BALDERDASH Our suggestion from last night's Sidewalk Ends show. We had a good solid show, I had fun and felt like I did better work than I have in the last few weeks. To get myself out of my head, I took my own advice from last week and danced around the apartment like an idiot for about twenty minutes before leaving for the theatre. It helped a lot. I guess everybody has their own ways of prepping for a show. Maybe this is mine... There were a lot of pimps thrown around in the show, which made a couple of people uncomfortable. I got pimped by Gus into reading a poem by Keats (like I know Keats... I've got some Shel Silverstein memorized... maybe I can fumble through Frost or Carroll...) Dennis and Allison got pimped into kissing... Pimps aren't really that much fun. Unless they've got a big nasty gold tooth. Several of my teammates from Kissing George came to the show, too. It was really nice to have friends in the audience, it gives you a reason to be happy and play. MOTHERFUCKER Mark had us do a Blue Harold at the last Kissing George rehearsal. Apparently we were cursing a little too much for some people at our first Incubator show, so the exercise was meant to drive it all out of our system. It worked. Blue shows are pretty boring. I was pretty invisible for the rest of rehearsal. Sometimes I get really in my head and feel bad about what I'm doing on stage. It immediately saps all the fun out of improv and I tend to stay back, ignore my instincts and sit silently off to the side. I guess everybody has off nights. I'm stuck in the evil plateau right now, hopefully I'll escape from it soon... FUDGE is what I'm craving right this very second. A big hunk of chocolate and peanut butter fudge. It's really bad, these food cravings I've been having. Just as I was constantly NOT eating a few months ago, now I'm in a continual search for food, and really rich, fattening food at that. Maybe I'm a bear and I'm going into hibernation or something. Growing up, I had a really high metabolism. I could anything and it wouldn't make a difference, because I spent hours working out for the swim team I was on. I don't understand why the same thing is kicking in now. I certainly don't exercise, except my lame half-assed Tae Bo workouts (I usually spend half of the tape exercising and the other half making fun of Billy Blanks and his dancing bimbos). RENEGOTIATIONS ALL AROUND All of the teams I'm on right now seem to be in negotiation stages - what to do with the impending shake-up at IO, what goals to set for the future, where to play, who's staying, who's leaving, etc. Sweet Justice is even getting overhauled. We figure with all the upheaval, it would be a good time to grab the people we want to play with since they might not have anything going for them in the next month or so... Like I predicted, a lot of us "new punks" are making opportunities for ourselves. For example, the Mission:Improvable boys are starting up a late show at the Playground called the Swing Set, which is three teams and all the beer you can drink for $8. I can't wait to see how the face of Chicago improv will change in the next year. I'll put my money on the Playground, thanks. WHAT I LEARNED TODAY 1. I am a goddess. I don't have any of those goddess powers, but I've been told I cast spells from time to time. 2. Emily knows my little secret, but Em honey, I don't think he's much of a secret any more. Required reading: Meet Mark, my little secret. He looks excellent in a beerhat. That's all I have to say about that. For now... :) SWIMMING WITH PHISHIES I saw Phish play at the Horizon on Sunday night. As always, the show was packed with stinky, stoned phans and for some odd reason, a lot of college frat boy types. The music was great, the lights were excellent, the security guards were complete assholes. They were throwing people to the ground and kicking them, or dragging them feet-first up the stairs to the exits. The crowd is never violent or difficult, so the guards were completely out of line. On a happy note, I got to watch some really great lights, provided by Chris Corona, the fifth member of the band... Imagine putting the Northern Lights inside a building... there were moments I thought I was outside on a clear starry night, the design was so dazzling. Enough of my Phish stuff... THE SWING SET Congrats to the Mission:Improvable boys for putting together a great show on Saturday night. Nougat was lots of fun (complete with Mandy Price slapping a heckler), Black Sheep and M:I both had solid shows. The true highlight of the evening was the very drunk audience member that was desperately trying to open the back wall to the office. He was assisted into the bathroom after the Black Sheep figured out that he wasn't doing a bit... The Sidewalk Ends is on the waiting list for a Swing Set show, I hope that we can do this... it would give us a good reason to stay together for just a little while longer. JINKIES Thriller Theatre opens this weekend. We have