The Numbers For 2014

For the second year in a row I went 365 days without a drink.

I went on two vacations, one to Richmond, VA the other to New York City.

I saw 72 movies in the theater.

Deep Schwa had 51 shows.

Prime had 49 shows.

The Night Shift had 20 shows.

The Hague had 3 shows and was cut.

We formed Sight Unseen and had 12 shows.

I read 37 books, my favorite of which was My Real Children by Jo Walton.

I wrote 46 poems and did 5 readings.

Tisher, Tim, and I released 10 episodes of Bubble Boys compromising season 2 completing the series.

Tim and I recorded the first season of a new podcast The Hindsight Hour yet to be released.

I conceived of and co-wrote a play, Contention, which will open in the new year.

I made 1 collage.

I made 1 mix tape.

I wrote 1 song.

I moved twice.

I went to 1 audition.

I rode my motorcycle for 7 glorious months.

I went to 0 concerts.

I went to 11 plays.

I went to 2 weddings.

I went to 0 funerals.

I had the love of a beautiful and supportive woman for the entire year.

Goodbye 3541

I started taking classes at iO in 2007. I didn't go to a show for my first term there because I was too scared to use my student ID and I was too broke to pay for a show. During level 2 I mustered up enough courage to go see the Sunday 10:30 show which turned out to be GhettoBlaster and 3033. The first show I didn't care for much but when 3033 took the stage I was enthralled. They took a suggestion and for thirty minutes danced and interpretively moved to a soundtrack, no dialogue. I remember it being funny but it struck me more as an engaging piece of theater, even more impressive given these five men were big, big but graceful. From then on I was hooked.

The following week I went back on Sunday this time for the whole evening. That was the first time I saw Deep Schwa. I fell in love. They were so fast, so smart, so wickedly playful. I don't remember much about the show but after it my face hurt from laughing. The team at the time was Jeff Griggs, Brett Lyons, Dan Antonucci, Kevin Fleming, Meagan Flanigan, Brian Jack and Colleen Murray. Craig Uhlir got back from Vegas a month or so after I started watching Schwa and at first I didn't like him- too sharp, too mean, too aggressive. As a teacher Craig won me over and that roster of Schwa became my signpost and my inspiration for what improv was and could be. Subsequent additions and returning members like Rob Janas, Brian Wilson, Kate Duffy, Joe Canale, Danny Mora, and Neil McNamara were also incredible to watch. Since that first show back in 2007 I've only missed a handful of Sunday nights at iO, less than ten.

                             

I didn't got on a team after classes, I was crushed and angry. I did some work, auditioned, and made it in. My first team at iO was FireCup, it was a great first team, we really cared about each other and most of the time it showed on stage. It was a huge accomplishment when we started playing downstairs in the Cab, in my mind that was always the stage to play on, the goal, where the real work was being done. My second team was Rick where I think I did some of my best work with the Harold. My third team The Hague was great in its atonal weirdness. My independent team The Album and Julia and I's two person show Salute Jive both got runs in the Cabaret, both were unexpected and I couldn't have been more grateful for the opportunities. Ted and I put up our two person sketch show "A Year Of Saturdays" in the DCT, it was the first thing I did that I felt was in my voice. I found that voice at iO.

I had some great teachers and some bad teachers who talked too much. I had some boring teachers and some creepy teachers and some inspiring teachers. I learned some great lessons, some of them because of how angry and biting they were delivered. Some people were mean to me, I was mean to some people, I embarrassed myself a number of times, sometimes I was too proud. Occasionally I talked too much shit.

I had the pleasure of coaching JaJaJa, Echo my first Harold team the members of which will always be near and dear to me and currently coach Attica. I made a lot of friends, was involved with many interesting projects, got inspired, got motivated, got beaten down and picked myself up. I had a place to go whenever I wanted. I found a home and an art form that excited me. 

I don't have much attachment to the building itself, it's the people that are important, but I'll miss the Cabaret stage, the low ceiling, the simple lights, the way the laughs and indifference sounded. I'll miss watching a great show and getting pumped up to go on after or watching a terrible show and getting pumped up to get the crowd back. I'll miss doing a great set coming off and feeling sorry for the team that has to follow it. I'll miss the challenges and the energy, the heat and the camaraderie. It was such a unique space, part bar part theater, compact and intimate. I'll miss sneaking in the back and watching shows from the hall way and then disappearing during freeze.

