T15:59:00.000-05:00

cedar falls, iowa: september 13.

blueCo was lucky enough to perform in an opera house with 5 levels – seating about 1650 for a double show night. the first show was a tame crowd – pleased but older. the perk of this audience was all the kunkles it contained; shad’s parents (tom and jeri) and several relatives watched our first of the two. it was fun to see where kunkle came from. it’s funny – in adult town, you don’t really get to meet your friend’s parents. you grow up inundated in your friends lives, knowing how their home life and family ties shape them. for that reason, it’s one of my favorite things to meet parents as we all get older… it makes me feel like we’re young again, and it reminds me to be constantly aware that the people i know exist beyond this limited scope i’ve met them in. neat.

our second show in the space was killer – tons of kids from Northern Iowa University showed up, and we had a blast. of our shows on the road, each on the college circuit has received standing ovations… well, all but Texas. …Come on. we're not magic.

september: seriously, where am i?

2007-09-24T12:17:00.000-05:00

this month is a blur of activity. i have gotten to a few towns now and quite literally said "what day is today?" and "excuse me, but where am i?". for real. 10 states in one month and a van full of action will do this to a girl. you just forget because every night is sort of the same when there's a show every time; the only difference is the place you play, the hotel you move to, and the people you meet.

so.
where have i been?

last weekish (sept 12th) , blueco went a few places, beginning with Grinnell College, IA. we didn't know a ton about the school, but became huge fans when we saw the pretty campus, packed gymatorium (you heard me) and met some great staff and students. we had some time between tech and the show on this one, so sniffen, teal and i walked around campus, lamenting our youth (meghan's 93), stealing those yellow campus bikes (which were demolished, but fun), and yoinking a frisbee from the ultimate team. we were treated like rock stars by the campus, and we partied hard at a bar called "the pub" with lots of students. again following all college campus rules yet established, grinnell wins with having the cheapest beer, keystone. it was 75 cents. 75 cents. nothing is 75 cents. i GIVE people beer for 75 cents.

this night soon became dubbed "75 cent mistakes", as we all got plowed and walked around walmart drunk with strangers. aimee snapped this photo of sniff and i where i tried to be unknowing party-city and while sniffs did his best "to catch a predator" bits. mission accomplished.

ooh! also, before i move past grinnell, i should say an improv dream that was accomplished here: michael and i did the outro at this school (meaning you wrap up and ask them if they want an improv set*). we have been getting standing o-s at the colleges, which has been so rewarding and fun, and as they stood, some kids in the bleachers started the kind of football-game-esque feet rumble, where you bang and stomp loud in approval. sensing they might do more, i dropped to my knees and started the we-will-rock-you clap as a bit on the floor, only to have the auditorium (wait, gymatorium) do it along with us, 750 people going apeshit. it made my life!

way to go, grinnell.

*people always answer yes to this, a resounding, screamy yes. one day, i hope a whole audience is like - mmm, no, we're good, thanks. i am dying for this to happen.

rummin' river rishes!

2007-09-20T00:17:00.000-05:00

blueco just arrived in nashville, tennessee. every pamphlet tells us to get saved, so, we're thinking about it. more on this place after i catch up on the stuff i haven't gotten to yet (iowa - spoiler)!

anyway, this youtube dream came up in the van ride here - aimee and sniff had seen it, and i hadn't yet. this poor woman lost all the words to carousel just as the program begins. i went craisins with happiness over this, especially the second round where they actually provide subtitles. thank you, leslie uggams.

critics choice

2007-09-18T14:52:00.000-05:00

somewhere over this same weekend, the tour-cos found out we were Reader Recommended and made Critics Choice in the paper. it felt really nice to find out on the road, and right when we got back, we scrambled for papers and saw that BlueCo (my comp) was the photo in the section.

this whole thing, i've found, is really a ride. literally, and figuratively, a constant ride. it's thrilling and amazing, and in a few years i know i'll look back and miss the van rides and how tired you feel and bad road food and squeezing in workouts to feel normal and funny pit stops and road bits. still, though, in the harder times of being so busy and feeling disconnect with everyone other than your traveling band; it's nice to feel like someone is thinking about you, even that "someone" is a paper, another friend who validates that maybe it is all worth it.

texas - not just for conservos anymore!...but, mostly.

