01-03-2003 09:10 AM
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Woke Up, Got Out of Bed

I spent last night having horrible dreams that my father had died. When I woke up, they seemed so real that I wasn’t sure that they had been dreams, and it took me a few minutes to rationally tell myself how I spent yesterday… it wasn’t making arrangements for a funeral.

What’s scary is the realization that when my father passes, those arrangements will fall to me. That’s something that I feel should be hard to accept– that as he gets older, I am becoming his primary support system, and I’m not much of one at all. But it’s not hard to accept; it was like I woke up with the knowledge, but it had been there for a long time.

Yesterday was my 28th birthday, which I spent in fantastic manner– doing a fat lot of nothing. Heidi and I made the terrible mistake of actually seeing I-Spy at the dollar theater, and spent the rest of the afternoon wondering what the hell happened to Eddie Murphy. Man, that movie was horrible. Almost Blue Crush bad. Shit, maybe even worse.

Leo gave me a My Little Pony with “Loser” written along the sides and “Ross” written on the ass as a monument to the Tank Wars loser pony that I still have. We immediately decided that we have to have a LAN party to dispense the Tank Wars pony, especially now that I have my own permanent pony. (It’s been a few years since the last Tank Wars, and I can’t remember what the winner takes home. I won once, and only had the pony once… I just happened to have the pony after the last time we played.)

The LAN party works well with my overall ambition to get Bryan to move out of Kim’s and get out of his horrible relationship. Maybe if he moves some of his shit out of her place he’ll be less inclined to stay there every night. It’s amazing that he can be so unhappy and so inert, but I guess I did it while I was with Rebecca. Jesus, never again.

01-04-2003 07:39 PM
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Your Own Personal Jesus

Working on Saturdays is lame when you have to do a 9-5 during the week. In retail, it never bothered me at all. But now that I have a desk job, I start thinking that Saturday work is an infringement.

That said, we met with the AP teachers in Winston-Salem today and they were all gushy about the good job we are doing for them. So that felt nice.

Toba’s Revenge debuted last night as a four-piece, Tom having quit the group this week. I think it was the certainty of a show that did him in, which makes me sad, because I think he would have been fine but I don’t think he really believed that.

Toba’s did great work for a first show! The group games really surprised me, despite the fact that they had been set before the show (that made me sad, because I really wanted them to trust in themselves enough to see what the moment presented). They opened with scene painting, did a pattern game for the first group game, and then the “give the walk” exercise– into the audience– for the second. When they started the give the walk, I was so confused, since I’d never presented it as a group game, per se. But when I realized what they were doing, and that they weren’t working towards a scene but just heightening, heightening, heightening, I was astounded. It was phenomenal, and the audience loved it. I was beaming in that moment.

They still have a long way to go, particularly with second beats, but Toba’s Revenge is going to get better and better in their run this month.

Typhoid Mary also debuted, and they were great too! You can see where Jim Woods and Eric Hunicutt gave them some excellent feedback in practices the past few weeks. They look like they will really come together as a group in the coming weeks as well.

The coolest thing was the excitement that two Harolds generated in the club– after the show, the atmosphere was very positive, and it was the first time that I’ve felt the ZYGOTE was really achieving the mission that I’d set forth– being a change agent.

I’m really content in that sense.

01-07-2003 02:38 PM
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Bandages on My Legs and My Arms From You

On the 2nd, I got this e-mail from Peter O’Bryan, who just took level 2 at ComedyWorx (he and his wife hosted the kickass bonfires):

Quote:
Happy Birthday.
Do you want bookshelves.
You shall have bookshelves.
Do you have the means to transport them, or do you wish them delivered?
They are pretty.
They are nice.
Happy Birthday.
Happy Birthday.
You see, Pete and Jen’s house is wall-to-wall bookshelves. It’s awesome… library-sized bookshelves everywhere. I had made a comment about how great the shelves were, and they told me that they’d bought an entire lot from state surplus and had tons of extras. So I mentioned I would gladly buy a couple sets from them.

Well, at the LAN party Sunday, they delivered the first set of shelves, nine feet of dark wooden book-holding take-no-prisoners ass-kicking. Well, that’s hyperbole, but they look really damn nice in the living room and I am stoked to death. Getting a huge new fixture like that (and being able to fill it) makes the whole house feel new again.

Now I have to go read all those damn books.

