Chicago Seems Smaller

After work I walked through the Loop to go see my friend Thea's band, Let's Get Out of this Terrible Sandwich Shop. Having spent 7 nights in a hotel just west of Times Square, I couldn't help but feel like Chicago was this small hamlet of a city instead of the 3rd biggest city in America. The theater section of the Loop seemed like a sandbox compared to the Sahara that is Broadway in NYC. Chicago has taller skyscrapers but it seems like there's less tall buildings here. It was an old feeling. Chicago feels smaller. And I'm okay with that.

NYC Fringe Reviews for PennyBear

PennyBear got reviewed four times during the Fringe Festival. Two of them got us and the other two didn't. Here are the reviews of the ones that got us.

From curtainup.com:
Pennybear
Refreshingly inventive writing and stellar acting had me hoping Pennybear's next sketch wouldn't be their last. This cast of four and writer/director James Whittington get it right in this self-written work, and it kills. Minimal props and creative staging lend excellent focus to the hilarity at hand including truth or dare in the trunk of a car, a never-ending rollercoaster ride, father/daughter bonding over menstruation, heinous airport customer service, and the accidental demise of two suicide jumpers. With a background in Chicago improv, Marla Caceres, Padriac Connelly, Nancy Friedrich and Jon Forsythe seal the deal with emotional commitment and spot-on comic timing. Ensemble acting doesn't get much better than this. At Players Theatre. 55 minutes. [Winchester]

From nytheatre.com:
PennyBear
reviewed by Judith Jarosz
Aug 21, 2008

This Chicago-based troupe presents an hour of comedy sketches of varying lengths, and on a wide variety of subjects. Some of these subjects are more "risky" and others "safer," though almost all are very funny. This is due to some clever scenes written, directed and executed by five very talented artists who are as diverse as their material. The performers include a tall brunette, Marla Caceres; sturdy, bearded Padraic Connelly; the curvaceous, red-haired Nancy Friedrich; and lean, gangly Jon Forsythe, who all work very well together and seem to enjoy what they do as much as we enjoy watching them. (The fifth contributor is director James Whittington.)

As I said, the subject matter varies greatly and most of the sketches involve dark twists, like the one with two corporate co-workers chatting cheerily from their respective cubicles as we slowly learn that she has an emotionally sadistic boyfriend and he still lives with his control freak mom who is nutritionally stuck in the 1950s. Or the sweet lady at the airport ticket stand, who turns into a robotic Nazi. As is usually the case with sketch comedy, occasionally some of the scenes ramble or fall flat. And some, such as the scene with the father talking through the bathroom door to his teen daughter reading instructions on how to insert a tampon, walk a challenging fine line between funny and uncomfortable. But it is really a credit to the performers that most scenes remain funny even as they turn darker.

There is sketch where Forsythe's character gets stuck on a roller coaster that works wonderfully due to his great physical comedic ability. As he keeps whipping around the track getting more and more frantic while his helpless friend stands by, you feel bad for him, but can't help laughing. It reminds me a lot of Steve Martin's work. Another scene has unicorns at a party making out, and let's just say that their horns take on a whole new meaning, with creative use of props, especially for the "climax."

Although there is no real story line throughout the piece, it starts out with Connelly miming putting a needle on a phonograph album, resulting in a scratchy voice of a director who introduces each cast member and starts off the show. We also hear from this voice at the end of the piece, as a way to wrap it up. Director/writer James Whittington makes great use of the stage area and props, and I can only assume that the simple set and lighting, which are not credited, are a group effort. I enjoyed watching this troupe and would definitely check them out again, and bring friends!

NYC Fringe Festival

Flew in Sunday
Took bus into Manhattan from LGA
Found hotel
Smallest hotel room I've ever seen
Went to Brooklyn
Subway system is confusing
Subway is super noisy
Subway making me FEEL TENSE!
Brooklyn looks and feels like Chicago
Brooklyn is quiet
Brooklyn is nice
Hanging with Justin & Anna
Largest controllers ever
Fold-out cot barely fit in room
Hotel bed and cot fill 90% of room space
Techs Monday
Venue director super late
Can't tech all of show
Given extra tech day Tuesday
Venue director late Tuesday
Worst tech ever
Got headaches
Drank coffee
Check into Fringe Central in Little Italy
Watch Olympics in hotel
Ate first crepe - delicious
Switched to slightly larger room
Don't tell staff 4 people in 1 room
Pad on floor with comforter and me on bed with thin sheet
A/C on full
Sleep in sweater
Ask for extra blanket 2 days later
Sightseeing throughout the week
Public Library
The Met
Central Park
Battery Park
Times Square
Empire State Building
Chrysler Building
Rockafeller Plaza
Grand Central Station
Get to see Dayna & Sunita
Open show for 11 people
House gets bigger every show
50 people by last show
Nancy's Digbat gets Timeout NY recommended
Did the Power Hour
People like our show
Went to an "Urban Roadhouse"
Actual fight broke out at "Urban Roadhouse"
Pretended to listen to conversations while looking over shoulder at Olympics coverage on bar flat-screen TVs.
Meant to get up early in the mornings
Slept in late every day except Sunday
Took train to bus to airport
Plane 22nd in line on tarmac
Flew back Sunday
Luggage wheel breaks 3 blocks from home
Had fun
Glad to be back

Lollapalooza

Day 1
Bands I saw:
Rogue Wave (lame)
Holy F*ck DJ Set (good for 15 minutes, then went away)
The Kills (nothing special; the press release photo of the girl in the band looks like my friend Molly)
Gogol Bordello (sounded good from a distance; not in the mood for the music though)
Mates of State (good set; the sounds was a little off)
CSS (amazing show)
Radiohead (could only stay for an hour and ten minutes, but they were pretty darn great)

Thoughts:
Getting in was a pain; super packed. Way more packed than last year. Texting and calling friends was a nightmare. I have AT&T and the festival is sponsered by AT&T but the service was shitty. Very hot. Spent and much time in the shade as I could.



Day 2
Bands I saw:
MGMT (so-so; better towards the end)
Explosions in the Sky (nice background music for napping)
Okkervil River (average)
Battles (good show, but after 15 minutes wasn't in the mood, needed to hear a song with lyrics. so I walked over to...)
Broken Social Scene (so-so)
Wilco (good set)

Thoughts:
Average day. No awful bands, but no amazing bands. Not as hot was day before but still pretty hot in the sun. Spent lots of time in the shade.



Day 3
Bands I saw:
Black Kids (so-so)
Iron & Wine (so-so)
Flogging Molly (great show but again, wasn't in the mood; douche bag factor way up for this show)
Gnarls Barkley (okay)
Girl Talk (stage filled with fans; sounded like a good time)
Nine Inch Nails (not a fan; heard Closer and then left)
Kanye (again, not a fan; didn't really even listen to his songs)

Thoughts:
Weather-wise it was the best day. It got cloudy mid-afternoon so it protected us from the sun, so most of the day felt like we were in the shade. With the so-so shows and tiredness factoring in, Sunday was my least favorite day. (Just like last year)

Overall the festival was nice but definitely not as good as last year.

Beer Pong

We hosted a fundraiser for PennyBear and tried to lure a ton of people with Beer Pong. Those of us that have been around the improv scene remembered the glory days where the biggest improv parties were the beer pong ones. But it's been years since anyone through a beer pong party so our attendance was rather small. But we were able to have a Beer Pong tournament it was a lot of fun to watch.

In the end, we actually made some money on the fundraiser. Not as much as we were hoping, but we were in the black, so that's good. I also forgot to take a single picture with my camera during the party. D'oh.

Parents Weekend

My parents came to Chicago this past weekend. They came specifically because I wanted them to see my sketch show. It was good to see them. I hadn't seen them since last Thanksgiving. They arrived Friday afternoon and we had dinner that night at Leona's. As usual, they peppered me with questions about what's going on in my life. My dad was also concerned about being entertained at the show. He wanted to get an exact sense of the type of humor he was going to be presented with before the show. It was sort of odd but I indulged him.

Dad: Is it one long sketch?
Me: No, a series of sketches. A sketch revue; a sketch show.
Dad: So like SNL?
Me: Sort of, but we don't do political satire or impressions of famous people. It's more like slice of life scenes but there's an odd twist that makes it odd, but still real.
Dad: Like what kind of twist?
Mom: You'll find out when we watch it.
Dad: I just want to know if I'll get it.
Me: I hope so.

They liked the show. It was good to have them see me in a show that I was proud of; both of the show as a whole and of my performance. Before this all they'd seen were so-so improv shows I'd been in. I'd never have an amazing performance in front of them. As such, I'm sure they thought I was mediocre and that I should probably focus on a real career rather than this acting thing. I'm sure they think of improv as a nice hobby. So it was good for them to see that I can actually act.

It was also good to hear their thoughts on the sketches. Parental feedback is always a delight because they're critiques always seem to come from an alien place. Mostly this came from my dad who didn't pick up on some of the more subtle moments of the show.