2007-09-18T14:19:00.000-05:00

there's something i love about this.

remember that scene i mentioned a few posts back? censor? yeah. well, we ran that in tech - a time where you do tops and bottoms of scenes and glow tape the stage, mark areas, set props, and work out sound kinks. since we had only done censor once on the road, we ran the whole thing. necessary. normal.

maybe i should've explained before: censor is relatively racy, and it is what we believe prompted this sign, right, to be posted after our tech situation was over.

i won't give spoilers, but, um, yeah.
it's bad.

...and we really gave it to 'em.

later, we pool partied, got wasted, and somewhere in there (thanks to tim sniffen) i became the best drunk maya angelou that has ever been. i don't know how many i'm competing with, but still. i might be the best*.

see the show if you want to know what i mean.
unless you're from texas - then, run for your life.

*worst.

friday night lights

2007-09-18T13:50:00.000-05:00

texas, september 7th and 8th.

i drove the crew the 5 hours to DFW the next day, which was a fun first turn at bat in a badass rental we had. texas driving, we learned, was strange and sort of terrifying - normal roads immediately turned into one ways, long corporate drives split off of major highways. but, well, whatever. thank god i like driving.

this was our first day off that we'd had on any trip i'd been on - michael and sarah had to teach a workshop, but the rest of us (post-driving) got to max and relax in our crowne plaza. we all headed to get barbeque and then i promptly took a luxurious two hour nap, evidence that i had not been sleeping well until then.

i was woken up to find that kunks, malone, haskins and teal were heading to a high school football game - they had kindly called me to wrangle, and i ran from my room to join. this became easily one of my favorite things we have done so far, some for the spontaneity of the event, and two, because i really love bizarro outings. we promptly began rooting for the lions (see evidence, including chuck not being able to wrap his head around forming an "N"), who lost a shit-ton to none. that's all you need to know. it still ruled.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-k!-

2007-09-18T12:44:00.000-05:00

...lahoma. september 6th.

that stop was first, back on our first major leg of touring this month, after a busy week of home shows and the st. louis trip. we went to OSU, home of the cowboys, and had a helluva time. this was our first experience running a scene called CENSOR not on home-turf, and it was a ridiculous experience. the theatre was in the round, seating maybe about 450 or so. the show received a standing o, and we also had a super fun improv set at the end full of old chestnuts like sing it and new choice/take that back/ding/should've said. felt familiar and fun, and the kids were warm and kind after the show.

meghan, sarah, shad, michael, sniffen and i ventured out later to the strip, a place full of campus bars where miller lites were (wait for it!) - 1.50. i've learned a lot on these trips, one thing being that it is nearly impossible not to become an alc, if only because it's so affordable.

played a fun game of our own construction, where you ask a question and then elect a person at the table your winner, while giving reason. for instance - someone posed the quandry that you could have one person be your bodyguard at the table - who would it be? several people got votes - sarah because she could intelligently finagle the situation, shad because he gets out of weird predicaments, teal because she knows how to handle shit, me because i was italian (we get it) and charming as hell (thanks, haskins). michael asked if we were all beers, which person would you drink and why. michael himself voted for me, because i'd be nice and fun, make you stay up late, party hard, and fuck all night. for some reason, this was strangely flattering.

maybe we should play more drinking games.

anyway, 6 dollars a piece later, we stumbled to a bar called stonewall, a place that two campus djs (kevin and seth) had recommended to us during my recording of a campus podcast (hopefully coming soon). on the way, we passed our beautiful campus hotel (the fucking atherton) and averted a sexual assault (not a bit).

oklahoma really aced it.

travelin' man

2007-09-17T23:45:00.000-05:00

man, i've really been at it.
let's talk about it real slow like, one entry by one.
i have a lot of catching up to do. come with.

show me that smile again

2007-09-11T12:05:00.000-05:00

i remember once on growing pains, mikey seav was hitting on girl. the girl was someone he had previously made fun of a lot, who then had a makeover before returning back to school. through tv magic, the kirk had no idea who she was at all. ex-brace-face was playing along and giving into his boyish charms, then told him who she was and dropped the hammer. kirk cam was shocked.

Seaver: Well... uh, Wow! Looks like you had a great summer.
Makeover Story: Yeah. And it looks like you just had a great fall.
(walks away, never to be seen again)

this is something that goes through my head for no reason, a lot.
a lot.

anyway, i'm looking forward to fall.
let's get some motherfuckin' fall foliage up in here.

a face that could launch a thousand... theatres?

