I am not teaching the next session at iO.
Thank you for your interest and e-mails.

I haven’t written in a long time.

I’m not referring only to this blog. If you look at past entries you can see that I was writing quite a bit and posting frequently. I was also on a hot streak in my other writing projects; I had finished one long-term job and had a great headstart on my Halloween project.

Then, of course, it hit. Call it what you will; roadblock, writers block, laziness, manic depression/insanity (it’s a Chin Family tradition!), my get-up-and-go got-up-and-went. So, after being ahead, I’m behind. Cut to: 12 year old Jason pointing at his butt. “You’re a behind!”

I write this from the friendly confines of Caribou Coffee. Free wifi and delicious coffee. (that should make Caribou Coffee employee Pad Connelly happy) It’s well air-conditioned here and I feel so Rowling when I’m here. Also, someone really needs to clean my apartment. Someone get on that, willya?

I’ve been rehearsing with the primarily sketch group, Stir-Friday Night. It’s always interesting to work on long-form with people who have not had IO training. Obviously, I usually teach or coach people with a shared base knowledge. Though they’ve all had experience with improv, most of them have not been through IO. We’re rehearsing and then coming up with a new form for them to do. Something unique to their group. Now, to tell you the truth, rehearsing with a group, watching and noticing strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes, and then creating a long-form structure specifically for them is my motherf—ing dream. I love it. I live for it. I wish I could do it every day. I’m having a great time with them. On the same note, The Rabble has a new long-form. Rather, it’s basically a Harold, with no physical tag-outs or sweep-edits… it’s a flowing miasma of mirth with freedom to do third, fourth, sometimes sixth beats along with group games and longer two-person scenes. I really like the form. It was something (as previously mentioned) that came up in rehearsal. We were experimenting with a seemingly lost (I was taught it in class, but I don’t think it’s been taught for a while) way of editing and the form seemed to pop up. It plays to The Rabble’s strengths and preferences and they seem to enjoy it. Charna said the form was “excellent” and that the team was “great.” So there.

Have you ever thought that maybe your iPod was trying to kill you? Like playing weird music at exactly the wrong times?

Hey, if you’re going to visit Chicago during the Chicago Improv Fest and would like to see Whirled News Tonight (in its regular slot) send me a e-mail! I’ll get ya a pass or two. And if you have a group coming, let me know, we’ll work something out AND we’ll do a Q&A with the cast or something after the show.

I have apostrophe problems. I never know where to put them. I understand how to use them for contractions, but that possessive always confuses me. In NYC high school students have to write two essays to pass the English Regents. If it wasn’t for a misplaced apostrophe I would have a received a 100 percent on the Regents, a feat unheard of (at that time) in three decades. I got a lousy 98. Two points! In the paragraph above I wrote “in it’s regular slot.” Which is incorrect. So I changed it to “its’”. That was wrong too. There is no apostrophe. Argh. I’ts maddening.

Quiz night? Really? Sigh.

I think the idea of a Last Meal before execution is more cruel than kind. Here’s some food you love and now you die. A great meal makes you enjoy life and crave more of it.

We were going to do a staged reading/singing of 1776 on July 3^rd at iO. That got cancelled. But I will be doing it constantly in my head that entire week. Ask me what part I’m up to and you’ll get to hear some of it! O, BTW, I do recommend you watch that musical over the John Adams mini on HBO.

Tabitha (from the Rabble) bullied me into getting a Nintendo DS. And now I love it. I stink at most of the games, but that Mario Kart is hilarious and addicting. I’m older than my father was when I was born, but I still buy comic books, am obsessed with videogames, watch cartoons, and live to make people laugh. Long live arrested development. Both mine and the late, lamented show.

The Chicago Sun-Times ran a great story on Chicago-based topical shows. Rightly so, Whirled News Tonight was featured.

Chicago comics find fodder in politics

ELECTION-YEAR HEADLINES GIVE CHICAGO COMICS LOADS OF FODDER FOR POLITICAL, LOCAL SATIRE

Vice President Tony Rezko is asked: How did you get into office so fast? A day ago he was in prison, and already the new commander-in-chief has granted him a pardon, muscled out the elected VP and installed Rezko in the Obama administration.

