the kids at the show will have kids of their own, their sing along songs will be our scriptures

holy crap it's been a long time since I wrote a real blog -

the attention-span pendulum swung way to the Twitter side of things for quite a while now so I haven't had much to sit down and craft a real blog from, which is not to say that there's nothing going on. There's plenty I don't feel like writing about anymore, lots of stuff I don't want to say too much about but mostly just the little things and crazy travels that eat up whole days and weeks a couple minutes at a time.
Hopefully the photos have been a nice placeholder.
At least I can be counted on to use Twitter - if you want regular updates on what the hell I'm thinking, follow me on Twitter but be warned, you might get more than you bargained for.

What can I say...shit's been busy.

I've been all over the place lately since the travel kicked back in - hung out in San Diego with the crew, made good use of the 'buy the client drinks' policy, hung out with Mr Hetzel a couple times, both of them spent trying to keep my eyes open since it was the beginning and the end of a rough week.
Flew home, did the Mix Tape with Dessa, finished some TCIF graphics and caught up on emails by 3am, grabbed exactly 45 minutes of sleep and got the boys out of bed at 4am to leave for the airport to go to DisneyWorld - if you've been reading you might have noticed the sudden influx of really cute photos. Spent a few exhausting days in the Magical Memory Insertion Machine.

The Disney trip was nothing short of wonderful, I spent the entire time just staring at my boys with a permanent "Awwwww" look on my face. You can knock Disney as a giant corporation all you want but none of that matters to 5 year olds. They got to meet Winnie the Pooh and the "Magical Moments", manufactured as they may be, are fucking magical to the little ones.
Watching the fireworks over Cinderella's castle I was holding Owen and he gasped and literally shook all the way down to his legs and this huge "WOW!!!!!" escaped him with more force than I've ever seen from the boy. When the scientifically-designed-to-illicit-feelings-of-wonder-music came down he burst into applause of sheer and total happiness. Thanks, Walt. That was cool.

We made the trip with my wife's aunt, who is craz-y about DisneyWorld but knew all the tricks to make sure we found all the great stuff for the boys, as a result they had a much better time that they would have with just their parents. They had breakfast with Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Minnie and Pluto and then got to ride in the cockpit of the monorail into the Magic Kingdom and generally did it right.

Everyone came back happy and I think a little exhausted.
No rest since the boys were on Florida time and back to the office then off to Ka-Baam!! last night at the BLB. Shows are going well and that one is still one of the more challenging ones for me, it's a lot to juggle but not more than normal - it's a much different style though, and that's the trick. Last night was even more stylized (or maybe it was just from missing a week) and felt hard to find a groove in for me but in general I feel like everything is just starting to really push what is possible just as the run of the show winds down and word on more shows is still coming.
Ain't that how it always goes?

Our final show is next Thursday at 10pm - you should not miss it.
As usual I will be just be landing since I leave again tomorrow (can't...think....about it....yet) for Philly on the job. But before that we get to do Mix Tape with one of my favorite giant brains of the improv-world - Matt Donnelly!
Matt is flying in today and somewhere in this giant mess I'm picking him up from the airport (Matt, if you're reading this, I'll be there. I swear). I know plenty of improvisers read this blog - if you've NOT taken a class from Matt you're missing something. Talking him for 2 minutes it becomes clear he's got his head around things in an entirely different, and very cool, way. He teaches this weekend and you should do yourself a favor and check it out.

But first he performs with HUGE at Mix Tape - tonight at ComedySportz, 10:30, $10.

You know what? You'd know all this already if you bookmarked the new improv a go-go website. Our calendar of awesomeness is right there.

There's no IAGG shows for the next 2 weeks and in meantime I've given myself a crapload of stuff to do (because I obviously suffer from way too much free time. Is this really just a blog to excuse the lack of blogs lately?? Maybe) in the meantime.
When the IAGG returns on the 15th we will have our first round of TCIF merch ready as well as announce the performance selections for the 3rd annual improv festival.
Holy Crazy Shit.

Which means that I need to get a bunch of graphics done before the trial versions of my software expire....tomorrow. Hooray for the stupid things that enforce deadlines for me.

Whew. What else? I know there's more. More? Yes.

The teenager is still living with my parents for now and is enrolled in a more normal program and as far as I know he's doing much better. It's tough to swallow that staying away from him helps him focus on doing better but that seems to be the case, he'll have plenty of time for me to be his dad after fixing the mess he got himself into with high school credits. Nothing to report. All quite on the angst-y front.