They also came to see a ComedySportz show the next day even though I was only doing the announcing for it. They liked it overall but my dad didn't like how they didn't show the final score at the end. This made him think the show was rigged. I assured him it's not.

Saturday during the day I rode the L out towards O'Hare so they could pick me up and go to a movie together. They've lived in the suburbs or butt fuck nowhere (Brainerd) for over 30 years and as such they fear driving in the big city. That's why I came out to the suburbs. They only drove into the city when they had to: for the two shows they went to see. I teased them about this but they didn't care.

Pitchfork 2008

I went to Pitchfork today. It was nice to go and some of the bands were cool to hear but I'd say overall the Festival on Sunday was average.

I got to the festival around 12:30, with definitely enough time to see the Dirty Projectors. I saw them live awhile ago with a friend and I liked them a lot more than what I heard of them on an album that was recommended to me by a different friend. At Pitchfork they were just as good as they were the last time I saw them live. They have an interesting sound. A lot of bands lately have both guys and girls singing the words together but with this band, they do it in an unconventional, almost staccato harmony style rather than the cutesy style other bands go for.

The food was good and well priced. Over the course of the day I helped myself to ribs, pulled pork, corn on the cob, pizza, beer, and water. Lots and lots of water. The sun was shinning and it was pretty hot. Not crazy hot like it was 2 years ago. But if you were in the sun, you definitely felt the heat. In the shade, the temperature was perfect. And towards dusk the temperature fell slightly enough to make it pleasant even if you were in the sun.

I saw only a couple of fellow improvisers and my friend Jon came later in the day with his girlfriend and friend. The festival is much better if you have a buddy. I was alone for much of the first half of the day. I'm fine with being by myself. I'm by myself a lot and I'm cool with it. You get used to it. But there are some places where the feeling of being alone is more pronounced. Concerts and festivals are definitely those places. So once I had friends to hang with, I felt much better.

In addition to the Dirty Projectors (good), I saw Apples in Stereo (okay), King Khan and his Shrines (interesting, but in a good way), Spiritualized (naptime), the Dodos (i liked them but their songs were SUPER long), and Bon Iver (okay). I wanted to see Cut Copy but there was some sort of delay at the airport they flew into so they were super late. I figured that meant they weren't coming so I left while this crappy pick-up band played. My friend Jon told me later that they did actually show up and play about 4 songs. So it sucked that I missed them but I was glad to be home after a long day in the sun.

Build-A-Bike Class 7

This week we dealt with shifters and derailleurs. It wasn't too much different from brakes although I had a heck of a time putting my shifter wire on the front derailleur with enough tension on it.

This will end up being my last class in the course. I've got a Sunday ticket for the Pitchfork Music Festival and I'm going to that instead of class. Luckily the last class is basically - from what the teacher has told me - odd and ends and other loose ends stuff. So nothing extra to learn, just extra time if you need it. I put my pedals back on my bike and test rode it around the area. It felt good and the brakes were extra tight. I hardly had to press down on the brake and the bike would stop.

It was a fun class and I hope to go back during the shop's Open Shop hours on Saturdays to mess around with the things I've learned on my road bike.

Two Saturday Parties

I went to two parties yesterday.

One was a backyard BBQ/party that was thrown to celebrate multiple CSz birthdays this week. To paraphrase, it was called the "Tamara, Megan, and Tara and NOT Rene have birthdays party." Rene decided to have his birthday party separate from the group. The backyard was Tamara's and it a great backyard; very spacious and grassy. Great for games like cornhole and donkey balls. I showed up way too early but I had a good time. I even took a nap during it to recharge. The grilled food was good, too. I had a come from behind victory against Tamara in donkey balls and I mopped the floor with Natalie in cornhole. Later I was part of a 4-person donkey ball team that towards the end eroded into a two-person team. We were beaten by the other team.

Towards the end of this party there was a pretty fun game of movie-title mash-ups. It involved giving the synopsis of two movies as if they were one movie. Then the guessers would have to guess the movies, which involved a bit of "Wheel of Fortune" Before & After category finesse. For instance, one that I came up with: "what's that movie where Gregory Peck defends a black man for a crime he didn't commit while Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn get into mischief?" "To Kill A Mockingbird on a Wire." Get it? It's "To Kill A Mockingbird" and "Bird on a Wire" mashed together because they share the same last/first word. In all honesty, my clue wasn't as coherent as it appears on this blog. And those of you that read this blog are probably reader's of Arnie's blog, and he's already summarized this game better than I.

The second party was a farewell party for my friend Dayna. I've known Dayna since our early days in college. We were in the same college improv group. She joined it, I believe, 6 months after I joined the group. She also moved to Chicago 6 months after I moved to Chicago. So our journeys through life has been sort of similar up until this point. Her improv experience in Chicago was a little rougher than mine and she'd been itching to move to NYC for some time. She'd been delayed by this horrible housing market. Luckily she got a profit on her condo and is moving to Astoria Queens. She's super happy to move and I'm super excited for her. I hope she was tons of awesome things happen to her in New York. Luckily I won't have to wait too long before seeing her again when PennyBear goes to NYC for the Fringe Festival. Her party was at Holiday Club and though when I arrived the gather was small, it quickly gathered steam and mass as the night wore on.

All in all, it was a pretty fun day.

Another Sneak Preview

I saw another sneak preview movie thanks again to my friend "The Ferg." This time it was Hellboy II: The Golden Army. This was another solid grade B movie. The visuals were amazing and the action and story were pretty good. There was a lot more comedy packed into this movie than the first one; perhaps a tab too broad and unrealistic at times, but still enjoyable. There were certain character choices that made no sense and I think that's why this movie isn't an A in my book. Though the crowd I saw this movie with - dorks and nerds - freakin' loved this movie. They were the kind of over-appreciative audience you'd love to get as a performer. I felt like I was at TJ & Dave, only instead of TJ & Dave, it was a movie.

CSz Banquet

The above picture is of Sam - who won 3 Howie Awards at the CSz banquet - and Martin - who wasn't nominated in any category.

I mostly wanted to mention that because it's a fun dig at Martin and because I know Martin reads this blog. How's it going Martin?

~~~

Now that CSz has its own theater again, we were able to celebrate how awesome we all are with a banquet. The banquet was last night. It was at Marcello's and we had a huge private room to ourselves. Everyone was dressed up really nice and everyone looked great. All the gentlemen looked distinguished and all the ladies looked radiant.

The food was good and the entertainment was great. Joey, Tara, and Rich emceed the opening presentation. It lovingly made fun of different aspects of the theater and it was a joy to be able to get all the jokes. After that was the awarding of the Howie Awards (the Oscars of CSz). Most of the people I voted for got the Howie award in their category. Afterwards a bunch of us went over to CSz for an after party. I got pretty tipsy. So tipsy, in fact, that I spent 2 hours drinking water at home to sober up enough to not get a hangover headache today. I succeeded but I'm absolutely exhausted today. I should have gone to bed right after work, but I didn't. See the next post for why.

Build-A-Bike Class 6

Brakes - easiest class so far.

We learned the differences between brake and shift housing. They gave us new brake cable and housing and showed us how to put them on our bikes. Got to use a tool called the 4th Hand, and learned how to center my brake pads. The instructions were easy to follow and I got done with tons of time to spare.

Next week: shifters and derailleurs.

4th of July

I had a really great 4th of July day. I went to two BBQs that afternoon. The second one was a Rattlesnake & Friends BBQ party. It was up north at Katy's place and we were able to get to the roof and chill out there from time to time. I bought some cheap steaks and when I cooked two of them I found out why they were cheap. Not good at all. Well, a little good because I ate them both. For the most part the BBQ was low key, which was perfect. The weather was beautiful and the company was great.

Later at night I went to another low key hanging out, but this one was even more low key than the low key BBQ. It was nice to chat on a porch, get updates of people's lives, and do bits back and forth.

But a day spent doing low key things is tiring. I was thinking about my bed by 10pm. I was simply exhausted by midnight.

Out of My Throat

This past CSz rehearsal I elected for the "What's Your Problem?" session.  In it, eight of us got to improvise and then be told what are tendencies are to be aware of them and then try to correct them.  Mine has always been trying to enunciate better.  Matt said I talk out of my throat and to help vary it up I should try to talk not out of my throat; to get out of my throat.  But that's not what I want to talk about.

To start the session has us walk around the stage and, in turn, pretend to be one of the eight that was on stage.  So at one time I had 7 people pretending to walk and talk like me.  There would be two halves to this: 1) walking and talking like this person in a show and 2) walk and talk like this person in a social situation, like at a party.  These exercises are always a little weird because some people you know really well and can do the mimicry pretty well.  Others you don't know so well and you feel lost in trying to do a fair representation of them.

What I found weird was when it was my turn to be mimicked, I myself was trying to do an accurate representation of me.  "What am I like in a show? What to I normally do?  I think I do this thing so I'll do it."  That's what I was thinking.  Then in the party situation I was talking to Rance, who was trying to do me.  "What do I normally talk about at parties? How do I stand usually in this situation?"  Basically I was really over thinking this.

I also didn't really take in what other people were doing while mimicking me, even though that's really what I wanted to do.  I really wanted to step back and take it all in.  And during the party situation, I wanted to roam around and see what the different groupings on stage were doing; how did they think I acted at a party?  Instead, I small talked to Rance while at the same time thinking "this is boring, I get the group over there is having a better conversation."  And I felt that if I went over to another group he'd get offended that I ditched the conversation we were having.  Because I know that's what I think in social situations.  I'm constantly looking for a better conversation and it's something I'm trying to fix.  I want to be able to give 100% of my attention of the person I'm talking to; to give them respect.  So I guess I actually did a good job of acting like myself while I was over thinking about how to be myself.

Office Stories

Small anecdotes about my office.

-----------------

The office across from us was having cake.  Damn them.

I work downtown in an office building like so many thousands of other people in the Loop area.  The building my company is in now is new... for us.  We moved there in December and there used to be an empty office across the hall from us.  Now it is occupied by a Chicago branch of a New York university.

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that I loath my job.  I don't hate it; that's too strong.  No, I loath it.

loath [lohth, lohth]
–adjective
unwilling; reluctant; disinclined; averse: to be loath to admit a mistake.

On my way back to work from a break- reluctantly - I was walking down the hall and saw the people in the other office space having cake.  To quote one of my favorite comedians, Maria Bamford, "you could almost hear the happy scrape of plastic fork against paper plate."  The people in that office looked happy.  I used to be that happy.  Our company used to celebrate birthdays in a two-month grouping.  My company used to care about morale.

"I hate you, other office space," I thought to myself.  "I don't loath you; I hate you."  I hate you for bringing home clear that I should be in a different job.