a dress rehearsal tonight... I'm feeling a little bit better about the show, even though I didn't see the last rehearsal (I handled the IO registration - which I find hugely ironic - so that Jason could run rehearsal). We still have a lot of cast members missing rehearsals and we will have several people missing shows (including myself). Hopefully, everyone will be off book tonight. Hopefully, I'll do okay on the first run of the lighting cues. It's been fun hanging around in a light booth again, even if the Del Close set-up is driving me crazy. Those lights need some serious repairs and re-focusing... Highlights of the show include the improvised monster movie, Jeff Ahern as Scooby and John Mulhern trying to dance. BIRDS OF A FEATHER I had rehearsal for Kissing George last night... it was the first time I felt strange about being coached by Mark. That quickly went away as soon as we got into a Meisner exercise called a "Release". I've done it before with Bob Kulhan in my Level 3 class at IO... Basically, everyone was given a character idea by another member of the team, we went up on stage and explored the character through an interview conducted by Mark. I got stuck with a little kid, so I used my best friend from grade school back in Kansas. Simone went with me and tried out a very reserved, hyper-Christian woman. Mark kept trying to get both of us to talk about men, whether that be Simone's fixation on the parish priest or my history with boys as a pre-pubescent girl. Not every woman is infatuated with the opposite sex, Mark... :) The release was okay - a very good exercise for developing character before plunking them into a scene. I wish I did more character development with all my groups, because I feel like I always end up playing myself or a crazy stalker lady. Simone seems to be stuck in the same plateau as me. We're both frustrated as hell with improv right now and not sure how to fix it. I hate that somebody else is feeling the way I do, but it makes me feel less upset at myself. It was good for me to hear her talk about it in rehearsal, made me feel less alone in the void. OUCH When I have a lot on my mind, I tend to chew on my lip. I've tried many times to stop myself, but to no avail - I even do it in my sleep. I'm even doing it on stage, I caught myself several times during the last Sidewalk Ends show. Waiting for the weight to lift off my shoulders is hard... I'm not a patient person. Habits are hard to break, though I did manage to stop smoking. I haven't touched a cigarette in weeks... This is, in part, due to the fact that I'm spending a lot less time in bars, especially IO. THREE more Sidewalk Ends shows. The countdown continues. We had such a goofy rehearsal on Sunday, it was hard to stay focused, much to Matt's dismay. At some point in time the phrase "dildo factory" was suggested for a scene - Mike and Joel couldn't let that one be. Eventually Matt made Mike do the Monkey Dance as a punishment (ask Miles to do it for you, if you don't know what it is... I'm sure he'll oblige, hee hee...) which Mike didn't know, so he instead dropped his pants and shuffled around the room. This is the kind of thing we've degenerated to. It's a lot of fun. WHAT I LEARNED TODAY 1. There's always room for a Smiley Face Cookie. Always. 2. Jason Chin linked to this site. Thanks Jason! 3. Simone will not join the Dark Side, no matter how much Em and I beg her to join us. Required reading: The New Improv Page, maintained by fellow Kissing George member That's all I have to say about that. FRITO LAY Rehearsals the past two nights for Thriller Theatre have gone on into the wee hours of the morning. I have to give the cast a lot of credit, I've heard very little complaining about anything, including additional rehearsals. We probably still need an extra week to really get the show ready for opening, but we only have one more rehearsal. That's the way it is, so that's the way it goes... I need to get my stage manager emergency kit in gear for Saturday - sewing kit, bandaids, safety pins, aspirin and all the rest of that crap that your mom has lurking in the bottom of her purse - for any unforeseen major costume or cast emergencies. It's better to be overprepared than have somebody's dress fall off... (remind me to tell you all about my run as a dresser on A Tuna Christmas someday...) Jason decided I'll be playing Ola Ray in the Thriller dance sequence. Not a big part, I think I have about three lines and then I get to walk across the stage as Jeff Ahern/John Mulhern (weird how similar their names are...) dances around me singing the first part of the song. Even though the show might be a little rough this Saturday, I highly recommend that everyone comes and sees Mulhern as Michael Jackson. You'll laugh so hard you'll pee your pants. FUZZY Gerdes is a wonderful teammate. Not only did he do the show posters and random props for Thriller, but he makes these little flyers for our Kissing George shows. Nobody asked him to do it, he just shows up with his stuff. He's the same way on stage - he's a giver. Givers are the best people in the world. There need to be more people like Fuzzy in improv. CLASH I've locked horns with a few people due to my opinions on improv lately. I know that I'm a stubborn person, I don't back down easily from a good debate, but I really don't appreciate being bullied into thinking or acting a certain way. It drives me nuts. The community sometimes has a cult feel about it - when one member starts to pull away to work on something new, the rest of the group reacts by grabbing on and pulling as hard as possible. