If you feel this is the way for you, if you hear that kind of call, if you feel you're really meant for this - that's what you have to do

It is here, it has finally arrived and all the footwork and preparation either pays off or it doesn't.

There's never a good time to say all of the thank-you's that need to be said - I keep trying to pick the time to make whatever speech needs to be made to publicly thank all the people that make this thing possible, not to mention amazing - but no matter when we do that there are hundreds of audience members and dozens of staff and support people that should also be hearing it that won't be in the room.  I hope this reaches some of them, at least, and makes some sense. I'm still in the middle of it all.

Everyone I've been in touch with lately has been giving me a lot of slack, saying "I'm sure you're really busy right now" and asking if I'm holding up ok because they assume this is the hard part of doing the Improv Festival.

Here's one of the hardest thing about the Festival: how it manages to be both never enough and too much all at once.

I already feel like I never actually get to see anyone that is here for the festival and I just hope they have a great time.  It's that host-of-the-party thing of getting to talk to everyone for 10 seconds but nobody for long enough.  I know it's only four days and some of our guests are only here for one or two of them and the time flies by and suddenly it's over.  And still it feels like so much cool stuff happens that it must have been a week long and any attempt to list my favorite moments is going to either include everything in the festival so far or leave out dozens of things that we completely awesome.

I hate not being able to include everyone that wants to come, I hate the selection process because there are so many great groups that apply to be part of this and we could easily fill an entire week (or two, or three, or as many as we decided to) with top notch improv.  I want to invite more people even though my main complaint is not getting to really hang out with the people we already have.

I want to thank every single audience for coming and tell them how much I love this and how excited I am for everything on stage.  But saying it before every show just makes it sound like I just say that about every show and it loses some value and turns into "just words"
The whole thing is just exciting as hell and I can only say "what you're about to see is one of my favorite things ever" so many times before I sound like a stuck record (kids, that's when a record keeps playing the same thing over and over WITHOUT a DJ doing it) but that's just because this whole festival is made up of my favorite things to see on stage and the shows that I'm really excited about and I honestly can't wait to see it every time.  Seriously.

I'm sure some of it gets mistaken for just trying to pitch the shows but one look at the way we run this thing will show you that this is why we do it.  Nobody here is getting paid, I'm not telling people they shouldn't miss the FrankenMatt/Splendid Things show because it puts money in my pocket, I'm not hawking t-shirts because we're turning a profit - we do it simply so we can keep doing it.

Seeing empty seats just bums me out for the person that didn't make it.  I want more people to be here for it so they can experience it - because that's all this is about, because it is one of those wonderful things that you truly have to be there for.
Not being here for it?  That would be the hard part.

All aboard, the ride goes faster. Being driven by this spooky bastard

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.

...and I say it's only entertainment

Untitled from HUGE Theater on Vimeo.

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

** If you're a Twitter user: Tweet your favorite TCIF moments, thoughts, quotes, anything and make sure to mark them with a
#tcif tag. Twitter has gotten WAY too serious lately **

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

This centaur is retarded

Twin Cities Improv Festival from HUGE Theater on Vimeo.

Pour me all your sorrows And I'll drink till you are dry. I'll love you in the mornin'....I'll love ya till you die

Suddenly it's Tuesday?? blog -

back in the office and much less groggy thanks to some sleep and some coffee and some sleep.
So, to the obvious putting-the-final-button-on-the-TCIF blogging. A blurred sense of time due to being awake 20 hours a day for 4 days should make this interesting and guarantee that I leave something out. I will do my best.

my last thank you before the recap is to my wife.
Without her I wouldn't be who I am and without her support I couldn't do what I am doing. While this weekend was fun and laughs and late nights for me she was on single parent duty and only got to see one show out of this whole thing that I love so much.
The kids force this odd separation between the woman I love so much and this thing that I love to do so much by their whole 'needing someone to be home to take care of them' so she doesn't get included in the fun parts as much as I would like after getting to live with all the not-as-fun parts for so long.
Sure, she hears about it from an exhausted husband that was out too late, slept in because she's handling the boys and then drags himself out the door and leaves her with the two circus-freak children to help people make shit up and not get paid a penny for it. She's behind my passion about what I do but understandably concerned by my business model but she supports me anyway.

Thank you baby. I love you.

Saturday - the big day.
Saturday was the big one, the headliners, the main event.
It just felt strange since I'd already seen so much good stuff and had such an intensely good time that I was half delirious with pride, sleep loss, laughter and vitamin water and it seemed impossible (or potentially evil) that we were going to laugh harder and have more fun.

the Onion Writers - "the Onion Writers Humble Return to the Brave New Workshop" slide summed it up nicely. the Onion show was sort of the odd-one-out last year since we didn't really know what they were bringing and they didn't really know what we were all about. This year we knew a little more what to expect and they certainly got a sense of the festival vibe and showed up just wanted to have a bunch of fun. I'm all for it and I'm glad it the Onion show felt more like a part of the festival this year. They did some goofy improv and looked silly doing it. They handed out whiskey and knives. They know us all too well, apparently.

Ferrari McSpeedy/Josh & Tamra Show - This show was one that had me on edge and giddy just knowing that it was coming. I'm a huge fan of what Mike and Joe do and I think they really are responsible for bringing a style of play that got people thinking about how weird and out-there you can be and are constantly pushing for great, different shows. Put that together with Muppet-improv and I'll be the first guy in line to buy tickets or would put together a festival just to engineer such a thing and it would be worth it. It was cool, it was weird, my brain couldn't grasp that I was finally seeing it. "Hooray!" isn't an adjective but it's the best description of the show I can think of.

Brave New Workshop/BASSPROV - high on my list of shows that are super important to me, both to showcase the BNW to people that might not come to see the BNW mainstage improv sets and to show BASSPROV to the Twin Cities for the first time in 7 years (according to Sutton, that just doesn't seem possible and it certainly doesn't seem like we should've waited that long). Not only that but I really wanted to say thank you to the BNW for everything they have done for both the TCIF and IAGG over the years once again.

The quality of the show was never in question and doesn't even need to be 'reviewed'. It was great. end of story.

Survivors of the Undead Plague/ Darby Lane - I love what SOTUP does and that they trust me enough to let me do what I do while they're doing it.....what? Yes. Yes, Troy's character needed to find his child and make it to the church, probably pretty important BUT he did look down the barrel of a fucking gun. It was like he was daring me, no, ordering me to kill him. Nobody is safe in the SOTUP shows and I think that freaks people out even more. So cool.
Darby Lane with Joe Bill, Mark Sutton and Jill Bernard. - Holy Shit. I know Darby Lane doesn't have the hype or name recognition that a lot of the performing groups do but they are always great and I'm glad anytime Matt Donnelly comes here to do anything because I know improvisers here are benefiting from it.