2007-09-11T11:51:00.001-05:00

as eric lindberg says, "It's not for marketing if Tara's not in it." i don't know exactly why, but i guess it does happen a lot; i'm not one to complain about being one of the faces of a place i love so dearly.

here's one of the new photos csz is going to use for the launch in october/november. an updated emo symph picture, just like the last. look at those adorable people. man, i sure do love that joint.

come on, new theatre! you're going to rule. only a little longer...

st. lunatics

2007-09-11T10:37:00.000-05:00

blueco in st. louis.

we traveled to two colleges in ye olde blueco van, going to both Webster and Washington universities. one of these i loved, and one of these i didn't, but i won't say which is which. how's that for a veil of mystery?

i did love st. louis, though - a place i think i've been three times now, but hadn't seen much of. i went to st. lou the first time as a literal gateway to the west; after i graduated college, my girlfriend amy and my friends tara and nick from hs made that our first stop on a 21 day road trip across the country. hey, you know, i really loved that trip. do you ever have a moment in your life where - no matter how profound or mundane the moment, you can feel your brain sort of click over and memorize it? that trip was full of those minutes - swimming in clear pools in the middle of the black hills, avoiding brown bears by carrying bear chimes everywhere, hiking the badlands and feeling like we were in 2001:space odyssey, riding in a car with sun breaking through clouds above mountains, wall drug. all of it. and it started under the arch watching fireworks on the third of july.

i'd like to take another one of those trips, but even as i'm typing, i'm realizing that - well, i sort of am all the time. wait a minute. we may not be driving through arizona and glacier national park, but - the comaraderie is what is worth it most. man. lucky.

anyway, back to st. lou. we had a little time off the second day before our tech call, so we ran and took a little walking tour of downtownish areas. chuck (MD), sniffen, shad, haskins and i were bound and determined to arch it and get up in that shit, partially because of haskins major fear of heights. vowing to take care of her, i soon crumbled when i saw that the tram you ride in to the top was only four feet tall and three feet wide, a circular pod that would hold all five of us to the top. i guess i have a fear of enclosed spaces i didn't know about. or, the docent that told us that people got trapped in it one month prior might've been the problem. i panicked quick but forced myself into said pod, and we all co-panicked and felt fine as we moved. i wish we had a picture of this moment, but the speed of it all made us blow this opportunity.

anyway - after we ate and completed a complicated show, we relaxed at night afterwards at a jazz club. sarah knew a guy who owned a place called BB's in the city, so we went and watched some music, winded down, and drank our asses off, only to find it was all comped.

usa.

we did it.

laborious days

2007-09-02T10:40:00.000-05:00

it's funny; life has sort of changed.

touring has picked up quite a bit, and as i look back in my last few weeks here, i can't remember much that i've done but be at sc and rehearse for sc and travel to and from sc and... well, you get it.

i'm worried a bit, just about the state of disconnect which is inevitable while touring. i've traveled for work before - corporate comedy, the like, but this is a whole new ballgame. i am one who thrives in the comfort of these awesome friendships i've landed and having community really appeals to me. csz, io, seeing my own actual real family - all those things are sort of forced by the wayside due to a very busy month ahead, just for now. i think i just have to treat it like work in order to get through - a busy work month instead of a life change that will tank all interpersonal relatios.

as september hit yesterday, i already began the hunt for hours for myself and for others back home to squeeze in the quality time. it feels sort of like when you start school again - the wrap up of man-that-was-fun!s started as the weather dropped, and i've started to say keep in touch to my talented, everywhere-travelin' friends again. i hate that only few days remain of summer. my biggest hope is that there's only more time.

see you next year.

Quincy

2007-09-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

it ruled.

quincy is about 6 hours away but somehow still inside illinois.
we were billed in a big performing arts center, along with an ultimate cage match.

you heard me.

the people took great care of us, and we met a real cast of characters afterwards, including a man named riff and the happiest volunteers in america.
way to go, quincy.

part 93

2007-09-02T10:38:00.000-05:00

the picture speaks for itself.

why weren't we all there?

...we really blew it.

stormy weather

2007-09-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

about a week and a half ago, the perfect storm hit chicago.

it really couldn't have been more ridiculous or satisfying. even as funnel clouds streaked the green sky, everyone always said tornados can't hit the city.

we drove through this storm for a comedysportz remote out at a place called wellness house, a site for both survivors of cancer and a hospice for families and friends who had lost someone. the show was fun, and lighthearted, which it had to be - power cut out three times during the show, and i was quickly handed a flashlight to ref the spookiest dr. know it all out there.

we arrived back at the city to find old trees uprooted and overturned on almost every street in lakeview, each of them artfully dodging cars by only a hair. gutters were filled, signs bent to wind, leaves and branches everywhere, the lake bursting at the seams.

nothing is impossible.

