OK, so I know the last blog was all ranty, but I’ve gotta say… BLAHHHH!  I miss the creative atmosphere of Toronto!  I miss the supportive people I’ve met and worked/studied with and who’ve taught me,  I miss…dagnabbit, I miss SCHOOL!  It’s hard to be away from the action, even though there is some action elsewhere.  For example, I managed to get a spot on Absolute Ottawa’s Open Mic night on Monday, January 3rd at 8pm.  Anybody expecting to attend should buy tickets in advance.  Apparently they sell out quick on amateur nights.

For those of you who read this and are interested in attending, keep your expectations of me low.

Thank you.

I recently watched Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedian.” Unlike most of my school colleagues, I’m an old fart and it takes me forever to get around to watching things they all rave about, it’s probably because I don’t have the patience for YouTube, which is kindof ironic considering how it caters to this ADD generation of people who get distracted at the first sign of oooooh look, something shiny!

Anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, the point is, I loved it.  It showed me what I wanted to hear, which is: work freaking hard, never stop going to clubs or you’ll lose it and there are no guarantees, so keep working fucking hard.  All the motivational speakers at Humber have been like: “Oh, my success just happened upon be by luck,” or “I was at the right place at the right time!” or “a clan of leprechauns stuck four-leaf clovers up my ass and danced a jolly jig and poof, I became rich!.”   This film was a more honest and a little gritty perspective on doing what needs to be done if you want to be a stand-up comic.

I also didn’t get to talk about the two sets I did before Christmas, at Yuk’s and at the Korova Milkbar, put on by my roommate and her buddy.  Both of which, I am proud to say, contained new “Seasonal” material, which seems to fly well at both shows.  It was encouraging and really fun to put something pertinent together with a Holiday theme.

I’m currently in Ottawa and, despite the free time on my hands, am finding it exceptionally difficult to accomplish the tasks that have been asked of me over the Holiday season.  Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get back to it, because Lord knows I won’t be in the mood on New Years Eve, New Years Day (as I’ll be recovering), January 2nd – one of my best buds’ wedding days or the day after that (as I’ll once again be recovering.) But I’ve promised my Ottawa hosts cheesecake, and that might take up a bit of my time… so we’ll see…cheesecake is delicious, after all.  But is it more tasty than song parody?  Probably.  I’m gonna go with probably.

I’m home in Welland for the Holidays and I’ve been musing on the whole Clown College experience thus far…

My first semester at Humber has been pretty eye-opening, life-altering and all that.  I feel different in my interactions with people now, in a good way;  in a more comfortable way, but at the same time, not.  I’m studying and practicing an art that is opening up some element of my personality, which had been suppressed for a long time.  But now, the individuality, the uniqueness, the sometimes oddness of it is being encouraged rather than criticized and/or questioned.  It’s a truly fascinating process to go through.

But also, the fact that I’ve been thrown into several situations of social regression, I can’t help but think there must be a way to avoid the associated bullshit that comes with children not getting what they want.

Having come from a hardworking background of study (I did get my Bachelor’s degree, after all,) and employment (several jobs for the government and a management position in the private sector,) I took a professional approach to this course and expected the same from my peers, or, at least as much as is possible given the nature of our practice.  But when drama over such pathetic nonsense as romantic pursuits entered the equation, I immediately began to suffer professionally, and this, picked-up on by one professors, who noted a significant difference in my behaviour and decline in my enthusiasm about mid-way through the semester. That this was noticeable is seriously disturbing to me.

Is it because I’m a woman in a male-dominated field?  Probably.  Should I feel any additional pressure or discomfort or leftoutedness in this highly male-dominated social atmosphere? I’m learning I should come to expect this.  What I do not expect is to have to dread working with certain individuals in class lest they insult me or treat me as less than what I am for reasons that involve their own damaged egos.

I treat people with respect and expect the same in return.  Not the cold shoulder and no passive-aggressive condescension.  I’m not in college to find a boyfriend, settle down and have babies. I’ve gone to school.  I’ve worked.  Now, I’m serious about wanting to be a comedian.   If anyone haven’t figured that out for themselves by now, or feels differently, perhaps they should re-evaluate their own expectations from this program.

“Hallelujah, holy shit!  Where’s the Tylenol?”

Thus endeth the first semester of Clown College: with a bit of good news, a bit of bad news, then more good times, a nap and some good times after that.

It’s the nap’s fault I’m up at 2:50 a.m. though.  Cursed naps.

A few of our teacher’s had “one-on-one” meetings with each student in the program to talk about our progress, strengths and stuff to work on for the next semester etc.  How amazing of a thing is that!?  That did NOT happen in university.  AND… they’re really encouraging!  They notice things about us.  They notice dips in energy.  They call us on our shit.   It’s great to have such readily available feedback!