Party time - the CC Club.
I hate playing "host" because there's just never enough time. I want to hear from everyone, thank everyone, shake hands with everyone and the reality is you get too little time with everyone and not enough time with anyone. We could've gotten Andy evicted and that's a sure sign of a good party.

Sunday I saw Wall-E with the family and it was beautiful and touching and smart. I want to see it again when I'm not totally depleted.

Sunday night - it does seem a little strange. It's weird to have another full night of shows after the big 'closing' party, a weird little epilogue to the giant improv explosion of the weekend but anyone that knows us knows what Sundays are all about and that it isn't the 'lesser' of the nights by a long shot - it's more like our intimate improv night....only less creepy than that sounds.

Police Cop Detective PI and Mustache Rangers are both BASSPROV-like in their "two people talking" format and yet couldn't be much more different in some ways. I love that it took the Rangers more than half their set to get around to explaining where they "were" since an unfamiliar audience would have no clue they were in a space ship and they'd just be two guys in chairs for 25 minutes for no reason at all.
HUGE had a set, I sort of remember being there. I wanted to hide in that race car tent and huddle in bed for real. "We're clearly all too tired to be doing this" may be the most truthful thing I've ever said onstage.
Then Buddy Daddy. Describing "a guy doing improv with his dog" doesn't capture it at all. It was so weird and funny on top of being painfully cute that it was the perfect fit and ending to our oddball Sunday night. The woman sitting next to me while I was running the camera was weeping and/from laughing through the entire set.

I repeated it again onstage and I will do so anytime we talk about the festival - it is all thanks to the performers, our supporters at the BNW and the people in the audience. All of it.

I had moment in the corner with Lauren about the whole final bow thing, I felt like a jerk for not coming back to stage but I have a problem with getting attention over all this even though I appreciate the thanks and it means a great deal to me. All we did was give people an occasion and permission to just show off how incredible the Twin Cities scene is. It should never be about the people putting this on - we'll save that for the Twin Cities Festival Festival.*

We put on the improv festival to focus on the improvisers and they should be as quick to step up and take credit for making this awesome as they are to thank Jill, Nels and I for doing things like logistics.

All I can say to everyone is 'it's my pleasure', 'You're Welcome' and 'You deserve it all the time, not just once a year". We're working on that as well. I think the TCIF 2008 was a great step in the right direction.

Sunday night I went home, plugged in my camera and then woke up just before 4am where I had passed out, head on my desk. Yesterday I dropped Joe off at the airport, barely functioned through the first post-festival day and euphoria-hangover from such an awesome weekend.
Thanks again and again. i don't know what else to say.




* what?? I know. That is maybe funny to maybe two people. but seriously, the TCIF, Pride and the Twin Cities Jazz Festival are all on the same weekend. It's the Twin Cities Festival Festival.
There, I've explained the joke and the only time the focus should be on festival producers.

This is for the misfits the freaks and the runts....

TCIF Day 2 blog - my god, is there still more???

This blog is going to be massive so if you're looking for a quick read on the TCIF please refer to the Strib and Pioneer Press, which have managed the feat of compressing all of this into....nothing. Thanks guys. It's either worthy of a Nobel Prize in physics or further proof of growing obsolecence of the big print media.

Am I grumpy this morning? Surprisingly no, I'm in a fantastic mood and still manage to be a jerk.

Up late and up early again so if this blog doesn't make sense I'll come back and edit it Monday or Tuesday or whenever I wake up. This morning I found myself getting home as the sky was getting bright in the east and racing to get inside and into bed before the sun actually came up, as if that somehow meant that I got "sleep". I only barely made it.

So - my usual outpouring of thanks and a "quick" recap.

I need to publicly ( I like to believe that my blog is read enough that posting something here counts as "public" ) thank all the people that have quietly been making this show run and yesterday's appreciation to the house crew at the BNW could easily be cut and pasted here - they continue kicking ass and they do it with a smile.
But there are a few people that have been completely pivotal for this thing and have jumped in to help, like most everyone else, out of a common desire to put on one hell of a show and I can only hope that our appreciation and applause is adequate compensation.

David Lipkin has been my right-hand, tireless, ready-to-give-it-a-try sidekick since last year and has since kept at it through the IAGG and into this year. It ain't a great or glamorous job but it's importance is huge.
Being able to know that I can turn to him in the middle of a show and fire off any number of random requests and instructions and he'll dive on it or see to it allows dozens and dozens of problems and needs (many of them totally thankless, like running time calls to performers during the show and just being someone that can jump in the booth and make the mechanics of the show happen) to get addressed without anyone knowing they even exist and keeps our show flowing smoothly and since he's doing whatever I throw at him so well nobody ever knows how much he's getting done except me.
Thanks Lipkin.

Nels, Knobel & Ryan -
Nels and I have both been wasting countless work hours on improv junk (or wasting shitloads of hours that could be spent doing improv stuff at stupid jobs - more like it) and he's been running our site and deals with my scattered, last minute requests at all hours and still decided he wanted to work with me. He's been handling the improvement to the TCIF video documentation (which was easy to improve on since last year was lacking in that dept - another thing I told myself I could just do and it would be no sweat) and is turning it into the serious project it should be instead of the last minute thing it was. On top of that he pulled up in a U-Haul* after driving all the way from NYC and jumped in to take over hosting (especially after I went onstage and verbally vomitted by brain all over my shoes....must learn when to sit down and shut up) and making this thing happen.

Knobel -
Eric is another part of the Dream Team that have all organically stepped up to help the TCIF.
I haven't had to think about all the cool stuff Eric is doing for us since he and Nels are all over it but in case you missed Neutrino Video Project or didn't know it - this dude is a pro and his level of work makes our goofy little party seem like the real deal somehow. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Ryan Haro -
Ryan is the best candid photographer anywhere.
I met Ryan at the Renaissance Festival and he is brilliant, captures the coolest moments and such an eye for what he does it makes me want to do more to give him something worth shooting. For some reason he's decided to lend his talents to taking pics of the IAGG over the last several weeks and over the TCIF this weekend - we get to laugh at all the cool stuff he captures, some of the best looking press photos of improvisation anywhere and the least I can hope to do in return is send him some web traffic and/or business. Support a fantastic artist and buy some prints.

We (Five Man Job) get a lot of compliments on the product of the hard work and talents of these guys - credit where credit is due. Thank you guys.