THEYAREFILMINGAMOVIEOUTSIDE and OHITISMAGIC! and MOVIESAREAMAZING and CANYOUBELIEVEIT?

2007-08-14T10:18:00.000-05:00

Wanted is being filmed, quite literally, on my doorstep. it RULES! gunshots and lights! stars (we haven't seen) and (lots of) cables (we have seen)!

for a realer account, go here.
to tell me how i'm sort of famous, comment.

sidebar: morgan freeman looks like my racist southern grandpa. a real thinker, that.

anything in mass quantities...

2007-08-12T19:22:00.000-05:00

...scares the bejesus out of me.

it could be puppies, for pete's. but if there's a hoard? terrified.

still, though, look at this wall, found by me at cozy noodles.

amazing.

and scaaa-rryyy.

klepto's last night

2007-08-12T19:21:00.000-05:00

this past monday was jordan klepper's last night with SC's mighty mighty BlueCo. we did our normal homeshow, and then a lot of his dear pals joined us for the improv set as his fam and other non-improv pals watched and cheered him on.

jordan for me has been nothing but a sheer joy. i had been on the road with him here and there as an understudy for the past year, and done a few things with him for BizCo (the corporate wing of SC), but only for the past month had we truly been in the same actual touring company. i'm really sad to see him go; he's so fun, so goofy, so good at what he does. so good.

love you, klep.

...we saw Art!

2007-08-09T10:17:00.000-05:00

gentlemen attempting to woo me (like anonymous, in post below), take heed:

i think the best date in chicago would be to retrace the steps of ferris bueller.

cubs game, lsd day drive, art museum, chez louis, sears tower? ...this should be a tour. or, the best date i've ever had.

whoever does this for me, all in one day?
i'll marry you.

see you on kasmir pulaski day.

gallens of love

2007-08-08T20:31:00.000-05:00

last week, dear pal pat gallen (improviser, engineer) got married to the love of his life, nicole blanco (english teacher, sweetheart).

i've known gallen through a lot of things over the past few years - io's team Merman, and CSz to name a few. i've also known gallen through a lot of general tom-foolery (pranks, bits, and random ball-holdings at bars when he is wasted).

gallen (in spite of the ball holding) is a gentleman in the world left with very few gentlemen. he is chivalry shrouded in boyish charm, kindness wrapped in overzealous machismo.

to see him marry and be on the exclusive invite list was such a happy endeavor. the wedding was beautiful, held at old st. vincent depaul in lincoln park, and reception at the beautiful cafe brauer right by the zoo. everything felt like the great gatsby and oozed charm and beauty, especially my date laura personick (breakups lead to friend dates).

the guest book of said reception was an unusual fun treat - you snapped a photo with a polaroid, and filled out a sheet of advice and well-wishes to the newly betrothed. shad and kate ran before we got a chance to do a page of bits together, but we ended up feeling pretty proud of the page we finished - an improv team wishing the couple the best of luck, with an arsenal of bits to accompany the photo.

all of the arsenal aside - these guys don't need a lick of advice.

they're acing it.

happy wedding.

reunion of sorts

2007-08-08T20:28:00.000-05:00

i was recently directed to this photo.

for those of you who know what it means? you're welcome.

art + life

2007-08-07T14:44:00.000-05:00

one of abby's art projects for the kids at camp was to do a self portrait (several different kinds). one, when done well, had a sorta stained glass effect color-wise; it also contained a self-actualization sorta thing for the kids where they wrote a bit about themselves in metaphors.

for instance, a good one (on a kid level) might be "i am a beach, because i am sunny and i love water" or "i am a tree, because i grow and i like to reach high" (oh, that is good).

here's my personal favorite.

I AM A HORSE
BEACAUSE I AM
PRETTY AND
LOVE PEOPLE
RIDEING ME!

...seems about right.