~~~

Today the big wigs from the bank that owns my company are in the office.  The previous week we had cleaning crews come in every night after we all left the building for three nights straight.  They mostly super duper cleaned the carpets.  We had to remove everything from the floor to aid in this task.  I forgot during the middle day of the three and had a sign waiting for me on my chair, reminding me to pick up my things off the floor.  How nice.

My area actually needed the cleaning the most.  About a month prior to this I had spilled milk all over myself.  I spilled milk into my lap.  My pants were splattered with milk stains, my chair was soaked in milk, and the carpet underneath had a nice puddle of milk.  This happened when I accidently knocked over the Silo cup I was using as a bowl for my bowl of Corn Flakes.

I usually eat breakfast before I get to work.  However, when I wake up too late for breakfast, I buy a pint of 2% milk and quickly eat my rushed "bowl" of cereal before 8am.  I am also very good at not spilling things around my desk.  Not on that morning.  That morning in particular I had to carefully pick out of the carpet miniscule specks of Corn Flakes and soak up the milk with a ream of paper towels.  My pants dried pretty quickly and the wet spots were hardly noticeable.  I also grabbed a new chair.

As the big wigs walked through my area, they did not notice a dirty carpet.  This is because it was indeed clean.  They also did not notice the chair in the corner of the room.  Good thing too, because this chair still has a milk stain on it.

~~~

  
As I mentioned before, my company moved to our new office space back in December.  On the second day at the new space, my co-worked threw a fit and quit in a huff.  He was the mail room clerk.  Until we hired a new clerk, I did the mail.  That lasted 2 months.  During that time my own daily work created a nice back log.  Only recently have I worked through that mound of work and am close to being caught up.

Now that my desktop is almost clean, I was able to get my new cork board put in behind my computer screen.  Before this, a white wall was behind my monitor.  Now I have a nice beige three foot by five foot cork board to look at and pin papers too.  This isn't much, but it's enough to make me slightly happier at work.

~~~

I have to cover the reception desk during her lunch break.  Most customers that call will be transfered to customer service.  Around 99% of the call that come to the reception desk.  Why they don't just all go to customer service in the first place is beyond me.  After all, this is an office and logic and offices don't always coexist.  I've gotten pretty good and not letting customers get me angered.  Today I had a lady mildly cuss and I pointed it out by asking her "please to not cuss."  I guess she thought "God damn" wasn't a cuss because that polite request set her off.  She objected to cursing, cursed some more, wanted to speak to a manager, and threatened to cancel her policy and go to the Better Business Bureau.  I quickly transfered her call but I still felt a hot wave of distress for a good 5 minutes after I transfered the call.  I somehow felt personally attacked on some level or had my sanity questioned when I labeled "God damn" as a cuss.

But that lady's got nothing on the dude who called in a few months ago and immediately berated me and my company for having no one that spoke English and being based in India.  When I told him that those thing were not the case and that we were located in Chicago, he then made a wonderfully racist comment against Hispanics.  I had fun chewing him out, telling him "I've never been so insulted in my life" and "you should be ashamed as an American for saying such things" before hanging up on him.

Quick Notes

PennyBear's second show was good, perhaps better than our opening weekend.

Rehearsed for the first time with my new iO group. It was a good rehearsal and the scenes I did and saw were good. It was good to have fellow Snake Katy there.

I saw Dunbar's show, Space Future, finally and it was good.

I went to see WALL-E on Sunday and I liked it. Probably not as much as a few of my friends who also saw it, but I did like it.

Had the 5th Build-A-Bike class and this time around we learned how to true our wheels. This was the class I was looking forward to most. This is because I'm a fan of the movie Breaking Away and there's a scene in it where the main character fixes up a bike and during part of this montage he trues his wheels.



Didn't get to hang out with friends much. I'm sure that will be remedied this holiday weekend.

Sneak Preview

My friend Jon got tickets to a sneak preview of the movie Hancock, which stars Will Smith. We got to the theater well ahead of time so we were able to get pretty great seats. One thing, though, was that they took our cameras and cell phones with picture-taking abilities away to prevent people from making bootleg copies of the movie. Had I know this I would have left my camera and phone in Jon's car. They put everyone's stuff in individual small manila envelopes and gave us raffle tickets so we could find our possessions after the movie. So it was like a coat check, expect instead of coats it was recording equipment. This kind of freaked me out a bit since it was SUPER suck if I lost my camera and phone. But I got my stuff back so I'm cool.

The movie itself was better than I thought it would be. It was a good movie, not great, not awful, not so-so, but good. There was an actual plot to the movie (that they wisely withhold in the trailers) although some of the character development could have been a bit better.

I'll Bring the Awkward Intelligence to the Table, You Bring the Casserole

Here's the review of PennyBear in the Chicago Tribune by Nina Metz. She first talks about a play and then talks about my group:

'Elephant' topples easy metaphors
Strange Tree scores; PennyBear troupe is back

By Nina Metz | Special to the Chicago Tribune
June 27, 2008

The elephant in the room dominating Emily Schwartz's latest play is no metaphor but an actual elephant (OK, mechanical elephant)—and if that doesn't tell you something about this playwright's wry sense of humor, may I suggest a quick scan of the title.

[Ms. Metz goes on about Strange Trees; but let's get to the part about PennyBear]

I caught a performance by PennyBear at this year's SketchFest in January, and the local troupe made a big impression with their unusually vivid characters and clever material that often verges on the disturbing. This is not your standard sketch group.

Their current show, "PennyBear: A Collection of Miniature Plays and Curious Diversions" is a mix of new and old material, and the four writer-performers are just as strong and confident as I remember. Nancy Friedrich has a nicely demented thing going on under her pretty-girl surface—it's as if her eyeballs are about to bounce all over the place any minute. Jon Forsythe brings an awkward intelligence to the table, and it's a good balance to the straight-man energy of Marla Caceres and Padraic Connelly.

Co-written and directed by James Whittington (who recently worked on the current Second City mainstage revue), the show is observational and darkly weird. One bit has a father reading the pamphlet from a tampon box to his daughter (the scene goes beyond the standard "ew" of the premise); another is just a quick joke about amorous unicorns reaching climax.

Almost all of it works, and the glue holding these scenes together is a voice-over that mimics that sound of an old instructional record: "Now, let's begin emotional warm-ups."

It's retro and funny and it gives the show a polish most sketch revues lack.

Reader Recommended

 PENNYBEAR: A COLLECTION OF MINIATURE PLAYS AND CURIOUS DIVERSIONSTwo elementary school students have been caught with weapons in class and await the police while their principal attempts to empathize. 'I have lots of knives,' she coos. 'I've been married twice.' And she too would like to kill some people--the board of education for starters--but doesn't follow through on it. This seven-minute scene, one of a dozen brief gems in PennyBear's second full-length evening of sketch comedy, typifies everything this quartet of subtle, simpatico actors do well. They and their savvy director James Whittington warp reality just enough to let absurdity out, then play that absurdity for truth rather than laughs. The result is consistently engaging, honest, and hilarious--though almost none of the pieces has a satisfying ending. --Justin Hayford Through 8/1: Fri 10:30 PM, no show 7/4, Apollo Theater, studio, 2540 N. Lincoln, 773-935-6100, $8-$10.