Recap time: Like any great set you're in it's hard to remember specific details, only this great set is now going on three days long and there have already been so much fun and funny that my face hurts from smiling and my gut hurts from laughing. From the producer's chair I would be proud as hell to put on a show that had a third of the highlights we've had already and we've still got a day left. I feel like I've seen a month of solid genius and I'm sure to leave out lots of stuff.

pH/Election Show -
pH and Election Show are great crews, let's just get that out of the way. As much work and thought as we put into trying to make this the kind of festival we'd want to visit as a performer these guys are prime examples of the kind of performers any festival producers want to have show up. They're tight, professional, know their shit, take it seriously and have a fun doing it.
On top of that they did a really cool double-bill of bigger improvised formats that I really enjoyed. Both had to trim it down for time and the musical is the easier of the two events to pare down into a shorter time slot so pHamily: the Musical was a blast and Election Show was only able to do 1/3 of the actual Election Show. Sorry dudes, it goes on my karmic tab as a producer.

Somehow I'll make it up to the member of pH drove them all the way here last year and was eliminated 4 minutes into their show. It was funny and everyone had a good laugh but if I made the haul to Chicago for 4 minutes of stage time I know it would still suck.

RampleSeed/Irish Mutts -
I got to see much less of RampleSeed than I wanted as FMJ was warming up. I know they were great, you know they were great.
Irish Mutts did some fun, relationship heavy scenes and I had a ball doing some lights up/lights down for them. Since this is my blog I get to focus on what was cool for me, right? Seeing the silly glee when they discovered the breaking plates gave me a big grin.**

After that there was a big wall of stress forming in my brain that blocked out all else as it finally came time for Five Man Job/Coldtowne - I can't really review my own set but it was an important one for me, maybe the most important set in the festival for me and it totally overshadowed everything else going on for a while, being on the other side of it is both a monsterous relief and understandably bittersweet.

What can I say about Five Man Job that I haven't yet?
I love Five Man Job and our set was every single reason why.
I had so much fun, it felt like what improv should feel like and we had fun with each other without jerking off onstage and leaving the audience out, they always get invited in for the joke and I'm proud to say that we're very much ourselves onstage. I was getting a little choked up during the curtain and could've gone on and on about it but Dan will be missed.

That centaur was so retarded.

I'm sorry I missed the beginning of Coldtowne because we were outside having one last post-show laugh with each other, sweating and trading some hugs. Everything I've seen from the Coldtowne guys tells me I would have loved every bit of it. Now I get why people kept telling me I need to see and meet these guys. Super fun.

Girls,Girls,Girls/Pimprov -
At this point I was already so euphorically happy with the TCIF that this show almost seemed cruelly funny. Sides hurting, brain already buzzing from seeing so much in terms of great performances and then we get a full-on musical AND a Pimprov set that shook the walls??

An old familiar feeling started to creep in that somehow 'we've taken too much...we're never coming back down'

and THEN Neutrino Video Project. Sweet Zombie Jesus.
There's no such thing as karma. Nobody deserves a night this kick ass. No room full of people anyway, not with jerks like me dragging down the bell curve.
I am a little ashamed to say this is my first time seeing the Neutrino even though I knew it was brilliant and I've been telling everyone else they need to take their excuses and cram 'em because it's brilliant and they should go see it.
This show is what is ruining the rest of my professional life, when I run into technicians on the road that whine and tell me they can't adjust things because there's just 'no time' and it would be 'too difficult' my brain always sends back the rebuttal that these guys can make a movie in the time it takes to watch one. And it is awesome. The rest is just excuses.

Neutrino is technically precise, a great video/cinematic experience and still manages to feel like a very personal and energetic experience in the room even though we're all essentially watching a screen, the show goes beyond the story and into the giant production effort - I don't know if I'm applauding for the really really funny film or the fact that they just achieved something that blows my mind or the fact that they made Vitamin Water a starring player in the their movie (especially after I got onstage and talked shit about our sponsor to justify the fact that I didn't belong onstage...ah that'd make a great ad......anyway. Focus) or all of the above. I just know it was fucking cool. and that I suddenly want a Vitamin Water for some reason....

Holy. Shit. That was just one day. There's MORE.
the Onion Writers are improvising on top of their Onion talk and should have books and autographs to go around if you bring yours.
Ferrari McSpeedy and the Josh & Tamra Show will literally end homelessness and disease
Brave New Workshop and BASSPROV fills our 'improv as high-art' quota
Survivors of the Undead Plague and Darby Lane (with Joe Bill) is sure to be madness and I am going to get a little (ok, a-fucking-lot) tech crazy. And then it's party time.
it's ALL been party time.

thank you everybody.
Don't just read about it.
Come see.














* that's not exactly true, I think he dropped the truck and got back in his Del Sol but U Haul somehow sounds cooler than his Girl-Car.

** Andy got compliments all over the place for his hawk and chainsaw work, people coming from out of town don't even understand when we say we have good techs that will take care of them. I know it's supposed to be our nature to be modest here in the midwest but I have simply taken to telling people 'that's what we do here' because Minneapolis is the only place you can find it, performers think they don't want it because they've gotten crappy tech so many times and when people get it I hope it's hard to go back. This is one of the huge things I want to wake people up about. Am I bragging a bit? Are we showing off a little?
You bet your ass we are. Our techs are the best.

Broke out of town though he left a trail of bodies a mile wide

TCIF Day 1 blog -

After all the waiting and planning and hustle the Twin Cities Improv Festival finally arrived yesterday, just as sure as the little countdown timer on my desktop said it would - and it was awesome.

People kept checking with me asking 'how you holding up?' , which I find funny because to me this is the fun part, all the footwork and sending emails and scheduling and hounding press contacts and crap doesn't do it for me, that's the part that will wear a guy down. When we opened house and there was a line of familiar (and new) faces ready to kick back and enjoy the festival there were no worries. A quick recap -

Larynx and T- Rex Force - set the tone. If you had never seen Minneapolis improv before I would have to say that Larynx put out a pretty top-notch introduction, it was playful and dark, which are probably the two best adjectives that capture the style here. We play dark and somehow make it fun.

Stevie Ray's and SCRAM - brought the house down. Stevie is always an odd part of the whole Twin Cities scene, he's off in the suburbs in his own theater workin' it and when they bring the show they bring the whole show. It was great.
SCRAM was mind boggling, sweet, smart, specific, technically insane and brought people to their feet. It was one of those sets you watch in disbelief of what you're seeing until the lights go out and there's nothing to do but stand up and applaud. If you missed it you missed out in a big way.

Vaudeville with a Pig and 123 IMPROV! - kicked the party off right. Watching this show and knowing that we had a good number of visitors in the house to see it was awesome. You wanna see something brilliant? These guys are brilliant for fun.