“Obama’s wanted to pardon me his whole life,” the Chicago influence-peddler explains. “He just couldn’t do it till he was president.”

Even Hillary Clinton hasn’t posed a scenario that ludicrous. But nothing’s too farfetched for the imaginative minds of “Whirled News Tonight,” one of several comedy shows now dissecting the news for Chicago audiences.

In an election year when Clinton tries to score debate points by citing a gag from “Saturday Night Live,” the hot topic in humor is humor that’s topical. The appetite for satire has “never been higher than right now,” Second City vice president Kelly Leonard says.

And it comes at a time of unprecedented abundance in Chicago. In addition to the burlesques of “SNL,” the stings of the Onion and the wisecracks of Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann, audiences here can see the news mocked in several places near their own backyards:

•       At both its Old Town theaters, the mighty Second City is in the middle of segue from an old show to a new one. It’s the company’s most fertile time for topical humor, when the lines and scenes are still fluid before being frozen for opening night. This follows the end of “Between Barack and a Hard Place,” a revue heavy on political content that was Second City’s biggest hit ever, selling out pretty much nonstop for nine months straight.

•       The iO comedy house in Wrigleyville has two weekly offerings playing off the events of the moment. “Whirled News Tonight,” on Saturdays, is in its fifth year of improvising from the week’s headlines. And the new “Big News” takes an “SNL” approach, presenting a new batch of topical sketches each Tuesday night.

•       Local TV, too, is getting into the act. The group Schadenfreude last month shot a pilot for a possible WTTW-Channel 11 comedy series, called “IL Informed,” that would make fun of issues and newsmakers in the area.

Even the Annoyance, the bizarro Uptown theater where the humor tends to be more peculiar than pointed, had a weekly show (now closed) that was written anew each week, sometimes with inspiration from the headlines. It being the Annoyance, the premises usually bordered on the obscene, as when an actress’ most intimate private part was billed as smarter about world affairs than George Bush, and answered audience questions to prove it.

Of course, topical satire is nothing new in Chicago; even before Second City started, its precursor company, the Compass, was acting out the top stories of the ’50s in a routine called “The Living Newspaper.” And current events inevitably crop up in the spontaneous, unscripted sets that long have been the main course of improv theaters and the dessert of Second City revues.

But entire shows mocking the news and nothing else have seldom been so plentiful, or so popular. At “Whirled News Tonight,” after years of up-and-down attendance, they’ve had solid sellouts for four months. “I can only say it’s because of heightened political awareness,” says director Jason Chin.

And the presidential campaign is fueling that. “It being an election year makes a huge difference,” says “Whirled News” performer Megan O’Neill. “People want to see the topical stories, and they’re really into it more.”

The creator of “Big News,” Michael McCarthy, has been a specialist in political comedy since the ’80s, when he wrote for “SNL” and then starred in Second City shows. He sees passions especially high in this round of primaries, and that may be helping people decide where to go for laughs.

“What’s interesting about this election as opposed to others,” he says, “is that you have the feeling that you can help change stuff more.”

The presidential wannabes are a fixture of the ever-changing “Big News” revues, which recently depicted Clinton and Barack Obama forming a joint ticket through a matchmaking service called VP Harmony. (”It turns out you complete me!” the fake Hillary gushed.)

The Chicago spinoff of a still-running show McCarthy launched in Los Angeles in 2002, “Big News” comes together in rapid fashion. Writers meet on Thursday night and hand over scripts for actors to memorize over the weekend. After a couple of rehearsals Tuesday the show goes on that night, ready or not.

“There’s a kind of wonderful energy that creates,” McCarthy says. “The actors are very, very awake. They’re very alive.”

Preparation is impossible, on the other hand, for “Whirled News Tonight.” Before the show, audience members post news articles on bulletin boards, and the cast plucks each story off, reads the opening lines and instantly commences an off-the-cuff scene.

