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.

everything is all I have to give you and I'm afraid it's not enough

restless blog -

I spend a little too much time thinking about the Improv Theater Project that I've been saying is in the works for some time, I also spend a lot of time dwelling on all the reasons why it can't be done right now or why it has to wait just a little longer and how it's a risky thing to attempt for someone raising kids and trying to support a family.

I don't spend nearly enough time on the realization that all of those things are counter to what I believe deep down and that making decisions based on those things disagrees with me on a basic level and breeds a lot of agitation and unhappiness. I am unhappy with my lack of progress up to this point, not because something is stopping me but for the reasons I am stopping myself.

Ironic that with improv we preach saying 'yes' and not moving from a place of fear, listening to your inspiration and acting on it and yet I've been stuck with my feet in the starting blocks for a long time just waiting for the right time to jump and not doing it out of fear. Obviously the world doesn't operate on improv theory and there are self-preservation skills you wont find in the utopian idea of everyone chasing their dreams without looking both ways for traffic. But... if I didn't think there was something to it I wouldn't be doing it and I have a hard time teaching those ideas to people while not toeing the line myself. This is the lesser of the two unsettling realities but still worth mentioning.

Even more strange is what I've been doing to protect my kids - the exact same things people have always done to protect their kids, I've been trying to make sure they have everything they need to be anything they want and not giving them the example of what that looks like. In fact I'm showing them that they can't do the things I'm telling them they can do. Not if they want to have all the things they associate with happiness and think adults should reach for - a home, a family and all the stability that you need to build those things on.

We recognize that our children learn how to live from us the same way we did from our parents and we often get stuck repeating the same patterns over generations - and yet any attempts to break out of the rut just end up digging it deeper. I'm sure my parents (who probably read this blog) had things they wanted to chase that didn't make sense when you have a family to think of, things they put aside in order to give me the stability I would need to stand on to make the big jump and take the big risks. I'm on the edge and I pull back, not wanting to risk the stability my kids need to stand on to make their big jump.

My kids aren't learning how to step out and take the risks they need to, when to bet big and throw the dice and take the big chances from parents that refuse to gamble. They're learning that they can be anything they want as long they do it while they're young and before it's too late - like their parents did(n't). And yet the things their parents did made them happy as kids and they're going to want their kids to happy...the same pattern that sets them up for the unsettling choice between their dreams and their stability and we're also telling them which the answer should be when the time comes for them to choose...even if they don't like it.

Not the first time in my adult life I find myself at the same choice. and I don't like it.

We whisper in their ears that they can be anything in this world, to take the big risks and reach for it no matter what - but we show them that if they reach too far they might lose the hand they need to feed their kids.

I'm hoping to do better.

keep your lip stiff, keep you fists clenched

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday morning blog -  stuff from all over the place

the weekend in quick review:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

stupid retrospect.

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

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

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

anyway - happy as hell.  

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

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

8PM - at the Beat - $3

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I meant I was typing really fast.

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

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.