The party was great - a chance to say hello to performers just getting in to perform, share a couple drinks and just have some fun together. That's why we do this, right?


Day 2 - morning.
Back in the theater this morning and you'd never know that we were here too late last night because not only did the staff rock it all night they worked after we dragged our asses out of the space and off to bed. You should tip them and I have to thank them. People act like the producers make the show run when really it's the staff at the doors, running drinks, getting the lines of people in the door and making sure everyone is taken care of. Thank you again and again.

Today is really a lot of waiting time now, lots of the performers for tonight actually got in to see the space last night, one of my favorite parts of doing this - I am proud as hell of the theater we get to perform in and I'm excited for them to get to play in our sandbox because it is a damn cool sandbox.

the only part I have to say I have mixed feelings about is the Five Man Job set - just like the festival itself I've been talking about it for so long that it's strange that it's actually here. tonight.
Dan Hetzel departs Five Man Job after this evening and while I'm excited for Dan, his new wife and more than a little jealous that he'll be living in the idillic San Diego weather I am really sad to see him go.
Dan has been part of this thing since we taped a note to his locker in the Brave New Workshop telling him he was in the group and he's been a major part of creating the style of play we have. We've been to Chicago together many times, Miami, St. Louis, Atlanta and through that weird little tour of the Midwest we did and everywhere we go I've been able to relax and have fun knowing that I've got one of the best there is on stage next to me.

Come see Five Man Job tonight and give the man a hand.

People keep asking about 'highlights' of the Festival and I'm totally unable to help because of the shows we've got on the schedule for the whole festival. More than a couple times last night I was asked who to come see on Friday and I caught myself listing every show - pH/Election Show, Coldtowne/Five Man Job, Rampleseed/Irish Mutts, Girls, Girls,Girls/Pimprov AND Neutrino??!! I dare you to find a better lineup in any city on any weekend.

You get the idea - "I'm stoked" is a ridiculous understatement.
This is what it's all about.

you don't have to know the meaning, just know that there is meaning in what is being said to you

Monday blog - 3 more days

Time is only getting shorter and it doesn't make much sense to blog about all the junk that needs to get done any more than I already have. There are things to do, I am doing them, I am going to get stressed by this. Repeat.

BUT

I wanted to take this chance to publicly thank everyone that has been putting their energy behind the Twin Cities Improv Festival as we close in on the event itself. No matter what happens at the Festival, if two people or two thousand people buy tickets to see it, thank you all for making it the best and making the Twin Cities scene the awesome place that it is.

I saw a new generation coming, under the smoke over Oakland

Friday blog - 6 days and counting down

it's late in the day to be blogging, I know. It took me a bit to get going today.
Between sushi (which was great), hanging out with friends (also great) and after sushi spicy pizza (pretty tasty, but at what cost??) and then having to sleep next to a scared little Owen all night (he had a bad dream, I didn't come home and pull a Robert Downey Jr, love the kid but I would never choose to sleep next to him, he's impossible) I was in rough shape this morning.

my new coffee press would have been just the thing if I didn't have the most amazing heartburn ever felt by a human being and the idea of putting hot, acidic liquid in my stomach didn't make me want to die. Seriously, a pizza covered in jalapeno and red peppers after midnight, what a great idea! On top of some wasabi, hell yeah!! Wash that down with a whiskey and spend the night with a sleeping five year old kicking you in the gut. Hooray!

moving on....thank you to everyone for the nice emails and msgs. it was a great day.

We are now in the final approach to the TCIF and I'm super excited. Like, crazy excited. I'm having trouble shifting into 'final preparation' mode, which is usually about the same only more frantic and worried - because I feel neither frantic or worried so to reconcile this my brain refuses to accept the fact that we're less than a week away. Less than a week? What? Nothing.

The Party is confirmed - CC Club!!
Booze is being provided - Woo Hoo!!
Oh yeah, there's going to be insanely great improv - if you miss that part you're dead inside!!

I have much to do but nothing to worry about, that's cool with me.
Nine days from now I may be eating those words but I have my doubts.
Ever the optimist

or I actually died last night
I'm not sure what sort of limbo being stuck in the final planning stages of a giant event would qualify as or what weird, very specific sort of right/wrong would land you there so I can only conclude that we're 6 days out and everything is fine.

6 days? What?
Nothing, go back to sleep.

Go fast, Hold back. If we hold on for one more day we just might last

Thursday, time to freak out - Two Weeks From Today

Our favorite Canadians made it through the weather yesterday and arrived at Casa De Roy in the evening in time for a quiet evening around the house talking theater junk and generally stay up too late.  Today is the day I officially begin that creeping panic that I'm forgetting not one but many, many important things that won't subside until June 30th, if ever.

As far as 'things to get ready' we're in a really good state and back into one of those lulls where there's little to do but wait for the next big time to panic and scramble - hurry up and wait to hurry up.  Right now is waiting.  I hate waiting.  But I have so little left to "do"and my "to-do" list has become more "things to think about"  it's not keeping me busy enough to not drive the people around me nuts, which is important.

Poster printed and picked up wiped the last big project off my list until people start arriving in town.  As stressed as the last several sentences sound, don't be fooled.  the Twin Cities Improv Festival is a bright shining chunk of happiness for me.  See me on Sunday night after the crowds go home and the theater is dark and you'll find a smile that won't go away no matter what happens between now and then.  We'll all hit the Green Mill and I will raise a glass to everyone around me, you should be there.

Shows are going to be awesome - we added Toy Soup to Thursday night and Buddy Daddy in place of the Sunday night JAM session, a show that brought tears of joy to Jill Bernard just talking about the possibility of having it so you know it's going to be pretty fantastic.  

Workshops are rock-solid and almost entire full now (I do wish that I could take one but I haven't exactly left myself open enough during festival time to disappear and be relaxed and creative for 3 hours) and I really dig that improvisers here are into learning from everyone that comes to town, both workshops and shows.  Yet another reason I love the Twin Cities scene more than any other.

The group of people coalescing around the festival that have volunteered to help and lend talents to the event are all awesome and this weird ad-hoc dream-team are all going to have a direct impact on making the event top-notch.  And help us, the "official" production team, kill ourselves a little less this time around, that's a plus.  We might be getting pretty good at this.

Basically I can rest pretty well knowing that we've done about everything sensible we can to make this thing a raging success.  So you'd think the waiting shouldn't be too stressful.  Still.

There's a lot of time in the next 14 days to freak out.

After that starts the Actual work.

Amid the heat and the wrack, hot boots invested and cracked

alright here's the full download on everything - 

Vegas trip:

Vegas was super fun and much needed time away, even though the teenager insisted on exporting his stress to us in the middle of the desert, it was still a great time.