Last Lottery Show

Last night was the 7th anniversary of the Lottery at iO. For those that don't know, the Lottery is a show where one student from the first 5 levels of iO is picked to play with veteran improvisers for one class session. These 5 young student improvisers then meet every Monday night for the length of the show (2 months) to rehearse and then come back Tuesday nights at 10:30pm to perform their show. Usually they invite 4-6 veteran improvisers to play with these students. When it was started 7 years ago, I was in classes. In fact, I was in level 5, which is the last class level you are eligible for the Lottery. My fellow classmate, Josh Chamberlain, was one of the first students in this show. It's a great way for people to get known and a lot of current improv veterans are alumni of this show.

The Lottery is taking a hiatus (hopefully just during the summer). This is due to low attendance, which I think might be due to people taking this show for granted. It's no longer the spectacle it once was that drew huge crowds. Same thing could be said for the Armando. Anyway, last night was the reunion show where the 6 Lottery casts of the past year get to play with more veterans. This year the veteran groups were Dutchess, Improvised Shakespeare, 3033, The Reckoning, Revolver, past Lottery hosts, and Rattlesnake High School.

I think ours was the largest grouping on stage. We had 5 students (Robert, Margaret, Prescott, Blythe, and Travis), 6 members of Rattlesnake (Paul, Mark, Carrie, Rex, Bill, and me), Noah, and TJ. We opted to mirror the first grouping of the event and decided our form would be a tag-out form. It was a lot of fun and it was neat to improvise with TJ and Noah. But it was even more great to be on stage with Rattlesnake again. I really miss those guys.

One more thing. Jorin, one of the current co-hosts of the Lottery, was giving away 17 of his old T-shirts that are now too small for him. He passed several out in between groupings. During one grouping show, I found myself in the green room and a wonderful thing happened. We were looking at the shirts Jorin was giving away. I tried on one over my clothes and it fit pretty tight. And I'm pretty skinny. So then Danny and Noah decided to try a shirt on. It was quite hilarious and I just HAD to take a picture.

Build-A-Bike Week 4

Class 4 was about wheel hubs. Wheel hubs also have bearings in them, which allow the wheels to spins. The adjustments on wheel hubs are the most delicate and important because it's the part of the bike that spins the most. This week was the hardest yet and also the messiest. It was also the first time I stayed until the end of the class to get it right.

So far we're learning how the different parts work and how they're assembled. This is a cool thing to learn. One thing I'm not learning is knowing when these different parts need replacing. Or how often these parts need fine-tuning. Perhaps this is something that will be covered in a later week.

Hell Week

PennyBear's new show opened last Friday night. We had about 20 people there, which was much better than our 5 people-opening night during our first run. We also had 4 reviewers there. I think our show is stronger than our last show. I was proud of the material in our first run, but I'm even more proud of the stuff we've created since then. Our show is a mix of old and new sketches and I think our running order is the best it can be. That said, the audience reactions to stuff was different that what I was expecting. As such, I'm unsure how our reviews are going to turn out. I hope we get at least one favorable review.

The week leading up to the show was exhausting. Each weekday night we met and rehearsed stuff. I'm not a coffee drinker (caffeine makes me too hyper; I'm quite sensitive to the drug) but I needed to rely on it heavily during this week to keep me awake at my day job. I thought I'd get some sleep during the weekend but I had a hard time falling asleep. It was until last night - when I forced myself to go to bed at 10pm - that I actually got a good night's sleep. But even today I feel tired at it's only noon.

Build-A-Bike Week 3

Week three was headsets. Headsets allow you to steer your bike and swivel your handlebars. This time my bike was like the rest and that was nice. So I finally got to experience some "click and crunch." One thing that is nice about the class is that we always finish early.

Exhaustion Weekend

PennyBear's in the tech phase of our show. Which means trying to not panic with all the work we have to do before we open June 20. Saturday we had tech from 8am (yes, in the morning) to 5pm. It went by faster than I thought it would. We got a ton of stuff done but we still had much more work to do. Then on Sunday we had an actual lighting and sound tech cue-to-cue. This was supposed to have gone from 8am to 1pm. Only the Apollo Studio double booked a church group in the space until 10am. So we were only able to get into the space and start our cue-to-cue just after 10am. We almost got through the whole show cue-to-cue but fell a few scenes short by 1pm. So the double booking screwed us out of that.

Add to these long days a bunch of shows in the evening; one Friday night and two Saturday night. I got to bed Friday evening around 2am and Saturday evening around 1:30am. Friday was because I had to watch Beatbox and Saturday was because I had to make an appearance at a friend's 30th birthday party.

Shock Corridor

Thursday night I had my first show with my new iO team, whose slave name is The Associates.  Most of the group met the previous night for a rehearsal.  I was busy missing Felt for Pennybear rehearsal - we're in the final stretch before the opening of our new sketch show.  I must admit that it still feels very weird to be on a different team, even though I haven't really interacted that much with my new team.  Many of them are super excited for this new team and that's great.  It's much better than the alternative - a bunch of jaded people who are only in it for themselves.  But their glee in the situation is something that I cannot quite participate in; at least not yet.  It's still too soon.

Which begs the question: should I have sat out a schedule? Thinking that it would probably take two months to get over the sting of the dismantling of RHS.  Maybe.  But I'm not one to take a break from improv.  And I think I can still participate in this new group while getting over the loss of my team.

Anyway, Thursday night was our first show and it was a good one.  Good for a first show.  If we were a veteran team, it would have been an average show; I think.  While it's way too early to tell if this team has a shot, having a good first show doesn't hurt our chances.

Oh, and the name we decided to play as that night was Shock Corridor.  This might be our new name or we might still have to go through the laboring process of finding a new name. 

Second Build-A-Bike Class

In week 2, we learned about bottom brackets on bikes.  Bottom brackets allow you to pedal your bike.  They have small ball bearings in there that allow the cranks to spins in a nice smooth fashion.  Older bikes usually have adjustable bottom brackets.  Newer bikes have cartridge bottom brackets.  Everybody else in the class had adjustable bottom brackets while I had a cartridge type.  Because of this I finished way before the others because I didn't have to fiddle with the fit of the bottom brackets.  Though I did learn some neat terms, like "click and crunch."  My road bike also has a cartridge bottom bracket so at least when it comes time for me to work on my road bike, I've got the experience of removing and installing cartridge bottom brackets to my bike.

Next week we work on headsets.

Accidental Drunk

This last weekend I had no shows. That rarely happens, which is both good and bad. Good because I'm at a level where I'm involved in a bunch of cool things and it's good to be busy with creative things. It's bad because it means I'm a little overworked, usually underslept (new word I'm trying to coin), and generally not experiencing life outside of shows. I approached this weekend in a good mood. I was glad to have the weekend off from shows. I still had to do things, but I was free to hang out with people and have fun. Somehow this led me to drink more beer or wine than I usually do.

Friday night I watched Beatbox and slowly got drunk on Fosters. Saturday I went to Chris Lee's going away party and got pretty darn tipsy on white wine. Then I got on my bike and headed over to the Oakwood for my friend Mikaela's birthday party. More drinking was to be had there. Sunday I awoke to a horrible hangover, and even after getting up, doing tasks, and eating a large burrito to soak up any remaining alcohol in my stomach, I was still hungover Sunday night. I didn't mean to drink so much, but somehow I did.

Anyway, I'm going to try to play it cool alcohol-wise for a couple of weeks or so.

First Free Thursday

Rattlesnake rehearsed on Thursday nights and so I've had something booked every Thursday for over three years (how long I was on Rattlesnake). Yes, occasionally rehearsal would be canceled, but I haven't had Thursday night blank for a long time. I could have used this free night to clean my room and do something productive. Instead I decided to bike to Ukrainian Village to watch game 1 of the NBA Finals.

It was a fun time but the weather outside was unbelievably hot and humid that day and night. I sweated buckets on the ride over. I also marveled at how large of an apartment my friend Ben has all by himself for very little money. We had cold chicken, warm pizza, and cheap beer. Sometimes during the commercials we'd switch to clips of the 1986 Summer Olympics that Ben has on cassette. By the end of the night a nice small gathering of people were there. We watched the Celtics win, I got to do some funny if somewhat annoying announcer bits, and after the game we played a bit of Mario Kart. Not a bad night.

Build-A-Bike Class 1

I had my first Build-A-Bike class on Sunday.  The instructor, Alex, has us introduce ourselves and tell the group how we heard about the class and what we want to get out of it.  There are 8 people in the class including myself.  I heard of the class through a friend and I told them that what I want to get out of the class is the ability to repair my bike by myself and not feel like a total idiot when I go to bike shops.  The Alex went over the history of West Town Bikes and the programs it's involved in.  Then we went over the names for the parts of the bike.  After that we went over the different tool we'll be using throughout the class.  Alex stressed that single purpose tool are better than multi-purpose tools.

Since most of the first class was just discussion and talking, we didn't get much actual work with our bikes, but Alex assured us that we'll get plenty of bike work in the coming weeks.  The things that we did do with our bikes, however, were to take off our pedals, chains, and cables.  We get to store our bikes at the shop during the course of the class, and we get a bucket to put all our parts in.

It was a nice first class and I'm eager to learn more about my bike.

Last Rattlesnake Harold Show

To paraphrase: We did this and then this and then this happened. Laughter.