01-07-2003 11:25 PM
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Finally Someone Let Me Out of My Cage

Excerpts from the notes I gave Toba’s Revenge after their first show. Much of it is regurgitation from classes at UCB this summer. But it’s nice to look at.

Jokes kill the reality of the scene, keeping you from building something more meaningful that the audience can connect with.

But while we work for the audience, we don’t work for the audience at all! If you are primarily concerned with pleasing the audience, you are not doing the work for the right reasons. Do the best improv you can, and have fun, and I promise you that the audience will enjoy it.

When we scene paint, remember that the details build the mood. You don’t need to comment about things… give us the details and let us draw the conclusions. Like good fiction, a scene painting will show instead of telling.

You did absolutely the right thing to drop the pretense of playing dumb and own up to smoking. When in doubt, confess!

Remember, longform is about relationship, because we’re never gonna see enough of the plot to have a satisfying end.

Edit! Edit! Edit!

If Sarah knows what you think, what else does she know? Get caught!

When you have weird things going on around you, call out the fact that it’s weird… We seek to understand, and the search for understanding fuels what our characters do in longform.

Why turn away from the fun of the scene? Is it because you felt like you might be breaking the rules of improv that you’ve been taught? There are no rules, as long as you can agree.

So if you thought a pattern game wouldn’t be interesting or engaging in a show, consider yourself proven wrong, no? But why? Because you committed to it, and you made it work.

Toba’s Revenge is going to have an absolutely awesome run in the month of January.

01-08-2003 04:41 PM
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Wish Upon a Star Together

The Anna Waronker record came by mail today, and I couldn’t wait to give it a listen. I :love: Anna Waronker, and not because she’s nekkid on the cover of her record.

I have a lunch meeting Tuesday with Paul Frellick, who is the president and artistic director of Deep Dish Theater, to discuss getting some longform shows booked in Chapel Hill through Deep Dish and DSI. It would be cool as all get-out to bring longform to the mall, which is where Deep Dish is currently quartered. Not because I love the mall, but putting longform in front of a new audience– and the mall in Chapel Hill would be a new audience indeed– is exciting.

I have noticed my tendency to overuse the words “cool” and “awesome” in this journal because I just don’t feel motivated to write beautiful prose every time I want to dash off a quick entry to catalog that moment’s thoughts. If you have a good synonym for “cool” and “awesome,” please let me know.

Bryan King stayed at home last night for the first time in a year. Kim stayed too, but baby steps, baby steps.

01-09-2003 11:24 PM
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The Question is How Fast

Bryan King is staying at the house once again. He tells Anthony that this is because “all the computers are there.” I stayed home sick today becasue I haven’t been able to wake up all week and have been dragging and crabby. Bryan blew off work mid-day and we played Starcraft.

I want to know what a kind of geek is. But then, maybe I do not want to.

Heidi and I watched “Y Tu Mama Tambien” tonight, and we both hated it. I was way disappointed, after having heard so many good things about it.

I bought a digital camera online, after the one I tried to buy through half.com didn’t work out (order was cancelled because the guy was on vacation). I think I ended up with a better deal… I bought a Sony DSC-71. I’m really hopeful. It had all the features I wanted when I looked on Digital Photography Review.

01-11-2003 11:45 AM
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Stroll to the Edge of the World

Wo hen gao xing. Despite the fact that the Canes are blowing hard and losing to just about anyone they can lose to. Which is unusual, since I have lived and died by this team.

I am impressed with people who can get 30 stitches to the face and be back for the next game, fully aware that it would be really easy for a stick to get up under that face shield and rip shit up again. I am just not cut from that same fabric– I seek to avoid pain whenever possible. I may have the lowest pain threshold of anyone I know.

Somewhere in the next few days I will hit my one year anniversary of looking at the IRC. I was a lurker for a while before I registered and began posting. It’s amazing how much a message board has been good for me, but this journal is probably the single best thing I have done in the past year. Well, maybe the second-best thing; sending Heidi an e-mail saying I would be at her house for hugs the day I found out that she was back in the Triangle has to rank pretty high on the list.

01-12-2003 11:57 PM
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You Must Die; I Alone Am Best

Another LAN party. Good group today: Nathan Garrett, the O’Bryans, Philip Boyne, David Carbonell, Ben Moser, Amos Brown, Ben’s roomie Derek, and Bryan. Bryan King is moved back in, that’s for certain. Talking about decorating his room and wiring the house. Talking about upgrading my computer again so he can’t blame my computer when he beats me at whatever game.

