Do the form some justice

I’m composing this blog from the airport, en route to San José for a couple of meetings. I’ll be returning this evening. They have free wifi here, but it’s terribly intermittent and unreliable… I probably won’t be able to post this until later.

It was a good weekend for improv, thanks to the Emerald City Comicon. Sandeep Parikh and Jeff Lewis from The Guild (Zaboo and Vork) came down to play Theatresports with us, and it was one of the few times I’ve seen the house entirely sold out. It’s a rare privilege to get to play before an audience that’s not only standing-room only, but packed with actual fans of the people on stage and are just excited to see them, and predisposed to support them 100% because of it. Riding on Jeff and Sandeep’s coattails, I think it’s fair to say we could have said or done just about anything and it would have been a hit, but I’m pleased to say we actually did some pretty good improv up there. The entire show was recorded and put online here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FB79E499A4A14508. I got the biggest kudos for a Shakespeare Scene where I played a scheming, three-legged cat:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO4yZiTYYCo

(The scene doesn’t get started until a few minutes into the video.)

It was nice to feel successful at doing a Shakespeare scene, because I had an audition about a month ago at Wing It Productions for a Shakespeare-based improv show that left a bitter taste in my mouth. I hadn’t auditioned at Wing It since I did The Beauty Pageant with them back in 2005, but when they announced their Shakespeare show I couldn’t resist. It turned out to be a very large group audition with about 30 people going for 4 to 6 spots, and I surprised myself at how tentative and mediocre I was. I had a couple of better scenes and attracted the interest of the auditioners, but by and large just flubbed the whole thing. I’m particularly annoyed by it because out of the 30 people I feel I was a top-runner that came pretty damn close, and if I’d only managed to do what I normally do instead of, well, flubbing the whole thing, I probably would have been cast.

Anyway, it felt good to do the form some justice again. And I got my obligatory noogie photo of myself with Sandeep and Jeff:

Guild Noogies

Sunday I actually went to the Comicon and performed as part of NERDprov: improv themed around nerdy subjects. It was a decent show although we had difficulties with the stage and the microphones. While at the Comicon I got an autographed copy of the first issue of Dr. McNinja, and also saw the booth for Night Zero, the photography-based comic I did a guest spot in earlier this year. (I went to the Night Zero launch party last week and got a couple copies of the comic… I’m actually in the corner on the back cover!)

Wednesday evening I fly out east to see my parents and attend a friends’ wedding. All this flying would have me exhausted if I wasn’t already having trouble sleeping these past weeks. I really don’t know what’s going on there, but it’s cramping my style.

We had our annual homeowners meeting for our condo complex this past week. It was good to get an update on where the construction stands; if things continue according to schedule they should be done in July, which would be terrific. Maybe then I’ll be able to get some sleep, at last.

Dan.

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