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave... You can do improv in moderation, people. You can learn at your own pace. Not everyone is on the fast track to improv fame and fortune (which, if you figure out what that is, let me know...) If you're not growing as a performer and you're not having fun, what's the point? GO AWAY I've noticed lately that when I'm working on the Shel script I really hate interruptions. I want people to leave me alone so I can work. Everybody has different working conditions, I guess... when I used to paint & draft I needed as much outside noise as possible - I'd have the radio & TV on, my roommates talking to me, whatever... Now I just need a quiet spot, not in my apartment. If I write at home, I inevitably fall asleep or watch bad cable movies until I fall asleep on the couch. Last night I spent some quality time in the box office at IO, interning. Since it's a free show, there's really no need for someone in there, so I was relatively undisturbed. I like the box because there is so little space, even if you wanted to be distracted, you couldn't. I wish I had a box office nook at home. Maybe I should try sitting in the hall closet... COMFORT FOOD I wish I still had a piano I could play. I miss the ability to sit down for an hour and release all my stress... I miss the feeling of not thinking for hours at a time because my hands are thinking for me, not in thoughts but in music... I miss drinking a beer and flipping through a fake book on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Someday, I'll have a little upright that's seen better times to pound around on. Until then, I'll just have to sneak in my time at the Playground or before rehearsal at IO. WHAT I LEARNED TODAY 1. Mike Bertrando is a musical genius. Just ask him to play his big hit, "Flowered Dresses", sometime. 2. It was weird when people would recognize me from hosting Twirly. It's REALLY weird when people recognize me from this journal, especially since they don't know what I look like... 3. Just because a drink is called "Fire" doesn't mean it's hot and spicy. Question of the Day: What the hell is Dragonfruit? Required viewing: Bugged by the Millenium, or Et Tu, Y2K? Check it out and see my old teammate Fred Warner do his thang (he's singin', too!). He's dreamy... That's all I have to say about that. ELECTRIC SCOOBY DOO Thriller Theatre opened on Saturday with very few flubbed lines and technical problems. The first act went well, I hit my cues (unlike rehearsal that morning - my brain didn't show up) and the cast had the audience laughing. It's a good block of material - I thought some of it might be a little too "spoofy", but the people loved it. Scripted comedy shows have to be the biggest gamble to put on stage - gauging laughter is a difficult thing. Highlights of the act - Ryan Archibald as Shaggy, the rest of the Scooby Gang (Alex Fendrich - Fred, Marion Oberle - Daphne, Sue Salvi - Velma) for looking and sounding exactly like their characters, Nancy Drew (Rachel Miller) and Velma's lesbian moments, and Joe Carney as an oversexed Joe Hardy. Thanks must go out again to Fuzzy Gerdes, who created a Mystery Machine cut-out that got a huge response. Fuzzy's the best. The second act needs work. Our improv game, "The Corman" was well received, mainly because it's silly. The cast has begun to cheat on the monster by forming a semi-monster form onstage and then screaming out the animal name as they attack. It's pretty funny, but still... Saturday's suggestion was "coyote", so as the creature attacked, we heard ten people yelling "COYOTE! COYOTE! COYOTE!" as they "ate" various characters onstage. Thankfully, the chanting was peppered with howling... Of special note in the monster creation - Rachel Miller, for desperately trying to be the right coyote ear and Marion Oberle, for always being the tail. Stick to those body parts, ladies... The end gets a little bit muddled, and we had a horrible Fear to work with (Pantaloons? Since when is America afraid of pantaloons?), but I think it's still a really fun game. The audience liked it too... The scripted material in Act 2 is the problem... We build up great momentum coming into it, but then come the dramatic vignettes... We lost some of the audience to them. During Book Collector (a piece about a serial killer), there were walk-outs. I