It might be a re-enactment, but more often it will be a look at how this development got in the paper, or how people are affected by it. After hearing a recent piece attacking the exploitation of chimps on TV, one actor morphed into the president of the Fox network, raging that his programming won’t work without apes.

“Maybe we could produce well-written shows with good actors,” a toady suggested.

After a pause, the Fox boss screamed, “Get out of my office!”

With Second City’s shows still in flux, the casts there are having fun dropping in timely references that may or may not stick for the long haul. An impromptu gag about Eliot Spitzer the other day “brought the house down,” Leonard says. “Now, I don’t know that that will stay in the show. Three weeks from now it maybe will. But six weeks? Probably not.”

A Second City show can become static after opening night, when the scenes usually are locked into place for the next several months. But Leonard has urged his directors to keep the references timely, because updates can be made later without rattling the ensembles. “That’s the great thing about having improvisational-based performers,” he says.

Another way to keep a Second City show fresh is with loosely structured segments that allow for some variation from night to night. The cast of the upcoming mainstage show, “No Country for Old White Men,” has been experimenting with one such bit, about British House of Commons members commenting on the doings of the U.S. Congress. It may or may not end up in the final lineup.

Also key are some moments that remind Second City’s tourist-heavy audience where they are. The actors are dabbling with some Chicago-themed subjects, but ones that have import beyond the city limits — Rezko, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Cubs. “All the local stuff right now is national,” Leonard says.

Others, though, are zooming in more tightly on the area; “Big News” recently depicted the “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” gang descending on Bolingbrook to give Drew Peterson a makeover.

McCarthy, the “Big News” boss, has been reveling in the opportunity to spoof Chicago events for Chicagoans — especially after working in L.A., where he says the audiences always need the news explained to them.

“Part of the Chicago character is: We read,” he says. “We read the paper, and we talk about what’s going on and have opinions about what’s going on.”

And we love seeing it ridiculed — the closer to home, the better.

“You can’t deny the reaction you get when you get something that’s really local,” O’Neill says. “When we get to talk about the CTA or the Cubs, the audience is automatically with you. Their volume goes up a notch, and they cheer and jeer and get excited about stuff.”

Besides the tenor of the times, there may be another explanation for why funny people have been poring over the papers: as a career move. Justin Kaufmann of the group Schadenfreude points out that actors who once aspired to a job on “SNL” now have reason to work up their topical chops in order to land on “The Daily Show” or “The Colbert Report.”

“It’s become a destination for comedians,” he says, “so they want to start working in that arena early.”

In April his group has several local gigs, from dive bars to Steppenwolf, to mark its 10 years of making fun of the news — especially the local stuff.

“You’ve got guys like Daley and guys like Todd Stroger. Whatever your political leanings, just the idea that they got in is ripe for comedy. Todd Stroger, whose dad won a primary while he was [recovering from] a stroke — I mean, that’s crazy,” Kaufmann says, also mentioning Stroger’s propensity for hiring relatives. “You don’t see at the national level that kind of ineptitude.”

So they keep pounding away at the local troublemakers, despite the occasional word of advice from producers in New York or L.A., who insist Schadenfreude will never get anywhere making fun of Chicago.

“But it’s not for them,” Kaufmann says. “It’s for the people who are in Chicago that we live with, who are our neighbors, who are our audience.”

Alright. I was April Foolin’ on those last entries. If you were taken in, I apologize. I’ve read too many comic books and if you look at the date and the first letter of each sentence it spells out “APRIL FOOLS.” You know, like a Riddler or Joker clue.

“Discipline and memory are critical to the success of a poker player.” – Doyle Brunson

“Same for improvisers.” – Jason Chin

For months I’ve been sucking in the Armando show which has been a torture for me since it’s the only show I get to perform in. A few weeks ago, during the cruel replay and debriefing that takes place in my brain after every show (imagine Defending Your Life, hold the wry) I was giving myself notes and not enjoying it. Part of my problem was that I was overthinking ideas instead of doing something… I was trying to perfect a line or move in my brain instead. By the time I got it “perfect” someone else did the same thing I was GOING to do.

