the savage mutilation of the human race is set on course

it's Metal Friday blog - 

there is just some weird kind of anarchy in the air today, woke up to the maniacal laughter of the twins down the hall, which was unsettling.  I'm glad they wake up happy and all, if only I knew it wasn't because they get each other so riled up that someone or something is going to get slammed in a door, tossed down the stairs or otherwise broken.

Turns out they were playing in their bathroom, filling up bath toys in the sink and spraying water all over the place.  That was a nice way to start today.

Little fucking Hellions.

I was pondering taking a home office day until I realized that there was no coffee in the house.  There is, however, coffee in the office so the office won.....for now.  Once I'm more caffeinated I may have the energy to break free and thanks to it being METAL FRIDAY in our office again I can guarantee I'll be in the mood to sit at a desk very very little today.

Ah, Rocket Queen.  

I'm pouring a cup of coffee, doing imaginary work long enough for it to kick in, rocking out and then heading home to play with the kids before Punch Out.

Mustache Rangers vs Family Night (Hannah and Doug N from CSZ) - are you kidding me!! - it's going to be completely awesome.

11pm | $10 | Brave New Workshop

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"

People make noises when they're sick

another blog typed with shaking fingers -

tonight is opening night of the kids' circus show and you have never seen cute like 20 preschoolers dressed in sparkling cowboy outfits doing trapeze and tumbling. I am excited for them and I think it will go well, even though Monday's dress rehearsal confirmed that Aidan (and probably Owen, but mostly Aidan) will be addicted to applause for the rest of his life. A switch was flipped in his powerful little brain with 300 people cheering for him. It was adorable and terrifying. Watching Aidan get the pre-show jitters filled me with a lot of 'that's my boy' empathy.

the show I have NO jitters about:
HUGE destroys 123 IMPROV!! this Friday at Punch Out - it will also be adorable and terrifying. HUGE is bringing in several priests and pastors from several denominations to forgive us for the malicious assault we will lay down on 123 IMPROV.
11PM | Brave New Workshop | $10

things with the teenager suck:
I'm pretty sure things always suck with teenagers and that's just the nature of the universe so on one hand bitching about it seems stupid, as if it is somehow unique and noteworthy. But of course, the only way to diffuse insanity of that level is to share it. So I do.

I drove the boy home from his counselor to his grandmother's house where he is staying and trying have a reasonable conversation is difficult at best, you basically just have to pretend he isn't spouting off ridiculous, intentionally hurtful statements and just keep on talking about how much you care about the kid.

Basically the argument, which I have boiled down to key themes instead of quoting him verbatim, he (and probably all teens) sets up is "You're against me!" - and levels that at all the people that support, defend and take care of him no matter what.
When you (sanely) say "No, no I'm not" you have sprung the teen-logic trap. the fact that it's the only sane and true reply doesn't matter
"See, you're fighting me!"
and so it goes, round and round.
it is a core feeling that you are the enemy and pointing out that you are not the enemy only verifies that you are at odds with his core beliefs, and therefore his enemy.
All he wants to hear is that we're proud of him and support him, and all he wants to do is things we know we will not be proud of or support, if only to see the limits of our attachment to him (which aren't there) or to show himself that he has found some kind of independence in doing something we reject. It isn't pleasant to be part of.
the break is good, having the boy out of the house to not fight for a while is good. the house feels more relaxed and there isn't this horrible looming tension around the place at the end of the night when you clench your teeth and just try to get to the end of the day without an explosive fight. That isn't there and it feels much better.
But at the same time I feel guilty feeling so much better that he's gone, I don't like the fact that my boy can't live at home and don't want to throw a party (like the one I will when he moves out for the right reasons...oh yes) even though the relief borders on ecstatic.
There are mixed emotions.
Today's keyword is understatement.

on the other insane side of this shitty coin is Anthony's mother - who stopped by this morning to drop off money she owes us for child support and decided to stay and ask about the teenager, basically 'what's his problem' and 'what are you guys doing about it' and 'I should talk to him'
and it took everything I had to just keep getting the twins dressed for school and let the wife field these things (she's the brave one that answers the door, it's best for everyone...except the wife. for this alone I love her) without jamming my finger into her eyeball and pointing out that his "problem" is a complete lack of self esteem and severe emotional trauma caused by HER, the idea that she wants to talk parenting strategies is the most offensive thing I have ever heard and Anthony needs ten minutes alone with her in a room with a claw hammer, not a fucking lecture from her on how he's screwing up.

but, thankfully, I didn't. I wanted to. I still want to. I am shaking with anger.
the only thing that stops the above scenario from happening is the simple fact that she is insane and pointing out that she's a fucking horrible person that deserves the hate of her teenage son for what she did to him (instead of us, who actually have to put up with his anger instead of thanks for protecting him) will only result in.....nothing. because she is insane.
you can have all the sane, valid points in the world. you're still talking to a crazy person and they will still hear it with their crazy brain and spit out a crazy response instead of feeling the pain I want her so badly to feel. So I don't.

Besides, the twins don't need to know what kind of evil and rage their dad is capable of pointing at another human being.
they have a show to focus on.
I have work to do.

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.

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.

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.