The Actual project is moving forward. I don't want to say too much but it's moving and the time for the Big Jump is coming closer. That's something that terrifies my wife and wakes me up in the middle of the night alternating between excitement and total self-doubt. But it's coming and I think it's going to be great, maybe one of the best things ever. Optimism? That's right.
It's the only growth industry in these shitty times.

Alright - gotta cut it off now as my fingers are getting too stiff to type. Woke up with no heat in the house this morning and I'm bundled up waiting for the furnace guy to show up. I'm told we take priority since we have no heat but I talked to the guy 2.5 hours ago and it's pretty fucking cold in here. As a side effect I've been hitting the coffee a little harder than usual to stay warm. Hence the blog.

Thanks for reading. I hope to have more soon.

You lit the fire in us - and we play on in your trust

Friday morning blog -

Between doctors appointments, days spent working from home in recovery from the weekend and the wife departing for Los Angeles late last night - this week feels a bit off. I managed to spend all of 2 days in the office and I am once again back home trying to squeeze productive time out of my home office in between breaking up fights between two Wii-obsessed 5 year olds and kicking the teenager out of bed for physicals and other fun stuff he needs to attend to before the start of the school year.

But I still find time to blog. Priorities.

I still can't accept the fact that we're already coming to the end of the summer, the beginning of which gets taken over by Improv Festival madness and the end is marked by the Renaissance Festival taking my weekends for several months - but already the sun is going down earlier, the nights are getting cooler (or I start noticing it more because I'm sleeping in a tent on the weekends) and soon the kids will be in school and the Improv Festival will be open for submissions for next summer and we're right back into it until next July (which has become officially known as "the time I can rest").
It's the perfect schedule for making the time blur together.

Speaking of time becoming a blur, I cannot get my brain around the fact that my little boys are starting school already. Weren't they just in incubators?? Didn't they just learn how to walk?? They still don't even sleep through the night (just like their dad)!!
They did just learn column addition (adding tens and hundreds and how to carry-the-one and so on) the other night, which also tells me they don't really NEED the public school system anyway - but they've got cool backpacks and are excited for this new thing to begin.

I don't know how it's possible that we've arrived at this point already but I'll be in the other room, dying my grey hair back to bright red, thanks. Sheesh.

Things on the improv front are weird but good - I end up performing a very different kind of show on the weekends at the end of summer and missing the IAGG entirely the entire time but it finally feels like the two have struck a nice balance, like I'm working on different kind of improv instead of being removed from improv completely for two months.

Got our paperwork back from the State of MN yesterday - making the Actual Theater Project an official corporation, which I'm extremely excited about as it marks tangible progress and we're getting closer to being done with the tedious process of doing everything on paper and closer to the time when we get to the real business of the business.

More news as it happens.

back to the ever daily day, little to do and less to say - minds would wander and thoughts astray

Saturday morning blog -

I have been playing catch-up constantly these days and found myself emailing a friend saying "yeah, I blog everyday" and realized that was completely untrue lately and that when I do blog I keep promising more info on more interesting things "soon" so I'm trying to rectify that.... gradually.

Of course, most of what I've been "working on" isn't work at all but improv or performance stuff, for those of you interested, here's the scoop lately:

Stare Down - I got to run tech for this show the last several Fridays at the Bryant Lake Bowl and I feel like I've done a less-than-stellar job of promoting it but that's what happens when you don't get out and only communicate through scattered blogs. It reminded me of when I used to work at the BNW and in the weeks before opening they would give the cast bags of posters to help get the word out - even though the cast was essentially locked in the building until it was too late, making them the absolute worst street team in the world.
Anyway, I dig this show in a big way, it's improvised but doesn't feel like your normal, wacky improv show - instead it comes off with a clear style that sets it apart as a "theater" show and the fact that the banter and action are made up becomes secondary to creating something with a specific feel. Kudos to Stare Down - one of my favorite shows.

Things with the Actual Theater Project have stalled and that's totally my doing - I have the next set of papers to file sitting on my desk and I will be working on them today - I swear. I can't really express how much I want the paperwork part of things to be done with but it's somewhere right around how much I want to stop being the person that always talks about this thing I going to do "someday".

I've been trying to stay on track writing down my thoughts for a training document for technicians in the weird area that is improvised tech and I find it exciting even when I have to wonder if there's even people out there that want to care about it besides me. Jill has been bravely nudging me to stay on the project, which is easy to put on the back burner (which is pretty full of other things since you can move an infinite amount of things to the back of this magical stovetop without having to shuffle something else to the front..... perhaps a new metaphor is needed) and I'm stoked about the direction it's taking and regardless of any impact it may have I'll be glad to get it out of my system.
Jill - keep on me.
People that want to learn what I'm trying to teach - ask where it is.