Now, that’s one of my pet peeves of performer excuses… “I was going to…” Well, what are we waiting for? For things to be perfect? For your cue? There’s no cues and no marks on the stage… you need to be doing something and that was my problem in the Armando show…

I was OF the show, but not IN the show.

I decided to take my own notes.

Stop thinking so much. Do more. React more effusively.

The show doesn’t need my brain. And it doesn’t need my heart. It needs both at the same time.

Something has been driving me up the wall of late and I thought I’d mention it here: The narrated, descriptive Opening.

It’s BORING.

A team describes a room. There are objects. Usually a hilarious popculture reference poster. Sometimes it moves out of the house with the team describing other people and things.

It’s too passive and not introspective. It involves the majority of the team standing there LOOKING at someone else instead of DOING.

The information derived (for scenes and other group games) is superficial and frequently just a “noun-pull” (hey someone said banana. Here’s a scene with a banana.)

The Harold is meant to be an EXPLORATION, an EXAMINATION, and a HEIGHTENING of any given suggestion. Let’s take a word, any word, and go as far away from it as possible and then mirable dictu! We’re right back at it!

Harold Openings should be fun, smart, energetic and deep. Let us say something about the suggestion beyond “Hey, here’s a room and some shit inside it.” THAT’s a description. I’d like Harolds to be about ideas and concepts and things beyond mortal ken and not a superficial description of the suggestion and a few nouns.

Each and every Harold is a special, unique thing. It’s whatever the suggestion says it is… it’s not “let’s do OUR Opening with the suggestion…”

If the suggestion is “Rutabaga” let’s do the Rutabaga Harold.

If the suggestion is “Jewish” let’s do the Jewish Harold.

Each and every Harold should be completely different from each and every other Harold.

Harold.

After auditioning via webcam and spending three hours on the phone on Monday, I am moving to LA to become a cast member for FrankTV. Probably dumb to post this, but even though the show isn’t the type I’m used to or even watch on a regular basis (it’s a spoofy character impression show) I’m very excited about this opportunity. Really a great guy, Frank (who I met years ago) is really talented and he even called me to talk earlier today.

I am obsessed with long-form improvisation as an artform and I’m probably going to go broke, but I am going to maintain my apartment here and come back as often as possible. Lutz just made it on to the “Wall of Fame” at iO and maybe my headshot will be there soon (haha.)

For years, I did those “Get Famous Fridays” and my heart wasn’t really into them. Occasionally, I’d get excited (like when Lorne Michaels actually came… that was cool.) Or playing with a weird mix of people.

Listen, I’m no dummy. Sometimes these things don’t work out and I’ll be back here before the door hits me on my sweet ass.

I thought I might put this on the CIN message board first or not even say anything and just go, but this blog has been my friend for a long time and it deserves the first mention.

–

After auditioning via web cam and spending three hours on the phone on Monday, I am moving to LA to become a cast member for FrankTV. Probably dumb to post this, but even though the show isn’t the type I’m used to or even watch on a regular basis (it’s a spoofy character impression show) I’m very excited about this opportunity. Really a great guy, Frank (who I met years ago) is really talented and he even called me to talk earlier today.

I am obsessed with long-form improvisation as an art form and I’m probably going to go broke, but I am going to maintain my apartment here and come back as often as possible. Lutz just made it on to the “Wall of Fame” at iO and maybe my headshot will be there soon (haha.)

For years, I did those “Get Famous Fridays” and my heart wasn’t really into them. Occasionally, I’d get excited (like when Lorne Michaels actually came… that was cool.) Or playing with a weird mix of people.

Listen, I’m no dummy. Sometimes these things don’t work out and I’ll be back here before the door hits me on my sweet ass.

–

I’m here for another two weeks and I’ll be doing a show or two… so please, come and say farewell. Or just wait for me to be back so you can razz me. I’m relocating to another city, but I’m not really leaving. Hey, now I can start up Whirled News at iO-LA (that is, if no one has a problem with that…)!

Thanks for reading. See you soon, I hope.

Cesar Jaime is someone I’ve known for about a decade, but I wouldn’t say we were friends until last year. Isn’t life weird like that? I’d say we’re good friends nowadays as well. We went to Vegas together and we play poker every Tuesday and I’m good friends with his fiancée.

