Month: April 2012

I wonder at what point the celebrities we idolize in our youth go from being demigods to just regular human beings who we acknowledge as lucky to have caught a break?

Maybe that’s adulthood?

The other day, Dan & I were engaged in a deep discussion about Zima, the alcoholic beverage from the 90’s that I’d completely forgot about.

I thought he was talking about Orbitz, that drink with bubbles in it, remember?

Anyway, tonight’s Second City improv basically circled around Zima, the very same drink nobody had thought about for like, 15 years but that Dan & I had discussed in great length ONLY YESTERDAY!

Isn’t it weird when stuff like that happens?

How’s this for criticizing the Western trend of adopting Eastern philosophy?  From Wikipedia:  “This article is about the religious concept. For the American grunge band, see Nirvana (band).”

I thought writing a sketch about yoga would be easier.    Maybe if I myself, achieve maksha, this process will be rendered simpler.  Or moot, probably.


Blah.  Back to work.

Why not start this evening’s writing process with a little procrastination?  I need to re-write one of my sketches from the end-of-year sketch show (which was a LOT of fun, but I don’t think I got to write about it too much, other than about Steve’s injuries) AND begin writing a new sketch to be table-read either tomorrow or in the next few days because, well…today, we began the second day of a two-week process leading up to the anticipated/prestigious Industry Show.

(I made it in!!! OMG OMG OMG!  YAY! I’m so happy!!! And honoured!!! AND STOKED!)

The Industry Show will be taking place Monday May 7th at the Second City Main Stage, (where I have been working for the past 3 weeks) and will have an audience of many  industry-types checking it out.  Some previous Humber grads have gone on to be signed by agents as a result of performing in the show and though I may not be that optimistic/delusional, I see it as being an excellent opportunity (one of hopefully many to come) to be seen, in action, by some key players in the industry.

We’ve been issued a schedule of “10am – ?” for the duration of time leading up to the final rehearsals the weekend before the 7th, which makes having a job pretty difficult – actually, it makes me feel real guilty about having to ask for time off work.   I haven’t seen the people at the Career Centre in what feels like ages and I only started at the Second City not too long ago, so I feel like a real dink asking for this much time off.

Anyway, the atmosphere in the room is really interesting.  We’ve got a bunch of tables forming a square and all 26 of us sitting around the tables, pitching sketches, contributing ideas and being relentlessly mocked by Lorne Frohman, the showrunner who, by the way, keeps telling me I’m loud.  If he thinks that’s loud, he should meet my grandmother on cleaning day.  It’s really interesting because throughout the program I’ve been commenting on how great it would be to get to work with other people from other sections who I didn’t have the chance to work with yet, and now here we are, all collaborating in one room.  It’s a pretty neat environment.

Well, I’ve gone on long enough about this.  Time to get back to work.  No.  Time to eat lasagna, then get back to work.

Hey blog-followers!

This is a really cool/interesting/revealing NY Times article explaining/defending what myself and most of my colleagues at Humber are getting into in terms of the alternative comedy scene & comedy nerdom.

It was written by Toronto’s king of the Comedy Nerds himself, Andrew Clark -> who also happens to be the program coordinator of Humber’s Comedy: Writing & Performance program.  (How’s that for comedy nerdy?)

Take a gander:

HOW THE COMEDY NERDS TOOK OVER

I want to write about how great tonight was – and how much fun it was to perform the show again, and great I think some of the writers in my class are, and how funny some of the performances were, and how I like reconnecting with people, and how happy it made me that my Dad & Brother came to see the show, and how excited I am about the Mark the Shark Award, and how much I wish Andrew Clark would have given us all hugs, and how much I wish I didn’t have a physical in the morning so I could’ve got super drunk at the cast party, but I’m tired, and I have a physical in the morning, so I can’t get drunk at the cast party.  I’m just gonna snuggle with Peanut & fall asleep and have happy dreams after a truly great night. 

Yay.

It’s time to light the lights.

It’s time for #cliché – Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire: A Humber Comedy 2nd Year Section 02 End-of-Year Sketch Show.

We performed the first of our two-night run and, it what seemed like the blink of an eye, it came and went.  An incredibly fun blink of an eye, but it seemed like it went by real fast, is what I’m getting at.

The highlight of the evening was probably the fact that le petit Steve Gignac was actually punched in the face on stage, by accident, by Robit Kyle Woolven.  As they say in show biz, “it’s all fun and games until Steve’s nose is bleeding in the green room.”

Steve is Beavis in this situation.

We perform again tomorrow night at 7pm & you should be there.  Because our show’s hilarious.  Like, really really great.  And if you don’t like it, we’ll sick Kyle on you.

It’s hard to believe we’re currently rehearsing for our end-of year sketch show!

It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the audience as the second years from last year gave it their all one last time before graduating and/or moving on to the Industry Show. I’m so excited to see everyone’s sketches, the remount of some people’s plays, but most of all — I am stoked to FINALLY see our parody videos we filmed all last semester ago!

  (See: Parody Shoots.)

And, I’m excited to actually put on our show, obviously.  It really is going to be a good one.  We’ve really extracted some of the funniest written scenes, with some of the funniest characters from over the past two years for your viewing and laughing pleasure.  And everyone on the team gets a few opportunities to shine! (…)

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to perform sketch comedy, and as repetitive as I’ve been in saying it, I really miss doing it.  Paige & I also get to showcase some of our dance experience in this show – in two numbers.  So hey parents, all those 15 years of lessons are paying off. (Not literally.  I don’t get paid for this.  But maybe one day it’ll actually pay off.  In this case, it’s just paying off because I’ve been cast in two scenes because I can dance and sing simultaneously.)

Maybe I’m too tired to be posting today.  (Maybe that’s why everything’s in brackets.)

Maybe that five hour rehearsal for 10 minute’s worth of (terribly flawed) stage time really wiped me out.

Maybe it was working til midnight yesterday.

I’m finally caught up with Mad Men.

I need an oil change.

And to do laundry.

Zzzzz…