think a lot of this is due to the fact that people are looking forward to a funny, comic show. When that disappears in Act 2, they're impatient and disappointed. Foo Goo (based on a story by Del Close) is a good solid piece, but the other two need work. I know Jason thinks so too, and is working on it this week. My part as Ola Ray was fun, but I'm not sure that it will remain in the show. I'd be more than okay with that, even though I spent several hours Saturday on "Capri Quest" looking for my costume. I'd just like to reiterate for those readers who don't already know - I have a strong dislike for capri pants, but especially capri pants worn on my body. We're looking to cut down the second act, and I'm okay with gettin' cut. As long as it's not by Peyton and that knife... Jason has no idea what to do with himself during the show since I'm running lights and sound. He actually got to watch one of his shows from outside the Del Close Theatre light booth. ENORMOUS thanks to John Mulhern for standing in for Jeff Ahern. Mulhern's reward is never having to dance in another Jason Chin show ever again. I'll miss my dancing partner though... TYGER TYGER, BURNING BRIGHT... There's a lack of fire in my IO team. We're going to try and stay together as long as we can... we've even got a few gigs outside of IO to play after this schedule ends. I don't understand how somebody could lack the passion in performing. Perhaps I'm too excitable and I've been thinking about this stuff too much. It's clear to me that the reason I get so angry and frustrated with this artform is because I'm driven to succeed and I love what I do. I want to work for my team, instead of wait for what's handed to me. I want to experiment, not rehash. I want to be surrounded by people that feel the same way as I do. Replace fear with fire. Replace apathy with ambition. Let emotion drive your words. Let it give you the clarity to attack life. Desire is power to an actor. LAST DANCE I did my final stint as an intern on Friday night, working the box office. It was a pretty easy shift, even if Over the Topp Gunn had another sell-out and there were some crazy people with huge reservations running around. Interning is a valuable experience to a performer - I think everyone that's up on stage should spend some time working behind the scenes in order to really appreciate everything that goes into running a theatre. Most of the stuff is routine and not really fascinating - like emptying trashcans or selling tickets - but there's a certain amount of respect that performers should give to these people. Without them, there would be no theatre to play in and no audience to perform for... Theatres are businesses, we often forget this when we're there to play. It was lots of fun working with everybody on the intern staff, especially my Friday night partner in crime, Steve Osborn, who has also danced his last tango for IO. TONIGHT, TONIGHT Kissing George, the sexiest team around, takes the stage for performance #2. The Black Sheep better watch out. :) WHAT I LEARNED TODAY 1. Friday night is pancake night. A short stack'll do you right, missy. 2. Rehearsal always goes much better if you have a space to do it in. 3. Sean and Serene approve. Two points for me. :) Required viewing: The Sidewalk Ends (a little shameless self-promotion never hurt anybody...) That's all I have to say about that. WOW I haven't updated this thing in a while. There's been a whole lot of improv stuff in the meantime... KISS ME, GEORGE The last of the Kissing George Incubator shows took place last Monday night. We had an extremely light house, which kind of sucked. This Night #1 of my illness as well, and I became invisible girl throughout the show. I just can't get my head in the game when the only thing my brain will latch on to is: "I feel really sick right now. I really don't feel well." The show, however, went very well, with strong performances from teammates Emily Kellam and Bill Lavin who drove the piece the entire time. Mark was pleased, he felt we did better, more grounded scenes and made smarter choices on stage. We all felt a bit of a let down after the first outing. There's less sparkle to your performances the longer you do them. I remember my first go with the Sidewalk Ends I couldn't eat the entire day of the show because I was so excited to play. We had a great show that night, too. After a while, the sparkle fades. I guess it's like the start of a relationship in that way. Each new team your with is a time to discover new stuff that you love doing on stage, but then you come to rely on the patterns and habits you've already formed. I'm not saying it's a good thing, just something that happens. MICHELOBA, GODDESS OF BEER Show #2 of last week was with the Sidewalk Ends at IO. We played a good set, I was feeling a little bit better and was determined not to be invisible girl again. Special thanks to teammate Jamie Newland, who named me Micheloba, Goddess of Beer in a scene. I'm