Anyway, we decided to do a show together.

When we talked about what we wanted to do we both had different forms we wanted to bring back, try out and experiment with. We tried to have it all so we decided to do a different long-form each week. So far we’ve done the Living Room, Armando, the Deconstruction and the Lindbergh Babies form (technically, the first 5B show.) It’s been kinda scary, but fun.

Of course, for our little unpublicized two-man Thursday show we got a pretty bad review from the Chicago Reader which really made me laugh. I agree with most of it, but I feel bad that, of course, the absolute worst show we had was the one the reviewer saw. In all honesty, I do think the shows have been very good. Except for that one. The one the critic saw.

Our last show is this week! Come see it! JC/CJ, Thursday @ 9pm in the io DCT. What form are we doing? Cesar’s FELT. He’ll be on ¼ of the stage with the Felt puppet stage and I’ll be the human on the other ¾. It’s me and a puppet! Come for the sex scene!

When I moved into my apartment 3 three years ago, I plugged my TV/TiVo in and lo! and behold, there was cable! Well, the cable industry went all digital a few weeks ago and I lost it. So now I have had to pay and get the whole suite of cable services.

I justify this to myself by saying that I really need to see the HBO John Adams mini-series.

The John Adams mini-series is so much fun to watch even though there are some hilarious (well, to a nerd like me) historical mash-ups (Henry Knox riding by the Adams farm? HAhahaha!)

John Adams has been a hero of mine since I was a little kid. I did a book report on him and then my mom showed me a copy of 1776. Williams Daniels portrayal in that musical is a great fun ride. He also did the voice of the Knight Rider KITT car. And was Mr. Feeny on “Boy Meets World.”

I’ve read six different biographies of John Adams, but David McCulloughs’ (of which the HBO mini is based on…) was the best so far. (since it came out and won all those awards there’s just about a new biography every year. Which is funny.)

In other cable news,

How the hell did Status Quo beat JabberWakkeZ AND Kaba Modern on America’s Best Dance Crew?! Status Quo SUCKS!

Words are powerful and in no other medium is this as evident as in long-form improvisation. The words we speak are so much more powerful and honest because we don’t have time to consider and ponder. When we are improvising well and from our heart that’s when our words spring from our ID, our hearts, or even our souls. We should wear our hearts, if not our motivations all the time, on our sleeves.

Are there topics that are taboo to us? Should certain words or thoughts be forbidden for exploration on stage? I don’t think so and yet I think we should be careful as to our motivations in bringing certain subjects up on stage. We can (and should) be free to say what we want if we aren’t doing it for a “free” laugh or simply for shock value.

I recently had a class and the subject of rape came up during the course of a Harold. I won’t get into the details, but a female character was repeatedly told she had been raped and even had the nickname “Rapey” in the police department she worked in. In other scenes she was told to get over it and eventually she pulled her gun and killed people. At the end of the Harold, the class wasn’t very happy. They all felt uncomfortable with what had happened and so did I. To tell you the truth, the technical aspects of the Harold were well done and the gameplay was strong, but it was the subject matter that made everyone feel upset. We talked about it and we did our best to figure out what went wrong where. I couldn’t put my finger on it or clearly define how best to deal with it. I didn’t want to say “don’t do” that sort of scene, but obviously, we had hit a bump in the road.

Later that night, I watched a 12:30am presentation of “Fat and Skinny” featuring Danny Mora and Andy St. Clair with special guest star Molly Erdman. We know from the first scene that a college basketball coach eventually gets fired from her job because her players are convicted for rape. The show then moved between two scenes; a coach with her two basketball players and a stripper with the same players. This show was smart and hilarious.

What was the difference?

Choice and initiation.

In the late night show, the female player initiated the move to be the “victim”, the “stripper” (turns out she works at Home Depot as a vinyl siding stripper). As she “parties” with the two players it was the female character that initiated each game move of more and more hazardous interaction (drinking more beer, wrestling.) The male characters swiftly agreed, but never physically intimidated or threatened their fellow player. A strong “respect of space” was used. Even when the female character laid down on the floor, the male players chose to edit back to the coach scene. In the coach scenes, the power position was with the female character that berated the males and used her status to good effect.

