Where a kid can be a kid..... Or an old man

The dance floor was crowded, the bathrooms were worse. We kissed in your car and we drank from your purse

Twin Cities Improv Festival blog - Day 1

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One day is behind us and it is somehow more surreal than I remember.
Yesterday was the last stretch of running around, taking care of little details, finally putting things together and even some relaxation. The whole time I kept asking myself what I must be forgetting.
Got to spend some time with some of favorite giant-improv-brains from Darby Lane, both Lucas and Matty D are exactly the same wavelength of geek about this stuff as I am and it's good to be able to just dive into the nerdy end of things for a while, it helps you socialize the rest of the time as if you're actually fairly well adjusted. That was cool.

While picking up Matty from the airport I discovered that this weekend just happens to be when they shut down 35W at 62 for the big bridge work, which makes everything a total zoo. Wonderful. And I thought competing Gay Pride weekend was our biggest drawback. Alright, still completely manageable, but I was probably still forgetting....something.

Oddly enough, all the Vitamin Water I consumed yesterday didn't help me focus whatsoever. Maybe it's because I had seven times the normal daily dose. I don't think that says anything negative about our sponsor beverage, just my poor impulse control. If there's a vitamin supplement that helps reign that in I'll try it.

Then it was finally time to pack the audience into the Theater Oven and rock the shows.
How awesome is our festival? We start with Fingergun. That's pretty awesome.
Lauren figured out what I had forgotten all day - to eat. Ah yes, some fuel for the brain. Can't get everything from Vitamin Water, but if you could I would have.

One of my favorite things about the first day of the festival and new people to the Twin Cities is introducing them to the theater - last year a group came in and was startled into blurting out "Oh...it's a REAL theater!" and I know exactly what the feeling. It sucks never knowing if the festival you travelled across the country is going to be in a good space in a good neighborhood or just in the back of a bookstore somewhere. It definitely cranks up the energy right off the bat when they get here and see what we've got going on - and it reminds me that we're spoiled the rest of the year.

But the best part is always when people get to meet our audience. I. love. our. audience. They're the best in the country.
Again, we're spoiled since we get to perform in front of big houses full of people that not only care more for really smart, cool stuff that can come out of improv more than the cheap laughs - but they expect it of us.
They're positive, hip to what we're doing, smart and want to be spoken to like smart, hip theater-goers. I dig that.
When I see visiting performers getting their preshow nerves on I know they're in for one of the best surprises you can get onstage. You guys rock and we owe you thanks for way more than putting down your dollars on live improv
Although, I really have to say thanks for that as well.

Anyway - that's the wrap up. Not sure if it's the 90 minutes of sleep or the crazy release of tension that happens when nothing catches fire or whatever, but I'm nothing but stoked for Day 2, if I didn't know that by Sunday night I'm going to be a tattered wreck I would say I want to just do this forever.

You want it, You got it - Kick up a riot, won't you all sing along??

Twin Cities Improv Festival blog - 2 days until showtime

I've sat down to write a new blog countless times, even typed out a bulleted list of ALL the stuff that's happened since I wrote a blog last and all the stuff coming up that was important enough to write about or crap I'm working on, etc
all it did was made it really obvious that I didn't have the time to blog or the faintest idea of where to begin.

My wife's birthday, the twins' birthday(s), work travel, etc etc etc.
But the big one on the horizon is, of course, the Twin Cities Improv Festival.
Everything else is just taking a backseat right now, this is the thing I spend all my free time all year thinking about, working on, emailing about, putting energy into - and it's here. It starts the day after tomorrow and it doesn't even seem possible. I don't want 2 more days to get ready. I want it to be here right now.

The really cool part is that none of the above makes it seem like "work" or even "hard" - it's all fun and I love doing it and now that it's so close I can measure it in hours I'm nothing but excited. Sure, there's all the little last-minute things that need taking care of and running around but I feel like the worrying about "doing enough" is all but behind us at this point.
I love going into a show, any show, knowing that we did everything we could to get people to come see it and being able to say "This kicks ass, if you miss it then it's your loss"
After that, it's time to laugh. You can't beat that.

I owe a huge amount of gratitude to everyone around me at this point, especially people in the TC improv community, which volunteer an insane amount of time, services and help to make this thing possible, and that's on top of what they bring to the stage.
The fact that we can have a festival that is basically driven entirely by a community interest in being awesome and is made sustainable by our audience's interest in seeing top-shelf improv has got to be unique and it's definitely what makes me want to put this thing together - as much as I love bringing people in from all over the country for our audiences to enjoy, I love the Twin Cities Improv scene, first and foremost, and I want everyone to know what we have here. This is our week to show off a bit. We'll go back to being modest midwesterners next week
For now - Welcome to the Twin Cities, we're about to blow your minds.

Tell everyone to come see it - it'll be their loss if they miss out.
Take it from me, a year is a long time to wait.

Let this be my annual reminder that we can all be something bigger

as wicked as it may seem, as wicked as anything could be

I swear I'm going to blog again....soon.
too busy with things worth blogging about to sit down and write a blog.

I'll be back, I swear.

Hey man, well this is Babylon

It's one thing to start out with a positive jam, it's another thing to see it on through. We couldn't have even done this if it wasn't for YOU.

Hey all -

In a few hours I'll be on stage stumbling through some thank you's to lots of people that have made the IAGG what it still is, and I'll be apologizing for not being able to thank everyone or unable to put into simple words of thanks how much another 365 days of support and energy and talent and pure awesomeness means to me.

Twin Cities improv scene/community/supporters/audience/performers/teachers.....listen up.

This show is awesome because you are awesome, end of story.
See you through the spotlights in a little while
Thank You.

Butch