lucky to have such creative teammates. They pull some great stuff out of thin air. Free Wednesdays are really great shows to play at IO, too - you've got a big drunk group of people that had to pay absolutely nothing to get in and see some funny. I highly recommend 'em for both improv and non-improv person... Improvisers - half of the important stuff happens on stage. The other half happens in your audience. Watch them, see what makes them laugh. Listen to them laugh. It's a really wonderful sound. SCHEDULE I've been told the schedule's out at IO. I'll have to stop by and see if my next few weeks are incredibly busy or incredibly free. I'm okay either way. KANSAS CITY Yep, I was there at SIX, the improv fest hosted by Kansas City's very own Funny Outfit. The festival was well organized with lots of great workshops and performances for participants. I guess it would be best to break things down day by day: Thursday - arrive at the fest and check in. I'm in line to get my festival ID and sign up for workshops and I glance around at the crowd. It's Chicago moved to KC for a weekend - Conspiracy Theater Co., Screw Puppies, Black Sheep... drinking, as usual... Drank spiked fruit punch out of a fishbowl. It's the most I'll be drinking this weekend as my health, sitting comfortably on the edge of oblivion, sneezes and plummets to the depths of Hell. Performing at the coffeehouse tonight: Conspiracy Theater Co., Pavlov's Dogs, SAK Theatre, and the Evente (from Upright Citizen's Brigade in NY). Conspiracy Theater is a fun little group - I missed their last show here in Chicago. Dan Izzo was my first teacher at the Annoyance, I'm one of the Terrible Three (Bondo and Schaefe, the other two partners in crime) that blew through that Beginning level class... It was a fun show, with Dori Goldman stealing the show as a drunk Liza Minelli. I also enjoyed Dan's character monologue that popped up towards the end of the show... the Evente wasn't as good as I was hyped it would be. Don't get me wrong, it was a good solid show, and their cast has some very funny people in it... it's just too plot heavy for my liking. They got to the end of the story and had to bullshit around on stage for a few minutes before they got their blackout. They're all very lucky to work with Armando Diaz, however... By this point, I'm feeling like hell and coughing up a lung. Mark's looking at me like I'm about to die. Time to sleep. Friday: I haul my ass out of bed for the first workshop of the day - Action and Reaction with Armando Diaz of the Upright Citizen's Brigade in NY. It took me a while to wake up and stop coughing, but after I did, I really enjoyed the different scenework exercises we were doing. And we did a lot of scenes. Mark worked with Armando for the entirity of the fest - he ended up doing the Director's Show on Saturday night as well. I will say this for Mark, mainly because I don't see him work as a performer as much as I see him as a coach - he takes big risks and makes really bold intiations (and tends to kiss a lot of men... Mark, honey? Ummm...?). He gives the scene someplace to go in the first five seconds he's on stage. It's pretty neat, and I wish I could do it myself. After lunch, I'm off to Rebecca Sohn's cast rehearsal. It seems that there were more open spots in the Directors shows than performers, so I was able to play in her show. She's a really neat person - when she's getting an idea she works it out of her brain with her entire body. We worked on freely flowing group scenes that transformed mid-scene. They got confusing sometimes, but it was still pretty interesting. The cast included several folks from Texas, Orlando and Kansas City, Chicago being represented by myself and Margaret from Conspiracy Theater Co. It was fun to work with so many different people, but I must admit - these festivals are for groups/teams to go to. I felt pretty alienated, even by the Chicago groups. It sucks to be judged on "Which team are you with?". It also didn't help being the Yoko Ono of the Black Sheep. But that's all just personal junk I'm not going to put on the web. Except - Brian Amidei... I really don't want to fuck you. Go fuck yourself. Friday evening: Lots of good shows. Drunk Baby Collective first, with one of my favorite improvisers, Joel Gray. He's crazy in the head. He's the funny funny in this tall, skinny, wired body. Their show was fast paced, so much so that the players were dripping with sweat by the twenty minute mark. Joel stole the show from the rest of the team. It's honestly the first time I've ever seen Joel on stage because I'm usually on stage with him. My most memorable moment of the festival, honestly, was Joel as a drunken Godzilla in a local bar threatening to burn the pinball machines if the bartender wouldn't get him a drink. Love him. Black Sheep were up next - they had a good solid show, one of the better that I've seen them do in a while. I missed seeing Simone on stage, I don't really give a damn if