Rape is definitely about power and in the late show we saw how a strong player can keep the power and use it to control our (the audience) perceptions. Never once was the female stripper in danger (even though we know that this scene is in the past and she does indeed get raped) on stage. The control of the scene was in her hands, both as character and player. In the class, the role of victim was laid onto a female player and reinforced by the other players.

Del Close once said in class, “There’s no damn justice in the world, why not create some on stage?”

The philosophy of “yes, and” isn’t a rule that should hamper you or make you, well, dumb. It’s a basic tenet that our characters live in a shared universe with a set structure of physics. If someone calls you “retarded” it doesn’t mean your character is necessarily a mentally handicapped person. If someone says it’s freezing out it doesn’t necessarily mean that your character is instantly cold. You can have differences of opinion. Your character can have beliefs and ideas of their own without violating “yes, and.”

My point is that in improv no one can make you/your character a victim without your permission. Be strong and fight back and use your wits to create an interesting scene. Just shouting “no” won’t help, but adding some emotion and power will always help. Conversely, I have found that most scenes are present and good within four lines… profanity, racism, words for shock value are the first refuge of the incompetent improviser. Certainly, those things can and should be part of our lexicon but in their place and context, not thrown out for a “free” laugh. If that’s all you got, you’re not fun to watch.

I hope no one thinks I’m coming down on my students. My amazement is from all this happening on the same day. Watching both, I could feel myself learning and processing what I had learned. I have already shared these things with the class and we have one more session. I frequently tell students, and it never felt more clear than this week, that the main thing separating them from their teachers, from their favorite performers, is time. Time, experience, showing up and making so many mistakes that you learn from them and wish to share those mistakes with others so that they may avoid the same path.

We’re all learning together.

A long, long time ago

At a college far, far away…

I joined a little video club that ambitiously called itself, “WNEI.” They created their own videos and “broadcast” them upstairs to the lobby of the Student Union. To the one 20-inch TV there. This was ages ago.. you know, before you could edit video at home. We had our own Betamax cameras and a pretty terrific (though aging rapidly) Betamax editing system.

The president of the club was Gerry Wilson. He was a fiery haired, and equally tempered, kid (we were all kids) with a ball of energy for a heart. He, while attending classes, managed the club, directed videos, wrote other videos and did stand-up around New York City. He taught me a lot of things, not all of them good. He did have a big temper and tended to burn bridges both personal and professional.

A big project of Gerry’s was this giant pitch to MTV to create an all-comedy cable channel (this is way back in the 80s.) He made several video shorts (scenic, spoof music videos, spoof commercials) and himself detailing the entire thing. Way ahead of his time. Three years later, HA! (the nation’s first comedy-only cable channel) premiered.

Gerry kept plugging away with his stand-up and eventually got noticed by ABC. He got the coveted holding deal and then his own TV series, “That’s Life,” where he played a surly Queens blue-collar guy who must deal with his sister-in-law after she and her 10 year son move in. It wasn’t a great show and only three episodes were shown. In one particular scene, Gerry is exiting the room and he notices the kid staring at him. Gerry put his face right next to the boy’s and said, “Please don’t wish me into the cornfield.” That cracked me up.

The show got can canceled, but ABC still liked him. They kept his holding deal and then told him that he was going to guest-star on the new Fantasy Island series (starring Malcolm McDowell and shot in Hawaii). It was November, so Gerry leapt at the chance to travel to Hawaii. He felt a bit under the weather, sort of fluish, but never mentioned anything to ABC because he really wanted to work. He loved to act, to be funny. He was also working on another sitcom for FOX and would begin work on it after his guest spot on Fantasy Island.

Gerry didn’t know it, but he had spinal meningitis. He boarded the plane feeling sick, and by the time the plane landed Gerry was dead.

That was 1998 and it was shocking and sad.

Gerry worked so hard and was very talented. His perseverance and hard work was finally beginning to pay off. He was only 37 when he died.