Anyway, high praise from one prof and then a “wtf was your sketch about” from another prof, a bunch of the students performed a variety of sketches, improv games and stand-up to send the semester off with some cheer.  Organized by one of the students in my class, with help from one of our teacher’s, the show was a huge success!  It was also the first time I got to “perform” improv since I’ve been to Toronto.  It was FUN!!  The whole show was just a demonstration about how gifted and how funny the kids in this program really are!  And folks, that’s encouraging for you too because it gives you something to look forward to in the way of comedy in Canada.  Just sayin’.

Now I won’t be in class for the next three weeks and I’m going to have to think hard about what to do with all this time.  Writing jokes and seeing people is what I had in mind.

Falling asleep right now and avoiding Peanut’s heat-goo is another.

Good night!

Have you ever seen two people meet for the first time, or who don’t know each other very well, talk to each other confidently and comfortably and wonder, how come I can’t do that?  Why do I come off sounding like such a lunatic when I try that?  And why do I spend so much time thinking about it afterwards?

I once posed a question at a dinner party, to which someone else in the room proclaimed: “Only you, Brie, would ask a question like that!”

What is that supposed to mean? Why am I asking questions other people never think about?  Who left the anxious weirdo alone passed midnight with her laptop on so she could write this emo blog post?  WHERE’S the kettle so that I can boil water to make JELL-O?

There’s always room for JELL-O

Who has two thumbs, tooth pain, is hopped up on meds and is totally ready for the Holidays?  This gal.

OK.  Not “totally“, it’s not like I’ve, you know, purchased any gifts yet or anything.  But as far as school goes, I’m ready for a little break.  Not that I’m particularly fed up, but we’ve completed our major performances and assignments for the term and everything’s winding down to a close. I haven’t gone out on my own to do any performances because of all the end-of-term work last week and then my health took a turn over the weekend, which is something else that’s slowly sucking the life out of me.

For example, after class today I had a nap.  I woke up at 6:30 p.m. convinced I’d slept through the entire night and that it was actually 6:30 a.m.,  I was ready to call a friend an apologize for having slept through our plans for the evening and ready to shit on/congratulate my roommate for ambitiously doing the dishes at such an ungodly hour and waking me up in the process. (Sorry/Thank you Sarrah.) I was completely disoriented and I have been, to a certain degree, for the past few days. This morning, I had an English proficiency exam, which was a joke, but I had to focus much harder than I normally do to make sense of what was being asked of me.  Two different antibiotics, painkillers and nerve pain take their toll on the ol’ mindjuice.  So, have no fear, readers.  I’m heading to the endodontist (<— screw off Word Press, that’s totally a word!) to get my root canal re-root canalled. (I know, right?)  If anyone wants to know what I’d like for Christmas, it’s for Humber College to cover emergency dental procedures.

…Not that I miss working for the Man, but man, the Man did have good freakin’ benefits.

Anyhoo, but there are positives on the horizon.  If any of you are visiting the GTA over the next little while, I’ll be performing some improv in a class Christmas show on Friday, Dec 17th at around 4:30.  Then I have a set next Monday (Dec 20th) AND on Tuesday (Dec 21st).  For more information about those two, just drop me a line on Facebook. In the meantime, I guess I should ask Santa for some new material before Monday!

Also, for you Ottawa folks who haven’t forgotten me: I’ll be in Ottawa for NYE and New Years Day, in town for a wedding happening on the 2nd of January.  I was thinking about hanging around for a few days after that too, but that’ll be entirely dependent on if you will let me sleep in your houses.  I’ll try to get some sets on the go in Ottawa too that week, if any of the clubs/open mics will be running while I’m there.  But please, please, please… let me stay in your houses. I can’t afford a hotel.  PLEASE.

In the meantime, for the love of GOD be careful driving.  It’s a snow-shit-show out there.

Peace.

I can’t do Juno.  For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to impersonate Ellen Page’s Juno for my Acting and Voice class, but something just wasn’t right.  I’d like to say that it’s because I didn’t get teen pregnant and therefore I had a hard time associating with the main character’s plight, but when it comes down to it, I really think I’m just not cool enough to use a hamburger phone.

So, very last minute, I scrapped the teen pregnancy idea and was inspired to try something a bit more relate-able: the incomparable Bridget Jones.   I performed three bits of hers from the first movie and strung them all together.  I’m not embarrassed to say that I’m more Bridget Jones than I am Juno MacGuff.  In fact, when my acting teacher told me I played it well, I told him any woman could because every woman is Bridget Jones.   Blah, anyway, the point is that this acting class is good for making one realize what types of characters we, as comedians, are more apt to play.  Apparently I’m good at playing lesbian pundits and tragic spinsters.  Not…really surprising… but there you have it!

