If you hook up the speakers, We'll bring the sound - and the music will be heard for miles and miles around

Anniversary of a show blog - 8 years

Last night was the 8th anniversary of one of my favorite things in the world - the Improv A Go Go
In the past we've tried to make the anniversary show a bigger deal or do something heavy-handed to thank everyone we possibly could but this year it just felt like the IAGG with a ton of extra energy and in some ways I like that so much more.
It seems like the only things I ever wish for with the show is that somehow we could do more - get more groups on stage, let more people into the theater. Sadly we are limited by time, the laws of physics and the fire codes. Sometimes we bend those limits a little.

It's difficult to narrow down the list of things I love about the show since the whole thing has taken on its own personality and the whole evening is just its own brand of fun, crazy, weird, loose madness. And I love it. From the time you walk in to someone from Five Man Job to greet you (and probably swear at you or say something that would make most customer service professionals cringe) to the vibe in the room when pack the place with people we see every week and people we've never seen before and everyone is excited to see what the hell is going to happen because they know it's going to be crazy awesome - the whole night always has that familiar feel and it's unlike any other.

It's just fun. It's punk-rock theater. It's rough around the edges. It's cheap. It's some of the best entertainment by some of the most talented people you're going to find anywhere. It feels like we got the keys to the amusement park and a shitload of our friends showed up. It's all about fun and nothing could possibly go wrong. It's our show. I love it.

Of course I have people that I owe thanks to - people that the show wouldn't be the same without
I have thanked them over and over and my thanks always feel small compared to how awesome this thing is.
They're there every week, some are almost never there and are still no less a part of the show being what it is today.

Everything we do is built on this weird foundation and being part of it reminds me what we're building and why.
Thank you all.

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.

I will work to elevate you just enough to bring you down

Wednesday holding pattern blog - 

today I am in the office, tomorrow I will be in Vegas, when I land I go straight to the IAGG 6th Anniversary show.  Guess which one of those three things is getting no attention at all today.

If you said anything other than 'work' please go read another blog.  We will never understand each other.

Yes, I'm getting ready to head back to Vegas, this time for fun.

The kids seem to be getting over the sickness that got into them enough to allow us to leave them behind mostly-guilt-free and hopefully the wife is fending off the same sickness just long enough to reach the curative desert air and the Seahorse bar for some medicinal booze.

I'm actually doing a fair job of getting things in order to leave town and relax for a while and dial down the email connectivity and Blackberry slavery.  Speaking of which....I'm pawning off what has become an 'extra' Blackberry thanks to our new overlords at work issuing us new tele-data-collars.  If you know anyone that would like a really sweet deal on a really sweet phone, contact me.  

the Tech workshop last night turned into more of an introduction to the tech booth so less headway was made than I had hoped but it's a start.  Some good came of it in the form of teaching people not only how to use the equipment in the booth but trying to also inject why to use equipment in the booth, trying to get better from the beginning instead of teaching new tricks later on.  It also got my brain spinning for the entire day yesterday on this weird thing that has become my specialty and finally got some words on the screen for what I hope will become a helpful text I've been talking about writing for some time.

Ah, manic energy pays off in little bursts again.

all that will have to wait until I get back.

As of 5am tomorrow morning I am in the sky on the way to Sin City.

While I am gone you should go see Punch Out on Friday night for what may be the final performance of Sir Laffs A Lot before Dan Hetzel departs for the West Coast this summer.

oh yeah, MITCH will be performing as well. 

Friday | 11pm  | $10

When I return it's right into the IAGG 6 Year Anniversary Show - Sunday at 8pm

Seriously, Get.  There.  Early.  

Don't give me sad stories when someone turns you away at 7:55 because the place is full, just do yourself a favor and plan to arrive early.  This show is going to be awesome and marks the official turning point as we shift into full-on Twin Cities Improv Festival mode from now until the end of June.

Drum Machine

Five Man Job

Ferrari McSpeedy

Gay/Straight Alliance

will be lighting the fuse.

