you can levitate you know, as long as the money's good you're in

road blog: Houston - day 1

Back in Texas for work after very little sleep between today and last night's IAGG performance.
Nels, Lauren and I got up and did some silly, dark improv after a good rehearsal and much discussion of the direction of Five Man Job in terms of style and structure and the whole thing left me pretty stoked for what lies ahead.

today is nothing but travel and prep, actually the entire trip is prep since this is a practice session for the real show, which doesn't happen until August in Pheonix - this company flies me and the AV guys and all the speakers to Houston just to practice the show so in a lot of ways they're the most prepared client I have and they're a blast to work with.
My two direct client contacts are an art photographer and a youth outreach ballet teacher from the bay area, basically two really cool, old, laid back hippies that somehow snagged a gig running events for a massive construction conglomerate and will spend the next couple days referring to the end-client as "these fascists" to their faces. It's an interesting dynamic to say the least.

So today we met and basically spent the time waiting for the speakers to arrive and the big event dinner tonight talking shop and tomorrow we'll be in session all day with executives and presenters from across this huge company looking to myself, the ballet teacher and the art photographer as the go-to team for creative input. Time to get my game face on and walk that line between 'he's a creative guy that knows nothing about our industry, why are we listening to him?' and 'creative professional who is exactly who we should listen to' that always feels so strange.

Well the fog's so thick that you can't even spy the land

I keep meaning to catch up on the blogging, I haven't really made any mention of the wife's birthday, the twins' birthday or a lot of other things other than how crazy my time has been and I've skipped the really important stuff.  I'll get to that in the next couple blog entries before some of these things get so far away as to become less relevant.

I meant to write more this week as well but my time ended up getting crapped all over by a client that seems out to purposely do everything as half-assed and last-minute as possible.  We didn't get number of attendees so we'd know how many keypads to bring, no idea of who our contact was to let us in with our equipment and when she finally called at 10 minutes to 5pm on Friday to give me the details I'd been asking about for days (since the meeting is 7am Monday) she hadn't even looked at any of the emails we had sent telling her what we'd need.  I am now stuck doing work over the weekend to make up for their total lack of consideration of what goes into their own show.

who the hell could possible run an event this goddamn disorganized with absolutely no regard for things like preparation??  

A group and event entirely based around looking ahead, planning and innovative future problem solving.

Irony is not a big enough word.

the first to the venue, the last to the van

road blog - Philly: day 2

back to business as usual today - 4:30am wakeup call for our 5:30am call time to sit and wait to be told when to hurry up to wait some more. ah, meetings.

Yesterday was all load in and set up and we spent most of it spinning our wheels and going in circles before finally getting everything as ready as it can be and calling it a night. Not a bad day, just draining.

There's a show in the venue right after we load out tomorrow, as in the venue scheduled them to be loading in while we're loading out, so they contacted us and asked if we could work together to make the whole thing easier. Really what that means is easier for them since our shit was already taken care of, but there's no sense in not helping since we had the time and the deal they were talking about wasn't a bad one, on paper.
Basically they needed to put up a much more elaborate lighting rig than we were going to so they offered to come in a day early and put their lights up and let us use them for our show so we get better lights and they don't have to try and hang a rig in 2 hours while we're loading out. Sounds fine. Until you remember that we had lighting to do our show just fine and didn't need this headache.

so they showed up late, which meant we spent a good amount of time just stalling since we couldn't build the staging, the curtains, run cables for sound or anything else until these guys were done (since they were driving a lift and moving a lighting rig right through everything) but they showed, got their gear in and we went to lunch while they got started - came back to find that not only were they not going to finish in anything close to the time they said but they seemed to have forgotten we were doing them a favor in the process.
We noticed that all the lighting controls for their stuff was run to a small area in the back of the venue, exactly 65 feet from our tech table and where it should be. When we pointed this out the guy actually said "yeah, this is how your room is gonna be...." and started to explain how we were going to have to re-arrange our setup.

The lead on our crew not-so-gently reminded him that
1. they had talked about where things were supposed to go
2. we were helping them out, and screwed our entire day to do so
3. they don't get to come in a tell us how things are going to be unless they want to get back up and start taking things down again.


in the end this isn't that interesting a tale, just a recap of a day that could have ended 4 hours earlier if we hadn't screwed it up trying to be nice and help out someone else. Now we get to go run the show, with very nice lights, which means lots of sitting and waiting punctuated by moments of total panic. Should be fun. I don't think we'll be doing anyone anymore favors though.

