I’ve been in Los Angeles for the past couple days to work quietly on the festival and write a couple scenes for A VERY VEGAN CHRISTMAS CAROL, but so far, so much for that. So many calls and tasks thrown at me – while I’m all the way over HERE – But, I should be on top of everything now as of right Now, which leaves Saturday and Sunday to relaxed writing and making fun of my Vegan Hipster town. Easy right?
But what has my Escape to Los Angeles been like so far?
I’m staying with two of the most awesome people you’ll ever meet, Josh Cohen & Tamra Malaga (Josh&Tamra). AND Next Month, THEY’RE HAVING A BABY! Now I already can’t wait to get back out here to be Uncle Zach. We had pork chops and apple sauce when I arrived Wednesday night, Homemade by Tamra and SO delicious. Tamra and I saw Dasariski on Thursday night at iO West, after Indian with DSI Alum and former student Mano Agapion. Ryan Hansinger (Made of BEES!) joined us the show. I was up early on Friday (TODAY!) because my body never adjusts, so I was working and writing starting at 7am. Lunch with Katherine Brown was an incredible catch-up marathon AND flashback to middle school (and CHHS). Do you think people lose out on a specific type of memory if they aren’t able to say “Junior High” – just a thought. We talked about her life and my life and production and development and writing and her job and her husband and his job and why wasn’t I represented and… It was great. Lots to think about. After lunch I went early to “The Bourgeois Pig” on Franklin near the UCB Theatre to meet people for coffee.
Were there famous people there? I like to think so.
I was meeting Chelsea Coleman and Mike Perri – Famous to me. We talked for a couple hours and caught up on years of improv and comedy stories and I found out a THEY knew each other. Crazy. AND fun. I’m back at LA Home Base (Josh&Tamra have a sweet place) and should get ready for my show with Eric Hunicutt at iO West; people have been coming out of the woodwork to get tickets and catch up. Someone from NC Governor’s School East (Laurinburg, what’s up!) who I haven’t seen in over 16 years got sent the show as a recommendation from a friend in Los Angeles. Hope I don’t disappoint anyone. Yikes!
Alright, more later. And definitely video from the show.
Over the past couple months I’ve been working on (READ: juggling) more jobs than normal, even for me. It’s been super-stressful and exhilarating at the same time. Why exhilarating? Because I love productivity. More than sleep. More than coffee. More than steak. I’m able to enjoy coffee to motivate me; I’m able to enjoy steak when I want to reward myself, but then when do I sleep? AHHHHH!
It seems like every project I complete has overlapped with something else since May. New shows at the theater, Summer Camps, Corporate Workshops, and Festivals have turned into Festivals have turned into Festivals have turned into me working on the daily operations of multiple theaters. The overlap keeps me on my toes, and NEVER bored. But during times when I am busier than ever before why have I started to take on new projects with even more responsibility? Why? Because I AM addicted.
Multi-tasking is my JAM!
I couldn’t do one job. My brain requires momentum, with a Healthy mix of ADD and OCD. I need to get distracted by another task before I BURN the thing I’m working on. I (normally) want everything to be perfect so if I had one thing to focus on I would burn it out. Now I say normally because over the last few years (The Awakening of Late 2006) I’ve realized the potential of releasing my work into the world early and often. Crowd-sourcing anybody? I’ve started to let people help me complete the things that I start, but not burden them with the work, INVITE THEM into the process. And then, I start something else. YAY!
I just read an article on The Huffington Post by Russell Brand about Multi-goals versus Multi-tasking. It dealt with people who say they are multi-tasking but who are really set up to FAIL all the tasks they take on. Why? Because they are actually Half-tasking – I agree. But I feel like most people are working towards ONE GOAL that, in order to be fully realized, requires a series of DIFFERENT intermediate goals. And for me, I want to fast-track that ONE GOAL by working on the intermediate ones at the SAME TIME.
How about you?
Do you feel like that guy sometimes? Are all those post-it notes a good thing or bad?
I would like it.
But then, I’m working for myself. And I love productivity.
I think that even “EMPLOYED” people can and should consider “working for themselves” EVEN at their current job. But I know a lot of people that just clock-in at work, get online and “multi-task” 8 hours a day.
(Lazy people are out there. Be careful. You could be right next to one.)
My apologies to Corey Brown. Because I was delinquent in posting my latest work out clip, Corey suffered. I drafted this post on Sunday 11/1/09, but now I’ve made plans to work out with Rajeev FOR REAL tomorrow – Yeah, ZW Works Out AGAIN – November 12th, so I thought I should publish now and get myself and the blog ready for my next ZW Works Out post – ready to drop Friday afternoon, Yo!
In this clip (just part of my New series from the Elliptical machines at Carolina Fitness) we talk about my IMPROV 201 class and how “Game of the Scene” relates to the US Air Force and the OODA Loop. After I worked out I ate Lean Cuisine Chicken Club Panini. It was fantastic.
What should I talk about tomorrow? I’m meeting Rajeev at 9am. He accepted my challenge of 45 minutes of ellipses if I agreed to lift. We’ll see how that goes. ZW clips are all shot with an HD Flip cam from the dash of the machine. I might talk about life, my workout progress, improv, comedy, producing festivals, running a small business or maybe I’ll just do sweaty bits.
