Thu
Feb
4
I think it kind of sucks that dreams are thought of as boring, rambly anecdotes that nobody wants to hear. If what happened in the average dream happened in real life it would be an amazing, amazing story. But because they aren’t real, and everyone has them, we’re all stuck with these extremely real-to-me personal experiences that nobody else cares about. It’s horrible!
One quick thing that happened in a dream last night:
I was in a helicopter skimming low over the ocean at night, watching a hijacked, damaged airplane slowly descend in a circle. I was part of some kind of action squad trying to save people’s lives and prevent total disaster. We stood in the helicopter bay holding onto straps, like in action movies. Everything was loud and fast. At one point something caused the copter to splash into the ocean, and I was totally submerged in the darkness of the deep, but I held on tight because I knew that if I let go, as soon as the pilot regained control and took the copter out of the water, I would be stranded in the black waves with no way of signaling my rescuers. It was while I held on tight and waited for the convulsing void to turn back into a field of real vision that I woke up in my bed.
Thu
Jan
28
(In descending order)
United States
Canada
Germany
United Kingdom
Colombia
Australia
U.S. Virgin Islands
New Zealand
Argentina
Switzerland
Turkey
Poland
Pakistan
Mexico
Norway
Spain
China
Japan
Israel
Czech Republic
Austria
Ireland
France
Peru
Italy
Belgium
Ukraine
Romania
Slovenia
South Korea
South Africa
Uganda
Hong Kong
I love that people in all of these places are stumbling over this project and these performers.
“Boy, when you’re dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you’re dead? Nobody.
- Holden
Mon
Jan
25
Has this show happened before? Er - that isn’t a joke, I’m really asking. I’m pretty excited to see it.
What would you do if you were trapped in the same improv scene over and over and over again? What would you change?
This Groundhog Day, Neil Casey, Rebecca Drysdale, Jim Santangeli, Anthony Atamanuik and Christina Gausas will find out.
Say “goodbye” to the Harold and “hello” to the Harold Ramis, a new form based on his classic comedy starring Bill Murray and the unconditionally hilarious Andie MacDowell.
Winter might last forever but this show is one night only! Groundhog day is February 2nd after Harold night at 11:00pm!!!
Sat
Jan
23
“Everything is about UCB.
- Verónica Osorio when I mentioned that a weird dream I had was also somehow about UCB.
“Please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.
Wed
Jan
20
It’s been almost a month since I worked at my desk job as a web programmer. I haven’t earned a dime since then except for a little improv coaching, but I’m enjoying myself to a degree that wasn’t possible while spending 40 hours a week getting other people’s things done. Things learned so far:
- Auditioning is fun. It’s like the first 30 seconds of an improv scene, where your job is to confidently make a big, interesting decision. There’s almost zero time to justify, explore or heighten, but the same techniques apply and you can feel when it’s going well.
- Beans and rice topped with cheese, a fried egg, and hot sauce tastes great and costs like a buck to make.
- If you actually, seriously, really want to get some work done, you’ll get it done and no one can stop you.
Dunno yet whether I’ll be a starving artist or one of the far rarer “heartily fed” variety.
Thu
Jan
14
I was really happy to see FoD not delete my Avatar video for copyright infringement. Like most people I have only a vague concept of what the terms “fair use” and “lawful parody” entail on a technical level, but I feel like I know them when I see them. Of course there’s a huge grey area in between making this silly video and uploading Avatar to YouTube in 17 10-minute chunks, but the laws should be written such that content creation itself is given the benefit of the doubt, as opposed to content creators. What I mean is, if someone says “Hey I want to make a thing out of this other thing,” I feel like the default response should be “Yeah, man!” Sorry, this thought is tangible in my brain but is coming out alllll stringy.
Note: The Avatar video has almost 50% more views than Gift Receipt, an original sketch I wrote, cast, found a location for, acted in, and edited. I’m not saying I’m going to spend all my time remixing existing content, but I did find this a tiny bit disheartening. I mean, it makes SENSE - everyone knows what Avatar is and a ton of people have already seen it, so a video poking fun at it offers a common reference point, whereas a video called “Gift Receipt” has none of that.
Note 2: I wonder if I should give my sketches titles that are taken more directly from the game, or even right from the dialogue. E.g. I could have called Gift Receipt “Why Can’t I Just Return This Sweater, You Ass?” - it’s more engaging and descriptive, and even though it gives away a little of the sketch, you’re investing that piece of information in the hopes that the reader will like it and ask for more by watching the rest of the video. Probably worth it.
Note 3: The Avatar video’s Funny or Die rating went down when I linked to it on Avatar web forums. I guess die-hard fans weren’t into it. I did like the movie, but oh well.
