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Archive for September, 2009

Sep
27

Jenny drops the F-Bomb

I was busy over the weekend and didn’t catch SNL, but I get to my comedy feed and OH MY GOD! I was incredibly happy to hear about the momentary slip of an F-Bomb on Saturday Night. Jenny Slate drops the F-Bomb in a sketch that had her replacing the word with Frickin’ for a couple minutes so NO SURPRISE that she slipped. BUT C’MON, What does the uproar mean for comedy?

Remember when you weren’t allowed to show a FULL FRONTAL PENIS in a Summer Blockbuster. Now you can. For a LONG time. I was floored at Bruno. I was curious after Forgetting Sarah Marshall. When did it start? Was I too busy to notice? ANYWAY, the F-Bomb was delicious. May the road rise to meet us, at the peak where once-taboo words are now so common place that we have Hipsters yelling curses like Beezwax to be ironic. Anyway, what’s an F-Bomb? It doesn’t destroy countries. Or does it?

Nikolai and the F-Bomb

My character NIKOLAI lives in the dairy section of your Harris Teeter because his home was DESTROYED by an F BOMB attack. Nikolai was also so hungry as a young boy that he sold his last name for a loaf of bread. Who knew that bread only lasts for a day, but a last name can last a lifetime.

FUCK.

Awesome.

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Posted in Comedy | No Comments »

Sep
25

I love my job.

Not enough people can say that. But I love my job.

Last night (now Wednesday night – it took me  a while to post) I set up a Theater, managed some interns (we could have had more), trained our Tech staff and worked Box Office for two Awesome #TIIF festival shows. I got home late, sent a bunch of messages to coordinate details for the Richmond Improv Festival (coming up November 5-7, 2009), drank a coke, watched CSI: Miami, edited footage from an improv set on Tuesday**, watched the season premiere of Heroes, and got to sleep around 5am. Alarm went off at 930, sent a few replies, walked to the ITC studio and coached a one-woman character show before work.

** ZW hijacks Annie Bankes, Photography Oath / Skydiving Accident

Thursday was great. Heavy discussion about the Toronto State of the Union and the business of comedy and improv theater. A lot of people forget that improv comedy IS SHOW BUSINESS and, for producers and theater owners, it can be overwhelming to watch after the “business” for so many people to enjoy a hobby. And what we do IS a hobby for a lot of people. Like golf, if you want to play it costs money. You have greens fees, club fees, fees for plaid pants. On top of that, You need clubs and balls. OH!, the balls. I’m gonna keep this going later in another post, but you get my point, It was heavy, I loved it.

Another fun set with two Toronto ITC performers on Thursday night (clips coming soon). It was a later night out, but I crashed hard around 2:30am. I fully intended on waking up at 9am but pushed it until 10-ish and luckily got over to the Second City to set-up for lunch and the symposium.

We had more food than we needed, but that’s better than the alternative. Our talk about community, marketing, audience education and longform vs shortform was fantastic (I WISH WE COULD HAVE TALKED MORE), but our guest presentation by a chiropractor who sponsored the festival was standout. She talked about everything I believe in from her perspective: UNCONDITIONAL SUPPORT AND RAW POSITIVITY – YesAnd, YESAND!, We were reminded to remove the toxic things from our lives. Remove the toxic, Add the good. We were asked to say OUT LOUD that what we do makes people’s live better. As comedians, we have the opportunity to ADD THE GOOD to the World.

Now, I’m in the Box Office, supporting the Festival and its 120 performers by managing the event. Right now we’re in the middle of the 10pm show on Friday. Every Act has checked in. I forgot one team’s intro music. We forgot one team’s shirts. AHHHH! Not really that bad. Easily handled. But I strive for perfection. Every group deserves to have the perfect check-in, to be treated like Rockstars for the weekend. Anyway, I need to make sure the Festival venue is alright (make sure the bartenders are happy). I’ll probably help bus the theater between sets, AND THEN I’m back on stage at Midnight. I love it. I love my job.

Awesome.

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Posted in business, festival production, improv | 1 Comment »

Sep
22

Kick off at the Comedy Bar.

What an incredible Opening Night at the Comedy Bar. Now, It would be sad if I gave up on blogging immediately after my personal challenge to update nightly. So here I am (the morning after). I landed in Toronto just before Noon yesterday, picked up flyers, posters from Top Knotch (good place for Toronto Comedy Acts to print cards, etc.) and got straight to work at the ITC studio, split up t-shirts from Machine Screenprinting (sweet shirts) and we laminated Festival ID cards.

To be perfectly honest, these are all things I like to have done a week BEFORE the festival starts, but when you’re producing from out-of-town (and in this case, out-of-the-country) you make things happen when you can. Our Festival staff had help from two volunteers yesterday and we got posters and a couple hundred flyers out around the neighborhood despite the rain. I’d like to have at least 3 volunteers every day to help do the stuff that comes up. We have Zero so far today. AHHHHHH!

But back to last night –

After hours of festival prep work, it was already 7pm and we had to get over to the venue. We set up the Box Office and Tech. Teams starting arriving. Local groups picked up shirts and ID badges. WDWMKR (an ITC Harold Team) took the stage, and just like every festival, in every city, It started. Three Acts (WDWMKR, Standards & Practices, and The Carnegie Hall Show) and they were ALL incredible. We even had a photo-blogger capture the entire night, Thanks Sharilyn!

After shows I went to grab groceries for the week and got back to work, some late night stuff for Toronto and a couple things for North Carolina and Richmond. side note: NC Comedy Arts submission material should be full-on ready by the end of the week. Early Deadline 10/9 ($20), Regular Deadline 10/31 ($35).

Awesome.

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Posted in festival production, improv, travel | 1 Comment »