I smell blood but there's no blood around

Road blog - Philly day 1

I'm actually part of a crew on this show, which makes it very different from the normal road gigs I go on. Normally I would be flying in either late at night or very early in the morning, working insanely late and early and then out again, all in an effort to get the most hours out of me while keeping me in hotel and paid meals for as short a time as possible, but these shows are bigger productions and the client has paid for a much bigger package so it's totally the opposite vibe.

They want us here earlier and give us way more time to do things so it's making a difference in all the right places, instead of showing up at 11pm or 4am and having to look for equipment we got in yesterday mid-day, scouted the space while it was actually open and staffed, made sure everything was ready and that was it. Dinner at the Hard Rock on the boss and an early night.

today we meet at a human time of 7:30 for breakfast together and start at 9am, like normal people, instead of the 4:45 and 5am call times I usually get handed. Today is all set up and then we run show all day Friday and Saturday. Ah, this is more like it. If only I didn't wake up constantly in hotels or there wasn't a CSI: Miami/Ultimate Fighting marathon on cable last night (my two shows I only watch on the road but get totally hooked by when I do) I could've turned that into a decent night's sleep.

so the upside is better hours in which to work, the downside is adding an extra day just to travel and scout means I'll be away from home a little longer.

Butch in suit in no hurry

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.

if you must know the truth about this tale... go and ask the milkman

One thing I forgot to mention - I don't actually use the gmail address that is attached to this blog, I signed up for it because of G-Chat and Blogger and checked my inbox on a whim and discovered a bunch of emails.  Don't send anything there you want replied to.  Or read.

thanks

I'm pulling some 'working from home' time so I'm keeping this short and actually getting some work done at home....I know, I know.

• I'm starting to get used to wearing glasses - it still feels like I must be getting old even though I should have seen this coming as both of my parents wear glasses.  Regardless, the instances of blinding headaches have plummeted so I'm pretty stoked about that.

• Firing away at Twin Cities Improv Festival stuff - think of what I could get done if this is what I did for a living instead in the free spaces in between.

• the IAGG schedule lottery is done and the schedule is being posted as soon as I nail down some details on the 6th Anniversary Show - May 18th.  Mark your calendars.  Better yet, mark every calendar you see from now until then.

I have a lot of stuff to prep before this afternoon - I have a conference call for the real-job on our marketing strategies, which I have submitted ideas and proposals for and people have been receptive to, now we're seriously discussing them with the office in London.  It is both really neat (silly as that sounds I don't know that there's a better adjective for it....it is "neat") and eerily intimidating to see an idea go from my brain, through a couple of emails and wind up having the potential to be put into place as policy on, essentially, a global scale.

Imagine what I could do if I wasn't just filling the time between improv stuff.

The conversation between plastic planets, intercepted by human beings

Road blog: Texas - day 2



The early morning trip in was actually a good one, mostly because I didn't get stuck in our tiny tiny plane for the day, bags didn't get lost and I got to the hotel unscathed. So it was good in the sense that it didn't suck.



My cab driver was an African immigrant that claimed over the course of our short trip to be an attorney (just haven't passed the bar yet, which is why I'm driving a cab. Because clearly there is no middle ground), a medical software technician and owner of his own recruiting company that was bringing recruits over from Africa. Impressive.

When I told him I was a technician working a medical conference he suddenly wanted to know all about me, my website, my email (he stopped in city traffic and whipped out a notepad to start jotting down all my info. We were one block from my hotel, I had to tell him to turn the meter off and put cash in his hand to end our ride) and everything about what we do so 'we can partner' and help in his 'endeavors'.



it was like getting spammed....in person.

And just as pleasant as it sounds



I'm in Dallas, staying at the closest hotel to Dealey plaza (that's their biggest marketing claim) and I'm verifying this today but I'm pretty sure the building I have a clear view of from my room is the Book Depository so I may be taking a walk down there today to snap some photos at the museum.



The conference is a conference. The coffee is free, the speakers are boring. Yesterday the highlight was when one of the board members stood up during a discussion of some initiative, turned to face to board and yelled 'Shame on you! Shame on you all!' And stormed out of the room.



I don't know what it was about but then again its a radiology conference so I really don't know what ANY of it is about, at least that had the added excitement of old people fighting. I can only hope that they came back ready to start throwing punches today.



If not, lots of Brickbreaker on the agenda.







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