I'm off to spend my work day thinking about what I'm going to ramble through during my mandatory 'thank you' on Sunday and how much my liver will be hurting while I do it.

outside of society is where I wanna be

Monday and time to wind-down blog -

this weekend was good and crazy and sometimes crazy-good.
Friday night's Punch Out was a good time and it was fun to be onstage as HUGE again even if i was the only person in the group that hadn't already been improvising all night and was stiff and it showed. The membership of HUGE seems to be set up to guarantee that we get together and perform only rarely but we need to step that up as we prepare to head to the Chicago Improv Festival to represent.

Chicago? Yes, HUGE is in the Chicago Improv Festival this year and if we had a regular outlet or coalesced as a group more often you'd hear about it more, I think.

Anyway, the set was fun and I think it was very much the HUGE style but felt rusty, like a bunch of people that are never all in the same place at the same time. 123 Improv had the same issue in their set but managed to turn it into the cornerstone of their form and it was pretty damn fun for the handful of people that were in attendance.

Punch Out has become the super-fun show that fills me with doubts about what I've decided to devote lots of time and energy (and probably money) to in my near future, even though it's also full of really encouraging moments and really solid performances it's hard not to get weighed down by the difficulty in drawing a gi-normous crowd on a Friday night.
On one hand we've been spoiled at IAGG into forgetting that shows don't normally start out with close to a hundred people in attendance and have to grow into a regular thing for audiences to find. On the other hand I know we're running a show with essentially a staff and marketing crew of almost none, and the people that are in charge of promoting the show are also up to their eyes doing other shows so I have to take credit for setting up a show for a tough road to less-than-overwhelming success.

I can tell myself these things all I want, I'm still spoiled by IAGG and performing in front of 25 people feels weird.   Boo Hoo.

This Friday MITCH takes on (what could be the final performance of) Sir Laffs A Lot
11pm | $10 | Brave New Workshop - Proceeds go to the Twin Cities Improv Festival

the IAGG Anniversary show is upon us. Holy Shit.
Why did I not remind myself to freak out about this sooner?!
I love this show every year just for the strangeness of it all - typically what happens is Five Man Job does a normal set and everyone else some something really insane for the occasion and the whole thing feels somehow more like playtime than the rest of the year.  It's nice to get up and really enjoy the thing that is spoiling us as performers the rest of the year.

Seriously, if you want any chance of getting a seat for the show you need to get there early.  Our audience usually arrives en masse five minutes to show time every week (from the very first show on, they're amazingly consistent) but this show is going to be big and we'll end up squeezing everyone we can into the room (often on the anniversary show we pack the hallways and even have people watching through the doorway in the lobby) and then turning people away with apologies.  I really would like it if everyone that showed up could get in but we all know that isn't possible. 

I will stammer on and on about this during plug-time at the show Sunday but this thing we have in the Twin Cities is pretty remarkable and I'm going to spend the week stressing about how best to say thank you for it and for 6 really incredible years. 

alright - time to do my "job"

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.

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.

where's the shadow government when you need them??

Just some random things that didn't fit into this morning's blog -

I am super stoked for Punch Out - Adorable vs. Drum Machine.
have you gotten sick of hearing about it? great. be there. When the Punch Out has been running for a couple years I will mellow out about it, just like with the IAGG. So let's make that the deal. Deal? Great.
I'm still crazy excited about this show.

I am not looking forward to losing Dan from Five Man Job - he's always a source of the weird and we won't be the same without him. He and I have been improvising together in one form or another longer than almost anyone else.

I cannot wait for the new Five Man Job - this group has gone through so many changes it almost doesn't make sense to keep the name but we've always kept the same sort of vibe and energy and I think that's pretty awesome. this time will be no different - only awesome-r. no pressure.

my kids are so crazy cute and smart and with the weather warming up I just want to spend my days at home with them playing outside. I have to settle for small increments of time after work/before bedtime. tonight the boys came outside with me to 'do some jobs' and played happily while I was shoveling gravel again. Aidan came over and helped me hoist the shovel and said
"I bet you didn't know I was super strong....because I have calcium EVERY day!"

that is all.