she's a sit-in or not, she's been around long enough for me to miss her presence as a Sheep. They had the same problem Kissing George had in our last show - living up to the sparkle of the year before. Honestly, they didn't. They did do a good show, it had some very funny moments (Christine & Tim in the Barbie Dreamhouse, the "Hoagie" scene), but the Sheep fucked with each other a lot. It wasn't that they pimped one another, they were just in a weird place. You can't aim to outdo yourself, you'll always fail. Just smile and breathe... I manage to cough through all the shows. Not just an occasional cough, but full out coughing fits that leave me wheezing and people glaring. *sigh* The big thang afterward took place at McCoy's, a bar just down the street from the coffeehouse. After a short adventure to the local grocery store, Joel (equipped now with prescription sunglasses that make him look like an extra from Starsky and Hutch), Mark, myself, a few of the other Drunk Babies and Chicago's own Tom Flanagan (stuck in KC by Anderson Consulting), make our way to the bar. We get Joel in with an old ID (eep) and proceed to drink and talk improv. Eventually the bar is flooded with improv peeps, smoke and idiot townies. It starts raining outside. I can't breathe and head back to the hotel. Apparently Joel and the DBC hosted a party in their hotel room that left it "smelling like the inside of a man's stomach". Eep. Saturday: I've got early rehearsal with Rebecca. I'm pretty damn sick at this point. I cough through the four hour session. We end up doing a form that really mostly resembles a Harold with smudged edits. That's okay though... we're really tired, most people having gone to sleep at 5:30am. Thankfully we have the afternoon off... Mark's at his Armando rehearsal which leaves me the hotel room to nap in. I'm feeling pretty icky. Saturday night: The Improv Jam... The Armando piece turns out excellent - breakneck speed, lots and lots of scenes and these really cool stream of consciousness monologues that pop up throughout the piece. It was funny and smart and I couldn't imagine trying to keep pace with everyone in that form. I'm a slow improviser - I need time to figure things out... Mark kissed one of the guys from Drunk Baby Collective. *sigh* Very good show all around. The Dan O'Connor piece consisted of Tennessee Williams, a 60s spy movie and a Broadway musical. It was fun, but a little too disjointed for my taste. Dori Goldman stole the show again with her monologue "Needles of Grass", her sidekick character "And How", and her loving song about bread at the end of the first act of the musical. Rebecca's piece was last - we named it "Squaktapus" while sitting in the green room, mainly because nobody had a better name for it. I reprised my role as invisible girl, this time with the extra added bonus of being really, really sick. Megan from SAK, Ari from the Evente and Margaret from Conspiracy Theater Co. really drove the show. Afterwards, a lame ass party hosted by the Funny Outfit. They had some nasty beer and equally nasty music. But it was free, and free is the best kind of partyin' out there. Felt very out of place as the Black Sheep danced silly and bonded after the show. Felt very much like I was tagging along again. Also felt very, very sick. Time to head for the hotel... Sunday: Return to Chicago. I realized (having grown up in Kansas) that I could never go back to live in Kansas City again. I remember it as being so much bigger and more interesting than it was. I felt really uncomfortable being "home" again. Things change, people change. Midway airport sucked, but it was nice to be back in Chicago again. I'm officially improv-ed out for a few days... THRILLER Jason emalied me the changes on Thriller Theatre for the rest of the run. We're splitting the first act in two and shuffling a bunch of the second act stuff around. Big congrats to the cast who were given the changes last Saturday morning to do that night at the show. Working with improvisers is the best - they're used to being flexible and thinking on their feet. I guess it was a packed house last week, which makes me happy. Everyone deserves it - Jason, the cast, everybody. Happy, bouncy, happy. The Halloween Eve show should be lots of fun. THINGS I LEARNED AT THE FESTIVAL 1. Give Joel Gray a drink and he's totally feng shui. Feng shui, baby, feng shui. 2. You can base an entire scene around the word "hoagie", especially if you scream it like a moron. 3. People from Texas have a weird fascination with psychological terminology. 4. Never, ever ask Mark Henderson "What do you see?" or "What is this?" in a scene. You'll end up being related to a pygmy. 5. Prescription sunglasses not only help you see, but really make a statement with the ladies. 