Salsa dancing last night. I didn’t think anyone would ever get me to enjoy dancing, but Heidi and I had a blast. I want to go again. Perspective: broadened. I’m sickeningly in love.

01-13-2003 11:59 PM
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Part of This

It just so happens that I seem to be fairly unoccupied during Heidi’s spring break, so we think we would like ot go somewhere. We’ve kinda pokingly looked at Austin, Mexico, Vancouver… still not sure. Somewhere she’s never been would be preferred.

Who knows where we will end up?

She had a horrible day in classes, so I spent the later parts of the evening cheering her up. Think I managed. Sick, sick happiness!

01-14-2003 10:17 AM
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Everything’s About to Go Away, For Real This Time, and No One’s Watching

…and the winner is: New York City. Heidi’s only been there once, and for three days at that, so she’s never truly been there. We’ll be up March 12-16; as soon as my supervisor OKs the days, I’m buying the tickets.

Please dear lord let me not have cursed this by saying “as soon as my supervisor OKs the days” instead of “if.”

So we will head up with the agreement that she doesn’t have to watch nearly as improv as I plan to and I’ll be up and about for more sightseeing than I would normally do, which is pretty much none since I hate to sight-see. Heidi warns me that I’ve never travelled with her (as did her pal Julie, who was in China with her); she likes to see and do “everything,” in Julie’s words, “in as short an amount of time as possible.” This will no doubt kill me.

As long as I see The Swarm. Though I’m really hoping to see The Office, Dr. Awesome, and My Kickass Van. And hell, about 100 other things.

01-14-2003 11:56 PM
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Like a Good Canary

Toba’s Revenge

The digital camera came today! A new toy! As Bill Cochran puts it, I must be “part Asian,” because I love to have new toys and gadgets. (I have not found this to be true of Asians in general, but most of the Asian improvisers I know–admittedly a small group– are gadget junkies.)

Talked to ryloc a little about the possibility of teaching a workshop series in Salt Lake City over a weekend. That would be cool if it happened, though I won’t get my hopes up there. If not, I hope they seriously look into Jill Bernard, who’s at least sort of in the same area of the country and is wonderful.

Toba’s had the most kick-ass practice today.

And I met with Paul Frellick today to talk about DSI at Deep Dish, a subject I haven’t written much about in the journal but am very excited about.

01-15-2003 12:31 PM
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The Results of A Thousand Electric Volts

“Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex, intelligent behaviors. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple, stupid behaviors.” –Dee Hack

True for business… I have taped it to my wall to remind me to keep it simple for the Help Desk. But also true for improv, especially teaching.

Linda sent this picture of some of the NCT gang at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in KC in November. Fun!

01-16-2003 10:27 AM
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How They Stick In Your Throat

I wrote a long, long rant today. Now I’m all worked up about education.

The Hurricanes dropped another heartbreaker last night to the Penguins. I’m less worked up for hockey.

I’m trying to drink more water and less soda. I realized last night on the way to the game that I had not had a single glass of water all day and I’d had three Cokes. And here I was wondering why I was tired and achy. Duh.

CeCe finds out today if she got into CHiPs (fingers crossed), and David Carbonell is working on a flyer for Toba’s Revenge auditions with the following picture (despite my attempts to dissuade him):

So is it better to be loved and publicly shamed than never to be loved at all?

01-19-2003 11:32 PM
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As Deep As the Ocean

So, salsa dancing again Saturday night. Again, it was good fun, though I like the cumbia less than the salsa and merengue. I went in for their membership despite the fact that boys always have to pay the cover because I can get free lessons Sundays at 6, which is actually a pretty good time for me to go over there once or twice and get some lessons. I am having a hard time shaking my ass appropriately, as I have little ass to speak of.

I really never thought that I would worry so much about how my ass looks.

The O’Bryans went with us, which was cool because it’s the only real set of couple friends that we have. I have genrally disliked the concept of couple friends, but this has largely to do with the fact that I wasn’t really in a couple for quite some time and when I was, it was with someone who was hard to be friends with. (It wasn’t until a conversation this weekend that I realized just how anti-social and awkward Rebecca was, despite all her best intentions.) But Pete and Jen are good people, I hang out at Mojoes with them when Heidi’s not around, and I really, really, really hope that we aren’t excluding other people in any way.