It wasn't a flawless place. It could be dangerous both interpersonally and in regards to performance. It could be a place of judgement but also kindness and acceptance. Of contradictions. It was a place where you could seek and find some clarity of purpose. Hone your comedic chops in a classroom or on a stage.

It was a magical place and after tonight it's gone.

Goodbye Caitlin

Caitlin and I met freshman year of college. We were both theater majors and became fast friends. Caitlin lived with Chloe for two years and we all hung out constantly. They hosted a bunch of parties, we went on adventures(once to an abandoned Asylum), got our Tarot cards read, had a seance for H.H. Holmes, went to Red Lobster(once), and a bunch of other stupid college stuff that I look back on with a lot of joy.

After college we both moved to Chicago and Caitlin took me to my first improv show at iO. She was taking iO classes for a bit and then went to Japan to teach English for a year. Because of her interest in it and her recommendation I took classes at iO. That decision resurrected my floundering social and creative life. I have her to credit for finding some personal and professional direction.

Since then we've both been doing improv and sketch around town, I've seen her perform a lot, she's wonderful. Over the last couple years we haven't hung out a ton but would always come together and reconnect in the green room at iO, over a quick cup of coffee, or a walk. We've been friends for 12 years at this point and all that history makes for a close bond regardless of how much we talk.

Last year we finally got on a team together and it was a real dream come true to play with her on The Hague. Our shows weren't always great but it was a pleasure to finally get to share the stage with Caitlin, my college friend who inspired me to get started with comedy.

Our friend Jessy's birthday get together senior year of college.

Caitlin is off to LA to work on The Katydids pilot for TV Land. I am so proud and happy for her. Not only could this great opportunity not be given to a more positive and funny person but it gives hope to the Chicago comedy community at large. Hard work and dedication pay off, talent is recognized, the dream is possible.

Love you Caitlin.

The Hague: Fin

After 8 months The Hague had our last show tonight. It was a very eclectic group and our time together fun and challenging. Everyone had their own style and more often than not we would come together, clash, and create something that worked despite the disparity of our different approaches. Sometimes it didn't work which is no rarity in improv. And when it didn't it was never boring, everyone on the team is strong, aggressive, and opinionated so our failures were just as interesting as our successes. Sometimes we were water and vinegar other times we were vinegar and baking soda. There were always surprises.

I don't feel any regret. For me the desire for the luster and love- the cultivating of a close knit group- faded after my first iO team FireCup. It's not as if we weren't friends but we were all, or at least I was, more concerned with the shows and the quality of the improv than with hanging out with each other a ton. I'm grateful for our time together and for a chance to get to know the people on the team I didn't and to spend more time with the people on the team I did. I took pleasure in most of the shows, pride in some, and I learned something from them all.

The two people that made the whole experience exceptionally special for me were Rich and Caitlin. Caitlin I've been friends with for over a decade and aside from one directing scene in college where I was Richard III and she was Lady Anne we never got to perform together. I consider it a great gift and something I'll very much miss, seeing her each week and improvising with her. The Hague gave us a chance to reconnect and get close again. Rich on the other hand I did not know. I knew who he was but we had no connection. When he was added I think we were all a little cautious. We had no need to be because although Rich is perpetually dry he is open. I loved playing with him despite, at times, his moves and ideas going directly counter to mine. It was frustrating but stimulating. He made me stretch. And he became a friend, not something I anticipated given his outward reserve and sarcasm.

Of course I loved playing with everyone else. I always love playing with Julia, James, Pants, and Ellen who I've been on teams with on and off for a couple years and it was a treat to be on a team with Mark and Dan who I had known previously only tangentially.

It was a good run and a good team. Improv can be fleeting and ethereal. Sometimes the teams are too.

The Numbers For 2013

For the first time since 1999 I went 365 days without a drink.

I made 1 major purchase, a Honda VTX motorcycle.

I went on 1 vacation to Richmond, VA.

I saw 88 movies in the theater.

I went through 1 breakup.

Deep Schwa had 51 shows.

Prime had 46 shows.

The Night Shift had 23 shows.

Rick had 9 shows and was cut.

The Hague was formed and had 18 shows.

I created 1 character: Pastor Dirk Deadman.

I did 2 auditions.

I got 1 callback.

I read around 40 books, my favorite of which was The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

We rebooted Groh Show and released 4 episodes.

Tisher, Tim and I released 10 episodes of Bubble Boys comprising Season 1.

We recorded 6 episodes of Bubble Boys Season 2, yet to be released.

I made two collages.

Beanpole and I collaborated on 1 project.

I played 2 games of chess, both I lost.