Rattlesnake High School had our last show Saturday night.  We got to go second since it was our last show.  Bullet Lounge opened for us.  Apparently their show was so-so.  Our show was great.  Levin flew in just for the show.  Taylor just happened to be in town for a wedding and was able to sit with us also.  So we had 11 on stage and each person had a good show.  Each person contributed to the show.

The place was packed and it was nice to see veteran faces in the audience in support of our last show.  TJ was even there.  Even more surprising, Charna was there too.  I got to do a slight jab at her and the Commission during the show, which was awesome.

After the show we were treated to some free drinks bought by a couple people and then headed over to Holiday Club.  We closed that place and then went to the Oakwood.  I left that place for home around 4:30am.

I'm still pissed that our team was cut, though.  Those assholes have their heads up their asses.

Sat in With Beatbox

To paraphrase: blah blah blah rappity rap rap rap.

I sat in on my first Beatbox show.  I was little nervous but not too much.  I knew I would be protected by Jay on beatbox and the amount of raps I'd have to do would be very few.  So I was able to concentrate on doing good scene work.

The first half of the show was really good.  I did the first scene with Melissa and it was a really fun scene.  I was a dad who took his daughter deer hunting and she felt really bad about shooting the deer.  I had some fun additions about feeling the spirit of the animal leave the body and how the animals of the forest were laughing at me since my daughter was crying over the deer.  The second half of the show took a nose dive into blandness.  The audience also fells asleep during this period.

All in all, a pretty good first show.

Birthday Party

Sunday night I went to Tango Sur for the birthday of my friend James.  The steak I had was so-so but the company was great.  Later we went up to Andersonville to party in the second floor of Hamburger Mary's.  It's a gay bar and they have karaoke there on Sunday nights.  It was a fun time and I sang "You Learn" by Alanis Morissette.  

End of Rattlesnake?

This weekend Rattlesnake High School found out that we were cut from the iO schedule.  This came as a complete surprise to all of us.  We knew the iO Commission was looking at our shows but we never took the threat seriously.  We (I) believed that Charna liked us and that the show quality level of our shows was vastly superior to most teams' output lately.  Our shows lately have been really good and we've been pretty darn consistent on top of it.  I thought we were showing students in the training center just what you could do with a Harold.  In terms of good, quality improv that was also entertaining, I thought we were in the top 3 of teams at iO.

We know most of the people on the iO Commission and most of them say they were on our side.  This means some of them are lying big time.  I hate to think these thoughts.