Friday night’s Toba’s show: they improved on some of the things that they really needed to improve on. This is a team that needs to stay together because when the light really goes on, they will rock out.

St. Louis City Improv has RSVPed for the AC4, which raised Richard’s eyebrow because they have a poor history with Comedy City in Kansas City. They started as an offshoot of that club and at some point they parted ways and continued doing improv. No one’s ever told me much more than that they had some bad blood a few years ago, I’m friendly with both groups, and they both wanted to come. So we’ll see how that shakes out.

01-20-2003 05:36 PM
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The Dark Side’s Light

Started a five-day training in Raleigh for DPI today. I’m kinda impressed that these people wanted to get my training so badly that they would give up a holiday for it. They were really motivated and into it, which made it really pleasant to work with them.

Heidi’s dad is here at her place to eat dinner, which will either be weird or fun, depending. I am currently “checking in at work,” which Heidi knows to be code for “reading a day’s worth of IRC that I missed.” Ric has brought some Canes merchandise that he found in a Winn-Dixie in Siler City for $3, and it’s damn nice.

The O’Bryans’ friend Veronica has asked me if I wouldn’t mind reviewing her book for the Carolina Quarterly, which would be fine by me. The whole freelance writing thing is a shitload of fun; I wonder if I can one day parlay it into a paying hobby. Or hell, maybe better. Reviewing poetry books was hard for me, especially after seeing some of the other reviews that came in for that feature, since I consider myself decidedly un-academic.

01-21-2003 06:28 PM
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Don’t Let Me Out of Your Sight

THE ZYGOTE is pretty much booked through June, with a weekend here and there up for grabs, which is a very cool feeling. We just have a lot of people who want to perform there. So nice to have an outpouring of support for something like this all of a sudden, when it was like pulling teeth in November and December.

Talked to Anthony to see how his show went and he was very happy with it and completely grateful for all the support from the UCBT community. I’m not surprise that it went well; knowing Anthony, I am sure it was stellar. He doesn’t do bad work. And he put so much into that show– I remember some of those monologs percolating in different forms in the past few years. I really want to see the show, which he’ll do at the AC4. EX-cellent.

No word from my boss on whether I can go to Utah. I will call him tomorrow. I really wanna go!

Heidi is talking about a six-week field study this summer, maybe in Mexico, maybe in Africa. Who knows where she will end up? Wherever it is, I’ll have to make a decision on whether I want to go see her there or go to Amsterdam with her to see Jim and tour around Europe some. I hate to travel. I hate to travel. I am so retarded. New experiences are good. I hate to travel.

More to say… perhaps when I get home from coaching Toba’s!

01-22-2003 09:34 PM
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Into a Timeless, Placeless Place

Salt Lake City, here I come.

Boom!

01-23-2003 05:27 PM
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Kilimanjaro Rises

Snow this morning: about two inches on the ground. Of course, the entire state of North Carolina shut down, but luckily the participants in the class I am teaching are staying at a hotel, so that should be fine, right? So I trudge on in with my 18 laptops and mobile server, and half the group that was staying went home last night, anticipating the snow! So I plugged away for the 10 participants who were there– 7 of whom had driven in with no problems whatsoever.

Congratulations to Wade and Holly Minter, who gave birth last night at 6:06 PM to Haley Anne-Marie Minter. So Dr. Wade is now Dr. Daddy. Awesome. I had called his cell last night since I hadn’t heard from him in a while, and when it was turned off, I wondered if he was busy with baby-making.

Plans for this evening: Reading comics in bed, maybe watching a movie. A fat lot of not much.

01-25-2003 07:19 PM
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You’re My Man-o-War

Dyna just IMed and said she’d hold me a copy of Girl Crush when she gets the tapes made. Yay! I want to show this to everyone in NC who is piddling around talking about scripted shows with great concepts but not doing anything about them.

My 80 GB hard drive is on its way, so I can store more, more, more music. I remember when I first heard about mp3 and I knew a guy who had a 2 GB drive with all his music on it, and he was such a badass. Now that’s laughable. This was, what, three-and-a-half years ago? It’s amazing to be alive in a time when so much information is out there. We’re so truly lucky.