We ate great food, laid around the pool in the 110 degree heat (which I love), I lost money and the wife won it all back and more on penny slots (seriously, she won more then $100 on penny slot machines more than once, which statistically has to be like me walking away from a craps table with $300,000....only this actually happened) and we got to see the Dropkick Murphys poolside at the Hard Rock.  I spent the time sweating in the heat, riddled with bruises, sunburned and stuffed.  Happy happy.

the IAGG Anniversary show:

I landed Sunday at 4:45pm, rushed home, hugged the twins once and ran off to one of my favorite things of the year, the IAGG Anniversary show.  Sadly I was still sunburned and beaten and exhausted so I wasn't exactly running at 100% for the evening but damn was it a great time.

Eric, Mike and Jill headed up a video project on the occasion (and looking ahead to the Actual Improv Theater), which was super kick-ass of them to do, Ryan Haro has been taking awesome pics of the shows and captures the coolest images and deserves some thanks and generally the night is just spent enjoying this cool thing we all have because of one another.

I always make a point of thanking the audience and I hope that they hear it, I know that we say 'thank you' at the end of every night and every set so it's easy for it to just become noise and I want them to really know how much I appreciate it as much as I want them to feel they have some ownership over the fate of future projects by their continued energy and support for this thing we all have fun doing.  the IAGG and the environment in the Twin Cities for improvisers is pretty unique and I love it, so it's cool to be able to say thank you at least once a year as we officially turn the corner into TCIF season.

I have to thank all the groups that perform as well as my gratitude to Mike, Joe, Jill, Lauren and Dan for all the help over the last 6 years, I get to be the face of the whole thing most weeks so I think people get the mistaken impression that I do anything more than everyone else or that it's even something that feels like "work" to keep doing  but that's just not the case.  the IAGG stands because of everyone that performs, helps spread the word and comes through the door to have a few laughs and that's pretty special.

Thanks again, everyone.

I mean it.

Punch Out:

this Friday is another one I'm looking forward to in a big way.

Stare Down is playing (which I will miss but you should NOT, it's fucking awesome) and then haul ass over to Punch Out to catch the Mustache Rangers take on Family Night (Hannah and Doug from CSZ - surprise, bitches!), which is guaranteed to be funny as hell.

Sci-Fi Jingoism vs. Wholesome Antics gone wrong.

the Punch Out comes to a close at the end of May and has been a fun time even though I'm bummed more people didn't see it.  It's been cool to be able to put more people onstage (which is always my/our goal) as well as get the ball rolling a bit for the TCIF.

11pm  |  $10  |  Brave New Workshop

Twin Cities Improv Festival:

it is just over one month away and if my brain finds out something is going to snap so we'll just keep having fun and pretending we know what we're doing.

Actually I have nothing but confidence in the TCIF, the shows are going to be unbelievable and I hope they're well attended for the sake of the people in the Twin Cities, which is usually my stance.  If you miss it you're missing out.

Speaking of missing out, workshops are filling fast.

If you're an improviser (or not, we have a beginner workshop with Charna that you should not miss) you need to get enrolled.  I know there are a couple workshops already that have less than a dozen spots left and we're still a month out.  Do yourself a favor and plan ahead.  It's very un-improvier-y but you will be kicking yourself if you miss it.  And then I will kick you.

Sign Up Here.

T-Shirts are still available but going pretty quickly as well.

We are running far fewer than last year since that is one of the areas we (which means "I")  lost an arm and a leg, so get them while they're here and cry if you miss out.  Much as I would love the means to make sure everyone that wants one gets one without having to sell plasma, I don't have that so instead we have scarcity.

even scarcer will be the tank-tops - which are coming...hopefully tomorrow.  

ladies, you're welcome.

Actual Improv Theater:

things for the Actual took their first official baby steps and I'm both nervous and excited.

I think everyone entertains the idea of 'accidentally' capturing the energy of an audience (I blame the rise of "fame" for bloggers and "reality" shows that follow people doing their jobs) by just doing your thing and becoming a bigger deal but it's a very different feeling to put it out there and say you're going to try and intentionally make something a big deal.

That's what we're going to do.

the "we" has taken a little more shape - the Board for the Actual has been formed and we're filing all the papers that go with that very very soon.  I don't know why I've decided a month before TCIF is a great time to make progress but it seems to be working.

Once we get through the paperwork and hit the ground in earnest you will all know.  It will be impossible to miss.

Thank you to everyone that has volunteered time and support for this project already, it's touching and tells us that we're doing some things right.  When the time comes we will take you all up on your offers and I'm nothing but optimistic about what everyone can get done together.

oh yes.

Family stuff:

things with the teenager are hard and distract from the immense surplus of happiness I take from all of the things above.  it's amazing, really....an energy in/energy out relationship that would make Stephen Hawking scratch his head if he could.

He's staying with my mother for now (the teenager, not Stephen Hawking) in the interests of seeing if getting the daily fighting out of the way helps him do any better for himself.  As much as he spits in everyone's faces we're all still pulling to help him and that's the most frustrating thing to deal with.  

Somedays I'd like to tell him he doesn't deserve the understanding of the people around him since most days he doesn't based on his actions, but I guess that's the very nature of the whole stupid "family" thing.  You get 'em wether you deserve them or not.  

Interestingly that's also the root cause of his emotional problems, getting a mother he didn't deserve.  You'd think in a cosmos with any sort of balance at all she'd be the target of (or at least the victim of) his anger and abuse but no, I'll do.  Maybe we'll send the boy to live with Stephen Hawking and instead of tension and unhappiness the by-product of his presence can be a Nobel Prize.

Technology:

Finally ditched the second smart-phone in favor of a really dumb phone after the job issued us our official work phones.  Walking around with two Blackberrys and paying for all the data services for one of them seemed (and is) pretty stupid.  So I posted the personal handset on craigslist and it sold in two minutes.  Literally, two minutes.

by the end of the day I was down to just a flip phone that sucks to type on, still stuck with two phones and now neither of them has all my contacts despite being dilligent about transferring all my phonebook entries to the SIM card.  It seems the Blackberry contacts don't transfer to the flip-phone OR the new work device.  Super dumb.

So my communication has taken a big leap backwards as far as ease of use, and as you can tell by everything going on, it's a great time for it.

