Birthoween

This Friday is the opening of Friday the Halloweenth, an original slasher musical, plus an 8pm performance by The Rabble. Friday is also my birthday.

Oh how I love my birthday, it turns me into a candy-filled child. And as you may recall from an earlier post, I love candy.

Dadmail

Since his visit, my Dad has been emailing me quite a bit. Different things, like how he had fun or how my bank got bought out by JP Morgan Chase.
It's nice to hear from him so much, I miss him.

Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. I love candy, costumes, and bad horror movies.
But I think it's mostly the candy. Every year I get so excited to buy giant bags of tiny candy. Sweet, delicious candy.
Around my birthday every year, I used to buy a big bag of tiny Nerds boxes. Then me & one of my friends (either Ben or Jeff) would have a contest to see who could do the most Nerds 'shots'. After about 10 boxes, your mouth stops making spit & the candy suddenly feels sharp and hard. A few more boxes and your gums turn white.
No one ever won the Nerds contest, because we would have to call it a draw. I think the all time high was 18...and we both got sick.

It Never Fails...

Every time my boss goes on vacation, I get sick. In fact the majority of my office is sick right now, coughing & sneezing & looking miserable. It's like she knows.
In reality, I think it's because she usually takes a vacation around the time that the seasons change.
But still.
It means instead of being home in bed right now I am sitting at my desk, trying to appear competent.

I spent most of yesterday evening sleeping, having weird dreams. It helped, but I think the day off would have guaranteed my recovery.
I bet everyone loves reading about being sick, right? Right?

Weekendy

My Dad came to visit over the weekend, and I actually don't have any pictures yet. He took lots with his camera though.

It was great seeing him, and he got to see 2 of my shows, so that was awesome. He hasn't seen me perform in about 2 years. I hope that he noticed some difference in that time. He just kept saying that the groups 'looked really polished' and asking 'how do you guys know what to say?'. It was really neat to hear an outsider persepective on improv.

He actually drove up, from Texas. By himself. Unbelievable.

Birthday!

My birthday is coming up and Adal was super sweet and gave me one of my presents early.
It's a teeny, tiny laptop. I absolutely love it. I actually have wanted one for a long time and I didn't even know that he knew I did. Awww.

Also an early present came from my mom - not intentionally though, the store had told her it was backordered. But it's a gorgeous new winter coat.
As some of you may know, my old winter coat looked like it had been repeatedly run over and then rolled around in the dirt. Classy.

Etc.

Sarah & Sammy in their show, Sarah & Sammy.

I worked box office/performed at The Playground last night. A suprising number of people try to come in without paying, including an old man who was furious when I stopped him.

While working I had a breakthrough with the show I am thinking about putting up. I don't want to give it away, but I am very excited about the idea & the people who have said they are interested.

In other news, my Dad will be here Friday. I'm very excited.

The Last Blank

After 4 years, the Improv Match Game had it's final show.

I've loved this show ever since I moved here, watching it frequently when it was on Saturdays at iO. Not too long ago it moved to Thursdays at ComedySportz and I haven't been able to see it as much.

They had a great, super funny show. The panel of improvisers were so wound up that Rich ended up having to chastise them in to submission. That calmed them down...a little. Plus everyone in the audience got prizes - I received a t-shirt, a toothbrush, & a bottle opener. Yeah!

You Wanna be on Top?

Once upon a time, Adal & I took a trip to New Orleans. One of the days we were there, I came down with a very bad cold. So we spent the entire day in the hotel. Flipping through the channels, we came across a marathon of America's Next Top Model.
We watched an entire season and are now forever obsessed with the show.

The fascination began with the way Tyra behaves. The way she manages to relate everything back to a story about herself. I hear she does that on her talk show too.
I enjoy the catty behavior of the 13 girls living together during a modeling competition. I love learning what it is to be able to take a good picture without losing your neck. But mostly I love Tyra. She can't be real. She just can't be.

The new season has just started, and I'm very excited.

Fanning the Flames

Today I had to attend an evacuation meeting for work. That's where we learn the safest ways to get out of the building and help others. I was required to attend because I am on the safety team in my office. It's my job in an emergency to check the back corner cubicles and make sure no one is hanging out, refusing to leave.