6. Apparently, I squeal like a pig, though Christine Sinacore isn't woman enough to tell me to my face. 7. It wouldn't be an improv fest unless somebody messes up the Freudian Slip hotel room. 8. If you grab my ass, be prepared to face the consequences. A Moment of Zen: "I AM A BIG GODZILLA. I AM A BIG GODZILLA. I'M HAVING SOME PROBLEMS WITH MY RELATIONSHIP RIGHT NOW... GIMME A DRINK OR ELSE I'LL BREATHE FIRE ON YOUR PINBALL MACHINES!" - Joel Gray, Drunk Baby Collective That's all I have to say about that. Whew. It's time I sling the baskets off this overburdened horse Finally got a chance to stop by IO and check out the schedule. Even though I had been told otherwise, I'm no longer playing on a Harold team. It's not a big surprise. I'm not playing the game. Sink my toes into the ground and set a different course I got what I wanted out of IO, and I'm not going to use this entry as an opportunity to bash it. There's no reason... I had good teachers, met fun people, and saw some really funny stuff. It was a great opportunity to play with the Sidewalk Ends, which I think is one of the most balanced young teams out there. I hope we'll stick together outside of IO, but I fear that my teammates, most of which find themselves on new teams and involved in new projects, will be too busy to do so. So be it. Improv's all about the living in a fleeting moment, right? Now it's time to stop being lazy and hustle my ass. I guess I like this way of living my performance life better, anyhow... someday maybe I'll finish the training center at IO. 'Cause if I were here and you were there, I'd meet you in between Here's the big test - do I get snubbed as being a non-IO improviser now? I've already been in one heated discussion about "cutting my ties" to the Improv Olympic. It was sort of like discussing why it's impossible to leave the Mafia alive. Am I one of those "bitter and angry" Playground improvisers (or assholes, depending on who you're talking to)? I know it happens, on both sides of the coin. There's already a great divide between myself and my improv cohorts from IO because we're working on different projects and have different schedules (and lifestyles, honestly). I'd hate for my newfound status to affect our friendship. Sounds pretty petty and stupid, but there's always a little of that floating around... And not until my dying day confess what I have seen There's only one thing I'm angry about this whole situation. And mentioning it here would be giving that individual more thought and credit than they're due. Congrats to the newly formed teams and BIG congrats to the teams that managed to survive this ordeal intact. It will be exciting to see the great stuff that will be hitting the Cabaret stage in the next few months. And that, my friends, is the last I'll have to say about Improv Olympic, the crap that's gone on this past month, or The Fear of the Schedule, for a long, long time. FIRST IMPRESSIONS I've moved on in the Annoyance experience and started class with Mark Sutton on Saturday. It's a scenestudy class for improvisers. From his opening remarks, it sounds like Sutton is feeling the same way about improv I have been lately - which is interesting because he's been at this for so much longer. I guess frustrations never go away, you just learn to deal with them better. Anyway - it's the closest thing to an academic class that I've had since college, we even had to bring notebooks for *gasp* taking notes. Schaef and Bondo are still with me which is pretty neat, I think. Honestly, aside from Allison Bills, these are the two people I've done improv with since the beginning. The class is all about making us acknowledge the 'acting' part of improv. Saturday focused on appearances - how an audience perceives an improviser before they've even opened their mouth to speak. After sitting in front of the group for a minute, my darling classmates decided that I was the dutiful housewife type, the gal pal... after seeing me perform I was told, "There's a field hockey team just waiting to be coached by this woman" and "She's like the best friend who really hates men, but loves sex." I guess these are all good things... I guess. Both Schaef and I have appearances that don't match our personalities or our stage personae. I see that as a benefit. Next week: Silence. My favorite. THRILLER, PART DEUX After playing around with the changes Jason gave me Saturday morning, I felt confident that I'd be ready for that night's performance. Whew. Couldn't be more wrong. Now, granted, I'm a perfectionist when it comes to the light booth. When I say I've had a bad show, it's still pretty okay. I had a bad show last Saturday, mainly because I'm a retard when working sound cues, and we added a bunch. Lights went fine, except for the end of Act One, when I got confused as to what was supposed to happen. Jason sat in for Ben Grinnell, which was fun. He makes an excellent Encyclopedia Brown. The last show is this Saturday. It's the last Sidewalk Ends show too. What a night... Jason's running lights, so I've got the pressure off me there and will be able to enjoy my last evening at IO for a while. He honestly does not know what to do with