In the meantime - Nels' return has put some fire under some other improv projects (improjects?) that need time and attention - including starting talks of Creature Feature as well as our NEW show, currently on the baord to start this winter. Trying to give shows enough time, effort and eneergy to launch them right is a new process for us and I think we'll be much happier with the results.

At the same time we're also getting workshop/class offerings ready to go so this organization can start to take on a more complete and cohesive plan of attack. While this isn't exactly the specifics of what we're doing know that once we have concrete details to announce, everyone will hear about them.

and, HOLY SHIT - the message boards at Minneapolisimprov.com have come back to life!!
Long before we had weekly gatherings or even regular shows this was the place where people that improvise in the Twin Cities would hang out online and where our community grew for a long time - it's back and you should join in, performer, audience member or otherwise.
Go to www.minneapolisimprov.com and waste work-hours with us!

The other end of business is the quickly approaching, almost upon us monster that is the Renaissance Festival - which is following the typical patterns the Festival always follows of being poorly (or at best extremely loosely) organized, governed by insane whims of a guy that doesn't understand, or give one warm crap about, things like "entertainment" and the communication one gets from the office as a performer is something like talking to a coma patient - you know they're in there somewhere but you're going to do all the talking and you should get used to that.

After some wondering how it was going to turn out George and I did get our contracts and I'm very much looking forward to just getting out there and playing on the street and getting face to face with that audience again. All the rest is bullshit - some of it deliberate and malicious, some of it thoughtless and accidental, but bullshit all the same.

I'm going to play.
Because, clearly, I don't have any work to do.

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.

The Man, he stepped up to the microphone and he gave it a kiss...

stuff from across the board as I get ready to leave town tomorrow-

You know that nagging feeling that you're forgetting something? Today I'm walking around with the feeling that I'm forgetting almost everything and yet can't put my finger on it. Perhaps this blast of things currently residing in my brain will give some understanding and maybe even relief to that feeling.

today I pushed the 'self destruct' button on my myspace account and it feels good.
Now to migrate IAGG and TCIF information off that goddamn site so I can never touch it again.
Ryan, if you're reading this send me an email just so we can establish contact outside of myspace.

the responses I got both here and privately from yesterday's blog were all super-encouraging and some were a little concerned. I'm not about to throw my kids to the wind just to prove the value of being fearless but I'm going to strike more of a balance and stop using the 'well I have a family to think about' justification when what I really mean is 'this is really terrifying'. That is all.

the teenager sent me a text telling me to 'get hit by a bus' when he didn't get what he wanted yesterday. I might consider throwing him to the wind but that would teach a much different lesson.

the improv theater project now officially has the working title of "Actual Improv Theater" until the day it opens and stops being my imaginary improv theater. Had an awesome meeting last night to get the Actual Improv Theater organization forming and already it started some ideas bubbling up. My consultant on the project warned me that she emails constantly, instantly and at all hours, meaning she's the perfect candidate to work with me already.

If someone out there can help me get this website put together in a huge hurry that would be awesome. it has been sitting on my to-do list for a long long time and it's one of those that I haven't given time to and it weighs me down but there's no good time to pause all the other things I've started to devote the time it needs. So I'm asking for help so I can get it done and checked off. any takers, email me. It's a fun site and mostly done. Just need to put the pieces together.

I DO NOT USE THE GMAIL ACCOUNT LISTED ON THIS BLOG - EVER
Please do not send mail there. I get my fivemanjob.com mail everywhere I go.

tomorrow, very early in the morning, I leave for a gig in Las Vegas. I haven't had time to unwind from the last trip, much less get prepared or even excited for the Vegas trip. It's work. It's a trip to Vegas. It'll hit me sometime after I step off the plane tomorrow morning.

that's the burst of information that will serve as a blog until I settle down a little later.
In the office trying to get everything I need for the trip...oh yeah. I'm taking another trip.

rarely do I do the whole 'posting song lyrics' thing other than my post titles but the song Arnie by Primus came up on shuffle and it is a rare kind of awesome and a really great little monologue and fits today perfectly.

"The Man, he stepped up to the microphone and he gave it a kiss
it was a big, wet, slippery kiss and he had sweat dripping off his nose onto the windscreen
As he looked out over the audience he said 'God bless you, God bless you one and all'

then he took the can of Rosignol lighter fluid, squirted over his head and proceeded to light himself on fire
And he stood there, glowing
and said
'Remember this Day'"

that about sums it up.