The presentation itself was pretty vanilla, but the man giving it kept throwing in odd jokes, which were largely confusing. When no one would laugh, he would become a little irate, repeatedly saying "You guys aren't paying attention."

He also made a slew of inappropriate statements. Here are some examples:

"How many people, well women, go home and put a casserole in the oven then run downstairs to change the laundry?"

(gesturing to an African-American women in the front row)"The smoke was as black as this lady...'s jacket."

He then showed a video clip from 1993, where a floor in the World Trade Center had caught fire & people were being interviewed about the chaos of trying to get out of the building. "Now some people think it's in poor taste to show that clip. But I don't."

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Hey!

If you have been thinking you maybe might come to this show, please do. We had a great time this Saturday with our special guest, Rich Sohn. Rebecca was supposed to be there as well, but she got lost on the way back from Denver. This Saturday the lovely and talented Dina Facklis will be joining us.
I think this is the most consistently fun show I have ever been a part of and I look forward to it all week, every week. I especially like pulling up audience members to play with. They always seem happy but nervous. It's very cute.

After Twisty Andi & I headed to Kristen's bday party. It was very laid back and super fun. There was, of course, much Rock Band to be played.

I ended up staying out MUCH later than I had intended, which was unfortunate since I had to be up for Halloween rehearsal at 10am.

In Good Company...

Friday night at the ATC.
Brett Lyons & Rob White sat in with Pudding-Thank-You. It was definitely one of my favorite shows they have done...and maybe one of the gayest. During one scene, Louie started kissing Adal (as per usual), and Adal's arms started flailing around when it lasted longer than usual.
Me (to Adal): Wow, that was a long kiss, you looked uncomfortable.
Adal: Yeah, Louie said he was just excited that he got his tongue to penetrate my mouth.

After their show, I played with St. Olaf, which tonight was a 'Norm Holly & friends' kind of thing. It was super fun, and I definitely got distracted by how much I was enjoying watching everyone else.

The usual hanging out with free beer happened after the shows, but this time there was quite a bit more roughhousing than usual. And someone (Brett) wrote this on the chalkboard in the lobby.

This was actually preferrable to the previously written "Let's go get some punch." But only because the theater is currently putting up 'The People's Temple'.

Frustrations.

I've been working on the programs for Twisty for the past 2 days.
Now they won't print correctly. So I can either re-do the entire thing & hope for the best or I can go to Kinko's...and hope for the best.

I was so excited to finally have them done, too. They look really nice, all perfect inside the computer. Oh computer, why can't I have them? Give them to me now please.

De Carp Pay de Harp...

The Music Box is running a Little Mermaid sing-a-long. On Monday I went with Adal, Dan, and Andi. It was super fun, they even had prop bags ala Rocky Horror.
The best prop? A little clicker for every time Sebastian was on screen. Since there were 4-year-olds in the audience, there was clicking pretty much the whole movie.
The noise went from funny to annoying to hysterical.
Also, the song 'Under the Sea' has a lot of words I've never heard before, mostly kinds of instruments and fish.

Executive Investors...

A favorite improv group-scene starter phrase hangs in the entry of a closed restaurant.
It mostly reminds me of Drew, who is the only person I know that uses a 'Get In Here' initiation in almost every show. My favorite one so far has been 'Baby-sitter's Club, get in here!'It was an adorable, then filthy, scene.

This is at the Old Orchard Mall, which also has a Mac store. I wanted to get the voicemail on my iPhone fixed, but they had too many iPhone appointments. So I still don't have voicemail.

~Twisty~

Saturday's post-Twisty outing involved discussing how much the picture of Roger Ebert looks like Harry Potter. A lot, right?

Twisty had a wonderful show Saturday and I'm really enjoying playing, having fun, and doing good work with people I love. Wow, that was super gay.

If you'd like to come see us, the show runs Saturdays at 9, in the Skybox thru September. Then we get another break.

Friday Night Lights

Friday I went to see my Mike Marbach sitting-in for 'Marry Me, You Idiot' at The Annoyance. It was a good show and Mike was awesome! You wouldn't even know he only had a week to learn his part.

Afterwards Adal & I ordered in dinner and went to bed early. Lame, but lovely.