65th and cottage grove

2007-08-07T14:35:00.000-05:00

one night after camp, the college administrator had us over for dinner at her beautiful cottage, a county or so away. we took spinny roads and dirt paths to get there, and arrived to a wood cabin, pristine and homey, and everything you could want.

mary is a kind woman who helps heather's mom organize the camp each year. it was really nice to see her house, which was somehow almost urban-chic. it had little gems all over - like this sink planter full of flowers - which dressed up every corner. this, and the counter of nicknacks pictured, lent itself to hours of i-spy while we ate homemade dinner and picnicked on the back lawn (a mountain).

why do i live in a city again?

on appalachia

2007-08-07T13:57:00.000-05:00

i know we didn't cover this a ton, and it's hard for me to recap at this point, but teaching camp with joey and abby (sis) and being with heather and her fam was so fun again this year. each year i'm surprised at just how little you need a phone and internet, and how much fun it is to see something through new eyes again.

these kids we had this year were about 50% return campers and the other half newbies. some expected to learn improv and were so psyched about it, and the others who just learned the word couldn't stand how excited they were about it. that's the most fun. it's so much fun and good for me once a year to see kids like that get so excited and tell us they want to do what we do... it reminds me that i'm doing what iiii wanted to do.

joey also took on the laborious task of teaching the kids about shakespeare, which also was a real highlight of camp for me. the kids were excited about it, and though their reading level wasn't at it's highest, they took context and really ran with it. we made them write plays loosely based on overviews and those provided a lot of late night entertainment once we got home from camp.

we also saw a lot of camp maturity (and immaturity) this year. i played mama bear a lot to some seriously troubled kids, and some who just had a decent bout of stage fright. we also saw some of our first camp romances. it's safe to say that i lost my shit breaking a couple times watching kids fall in fake lii all week. the most important? kimberly and this kid, andrew. andrew, a cute toe-headed kid, short and freckled, ran up to me tuesday morning. miss tara? wanna see something crazy?, he said, to which i replied a resounding yes. andrew snatched a note from a girls pocket and brought it to me. joey and i read it together, silently:

dear andrew,

i love you. i want to marry you when you grow up. you are cute and cute and cute. you are my mane (sic) man. love, kimberly

kimberly, about three feet away, proudly waved.

iiiiii wrote that!, she screamed.

sidebar: when did we lose this fear of shame?

bring it back! sissssters are dooooing it for themselllllves!

as joey slinked away, i asked andrew what he thought of the whole thing. he didn't know, so i told him to think on it overnight. kimberly was in his car pool, after all (and just think of how awkward that gets)!

the next day, the couplehood was affirmed, and these two somehow ran the gauntlet of a LTR in the course of 3 days. it was my favorite entertainment of the week.

we did some standard activities this year - visited larry's (heather's dad's) land and saw how much had built out...ate a lot of casseroles and rhubarb cobbler...played pass the pig...ran to walmart for entertainment...made t-shirts as camp counselors...went down to get sno-cones at the Pioneer, the knock off DQ...watched abby and joey toss apples back and forth to sheer giddyness in the basement a few nights...the like. realized how much i love my friends.

and friends, isn't that what camp is all about?

addicted to pot

2007-07-25T21:30:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-07-25T21:18:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-07-25T21:16:00.001-05:00

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

2007-07-25T21:06:00.000-05:00

...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

2007-07-25T20:40:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-25T20:03:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-25T09:29:00.001-05:00

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

2007-07-25T08:33:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-25T08:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-23T23:17:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-23T23:05:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-23T22:44:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-19T15:30:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-09T16:14:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-07T08:51:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-07T03:10:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-07T03:01:00.000-05:00

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...

2007-07-03T23:33:00.000-05:00

...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

2007-07-03T23:12:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

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

2007-07-03T23:00:00.000-05:00

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.

2007-07-03T22:53:00.000-05:00

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.

flip off.

2007-06-24T20:51:00.000-05:00

something i hate about blogging is that when something real happens, i feel an obligation to talk about it, but i don't really want to, and i don't know what is okay to say or not. most people immediately surrounding me know about things, but some people slip through the cracks, and... well, whatever.

my brother had a heart attack this week.

he is doing well.

it was really, really terrifying to be away while it happened. really. i hate that i am here, the only one not there in columbus, already - but when things like this happen, i feel trapped and caged and like i've made a million wrong decisions along the way.

luckily, my brother did everything right. also luckily, i got on the next flight to columbus through southwest and made it home within about three hours. it was really remarkable.

when i was standing in the icu with my fam, i looked down and saw this little bottle of sodium de-something-inide, a blood thinner. i nervously played with it and then noticed the top read "flip off". you said it, bottle. i laughed. i took this pic.

i'll post a bit more when i feel like it's okay to.

Vanity

2007-06-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

old pal liz cackowski started a web series called jeannie tate. it's really so very funny; funny premise, fun acting, fun to watch. a soccer mom hosts a talk show in her minivan while she cabs her kids around with bands and celebs. way to go, cackow!