I went to 1 concert.

I went to 0 plays.

I went to 0 weddings.

I went to 0 funerals

I fell in love, once.

Hang Drum

Last night The Hague had a show at iO, it was probably our best show to date, everything came together in a very organic pleasing way. Our show was totally eclipsed, however, by The Dream.

The Dream is usually the second or third act in an improv show at iO. The host brings someone up from the crowd, interviews them about their day, then the improvisers do a piece based on the response. Sometimes it can be fun, most of the time its relatively sedate. Last night The Dream was very different.

The first striking difference was it was just seven of us, instead of the Deltones the second show was going to be a one person musical and that person wasn't going to participate. The usual number of people doing it is 15-30. The second thing was the guy that did it. His name was Perry and he was a new agey guy who talked about getting his tarot cards read, being a spiritual traveler, transitioning from being a telemarketer to a spiritual healer, and playing an instrument called a Hang Drum. He has a daughter named Truth.

As the interview progressed I started to panic. The stuff he was saying was not typical and once we started doing scenes it could go from fun to making fun of him very quickly. I was anticipating it to be very difficult and to go very badly. He had his hang drum with him and we invited him to accompany Dave on piano while we improvised. It has this resonate, sharp, bell like quality.

The piece itself was a shocking success. It was very organic with little to no scenic elements- a lot of narrating, physical transformations, and direct address. It was the first time in a long time an improv piece I was in felt almost solely artistic, we didn't try to make jokes or do bits at all, it had a very trance like quality- ethereal and fleeting. We ended it by all seven of us mirroring him playing the hang drum with its tinkling foreign tones filling the room.

It's relatively unsatisfying describing an improv show, I know, but this one was special, unique, and one I'll never forget.

The Ringer

I've been performing with Andel, on and off, for about four years. Whenever I'm on a team that needs a sit in I always think of her first. She has a unique combination of edge and goofiness which is incredibly fun to play with. Her energy is infectious and doing a show with her is an adventure. She can be unpredictable but not in a disruptive way in a exciting-surprising way. Andel is one of my most talented, and certainly most experienced, friends. She has her own view of the world and her own style which comes out onstage as well as off. She's been a great friend to me since we met and any excuse I can find to share a stage with her I use it. Her presence seems to exponentially improve any show.

Andel sat in with The Hague tonight and we had one of our funnest shows in weeks. It started off well and took a hard right turn into gooftroupe fun about ten minutes in. For some context Andel is notorious about wearing sweatpants or workout pants or stretch pants for shows, rehearsals, basically all the time. For the show she was wearing these weird hip-flared, burgundy, MC Hammer type pants and a baggy sweater. In the first part of the show Mark and her were doing a scene and it ended with Mark saying "And what are you wearing?" A couple scenes later Mark and Andel are out together again, Mark starts to initiate a scene and Andel stops it and says "Wait. Mark, were you commenting on my outfit in that earlier scene?" Which got a big laugh. I was a little panicked but Julia came out and we transformed it into Andel's fantasy land with baggy cloths and bandannas growing on trees. We were all breaking a lot during the show and the audience seemed to really like it.

Whenever I ask Andel to sit in with a team she almost always says yes. The shows with her are always aggressive, energetic and refreshing. I know if I can get her to sit in it'll be a great experience. She's a great friend and an improv trump card. She always delivers.

Take The Note

Tonight I did something I hate. I denied Jamison's note. Jamison was giving The Hague notes after our show tonight, he was talking about our first game, James came out and did a handstand with his feet on the back wall and said "I'm a lawnmower" we slowly built the game around him, found it, and had some fun. A scene or two later I made a move to put Pants in a scene with a lawnmower by tagging out James and pushing forward a chair making the chair the lawnmower.

Jamison's note was a good one, when James makes a strong physical and declares "I'm a lawnmower" we should go out and support him by matching him. The game came together but it came together slowly, it was a bit tentative, and only Ellen matched him physically by doing a handstand with her feet on the wall. His next note was to me although he didn't call out me specifically. He said that since we've already set up that someone doing a handstand is a lawnmower we shouldn't switch it up and make chairs lawnmowers, use what we've already done.

For whatever reason, pride mostly, I took umbrage with these notes I felt like they were unfounded and unimplementable. I spoke up because in my mind I was right and he was wrong and I needed to say that. I said I wasn't physically able to match James's physical as a lawnmower in the game and logistically couldn't make the move of Pants doing a scene with a lawnmower unless I used a chair because it would have been too messy of an edit. After I said this in a very righteous tone it effected the dynamic of the rest of notes. I regretted it immediately.