I still managed to get a casting call today, which I have mixed feelings about since I'm never actually cast, only get called to be a 'criminal' and I find the whole process to be slightly more gross than, say, being the guys that hand out flyers for hookers on the Strip in Vegas.

that's another blog.  this one is too long already.

the progress stops in fits and sputters

back to busy-ness blog - nothing entertaining in this one, just a big to-do list

Picked up the first batch of TCIF shirts finally - they will be available at Punch Out this Friday as well as at IAGG from now until the festival. $15 gets you a shirt and a warm fuzzy feeling for supporting the Festival. Cash or Check. They are sweet.

HUGE vs 123 Improv !! this Friday at Punch Put: It is going to be insane. the very foundations of improv may crack from the shockwaves.

the twins are coming to host the Mother's Day IAGG again both as tradition and as a way to give mom a night to relax, run a bath, sip a beer, read a book and hopefully forget that I'm not home on Mother's Day. Come for the improv, stay for the overwhelming cuteness.

I need to finish that website today, I got no takers to help so we'll see how this goes. crap.

after that I just need to get the TCIF tickets designed and into the printers, the new site updates done, the poster finished, write a couple new press releases, layout the ad templates and try and schedule a sponsor meeting. Lots on the plate and I shouldn't even be blogging. If this didn't function as our staff meeting I wouldn't put it here.
I realize reading my to-do list isn't exactly what people come here for.

the Actual Improv Theater stuff is getting put into draft form today to get us moving down the road to organization status.

but first, off to the twins' school for parent-day to see a fire truck.

keep your lip stiff, keep you fists clenched

home from the road and spending the day at the house blog -

the trip was good and overall I like being on the road with a crew better than being a crew of one, more hands make for light work and more brains make for more interesting evenings than sitting in front of HBO in a hotel room during all the dead hours.
This trip was nothing but early mornings, long days of sitting in place, HORRIBLE medical photos of penises in various states of bloody damage.......catch a nice meal and turn in early to do it again.
Our cab driver on the way to the airport drove then entire way in either 1st or 2nd gear, including on the freeway, and tried yelling at us for our luggage being too heavy when his Check Engine light went on. We all looked at each other trying to figure out whose nightmare we'd fallen into. it was weird.
In any case I made it home.

things with the teenager are still no fun
He's been banking on the very-teenager-y idea that he can skate by on just saying the things he's supposed to say even though he knows full well that we're going to get empirical evidence that proves he hasn't done anything differently in the form of grades and UA results. Still he wonders (loudly, which usually fills the vacuum left by logic) why we won't just start giving him his driving rights and internet access back based on his "improvement".
The fact that his "improvement" is a work of fiction matters very little and when presented with that fact, like this morning, he still manages to blow up as if he's in the right and how-dare-we-disprove-his-bullshit arrogance. So it was a fun ride to school this morning.

the Twin Cities Improv Festival is 2 months away as of yesterday - someday that little countdown timer on my computer is going to be the thing that sparks a total breakdown instead of just slowly growing stress and dread.
Things are actually in a good place for the Festival, shows are nailed down, workshops are booking fast (seriously, get in now. People that want to complain during the Festival that they couldn't get into the workshops as if we should've done something different will find me unsympathetic, just like last year) and in general we're in one of those drifting periods between panicky times. All you can do is make yourself as ready as possible and I'm pretty sure we've done that unless I've missed something.
Judging from the size of my to-do list I have not missed anything.

Chicago Improv Festival is even closer and HUGE is going to perform, in case you hadn't heard because we do a shitty job of promoting our successes. We're going to tear the roof off the windy city (who probably have pretty secure roofs considering how windy it is) regardless of the fact that we'll be performing during the big Saturday party. We're on June 7th at 10:30 in the soon-to-be-roofless Playground Theater.

CIF moved from late April into June this year, the ripples from which have yet to hit the TCIF but I'm still on edge about it for next year. We shall see. I think people that have to choose between going to CIF to perform or learn versus going to TCIF to perform or learn are going to have a tough decision and that sucks for them. I am fully confident that our Festival is going to keep on being the best it can be, and one of the best there is. I'm a little biased but I'm also waiting for empirical evidence to prove me wrong.

it seems the arrogance is spreading.... meaning I probably gave it to the teenager. oops.

Punch-Drunk but I'm still sober. Fourteen years, a whole lot bolder and I don't flinch

Monday morning blog -  stuff from all over the place

the weekend in quick review:

Friday night - we lost, that was inevitable.  But we had fun and I think for the most part had a really strong set, it settled down in a couple spots where you realize later on there could've been some really cool stuff but retrospect is both great and shitty that way.  I had a really good time both onstage and in the booth, Adorable is one of my favorite groups of people to play with and Drum Machine might be my favorite thing to tech for.

Saturday was spent relaxing around the house as we were able and had a nice date with the wife

Sunday afternoon was the NICU reunion - we saw the boys' neonatoligist and Aidan's primary nurse and they both remembered our boys and were happy to see them.  the whole thing made me all misty-eyed and choked up a few times - those people saw our kids the sickest they will ever be in their entire lives and knew us while we were going through the hardest things a parent can do and you don't realize how thankful you are or how much that means all the time.

Sunday night was a total high point - not only did the afternoon shape up to be totally beautiful outside so I got to hang out with the boys in the yard and watch them "work" in the garden and play with the new puppy but then I was reminded of a bunch of things I love about the IAGG and doing silly shit with Five Man Job.

I was totally convinced there was going to be nobody at the show last night, since it was wonderful out and the streets and rooftops were packed with people just wanting to hang outside and we do our show in a dark, often hot, windowless room.  We were all shocked by the number of people that poured into our windowless room to see our show, and that's when I remembered - unlike the rest of the shows I know, our attendance actually jumps up in the summer!  I think we're just the right combination of feeling like a groovy, funny little party and the show hits at the right time of night when people are out enjoying the weather for the weather's sake and then decide they need something to "do".  Either way, I love spring/summer at the IAGG.

then I got to kick off the show running tech for the Survivors of the Undead Plague, which may also be my favorite thing to tech for.  I love that they didn't freak out at me for fucking with them early on and now it's become part of the show.  I want to do that show everywhere, I think it's one of the coolest examples of the fucking madness that sets should be.  All the characters can die, nobody is safe, the plot barely matters, everyone is having so much weird fun that they're getting exhausted and it's funny as hell.  

On the Five Man Job front - I thought last night was a return to form for us, stupid as that may feel and sound.