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.

for those of Us....Us of lesser Gods

Happy Birthday to Lauren Anderson - 

Yesterday was a strange day on all sides, beginning with the grey, crappy weather that seemed to be weighing everyone down and the completely surreal experience of having to take my kiddo in for drug testing and ending with a pretty damn awesome show.  In between all that my mother-in-law (who is also my next door neighbor) got a brand new 9 week old German Shepard puppy named Gracie that should just be names "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, Who's a cutie??" because that's all she's going to hear for a while.

Had an alright rehearsal with Adorable and Five Man Job, which we've doing for awhile together and everyone was in that same funk and just unable to shake up any sort of energy to really throw into things, except for Josh, who uses the fact that we're all low energy to just go over the top (as if we're usually getting in his way).  

The line "it is the Cow Of Demons, as there is no Spanish word for 'steed'" was just too much for me.

Five Man Job things are funky, both exciting and kind of a downer with Dan's departure and the addition of a new member.  We've got a few weeks at the IAGG coming up to get ready for TCIF and then the Festival itself to really rock the paint off the walls with Dan and I'm stoked.

Sex & Aggression had a super fun set last night followed by Aric and Corey doing what may have been the funniest thing I have seen in years.  After their set my ribcage hurt from laughing so hard and I seriously couldn't watch the end of the show because I think I blew that fuse, I was just done laughing for a while.  It was awesome and I wont belabor it (since reading about comedy is like listening to ballet) beyond pointing out that is what I love about improv - if you were there you got the biggest laugh in a long long time and if you missed out it will never happen again, which makes it even cooler for the people that saw it.  or it should.

but the big news is the confirmation I got from the BNW on Punch Out - if it does well we can look forward to more of them.  So it's on you now, people.  If you want to have another show which gives more stage to more improvisers ( I know I do ) - it's time to step up.  that's the deal.

Vaudeville With A Pig vs. The Gay Straight Alliance.  

Friday at 11pm |  $10  |

In other show news - Mike, Dan and I are performing Total Bullshit at the Monday Night Comedy Show on the 14th and 21st and I'm both very excited and kind of nervous to see how our crap flies with a different audience.  I really like that show.  Those of you that have spent more than 2 minutes with me know I like telling a good story and even though I've never thought of myself doing "spoken word" or "stand-up" this is a really comfortable cross between the two and I enjoy the hell out of it.  

time to work.

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.

and I got all I got all despite you....and I do what I do just to spite you

is it really only Thursday ?

Yesterday's burst of productivity was actually a good demonstration of relativity as I was working so fast that time seems to have slowed down around me, now that I'm back to normal I have become dislocated in my week as I was positive today was at least Friday, if not Saturday the 12th.  Hopefully I can keep the pace up without crossing over into some wicked  spaghettification.  That would be hard to justify on a workers-comp claim.

In any case - the Twin Cities Improv Festival schedule is done and the website is getting re-launched this weekend-ish.

TCIF Merchandise is coming - hope to have it by Punch Out or IAGG this weekend.  bring cash.

your $15 goes directly to supporting the TCIF, as does all the proceeds from Punch Out so you get a kick-ass show and a pretty sweet t-shirt in exchange for bringing more kick-ass shows to your town.  What a deal.

if you're on myspace please visit my profile and steal the Punch Out image and put it up as your profile pic to help us get the word out.  simple.  free.  almost effortless.  This is what science has wrought.

IAGG schedule is done for the summer and posted here  

This season's lineup is actually the most varied I have ever seen, there were groups that made it in that I've never heard of so I'm stoked.  Got a couple grumpy people already but there's only so much we can do, we do try and give everyone the fairest deal possible but there's always people that don't get picked that want it to be 'fairer', by which they mean 'not fair at all' by asking us to compromise the neutrality of the process.

We do what we can the best way we can see.

Working working working.

Getting a lot done in a very short amount of time and the singularity is coming into focus.

I will now convince myself that I am getting grey hair because I am moving forward in time in huge leaps, which seems at least cooler than just getting too old to do this forever.

the guys in the office are shooting NERF Darts at Frisbees they throw across the studio and yelling "PULL!"

work work work