The coach is there to give notes, that's their job, all they can share is their opinion and what they saw. Let them do that. If you don't agree simply don't take the note, ignore it. There's no need to defend your performance and nothing will come of it if you do. The coach isn't saying "you did this wrong" they are saying "this is what I saw" in Jamison's case and I think with almost all coaches there is nothing personal in whatever observations are made. No one thinks less of anyone else because of the content of a show or the way it's executed. I took it personally when Jamison said those things so I felt the need to set the record straight-totally unnecessary and counterproductive.

I apologized to Jamison right after and hope to never negate a note again. I may not agree but I won't actively disagree.

Shut up and take the note.

Give It Away To Keep It

Instead of rehearsal last night The Hague went out for dinner. Coincidentally it was all former members of Rick- Pants, James, Micah, Ellen, and me. It was nice to just sit around and jaw for a bit, we're all so busy at this point there's rarely time outside of shows and rehearsals to just check in with each other and get the day-to-day scoop. Afterward I took Ellen for a motorcycle ride, she was very excited.

I gave her a ride home from CIC about two years ago on my old Suzuki, it was raining, only a couple blocks and didn't do the experience justice. Tonight we rode for about half an hour going up and down Lakeshore, unarguably the best street in Chicago to ride on. Ellen loved it, she yelled and screeched and laughed. Her energy was infectious, it brought back how exciting my first ride was.

It was a great feeling to share the joy motorcycles bring me with her. To show her this thing that is very important and special to me and have her respond with such joy. And in her reaction, in her enjoyment of the ride mine was doubly so.

Sometimes sharing can be selfish.

Confidence and Trust

There's a lot to be said for trust as a performer. Getting to know your fellow players, feeling comfortable around them, trusting them to take care of you and support your ideas and vice versa. But it's not a necessity and at times can be a crutch. At a certain point, after a couple years of performing, you should have the confidence and skill to perform with anyone at anytime regardless of what they are doing.

Trusting a fellow improviser on a team or in a scene means you believe that they have ideas and they are making deliberate moves and that they are trying to do something fun. It does not mean that you will like those moves, it does not mean you will understand those moves, and it does not mean those moves will be made with utmost consideration to your feelings or what you want to do. At The Hague show yesterday some of the people were feeling bad after the show and the word trust was thrown around. I know everyone on the team, I like everyone on the team, and I trust everyone on the team. Trust everyone to show up and make moves and go with the flow. I don't expect people to know what I want to do or follow me in every move that I make, what I do expect is collaboration. I don't care if someone tags me out from a scene I just tagged into, I don't care if someone comes in shortly after I make a really thick initiation and diverts a scene someplace other than what I intended. Ultimately improv is a collaborative artform and were all here to impose our perspective on this nebulous thing that we are creating, most of the time its going to be chaotic, periodically it will be streamlined, but as long as we are equally taking part it's a success.

It's a matter of confidence both in oneself and in ones teammates. I've been performing for a while now and I'm comfortable enough to go in to most any situation and do what I do. I'm confident in my teammates to do the same. I'm not interested or concerned with being polite or worrying about how things are viewed or second guessing anything or judging anyone. What I am interested in is unconstricted collaboration.

It all boils down to fear. "I didn't do this" "I wanted to do this" "I'm not comfortable" "I was lost" what have you. There's a simple solution: make a move.

The Hague

My new team picked a name and had our first show last night. It's a great mix of talented committed people, half of which are from Rick, that I'm really excited and grateful to perform with.

Rehearsals the past month have been great, people seem to be gelling and were doing some different stuff form wise that frees us up to develop our own style and experiment. Everything is just starting of course but its a good start and I'm eager to rehearse more, do more shows and see where we end up. I love beginnings, there's a lot of energy, there's some uncertainty and because of that maybe a little danger, a little more risk.

The show was good but not great. I think anyone watching enjoyed it but it wasn't up to the caliber we've been doing in rehearsal. Fun and funny without being cohesive. We were all kind of down after it, the post show blues which happens every once in a while. But we talked about it in, diagnosed it afterwards which brought it into some perspective. I haven't dissected a show like that with a team afterwards in a long time, I remember The Album use to talk the show to death after, and its a good thing. It gets everyone on the same page, solidifies that feeling of team, we're all in this together.

It wasn't a firework display of a first show but it was a start. And at this points thats all we need.

You have to take the first step down the path in order to walk it.