The marathon of celebrating trudges on - birthday blog, etc
So, as previously mentioned, June is when everything happens. This weekend it was my turn...twice.
Saturday was my birthday and Sunday is obviously Father's Day so my family was required and obligated to make me the center of attention and give me everything I demanded for two solid days...right?
Actually, I'm not huge on birthdays. Not out of some hatred of growing older (I'm already older than I was ever able to imagine myself...whatever that says about me) but more out of just not wanting to make a big deal out of it. I never feel the need to bring it up.
Thankfully my wife has no such issues and makes sure to tell everyone, everywhere we go to eat or drink or just stop at a red light that it's my birthday. She's so cute.
So yes, I'm older. Heading into 40. Or whatever
Father's Day was also fun since it meant more of any question I asked my wife and kids being answered with "Whatever you want...today is YOUR day" and I was able to relax and enjoy some coffee, some Guitar Hero in the morning and some cupcakes in the afternoon all for giving my DNA to some cute chick. Score!!
June is also insane because it means Improv Festival is upon us!
I think I have said it every year but it is shocking how constantly planning for and talking about something can actually help it sneak up on you. Sure enough, I looked at the little countdown clock that lives on my desktop and it read "5 days" and I actually did a double-take out of sheer disbelief. Holy crap. I thought I had been doing more press phone calls lately....that must be why....
The good news is that I have fully reached my happy place with the improv festival - at this point I can rest easy and know that I have done what I can to get press to talk about it and to let people know they should come and see it. There's very little more I can imagine that we could do and it's basically down to just enjoying the shows and the party. I can live with that, especially since the shows are going to be mind-blowingly-fucking-awesome. Now the fun stuff.
I think talking to the press is what both makes me forget and just yesterday reminded me about the fun parts of this madness. It's very tempting to get in the mode of trying to "pitch" the shows to try and get the word out, to say the things that will make it "sound" fun and like something you should spend your entertainment dollars on - I mean, it IS. It totally IS, but that is a dangerous distraction and I think the path to much unhappiness when doing something like this.
I did a phone interview for the MN Daily the other day - during which the writer/interviewer asked the follow-up question, "So...Mamet is......a person??" - and got my nice wake up call when the obligatory time to talk about "why we do this" came. I had already talked a little bit about doing shows around the country as a performer and how every time I had a chance I loved to talk up Minneapolis everywhere I go because the quality of improv you can see here is so kick-ass I would put it next to any stage in the world and know that we would burn it down. And it was nice to just stop and remember WHY. I love doing this because the Twin Cities kicks ass.
We have some seriously great improv performers here and not only do I want to show them off to people visiting our little town from all over the country, but to people that live here year round and might not know the amazing talent that is right around the corner. I do it because I love it. I love watching it and I love when what we do gets watched more. I don't do it because I enjoy trying to convince enough people to buy tickets to keep us from losing money or worry about how many people are going to show up for each performance or if coverage in the local press really even fucking matters at all (I have my doubts) to the profit and loss report.
I don't do this so I can spend my time selling what we have here.
I love doing this because it allows me to spend my time celebrating what we have here.
So no matter what happens I can rest a little now before the party starts, confident that the shows are going to kill and that if you've spoken to me in the past several months or years you've already heard it. At this point you're either coming or you're not. That's fine.
Honestly, I would suggest you show up. If you miss it, you miss out.
1 comment:
Well said.
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