I really don't get the decision.  We're consistent.  We're dedicated.  We have good attendance.  The audience loves our shows.  Students love our team.  We're funny.  We do smart improv and we do good acting scenes.  We're not some team that does non-stop bits.  We're not a team that does sloppy, goof-around improv.  I just don't get it.

~~~

The new schedule came out Sunday night.  We only got 48 hours to process this and maybe try to change some minds.  Other teams knew about this way in advance.  Did they wait this long to tell us so that we'd have no time to change people's minds?  I hate having these thoughts.

I'm on a newly formed team at iO.  I should be grateful for that.  I could have been cut completely from the schedule.  But it's not the same.

I've been on Rattlesnake for over 3 years.  The team itself has been around for 5 years.  It's a big chapter in our lives.  I need time to grieve.  Or possibly not accept the termination of the team and perhaps champion the idea of keeping Rattlesnake together?  I know so many other teams have said that in the past too.  And they meant it too but never stayed together after they were cut from iO.  I don't know what's going to happen.  I've just got to take this day by day.

Beatbox Understudy

To my utmost disbelief, I was offered an understudy position in the Beatbox Show. I was shocked because I have a large amount of schedule conflicts for both shows and rehearsals. That and I'm so-so at freestyle rap. But I think my awesome scene skills got me in. I don't mean to boast, but my scenes in the audition were pretty boss.

Still, I haven't really advertised it around that I'm a part of the show now. I'm sure those that didn't get in and who know how poor my raps are will feel hurt that I got in over them. But hopefully no one will bring that up to me personally.

Tonight's show is Andy Carey's last show. It's also my roommate's first show as a cast member.

Bike Fixed

I got my bike fixed finally. It made me as happy as a first kiss makes me happy. I was grinning all the way to and from the bike shop. Turns out Kozy's Cyclery had my wheel lock key. I ordered a replacement key but it still hasn't arrived by mail. Frustrated over this delay and the fact that I couldn't find the key anywhere in my room, I called Kozy's as a last ditch effort. I did this last time I lost the wheel lock key. However, this time they HAD it!

At the shop, I voiced my concern over my tire tube becoming flat over and over again. The guy at the shop informed my that my tires are super basic tires and are very thin. He recommended I upgrade to a better tire. He mentioned a bike tire type that he and other guys at the shop use and I immediately agreed to it. So I changed my back bike tire to a nicer tire. I didn't personally change it, the shop guy did. But I did authorize it to happen. But perhaps in 2 months time I'll be able to do this myself, after I'm done with the Build-A-Bike class.

This issue got resolved just in time, too. This weekend is supposed to be in the 70s and 80s.

Scott & Dave

For the first time in years I bought an actual ticket to a show at iO. It was for the TJ & Dave show, only instead of TJ, it was 30 Rock's Scott Adsit. I got there early and got a front row seat so I could take pictures of the show. The show was really good and I thought Scott Adsit really showed why he's considered one of the best improvisers.

The Vermont People

Last night I didn't have CSz rehearsal so I was able to go to the Hidden Shamrock for a pub quiz. An acquaintance of mine, JPG, runs the pub quiz. Instead of downloading or buying a regular pub quiz like some places do, he creates his own categories, themes, and questions for the quiz each week. There are 7 rounds and each round has its own theme. For example, last night round 1 was "summer" and round 2 was all about crude oil. He also has a matching round and a pictures round; the pictures round last night was a series of pictures of SNL actors and we had to write down their names. The matching round last night was authors and their characters. There was a "Kevin Bacon" round last night as well. In it, JPG gave us the name of two actors that were co-stars with Kevin Bacon and we had to write down the title of the movie. The last round is always worth double points and its answers and questions refer to the previous rounds. The pub quiz is $5 per person, teams cannot have more than 5 people, and the top three teams win some money back.

I was on a team with Bess, Manley, and The Ferg. We named ourselves "The Vermont People." This is a reference to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, when the mom is yelling at Jeanie in the car "I was about to close the deal with the Vermont people." After two rounds we were in 5th or 4th place. After 4 rounds we were in 4th place. At the end of round 6, we were in 3rd place. We needed a good showing in the final round if we wanted to remain in the money. We were confident that we had 9 questions down right. But one question really threw us for a loop. "What was the name of the body of water that the Valdez has it's oil spill in Alaska? It took us around 10 minutes before we put down an answer. Our answer: Alaska Gulf. The real answer:

Anyone?

Anyone?

Prince William Sound.

I thought getting that question wrong was the difference between winning first and getting second. I was wrong. We came in first place and were ahead of second place by at least 6 points! We were all so amazed. It was really an awesome rush of excitement. The high of winning was great and we all stayed around for at least a half hour, basking in the remarkable sort-of come-from-behind victory.

The 2nd and 3rd place groups were fellow improviser groups, too. So all three improv groups swept the night, taking the money home.

My favorite bit of the night? Being able to say to Gilley: "All the groups that lost are going home and complaining to their significant others, 'I can't believe we lost that game to The Vermont People."

WNYC's Radio Lab Podcast

I found a new favorite podcast to listen to while I'm at work. It's WNYC's Radio Lab podcast. It's like This American Life, only about science. It's amazing. It taps into my science nerd brain and awakes my natural curiosity about the world around me. What exactly is time? Is mortality really necessary for humans or can we avoid it? Are our memories really made of proteins in the brain? Fascinating stuff.

Allergies

It was only a matter of time before my allergies caught up with me this year. This past weekend is when they decided to strike. And strike hard they did. Right in my face, like a punch from a boxer.

The last time I was actually checked for allergies was when I was a kid. I have no idea if any of my childhood allergies have gone away or if I've gained new ones over time. But when I was checked out, I was told I was allergic to dust & mold, cat dander, white oak, some type of bush I don't remember, and a fifth thing which has also faded from my memory. I've gotten better as I've aged in taking my allergy medicine. I was much more stubborn in not taking allergy medicine. I didn't want to admit that I needed them. I felt the same about vitamin pills. Now I take a vitamin pill daily (I'm still remembering to do it every day! I'm so proud of myself) and at the first sign of my allergies coming, I run for the over-the-counter allergy medicine I take.

What do I reach for? I'm a big fan of Chloro-Trimenton. It's antihistamines are wonderful. If I were a big time celebrity, I would proudly do their advertisements.

Weekend Update

Pennybear rehearsals are going pretty well.  We're now required to email in our scene ideas to the director the day before rehearsal and this helps me to be actively trying to come up with ideas.  Before, I'd think about ideas on the walk or bike ride over to rehearsal. I'm pretty lazy by nature so it's good to have a kick in the pants.  We're also going to start rehearsing two times a week and this is exciting.  We've got about a month before our run at the Apollo.

I went to see the Second City ETC show Saturday night.  I liked it and it was neat to see the actors taking some really cool risks in the show.  Their slower paced, slice-of-life scene were really good and it was good to see it in a show, since Pennybear is like that too.

I auditioned for Beat Box today.  The audition went well and I did so-so.  Not as bad as I thought I'd be, but definitely not good enough for the show in my opinion.

But 2 things are on my mind this weekend that I'm willing to share with you, random Internet blog reader.  One is that I'm looking forward to getting my replacement bike wheel-lock key in the mail.  Then I'll be able to get my back tire fixed.  The second is that I'm super pissed that the Sci-fi Channel hasn't put the latest aired Battlestar Galactica episode up on the website.  How dare they!  Don't they know I must watch this episode so I can talk about it with friends?  I was at a BBQ yesterday and Griffen, a fellow BSG lover, had seen the last episode but wasn't able to talk to me about it since I had yet to see it.  So embarrassing.

Bike News

Nothing much really to report.  I had another Friday night of two shows at CSz back to back.  I did the 8pm and 10pm shows.  It's not too taxing to do them but I never seem to have time to get dinner and by 11:30pm I'm starving.  But I just remembered that I only ate half of my foot-long sandwich from Subway, so now I don't need to buy myself lunch today.  So that's good.

I emailed a person at West Town Bikes again, this time asking about how long the waiting list for Sunday afternoon classes were.  To my surprise, he said they had slots open and all I needed to do was come on down and drop off my check to secure my spot in the class.  So I did that after work yesterday and now I'm gonna get to do the class this summer.  That's awesome.  I can't wait to learn more about bike repair.

Motion Detectors

I was restless after CSz rehearsal last night and I didn't want to do what I normally do when I go home at night. Namely I didn't want to play poker on facebook. I didn't want to sit around at home. It had just rained and I wanted to be out and about but also be alone. I decided to run an errand and go up to Rogers Park and sign a form for the NYC Fringe Festival. So went home, grabbed my iPod, and got on the Clark bus. There's just something I find tranquil in riding public transit, listening to my music, and watching the city go by through the window.

I wasn't really able to do this on the way north because the bus was packed with Cubs fans since the Cubs game had just ended. But I was able to do this on the way back south. During this tranquil period, I noticed that the new modern CTA buses are really well designed. There's ample room, adequate bars for standing passengers to grab a hold of, and the chair are thin yet rigid which allows for more seating. The windows on the side are very large which allows for good views of the city and the method of opening then in the case of an emergency is super easy. The outside sign on the front is large and well lit, which allows for better visibility to those on the street to see which number bus is coming. The front entrance is larger than older buses, and it allows for two lines to form; those with plastic cards to the right and those with The Chicago Card Plus to the left. The equipment that tracks where the bus is and announces the next stop does so very well and with enough warning for you to pull the cord to signal you'd like to get off and for the bus driver to pull to the stop without having to put on the brakes hard. The bus has a back window, which I'm sure helps the driver (older models didn't have a back window). The bus's maneuverability also seems improved and the acceleration on it seems pretty good. The handicap ramp is super improved; the bus's front hydraulics are pretty amazing in that it can lower the front of the bus down to almost level with the curb and then the handicap ramp just flips out and Presto! the wheelchair can get on the bus with much ease. This process is also pretty fast, a great improvement to the old system.

And then I noticed the back door mechanism. The door indicates for you to place your hand on the yellow strips to open the door. I noticed that just above these yellow strips are motion detectors; that's how the door knows to unlock itself and allow you to open it! Genius.

Madskillz?

I've been in 5 shows since my last post. Two ComedySportz home shows, one non-brand ComedySportz remote, a Rattlesnake High School show, and the performance show for the Madskillz class I was in. All were unique in different ways.

The Fri 8pm show was a roomie team show where I was on the same team as Tara and Tim, my roommates. The theater was packed with middle school kids who had the attention span of gnats and talked throughout the show. I never really felt like I was doing quality improv on top of it. The Fri 10pm show I was the blue team captain and the audience was light and reserved. I felt better improv-wise but I'm not sure the audience was really into the show. The remote show was at a yacht club near the border of Wisconsin. We played in a large room and we tried very hard to be heard. We had hand mics but doing improv with a hand mic never works. They were very reluctant to give suggestions and I couldn't tell how much they liked the show. But afterwards many of them came up to us and talked about how much they liked it. So what do I know? The Rattlesnake show was good but the show was much more narrative than most of our shows and so I felt a little lost at times. But it was cool that we tried something new in a show. Last night was the Madskillz show at CSz. I was super nervous. I guess I did okay since people said such after the show but I didn't feel all that great. Mostly what people said was that I was really funny. I was trying to be good/passable in my raps; I wasn't trying to be funny. So I felt like I missed my goal.

The above picture was taken during the Madskillz show by my friend Lindsay.

Visiting with Family

While I was in LA, I was able to visit with my uncle Joel, his wife (my aunt) Kristen, and their newborn son (my cousin) Jonah. Joel is a carpenter/designer and is working on some new home in Pasadena. Kristen is a real estate agent. Jonah is a baby. Joel is only 39; I'm 31. I'm closer to age to my uncle than my uncle is to my father (they're brothers). My dad was the first born (1951) and Joel was the last born (of 7 siblings; 1968).

It was good seeing them, and I try to see them every time I'm in LA, which has become once a year. It was neat seeing Joel as a new father. Having a newborn son brought out more silliness in him than I'm used to seeing in him. It was cool to see.

LA Comedy Festival

I went to LA with Pennybear for the LA Comedy Festival. It was fun but tiring since I flew in Monday morning and flew out Wednesday morning. I wasn't able to see most of my LA friends, which sucked. Our shows were good and the people that saw them liked them a lot.

On the plane to LA, I saw Gary Cole (boss in Office Space) on the plane. And in a neat example of Six Degrees of Separation, Nancy's friend's boyfriend's friend is Tony Hale and he came with Nancy's friend and her boyfriend to the Tuesday night show. The group got to talk to him a bit after the show and he was very nice.

Here's a picture of Venice Beach.


Here's a picture of the Venice Canals.


Here's a picture of the Rockies from the plane on my way to LA.

Shows

Thursday night I went to see the "Picked Up" series at the Neo-Futurists. The show this week was "No Place Like Home." The head writer of it was my friend Lauren.  The show was very funny and the whole audience gave it a thumbs up at the end of the show.  Afterwards a bunch of us hung out at a bar nearby and that was fun.  I had a chicken dinner there that was to die for.  So good.

Friday night Rattlesnake High School had 3 people for the show so we had 4 sit-ins.  The show was good and I had a fun time in it.  Afterwards I went home and watched Battlestar Galactica.  I'm such a geek for that show.

