AC4: Saturday (Part I)

Linda Williams from KC wanted to have a quick pow-wow in the morning with managers and full-time comedy employees, and somehow I ended up there. Richard Gardner, who owns ComedyWorx, Christine Walters and Eric Mays from Comedy Alley, and Linda and Clancy Hathaway from Comedy City. We mostly rapped about marketing, longform, and comedy summercamps for kids. Comedy Alley has a great gig going with their arena football team– they swapped ad space and promotions, and do things for each other. Comedy Alley folks appear at the Speed football games, and the dance team for the Speed appears in Comedy Alley’s ComedySportz shows. (I went up one weekend for that because Christine was light on people. I expected the experience to be difficult but it was great and really positive.) They also swap seats for shows and games and what not. A really nice package. Christine and Eric also hooked up with the Richmond Braves for a similar deal.

By noon, the high school leaguers started rolling in, so we wrapped up the chat and started setting up for the Richmond HS league vs. the Raleigh HS league. Our group was really pumped– they’re only 12 weeks into their improv careers, and they were getting the chance to perform in a tournament. It was neat to see that kind of awe and freshness. I think everyone else there was excited, but those guys really ate it up. They responded with great listening, better patience than they have previously displayed, and complete trust in Jeremy Hardwick, who sat in with them for the show. I was proud.

The Richmond HS’ers were more polished. All three– Mesha McDermott, Megan Graham, and Danny Clingenpool– played with Christine and Eric in other shows throughout the weekend. I would have crapped myself to do that stuff at 17.

4/5 of Meat Lodge was in the 4:45 show as Team New York. We had a chance to play against the Raleigh posse for that show, and during our warmups, we really got going on a Raleigh warmup called Potpourri… a mish-mash of calls and responses that have been created over the years. Anthony, Dan, and Charlie pulled out a couple of oldies that I had not seen in years, and we got fired up! Everyone else in the room asked us to teach them the game sometime, which I’m afraid we can’t! It wouldn’t have the same effect! You have to create your own.

There was a really loose feeling about playing with Team New York, even in the shortform show. It never felt like reaching, and we played goofy stuff. (Our Game-O-Matic, which was titled “Ooooo,” ended up being a chance to pimp the audience. It was a situation where everyone involved had a blast, fully cognizant that the improv we were doing was not too many steps up from a game in which everyone just falls down repeatedly.) It confirmed that Anthony King is my favorite person in the world to play with.

The Green Bay gang played with Austin/Kansas City in the second half of that show. I generally tend to think of pixies as being women, but Dan Walsh is definitely pixie-ish. I laughed a ton. Lots of silliness.

Had a 70’s porno moment today.

No, I wasn’t looking at 70’s porno.

I was out mowing the lawn in 95 degree heat, so I had the shirt off, suntan lotion on, and was nasty nasty. The neighbor chick from across the street rolls out while I’m mowing the patch nearest her house. She’s wearing a tiny pair of shorts and a tank top, and she starts watering her flowers. Bending over a lot. Ass in the air, or deliberately looking up at me. If she didn’t live with the creepiest guy in the neighborhood, I would have gone over there for sheer comic value. But I do have a thing against finding my dick in the bathtub and a creepy neighbor standing over me with scissors. Which seems eminently possible with this guy.

Aced the interviews with all 3 people from PriceWaterhouse Coopers today. That felt really good. Then the Hurricanes beat the Devils 2-1 and the ESA was hopping.

A definite 70’s porno day. Yeah. (Well, not really, since I didn’t bang any of the interviewers. But almost.)