FMJ has been in a weird rut for a while as a group and all three of us individually with our improv-junk, me especially.  I was bitching and moaning about it to Jill and she pointed out that I 'don't get my hands dirty' anymore and it was one of those clouds-parting, lightbulb-clicking-on moments that made clear what I had been doing wrong for a long time.  We used to do the goofy, super artsy, organic-as-shit Transformer thing all the time and I think we all got uncomfortable with just being that stupid onstage - so we (meaning I, I wont speak for Dan and Lauren) backed off of it in favor of trying to put on a good show without getting into the super-abstract, often silly-looking bullshit (read: want to be funny onstage without looking stupid.  let's be honest).  And then we wondered why we weren't doing sets "like we used to" - we were lacking energy, variety and things generally just felt harder.  As a result we would come offstage feeling further and further from what Five Man Job used to do and couldn't figure out why, and kept stiffening up and getting less 'out there' to try to fix it.

It didn't make any sense given that the artsy-physical bullshit actually produced cooler results and we were backing off of it because we all felt awkward just being that silly and not worrying about what it "was" - which is exactly what we teach people to do - because it works better.

stupid retrospect.

Anyway, we got up and said Fuck It and got back to being noodly, organic, freaky dumbasses onstage (and were waiting for the improv-set-destroying laughter of Jimmy D in judgement of our arty-ness) and got back to the silly, super dark goofy fun that we hadn't had in a while.  

Outside doing our post-set notes everyone felt really good and I couldn't be happier with what came out last night.   the end of our set, which was all three of us doing this weird replay of an earlier scene on the floor with 'finger people' in the role of either puppeteers or seeing it from space was a perfect example of just how fucking silly we can be and just sitting there not giving a fuck with Dan and Lauren felt awesome.

footnote:  even though the set was fun we should probably frame it better than 'we're going to do some faggity shit' - which is totally a quote from a Susan Messing workshop in which she called us all cunts and made us do all this super physical nonsense with great results - but still probably isn't how we should define it to our audience.

anyway - happy as hell.  

Tonight Dan and I are doing Total Bullshit at the Beat and I'm excited.

I love doing this show, it's not always "funny" in the same way that improv is and can swing from being super weird and hilarious to all touching and sweet and deep or just angry and strange.  it makes me want to book a run of 'spoken word' performances somewhere and just scare the living crap out of people or make them laugh at things they didn't expect anyone could ever find funny.

8PM - at the Beat - $3

at the office today, getting ready to leave on the first work trip in a little while (going to Philly for the first time) and I think the trips being less frequent actually makes it harder to leave and be gone.  When I'm in and out all the time everyone can adjust to it and you fall into patterns that make it work, but when I'm home for a month and then gone for most of a week it seems to sneak up and jar everything out of place.

This trip is going to be interesting since I'm part of a crew and not just a lone operator, which helps fill all the dead hours in between work on the road but also puts me a little more out of touch with home and stuff since I'll have other people and projects to attend to than just the normal tech duties.  This is not what I need just over 2 months out from TCIF.  

I finally set a date for deleting my Myspace account so I can stop using that annoying fucking site.  May 1st my account will self-destruct.

I just have to track the blogs I had been reading on myspace differently and as soon as I can find a working solution to the IAGG web needs I can get our shows off of Myspace as well, it served a purpose at one point but if the site never works it doesn't make a difference (I know the calendar says April 13th twice, I can't get in to edit it) so we'll shift some of it to Facebook, mostly for the performers and find a good public place for the calendars and such for the public.

I asked the teenager if it was even worth giving him his UA the day after 420 to try and get his driving rights back and he said 'probably not' so he's still being stupid even though he wants the results to change.  I don't expect the boy to be squeaky-clean by ANY stretch of the imagination (and if you have ever seen Total Bullshit you know that he's still being way better than I was at his age) but if he wants to have it both ways he needs to at least get better at getting away with it.  I can't catch him doing the shit I've caught him doing and NOT do something as a parent but on the other hand we aren't exactly trying to catch him doing all of it - he just sucks at not getting caught.

I don't think any parent needs or wants to know everything their teenager is doing when they're out of the house.  it's not good for the kid and it certainly isn't healthy for the parents but I can't exactly coach him on how to pull one over on his dad, that's one skill he's going to have to figure out on his own.

enough time wasted - I have to get some work done in the 2 short days I'm in the office before hitting the road.

did I say this blog was going to be 'quick'?  

I meant I was typing really fast.

that's way too long, if you made it this far, kudos to you, dedicated reader.

Though his pride was wounded his ego was strong, yeah that was his trouble and this is his song...

Holy Friday blog -

If you haven't noticed already that Punch Out is tonight and that it's between Adorable and Drum Machine in what is sure to be an awesome spectacle of blood, guts, circuits and comedy - you are illiterate, legally dead or a big jerk. If you fall into one of those three categories (someone read this to the illiterates, please) do not come to our show. Everyone else - see you there.
Punch Out at 11pm
$10 bucks

Jill goes to the morgue, money goes to the Twin Cities Improv Festival


****
Twin Cities Improv Festival Workshops are open for registration
AND GOING FAST. Last year demand was high and these will fill up. 

Please do yourself a favor and get on it.

It will make a fitting tribute to Jill, as she has worked her ass off on everything educational and then some for the TCIF.   it will be a shame to have to destroy her.


****
Things on the teenager front got a little boost from punk-rock!

Told the boy last night that Rancid was coming in concert and asked if he wanted to go, which got the most enthusiastic response that didn't involve punching walls that I've seen from him in a long time and he was actually talkative and nice to be a round for a little while, he was even talking about it this morning during the car ride, until he put on his headphones and turned on some Rancid (even though I was playing some over the car's sound system...whatever).

ah, punk-rock: bringing families together.
my mother had the same reaction to Suicidal Tendencies' I Saw Your Mommy and your Mommy's Dead so this really takes me back.  Wait....no.  This is the opposite of that.

Either way, today is a good day.

I'm not fighting with the teenager, instead I'm fighting with Jill

At least she can take an improv-punch.

Now I just have to figure out where I'm gonna mount the Drum Machine on my wall....

it takes a lot to not take from you

Sunday morning business - 

well after the two day show I did Thursday and Friday I was all set to relax and enjoy the weekend and not look at anymore close up medical photos and was pretty successful on most counts.

Friday night was a really fun show - and pretty poorly attended, which was too bad.

Vaudeville With A Pig did some fun stuff but were no match for the singing weightlifters known as the Gay/Straight Alliance and the show was a really solid one that totally falls into the 'your loss if you missed it' category.

Afterward everyone loves to discuss why there's less audience in the house, and there are lots of good reasons as well as lots of reasons that make us feel good, people pointed out to me a few times that we lost a lot of the Six Ring people since they were downstairs getting ready for their midnight show as well as people that were at Last Laugh that night.  Great.

That only accounts for people we already know and (for the most part) have sold on improv as entertainment.  We shouldn't be trying to sell shows to those people unless this is all the bigger we want the local improv world to be and we're happy at this point with the number of shows we have to choose from.  Some people might be.  I think we can do better.