Saturday I went with a bunch of friends to see "Iron Man" at the movie theaters.  It was a pretty darn good movie that left me wanting more.  The special effects in it were pretty good too.  It didn't feel at all like a comic book movie, which is a good thing. I really liked it.  Afterwards I had a CSz show at the Apollo for an overfill show at 8pm.  The audience was a high school band group from Canada.  They were an amazing audience and they ate the show up.  They loved it.

Yesterday Pennybear got the news that we've been accepted into the New York Fringe Festival.  This is awesome news.  I'll make a point to not loose my ATM card right before that trip; although such a note might be moot since I wouldn't need to rent a car in NYC.

The Machines Strike Back

I mistakenly forgot to take my ATM card out of the slot when it popped out after I was done withdrawing money from it. I only realized this about 5 hours later when I wanted to buy a Sunday ticket for the Pitchfork Music Festival (in July). ATMs suck up cards if you don't take them immediately. Then they are destroyed. So needed to order a new debit card. This wouldn't have been a problem if it weren't for the fact that I need a debit card to rent a car.

I'm going to LA this coming Monday because Pennybear, the sketch group I'm in, is performing in the LA Comedy Festival. We get two shows. I may get to see my newborn cousin while I'm in LA. I may get to see friends who are now living in LA. These are great things. But they are marred by the fact that I won't be able to drive around LA in a rental car. I could have used my credit card for this, but I'm the kind of genius that doesn't use the only credit card I have for 2 years and let's the card status become "restricted." Restricted is credit card company speak for "the credit is $0 and the only option you have is to close out this account and then reapply for a new card."

Ugh.

Best.Blank.Ever?

There's no Felt show tonight. Instead at iO there will be a viewing of the airing of MTV's Real World show. Charna Halpern, the owner of iO, is this season's boss. You know how ever since Real World Miami they make the cast do a job together as a group? Well this season their job is to be a part of an improv team. They take improv classes together and perform together. It's pretty ridiculous. And Charna is their teacher and coach. This.Will.Be.Amazing.Television.

Last week's Felt show was okay but the freeze tag afterwards was the Best.Freeze.Tag.Ever. Whiskey Rebellion was the opening team and we played with them during Freeze Tag. One of the members was dressed in a European style. I/Nathan called him "Euro" in the scene. From then on it was a pretty crazy Freeze. Cesar/Jesse later froze the scene while he was in it, tagged a player out, and then unfroze the scene. In essence, he kicked a guy off the stage so the scene could continue. Amazing.

The topper was at the end. Fellow CSzer Nick is on Whiskey Rebellion. He's the type of guy who loves it when people talk about him, even if he's getting teased. He's the type of guy who actively chose to have "Rebel" on the back of his CSz jersey. In the last scene in freeze tag before lights, he froze the scene and entered it. Jesse was lying down on the puppet stage and Nathan was standing next to Jesse.

Nick: "I can't believe you did it. You killed him. You killed him!"
Me/Nathan: "Yeah, well you killed... comedy."
Lights.

Bike & Brunch

I finally kicked whatever sickness I was under by Wednesday.  I can't tell you how happy I was to be finally well.  Wait... I can tell you how happy I was.  I was super duper elated.  Gone was the gross throat soreness and gone was the nagging cough that just wouldn't go away.  Well, it did go away and I hope I never see it again.

I've kept my word thus far and I've taken my daily multivitamins ah... daily.  I did intend to start doing the ups afterwards.  That promise to myself I've faltered on like a poorly starting motorcycle.  I did do a set of 10 sit-ups Thursday morning.  But I forgot to do more the rest of the day.  And the next day and the day after that.  But one of these days I'll actually remember and then it will be great.

My friend Tamara came up with the great idea of a bike & brunch. We would gather a bunch of people and bike up to Evanston on Sunday and then have brunch at a restaurant up there.  A bike & brunch? Yes please! I immediately sprung to action and called all my friends with bikes to join us on this awesome idea.  The weather at the inception of the plan was pretty good but the weather was supposed to get worse and worse as the weekend approached.  I kept my fingers crossed that it wouldn't rain.  Sure enough, it didn't rain and although the temperature was in the high 40s, it didn't feel all that bad.

The turnout was better than I hoped.  All together we were a crew of 5; Tamara, Gilley, The Ferg, Bess, and myself.  The ride up north was nice although I had back tire pressure issues on the way.  My biking-in-the-city-fearful-friend Dayna met us at the restaurant.  We had brunch at Le Peep and I recommend the place to anyone.  The food was wonderful.  I treated myself to steak & eggs.  Afterwards we wasted time by browsing and shopping as we digested the enormous amount of food we ate.  All in all, it was a pretty great Sunday afternoon event.

Trip to Raleigh, NC - Part 2

To get out of the house and be productive - er, well maybe just to get out of the house - we went to a thrift/antique store. It had 3 floors plus a basement full of knick knacks and crap people no longer wanted. I always feel like my senses are overloaded when I go to those types of places. So much to see and take in; it's too much to process. But it was fun to check out all the old and arcane things on sale.

There was a BBQ at the theater and after that a bunch of us went to the mall to check out more stuff for sale, this time the latest and modern. We got back to the theater just in time to check out the first group of the night. The improv overall throughout the night was better than I expected, which was good. Felt had the last show of the night and our show was good. I'd give it a solid B. It was a well-representative show. People said that the audience enjoyed it, which was nice to hear. After the shows, Rock Band was brought out and people played it throughout the night. The drums were harder than I thought they'd be, mostly because trying to incorporate the pedal along with the regular drums was too much for my mind to handle. The party lasted until 3:30am. I needed to be up at 7:30am to drive to the airport. Ugh.

Jorin once again was a super pal and drove me to the airport. The flight back to Chicago was fine, although I once again had to deal with air pressure build up in my ears as we descended into Chicago. And I had to deal with the Blue line and their love of shuttle buses. But I was back in Chicago and it was relatively warm. Not Raleigh-warm, but warm enough.

Trip to Raleigh, NC - Part 1

I went to Raleigh, NC this past weekend for an improv festival. It was with the ComedyWorx theater. Being there was great. Getting there was a pain.

I woke up super early on Saturday after 3 hours of sleep and got my things together for my trip. I missed a bus and then waited 20 minutes for another westbound Belmont bus. I got to the Blue line station and just missed an O'Hare bound train. I waited 20 minutes for another train. Once on the train we are made aware that there's Blue line construction going on that weekend. At Harlem, we had to get off the train and board shuttle buses. Then drive slowing to the station in the middle of the construction before being driven to Cumberland to get BACK on a train. Then we rode the train - which went super slow - ONE STOP to O'Hare. I raced to the American Ticket counter but missed the window when I was supposed to check in before departure. Throughout the journey I told myself I should have taken a taxi to the airport. I hate when I'm right. They put me on standby for a flight 2 hours later. I got a seat because somehow there's not much of a demand for flight from Chicago to Raleigh.

The flight was fine expect I had to deal with a hyper 9-year old girl in the seat in front of mine who was traveling alone for some reason. I was also still sick - sinus stuff - and this made the landing tough because the air pressure in my ears built up to a crazy amount as the plane descended.

Raleigh itself was beautiful. The thing that struck me about it from the plane as we were coming in for the landing was how green it was. It was so green. The weather was gorgeous. Low 70s. Slight breeze. No humidity. So great. Jorin picked me up and I crashed - along with a ton of other people - at his mom's place in Raleigh. Before we had to do anything, it was nice to just sit in the veranda/sun back porch of the house and just relax and enjoy the beautiful weather.

Shake, Rattle, & Snore

A 5.4 earthquake hit southern Illinois and apparently people in Chicago felt it. I did not. I was asleep and I slept right through it. This dispels the myth I have about myself, the myth that I'm a light sleeper. But maybe it's because I'm still sick and my body knew I needed sleep.

I was pretty close to calling in sick today, going to the doctor's office for a visit, and to find out if I've got anything stronger than the common cold or flu. But after I took my daily vitamin pill and my antihistamine pill, I was suddenly much better. The pressure behind my ears broke. I poked around my left ear and it felt wet. I'm not sure if this was because actual water was stuck in my ear or it was the residue water from my morning shower. The the incredible sinus pressure was gone. My ears didn't hurt and I could breath out of my nose again. And my throat felt better.

On the way to work I started mildly coughing, which I've been doing ever since periodically. That makes me hope that the phlegm in my throat is finally going to go away soon.

I was worried I was going to have to miss work, go to the doctor, possibly find a last-minute sub for my CSz show, and maybe even not go to North Carolina for the festival that Felt is in. Now I feel much better and all might be fine and normal again soon. Here's hoping.

This Concludes the Silence Test

And stop. Pencils down.

I lasted until 9:30am when someone handed me some overdue reports and I needed to find out about these other reports are are overdue.

Other moments I've talked today:
Ordering a bagel and cream cheese.
Talking to a co-worker about still being sick.
Ordering a hamburger at the Billy Goat.
Answering the phones while covering for the receptionist during her lunch break.
Asking another co-worker about why my cork board installation work order hasn't been put through yet.

I'm going to try to see if I can get through the rest of the afternoon at work without talking.

Silence Test

My throat feels like a cheese grater went down it. It could be something serious. Or it could be that I hurt my voice in last night's Felt show. Either way, it hurts and it sucks. I'm going to try to speak as little as possible to give it a rest. So far I haven't uttered a word since I've gotten up. Let's see how long I can go without speaking.

Annnnnd...
[Pushing START on stopwatch]
Go.

Slow Recovery

I'm feeling a little better. The shoulder and neck pain is still there but much less so. I've got 95% of my energy back and I don't feel like I have a temperature anymore. My throat does feel gross because some phlegm has decided to take up residence in my vocal box. I happily await for the moment either tonight or tomorrow when a cough with dislodge the squatter.

I have been taking the daily vitamins every day (daily, duh) and that's good. When I'm fully recovered I think I'll actually start doing the "ups."

Body Moving, Body Mooooo-eeeeerrrrrrrkshpt

Pardon the interruption but the 80 year-old man in my body would like to speak.

I woke up this morning with slight back ache near my right shoulder. I had trouble moving my neck to the right. By noon I knew I was sick. I think I have a fever. My body is hot/overheating, I also get chills now and then, my muscles ache, my throat feels like an oven, my ears are bright red, I have no energy, and I didn't have my Advil with me when I went to work.

The bottle I have at home is practically full so I decided not to buy another bottle at lunch. Instead I bought orange juice and one-a-day multi-vitamins. Luckily I have the night free so I can crash in my bed right after work.

I really hope I nip this thing in the bud tomorrow.

Headaches

I get headaches from time to time.  Probably too regularly so.  I know I probably should have it checked out but I don't want to.  I feel that most of them are preventative and if that's the case, then I doubt they're migraines.  Thought their intensity, when they do come along, does feel pretty strong.

Thursday night I got a pretty strong one.  I think it was brought on by constant computer screen viewing and a lack of hydration.  I started feeling it around 2pm at work and I tried to make it go away.  I drank a lot of water and I took 2 Advil.  And I made sure it wasn't hunger-induced by snacking regularly and eating dinner right after work.  All was to no avail.  I felt awful.  It was not going away.  The weather outside was pretty disgusting too and the inside of my head matched it.  So I decided to turn to the only real solution for these types of headaches: sleep.  I actually went to bed before midnight.

The next day I felt better but I could feel the headache pains in my head just sitting there, waiting for me to slip up so they could return.  They were waiting for me to skip breakfast.  They were waiting for me to not drink enough water.  They were waiting for me to do anything remotely unhealthy to my body so they could return.  I was having none of it.  I ate breakfast, hydrated myself regularly, and drank some caffeine to help the blood vessels in my head.  That was the final blow and the headache pains were gone.  I had won.

I celebrated Friday night by having fun with friends.  I played darts at Mullens and came in second out of three.  I watched my friend Paul do his "Sex Ed" character at Graffiti and it was hilarious.  I then hung out with friends at the L&L and at CSz.  I also celebrated Saturday night.  Rattlesnake High School had a great show and afterwards I again hung out with friends.  However, this time I drank way too much beer and not enough water afterwards.  That's when my arch rival came back.

I awoke on Sunday to a extremely large headache.  Hangovers are the worst, mostly because they are very, very preventable.  They make me question my actions the night before.  Thankfully I wisely stocked up on Starbucks Frappuccinos a couple days before.  I expertly predicted I might drink too much this weekend.  Such good thinking makes me high five myself in knowing myself so well.  I knew I'd make poor decisions and then regret them the next day.  I am so wise.  So brilliant.  I'm so smart it hurts.

Things On My Mind

Last Friday I had a CSz spillover show at the CCPA. It was for two high school groups. They were a great audience - engaged but not too crazy, as some high school groups can get. The show itself was a blast. I also had a good show performance-wise.

One of the groups was a band from Pelican Falls High School in Minnesota. On Sunday CSz members got an email alerting us to a horrible tragedy that befell this high school. Right after our show, they got on their two buses and headed back to their school. Unfortunately, one of the buses crashed just north of Minneapolis and one student was killed; many others were injured. It just blows my mind thinking back on the show. I imagine an ethereal person coming to that show and announcing that one person in that room would not be alive in less than 12 hours. Of course you don't expect those around you to die, and of course you could go any minute, but you never expect it to actually happen. Especially to a 16 yr old. It's so sad.