himself. I've never worked with a director like that... it's his last producing gig at IO, so I can see the sentimental attachment. It's all good. SICK I'm still sick. Improved greatly, but still coughing a lot. Felt like ass on Sunday and missed another Sidewalk Ends rehearsal. It didn't actually happen because nobody got the room reserved, again. Joel overslept by several hours. Gus had his movie. Dennis was at another wedding. Matt didn't show because he was told we didn't have a room. Nit-picky details shut us down every time. Bleah. BACK IN THE SADDLE Rehearsal went well for Kissing George on Monday night. Mark had us doing a lot of the Armando Diaz action and reaction stuff we worked on in Kansas City. It helps - a lot. I'm slowly but surely getting out of my head again, after several months of being a turtle. We never quite made it to a run-through of a show, but we'll still be in good shape on Friday. It's our first non-Incubator gig. I'm excited, and I think the rest of the team is too. Mark Sutton said something on Saturday that was stuck in my head during rehearsal. Sometimes when an improviser reaches a certain level, they figure out enough to get by and get stuck. It's not that they're bad or not funny, they're just too lazy to commit themselves to taking the next step. The next step will inevitably be a step back before an improvement occurs. I'm just waiting for the step forward... Mark Henderson has actually been saying the same thing to me for weeks now, I guess I just needed time to let it sink into my feeble little brain. The important thing is, I'm finally free of all the shit that's been bothering me, and I'm back to working on my improv again. Time to take that step, baby... The team even has a website now, thanks again to the fabulous Fuzzy Gerdes. He's my hero. HALLOWEEN weekend is gonna be one busy time. It will be a lot of fun, but I'm gonna be one tired chica. WHAT I LEARNED TODAY 1. Haunted houses aren't as scary when the ghouls and ghosts stop acting spooky and start asking if you've seen their girlfriend as the Creature from the Black Lagoon. 2. One cat, good. Two cats, stinky. Very stinky. 3. Thanks to Jason Chin for bringing my name up at the appropriate time. 4. Much to his dismay, Bondo looks and acts exactly like everyone expects him to - a die hard Rennaissance festival performer. Required viewing: Kissing George The FINAL Sidewalk Ends at IO The FINAL Thriller Theater 2 That's all I've got to say about that.
10/1/99
Woke up this morning and realized I really need to buy myself a jacket. It's freezing outside... I'm a cold sensitive person, too. You'd think I'd be better prepared.
10/5/99
My coworker Marsha is selling those wonderful Entertainment books with all the coupons in them so I bought one. They've got lots of neat places to spend your money... I rarely make the most of them, but this year, I'm on a mission...
Fuzzy Gerdes. Chock full of all the improv info you want to know.
10/7/99
Yo.
@ The Improv Olympic (3541 N. Clark), Admission $10
8pm - Friday, October 8th & 15th - final two shows!
Reader critic Nick Green sez - [This] is one of the few winning attempts at
true political and social satire since the mock presidential debates at Second
City nearly four years ago. ImprovOlympic veteran Steve Scholz has
scripted a revue that has both a soul and a conscience. There are some
misfires. . . . Still, when Scholz hits the mark-as he does more often than
not-the results are impressive.
10/11/99
As retarded as this sounds, I enjoyed doing my laundry and grocery shopping this weekend. I haven't had a block of time to do either of those in a while... A clarification: Maggie is the name I use on a television show I host called Twirly - Megan is my real name. The reason the site is called Maggie's Sweet Justice is because it's stemmed off of the website for the cable show... where my name is Maggie. You can call me Maggie as a nickname, if you like, but it's not my real name. If you still need clarification on this one, please feel free to email me. I know it's confusing.
October 13th, @ The Improv Olympic (3541 N. Clark), 8pm
ABSOLUTELY FREE
10/21/99
I've been out sick for the last week or so. Sicker than I can remember being for a long while. Everyone here at work thought I was playing hooky or that I'd quit. Come on, people. I'm a slacker, but not that bad...
10/22/99
10/28/99
I'm slowly but surely been trying to get the Twirly website updated to match the look of our new opening credits. It takes a little while, even though there's not much to the site. Maybe that's because I do it at work when I'm supposed to be doing other stuff... Hmmm....
Friday, October 29th
8pm @ The Playground (3341 N. Lincoln)
Admission: $7, or $5 if you click here
Saturday, October 30th
8pm @ The Improv Olympic (3541 N. Clark)
Admission: $8
Saturday, October 30th
9pm @ The Improv Olympic
Admission: $10, or free if you're an IO student
Show up in costume and get into the party afterwards for free!