Mesha McDermott and Ginger Russell from Richmond are here and came to On the Spot rehearsal to sit in and to do some scenes with the OTSers. It was incredibly productive, I kept finding myself just being like, “Hey, just watch Mesha! This is how its done!” (Well, not out loud.) She’s pretty frustrated with doing just shortform, so the chance to practice and play in the ZYGOTE show last night with Toba’s Revenge was really good for her. And it she and Ginger were a really good kick in the pants for Toba.

Two hot girls, with whom I am known to share my bed:

More digital camera hijinks! Yay!

01-26-2003 10:48 PM
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Can Love Be Measured by the Hours in the Day?

80 GB hard drive installed. Whoo-hoo.

I lost my voice after the Canes win against Florida Friday night (that place erupted when the Canes finally played well again) and having to yell to be heard at Montas Lounge last night. I don’t feel 100%, but Heidi has been sweet enough to come take care of me.

Cast Away was not as good the second time. The Man With Two Brains was.

I’d just as soon have my voice back.

01-27-2003 09:55 AM
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Now All I Wanna Do Is Sleep

I’ve had infrequent dreams about performing over the past few years, but last night I had the first dream about coaching.

[dream] I was in a large mansion, and I kept stumbling from room to room, falling down and sleeping. I was wrapped in a blanket and I think I was sick. But when I would wake, I would find that my hand would be stuck through the floor and in some cases coming out into the ceiling in the room below me. This scared my sister at one point; I think I dropped my childhood safety blanket on her, which also went through the floor when I collapsed.

I woke one time and left the house. I drove back to it a while later and the driveway was oddly reminiscent of Philip Boyne’s driveway, so I figured that the house was not mine but Philip’s, and I was there to coach Toba’s Revenge.

I went inside to coach, and everyone was very excited because somehow I had secured Matt Besser to come teach them. When he showed up, he was bald. He introduced himself and then asked me to start warming the group up. But after every warmup, he would tear me apart– never giving any sort of notes or instruction to the group, just savagely picking apart every word I said. Then he had me coach as normal, and wouldn’t tell the group anything but would pick apart my coaching. When he left, he presented everyone with a certificate that said “You have received 6 hours of IMPROV TRAINING from Matt Besser and Global Corporation.” The group loved it. [/dream]

But the shitty thing is that whatever he was telling me about how to improve my coaching, I don’t know any specifics. I couldn’t remember the criticism when I woke up.

:exp:

01-28-2003 11:08 AM
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Hey Look I’m Really Sorry I Couldn’t Make It To Your Party

I wonder sometimes why I have any association whatsoever with an improv troupe that labels people as problems when they try to have fun, take risks and make bold choices, and stir up the norm a little. Publicly labelled “problem people.”

01-29-2003 03:15 PM
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She Says, “Stop. I’m a Girl Whose Fingernails Are Made of Mother’s Pearls.”

Some DSI discussions with Zach. I am extremely pleased every time we touch base, because something positive always come out of it.

After a horrible, horrible day at the office yesterday, things are looking up today. At the very least, I’ve been able to be productive and not pissed off all day. Yesterday blew because it was one of those days where everyone wanted to tell me what was wrong with the distance learning program but no one had any solutions, short-term or long-term. They just wanted to be pissed off.

Toba’s auditions: one person showed. That made the group very sad. Lesson: a flyer-only campaign don’t do much. Or at least, those flyers didn’t. I think it may have been the “improv heartthrob” bit. Seriously. That was creepy.

But after an all-around shitty day, someone made me feel much better. It’s so… well, I have that silly feeling, like I’m in a movie, and we’re spinning, and you can see one of us or the other, and the background is spinning behind us, but the lens stays fixed on us.

01-30-2003 03:42 PM
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You’re Still Standing in That Dress

It seems like all of my friends have good news. Heidi has a job interview with the place she really wants to work on February 7. She’s been teaching at Wake Tech with the woman who is doing the hiring. Anthony is on the March UCB schedule to do his one-man show. Toba’s Revenge is starting shooting on their first film this weekend, which came out of an amazing scene they did about an Internet date. Every time Jess drives by her house, they’ve built more of it.

It’s a rainy day in Chapel Hill. I’m doing enjoyable but midless work, which means that I’m going hopelessly slow as I check IRC, chat on IM, and get up for another glass of water. I guess the brain needs a day like this.

I’m in the process of fetching a number of mp3s off some CDs… I had them on my computer long ago, and then archived them and hadn’t listened to them in a while. It’s seven CDs, which I would estimate at about 500 songs.

I’d like to be more entertained, or entertaining, than I am at the moment.