~~~

Lollapalooza's line-up was announced Monday. I'm underwhelmed.

I'm caught up on ketchup games.

I'm reconnecting with old schoolmates on facebook. It's nice to find out what they're up to but at the same time I don't want to re-enter their lives. That's terrible of me, right?

I'm thinking this year is going to be great. So far things have been pretty good, despite running into exes in January. I visited my friend in Europe already this year. Next weekend I fly to North Carolina to do a Felt show. Next month Pennybear is probably going to LA for a sketch fest there. I really hope we go and that my LA friends come see the show. Especially my aunt and uncle. Then Pennybear will have another run at the Apollo. My parents might even come down to see one of the show! We've also submitted ourselves to the New York Fringe Festival, which I think we have a chance in getting into. We might film some of our sketches, which I think would be fun and help us get more exposure. And I'm motivated to bike more often and be outdoors more. I might even go to the West Town Bike's open shops on Saturdays.

Oh, and I signed up for the MadSkillz workshop at CSz; it's a improv rap workshop run by the Beatbox's Rene. I'm going to be horrible but hopefully I'll have fun at the same time while I'm embarrassing myself with my terrible rhyming and thinking-on-the-fly skills. I'm much more of a pause-while-I-think-of-the-right-term improviser.

Drunk Brunch

James & Marla hosted a "Drunk Brunch" at their place on Sunday. It was for three different occasions. Marla and Pad's birthdays, and to celebrate the return of Tony & Mikaela back to Chicago. Pad wasn't there, however, due to an illness.

It was good to see Tony and Mikaela.



It was a little weird, though, because I was the only single person there. I was among either married or engaged couples.

Aviator Sunglasses

Since I'm trying to wear my contacts more often, I'm able to wear sunglasses. So I bought myself some cheap sunglasses at Jewel. I was hoping to find some classic brown/tan aviator sunglasses. I'll have to be content with black aviator sunglasses.

Handlebar Tape

My handlebar tape on my bike was starting to fall off. I noticed that underneath the tape was this think gel cushion. So when I went to buy new handlebar tape, I bought the ones that came with gel cushions. Perhaps I bought cushions that were thicker than normal? Now my handlebars look massively thick. And the ends have a large amount of electrical tape which indicates that this was my first try at changing the tape. But that's okay. The important part is that I did it myself.

Funny as it may sound, my favorite part in doing this was cleaning the old adhesive off my handlebars. I took my time and made sure I did a good job getting it super clean. All my focus was on the handlebar. It was like I was in a Zen moment. I was at peace and the rest of the world melted away while I focused all my attention to one thing, one task.

April Resolutions

April 1st used to be New Years Day back in the dark ages I believe. That's how we got the term, April Fools. These days people make resolutions after New Years Day and try to keep them for about a month before they are broken. I wanted to do something similar for April.

I had been wanting for awhile to get some things in order. If you know me, then this will come as no surprise. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I need to clean my room, get my headshots duplicated, and start doing push-ups and sit-ups regularly. I thought I'd start on April 1st. But towards the end of the day, when I have time to get some headway on these things, I generally forget about them.

I would like to still try to do them, just 4 days late.

Public Enemies

Universal Studios is filming just down the street from where I live. It's a new Johnny Depp movie called "Public Enemies." He plays John Dillinger. Michael Mann is directing it. I hope it's better than the last movie that filmed in my neighborhood: "Wanted," the piece of shit movie where apparently a select few have the ability to curve bullets. So dumb.

My Friend's Roommate's Friend's Co-Worker is my Roommate

Here are more of the status updates I've done since my last post about the subject:

Jon:

• is.
• trying to be poetic.

• is ready to be mortified.
• on Wednesday, instead of doing Felt, I went to the Green Mill to see the show Mortified. My friend Sarah was doing a reading in it. For those that don't know, Mortified is a show where different readers read funny entries from the journals they kept as a teenager. It's pretty funny and Sarah did a great job. A bunch of CSz people were there to see it too. Afterwards we went to Fat Cat, a bar nearby. Somehow during the evening we started giving people nicknames. I got "butt slut" somehow.
  

• asks, "what about your love sauce?"
• I got this inside joke wrong. I was supposed to write "what about your dipping sauce" but I forgot the exact wording in it. Basically I entered into a conversation at the middle and overhead someone say something about dipping sauce. I asked them, "what about your dipping sauce?" Everyone thought it was funny.

• has a Rattlesnake High School show tonight at iO @ 8pm. Be there!
• I had a RHS on Friday. It was one of the worst shows I've ever been a part of. I was horrible. The team was awful. The audience was quiet. The host was not good. The dreamer was a student. The second team after us tried really hard to do a good show but nothing that night was good. The day before we had rehearsal and I felt like I was in some sort of slump. Was I burnt out on improv? The Friday show didn't help my mood. The best part of the show was the notes afterwards. We laughed so hard while talking about how horrible the show was.

• is the loneliest number, worse than two.
• Three Dog Night lyric from Joy to the World. I was also feeling a bit lonely. Spring sucks.
  

• fears he is an April fool.
• not really. I wrote this on April 1st.
  

• would throw away the cars and the bars and the war and make sweet love to you. Sing it now!
• another Three Dog Night reference! Wow, two in one week. I'm gonna have to ease up on the Three Dog Night references; I think I've used up my quota for the year already.
• also, I probably would make sweet love to you. Yes, I am talking to you, stranger that somehow came across my blog.
  

----

What these status updates missed, were some other neat things that happened this past week. Pennybear is still working on new material and I think some of the stuff we are generating is really great. Felt will be going to North Carolina for a festival put on by ComedyWorx in two weeks. Battlestar Galactica's season 4 starts this Friday. I won't be home when it airs because I'll be in a show, but Saturday I get to watch it with some other fellow BSG fans. I had sushi this past weekend and it was good to have. I hadn't had sushi in awhile so it was good to have again. The world is indeed a small world, which I discovered during sushi. I met this lady who works with my roommate and she was at dinner because she's friends with my friend's roommate. So to Space Balls the phrase: my friend's roommate's friend's co-worker is my roommate. I've been hanging out more with my friends, which is good for me. I've recently re-read some of my old posts and it's good to see I'm in a better place this year.

Lollapalooza Ticket

One week ago I bought my 2008 Lollapalooza 3-day pass ticket during the Early-Bird ticket process. I missed out on the $60 3-day pass ticket marking things a few weeks before. For that promo, they told you sometime in the next week they'd make those limited number passes available but you'd have to keep checking into the website to find out. I forgot about it until a few days after the rush for those passes.

The line-up has yet to be released but I the rumors of bands in it this year were enough to get me to buy the Early-Bird passes. I'll be going to it again this year (that's 3 years in a row) and this year I'll be going again with my concert buddy Marla. I probably won't try to get really close the stage this year since I've become Old Man Concert Goer and get easily annoyed by these young kids. I've already uttered the phrase "you can hear just as well from the back of the crowd and you have room to breathe."