If we want it to grow we can't just ask the same people that already see our shows for ten more bucks a week, we have to find new people and let them know we've got something cool they need to see and I'm far more interested in finding ways to get them to the shows.  That's one of the strangest and most frustrating things about improv in Minneapolis, knowing that the shows you can see here are some of the best in the country (and people in other parts of the country knowing it as well) and the people that live here don't even realize it and many of them haven't heard anything about it and would probably love to see it if they did.  It feels surreal, like if the people in Minneapolis didn't realize the Guthrie was here.  Maybe we need an ugly building with a huge, lighted phallus sticking into the air.  I'll work on it.

To be fair, Punch Out hasn't been set up the best to let those people know there's a kick ass show happening and I take the blame on that one - we have no poster yet, no website, no press, etc etc etc so we HAVE been selling just to the people that are already in the doors seeing improv already and we need to go further.

So I'm trying to improve our efforts where I can (getting posters and print materials made finally.  If I didn't have this stupid job I would be all over this stuff all the time) and feel like I should extend an apology to the performers so far, they've put their energy into getting the show off the ground and did their part and did it very well.

this week is going to be massive, btw - if you miss Adorable vs Drum Machine you will be put on suicide watch because your life will be devoid of meaning and joy over what could have been the best night of bloodthirsty improv comedy you will ever see.  Seriously, the beating we are going to lay down on Jill is going to be something worthy of a Frank Miller graphic novel.

I hope whoever they get to play me in the movie version is comfortable with the sheer volume of blood they're going to have to work with.

Friday.  11pm.  $10.  

You should show up.  

Don't back down like Jill is likely to.

you're better than that

***

TCIF junk

on the other side of things - things are going well on the Twin Cities Improv Festival production.

Plane tickets have been booked, hotel sponsorships are signed, the new site is launched, press releases went out and gotten got response so far and we're generally getting into place to do exactly what I'm bitching about above.  There are only so many hours.  To increase those hours Jill sent me a TCIF coffee mug to caffeinate myself out of.  Hooray!

we have shifted from preparation on the production side to fielding requests and questions from performers for the time being, having just posted the schedule and booked peoples' travel and so far so good.  We have to tone down our eager-to-please Minnesotan instincts as we are quickly turning into the Fantasy Island Improv Festival*

***

Total Bullshit - tomorrow night at 8pm at the Beat 

Mike, Dan and I are going to freak. people. out.

* side note - "Actual Island" was a far less popular spinoff and took years to catch on in the form of Survivor.  I would like to go back to having fantasies, thank you.

the thumb was a nice addition but it's still the finger that pulls the trigger

Holy crap it is spring for a couple days before we get another dusting of snow!

Not trying to be negative, also trying not to be the guy in the convertible with the top down the first time it hits 50 degrees.  It is tempting to run and get the Jeep out of storage though....

I have officially stopped even looking at CNN thanks to their new policy of having at least one, if not more, "Something absolutely horrible happened to a child under 5" story on the front page at all times.  While I hope terrible things don't happen to small kids I also can't stomach a "news" entity blatantly exploiting the shock value of posting  "minivan runs over 5 year old", "toddlers thrown from overpass into traffic" and "toddler calls 911 on drunken dad" or something equally chilling (all of which have been recent headlines on their front page, none of which have national news relevance)  because someone sitting in a boardroom somewhere feels like it makes a good "hook".

Deleted my CNN.com news feeds, removed my bookmarks and happily finding news that actually affects me elsewhere.  I'm sure that somehow seems like putting my fingers in my ears and yelling "LA LA LA LA LA" about things that are just awful but I wouldn't say I'm blissfully ignorant of the fact that the world is a shitty place sometimes.  I would rather say I'm aware that the world can be a shitty place and terrible things happen in it, not the least of which is viewing human tragedy as a chance to grab at more ratings, and I can't be for that anymore than I can be in favor of tossing kids into the La Brea Tar Pits.

And really, these days, the rest of the news isn't any happier but at least it is relevant.  

I can read all about how we're ALL on our way to the tar pits.

Much better.

On that cheery note - 

Punch Out open tonight on the BNW stage and as much as I want people to come enjoy the show it is much bigger for me personally.

I've always been pretty open about business and I think that's the best way to do these things so I hope nobody cares that I blog about it.  I guess I'll find out.  If this blog is gone later you'll know why.  Not everyone is a fan of radical transparency when it comes to business conversations or future plans.  I can respect that.

I've been pitching and pushing the idea of a stand-alone improv theater in this city for a while and it has always been part of the long plan for the Twin Cities Improv Festival to get things moving in that direction.  The trouble is always the same one:  I really firmly believe that it can be successful and that are only a limited number of half-steps you can take to try and test the waters before you have to jump.  Great.  The big problem is the time in-between those two things, which I'm not insane enough to think will be easy or simple on the people that have to make that leap.

If I was a single dude, living on my own and working a job and just needed to make the leap into debt and long hours, no problem.  I would be typing this post from my teetering-on-the-edge-of-financial-ruin theater right now.  But I'm not that guy and have a family to support and all sorts of reasons (3 of them in particular, the wife is pretty able to take care of herself but probably doesn't WANT me to sink her into debt) not to make that leap.

Same with anyone else I am asking to make it with me, like the BNW.

I wont sit in a meeting and say I think we can launch an improv theater and expect to open the doors to fame and fortune, no matter how much we test the demand or poll audiences (the BNW's move to Calhoun Square was also based on plenty of queries of what audiences "wanted", and delivered many or all of them and still resulted in unbearable financial drain) but none of this changes the firm belief that it CAN happen and be successful (and not just in the area of revenue, anyone that decides to open a theater for the money needs to be tossed off a freeway overpass).

So that's what is going on - and what has been going on for a little while now.

The Festival is still something that we're hoping gets things off the ground, things like the Punch Out are what I hope will show us we're headed in the right direction and the Improv A Go Go is the thing that gives me confidence that it can all work out in the end.

I've got my toe in the water (or as Jill bluntly pointed out last year, the last 5 years have secretly been in preparation for this - she wasn't incorrect) and really want to make the jump, really feel the need to make the jump and really honestly think it will work, even after constantly asking and re-asking myself if I'm either fucking crazy or gone completely stupid.

but it still comes down to telling family and potential business partners, "this is really going to suck for a while and might be a complete disaster - who's interested??", unless I can find an eccentric, wealthy benefactor or long-lost rich relative to kill off (and I would, in a second, so if you're loaded and researching your family tree - think twice before you ring that doorbell)

Eyes closed, teeth clenched - ready for that cold shock.