To tell the absolute truth, I haven’t really thought about Gerry in years. Occasionally, some college buddies and I would bring him up and we’d sigh and maybe toast him. Thankfully, his better friends, back in New York are celebrating his life and have created the Gerry Red Wilson Foundation. It raises money to raise awareness, and hopefully find a cure, for Spinal Meningitis.

Coming soon, in NYC,

Wednesday, March 5, 2008 @ 8:00pm at Town Hall

Dave Attell, Louis C.K., Pete Correale, Nick Di Paolo, Greg Fitzsimmons, Artie Lange, Kevin Meaney and Jim Norton will headline
The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation Comedy Benefit

Tickets will go on sale Friday, January 18 at 10:00 AM available at
- TicketMaster outlets
- online at www.ticketmaster.com
- by calling 212-307-4100
- at The Town Hall Box Office which opens at 12:00 PM.

Tickets are $75.75, $65.75 & $45.75.
Line-up is subject to change

If you’re in NYC, you should go see this show. Hell, I would go see that line-up anyway. Kevin Meaney is one of my favorite comedians of all time and Artie Lange is hilarious.

Gerry was a nice guy who took the time to teach a freshman how to edit video on a betamax editing deck. He taught me how to, and how not to, run a meeting. He gave me a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order. He showed me that comedy isn’t just being funny… it’s work too.

The Gerry Red Wilson Foundation also recently made a very generous donation to Queens College for a new video editing system. Thanks, Gerry.

I hate waiting for things. I’m waiting for Peapod to hurry up and show up with my delicious foodstuffs. Mmmmm… hard tack.

I’ve always enjoyed the Blues as a musical theory, but it was only recently that I truly began to enjoy them as a way of life.

I understand that some people actually hate Hillary Clinton, yet to my recollection she has never said or done anything to cause such hostility. Her approaches, statements or actions may be “wrong” or you might disagree with her personal life but she has never denied someone their rights or advocated an abrogation of them. The hostility to her is just an odd thing to me.

A theory floating around the newsrooms of America is that the WGA strike is prompting a marked increase in interest in the political races around the country. I don’t think that someone jonesing for new episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” is suddenly interested in stump speeches.

I saw “No Country For Old Men” when it first came out. Left the theater, walked across the street and bought the book. Read the book in a week. Loved it. Obsessed over it. It’s the only movie nominated for an Oscar that I saw. (except for the odious “Norbit”. I saw that when I was trapped in my hotel room a few weeks ago. It’s nominated for Best Makeup. Seriously. Oy.)

In the last Armando show I got stuck in a scene that I shouldn’t have been in. I, quite literally, did nothing in that scene. I was a mute measurer in a men’s clothing store. I took measurements. And then I took digital pictures. Awful. Nothing to contribute. I suck.

Speaking of opportunities to see me suck… Cesar Jaime (creator of Felt, runner of the Lottery) and I are doing a two-man improvised show starting this Thursday @ 9pm at IO. We’re doing a different long-form each week… one of them will be a two-man FELT show that I’m looking forward to…

HBO is offering “In Treatment” free online. Does this count as a “re-airing”? Do the actors, directors, writers get a residual for this?

You know when you’re really into something and no one else is? And then when it gets popular you kinda don’t like that anymore? I’m like that with the presidential race.

I cannot recommend Steve Martin’s “Born Standing Up” more strenuously. Please read this book. If you’re in comedy, like books, or even can remember when Steve Martin was funny and cutting-edge, go buy it. Del Close was in “Picasso at Lapin Agile” when I was in class  and he was very proud of the work he was doing in it.

I really wish I had more interesting blogs.

I don’t have HBO, but I’m very, very excited for the John Adams movie. Paul Giamatti as John! Laura Linney (sigh) as Abigail! Sarah Polely as Nabby! I like Sarah Polley.

Hey, here’s a some random pictures.

Oh!

Hey, check out this article on UCB that I wrote for PerformInk (I ran their Improv Section for a year) back in 2000.

http://www.performink.com/archives/improv/UCB41400.html