I was exceptionally pleased at the teacher’s response to my performance, because recently, I’d been slightly put off that class, most likely due to lack of participation, uncertainty about my own quality and general sense of anxiety about all of the other classes for which we have to produce material.  I mentioned that the professors here were typically very encouraging.  Well you have to work for this one’s praise and I was slightly surprised to receive it today.  Yay! How delightful!

I think it’s the beginning of a good week, which is great because I was a bit of a grumpface last week.

Another cool thing to happen today, was a presentation by Mark Breslin, owner of the Yuk Yuk’s comedy chain.  He spoke to us about the nature of the comedy biz in Canada and what to expect when we leave Humber.  He was also very encouraging, although he didn’t placate us with false hope.  A lot of: work hard, it might be 10 years before you get anything, but don’t give up because doing comedy is a calling, and unless your Norm MacDonald, you’re gonna have to work your ass off if you want to get good at it.  Also, it helps to be a bit crazy. Just, moderately insane… at least.

Check.

Thanks Mark.

Anyway, here’s a bit from Bridget’s monologue, if you wanted a little hint of who I got to pretend to be today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riA144CUHhU

OK so I wish I had all this great news to tell you about our second round of sketch performances.  Maybe it’s because it’s our original material that was on the line this time ’round, but suffice it to say, I was not satisfied. Though we did receive praise and congratulations from our fellow classmates, it’s hard when you have a vision for something that doesn’t work out exactly the way you want it to… especially when you’re as controlling as a US Marine Corps drill sergeant.

I did learn a few things along the way:

1) Easy on the tech;

2) Remember all your props;

3) If you don’t think people are going to remember the lines for the sketch you’ve written, force them at gun-point to do so, otherwise, it won’t fucking get done.  Just kidding.  I’m totally over it.  Love you guys.  *awkward smile.*

But the performance is over now, and I’ve taken in what there is to learn about writing your own work and organizing a group to get it up and running the way you and the rest of the members what it.  It takes a lot of cooperation, patience and passive aggression.

All in all, it had been a bit of a stressful week, so I’m glad to have hit the weekend.  It’s also starting to get cold over here in the T-dot, and dark early.  I’m looking forward to the Holidays, though sad to think about how quickly this first semester has gone by.  Regardless, there’s still work to be done.  Up on the menu for next week:  one acting evaluation to perform, one essay due, one final exam, one choreographed performance due. maybe some stand-up sets here and there, and a partridge in a pear tree.

BRING IT ON!

No comedy this evening.  Instead, I went to watch a band at the Mod Club.  Yes a band.  No, not comedy.  Yup, with instruments and everything.  And no racist humour!  (Although there was one pretty blatantly homophobic comment…) But I digress.

I find so many comedy students’ lives so completely saturated with comedy, comedy, COMEDY and I have to remind myself from time to time that maybe the reason I and others think I’m funny is because I had a life before I came here and I experienced things that vary from the lives of the other comics here.   So, as much fun as it is to be at the clubs and gross bars for open mics,  improv and sketch…GAH, sometimes it’s just such a relief to listen to some good live music for Pete’s sake.

This life is messing with my sleeping patterns.  So is Peanut.  Tell me, is kneading at 4 a.m. really necessary, cat?

Get some sleep, Brie.

Good night.

So, my second set at Yuk Yuk’s is down.  It went well, I think.  Most evenings I spend on the floor with my legs up in the air usually end in disappointment and awkwardness, so…yeah… This was a nice change from the norm.

But seriously folks, the night went well at Yuk’s for all of us, I think.  There was a good crowd and a positive attitude as usual, which is always very encouraging and rewarding.  Our stand-up coach didn’t approach me and tell me anything after my set this time, which is a bit unsettling, because he seemed really enthusiastic about it last time, but I may be reading a bit too deeply into that.  I can’t be seeking reassurance after every single set.  What matters is that people laughed and that on its own is reassurance.

After the show, a few students from my class decided to take on a different room; a second set, for some of us.  There are many who tell us to get our names out there, we should be performing as many open mics as possible, multiple times a night if we can, and this was my first shot at a two-fer.   Kids in the class had warned me that this particular “room” is notorious for killing one’s self-esteem, but I’m pleased to say that with the amount of support from the many students who did show up, as well as the constructive criticism and helpful life tips from some of the more experienced comics, this place proved to be exceptionally rewarding.  In addition to a bunch of really practical advice, from business to microphone technique, we also learned how to keep your concentration doing a set whilst inebriated AND getting kicked in the balls.   That’s the really practical stuff they can’t teach us at Humber!

All in all, a good/productive evening, folks. But I grow sleepy in these early morning hours…so…

My next update will likely be on the subject of my troupe’s sketch performances, happening this coming Friday.  I’ll be rehearsing pretty much non-stop from now until then. I can’t WAIT!!!!!  It’s gonna be fun!!!

Until then….Stay tuned!