Del Awards 2013

Last night Punam and I went to the Del Awards, iO's yearly award show to celebrate the past year-in-improv. It was a fun night. In the past the night can really drag but this year it clipped at a nice pace. Some highlights were Scott Nelsons hosting as himself in 2079, Charna(iO's owner) making a toast to the theater speaking about Del's memory, the team Villain doing a tribute to their teammate who past away this year, and Jason Shotts presenting improviser of the year to Colleen Doyle.

It's always a nice night. It's a time for everyone in the theater to get together, make some jokes, and recognize each other. I've gone every year for the past four and I never think that it can make up its mind what it is. We are comedians so I think it should be expected that there's a certain amount of edge in the night. Some jokes at others expense and, like any theater, everyone has ideas about how it could be run better. So every year I feel like I want a little more teeth to the evening.

This year the big disappointment were the acceptance speeches, for the most part no one really said much of anything at all. It's a great opportunity to make some jokes, give sincere thanks, or make a statement. No one took advantage. Comedians, for the most part, are an opinionated lot so when people don't take advantage of standing at a podium in front of all their peers I don't understand it.

All in all its always great to get in a room with a bunch of friends who are fascinated by performing in the same way I am.

I'm grateful for a stage to play on and people to be on stage with.

Bubble Boys

Tisher and I, along with our producer Tim, launched our radio show today: Bubble Boys. It's an old timey radio serial set in 1933. Tisher and I play two bumbling inventors who are on the run from the law. We are traveling cross country and each episode is a stop on our journey. We got some great people to work on it and I'm very excited to start releasing episodes. This has really been a passion project for me. Like us on Facebook and give our teaser intro a listen below.

Graffiti 91

Bradley Manning is the US Army solider who released a number of classified documents including video of air strikes to WikiLeaks. His trial is currently underway. Until I saw this the case was only vaguely on my radar. It raises interesting questions about the cost of war, transparency, and treason. The thing that pops out most at me is that a soldier contemplating gender reassignment surgery with documented mental health issues would have access to classified documents. It appears at this time Manning is facing up to 20 years in prison. 

"The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason." -T. S. Eliot

 "A state that suppresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law." -Kurt Huber

 "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." -Howard Zinn

 "You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." -Malcolm X

Gratitude 7

I'm grateful for the potential
of every audience,
their restlessness,
their allusive attention,
our shared moment.

Home Again, Home Again

My extended family got together for lunch and cake today. We were celebrating a number of birthdays and making up time for not getting together over Christmas. My Aunt Julie and Uncle Mike were in from Philly too which was a nice surprise. The next generation of the family is coming up so it's fun to have my little cousins running around, playing games, and spouting off some really funny stuff. It's fun to pick up little humans and swing them around, for them it's the most thrilling thing in the world.

I got to talk to a couple of my relatives one on one which is always my preference. Having big group conversations in my family always turns relatively quickly to politics which is fun but I never get to find out what everyone is up to. My sister(above) and I got to talk briefly about books and her recent vacation. I also got to talk in depth with My Uncle Mike about his business as well as some of my forthcoming projects. I got a ride back to Chicago with my cousin Sarah, her husband Doug, and their two wonderful goofball kids Owen and Kellen, as well as my cousin Alyssa. We got to have a nice chat interspersed with messing with the kids, it was a great ride.

I love my family. I may not be the best at keeping in touch between visits. But when I see them all I want to do is hug and talk.

'Happy People' & 'Lore' Reviews

Happy People: A Year In The Taiga is a nature documentary about a community of trappers in a town in Siberia. It follows a hand full of trappers in the year long routine. Trapping from the fall into the winter, and fishing and preparation for the trapping season from spring to summer. The film is beautiful and gives a glimpse at a simpler harder life. We get a sense of this community and these people but the poignancy and depth of Herzog's usual documentary work is not present.

A pleasant interesting film that lacks a thesis. More suited for a National Geographic TV show than a feature film.

Rent It.

Lore is a Australian/German film that takes place in Germany shortly after the end of WWII. It follows Lore and her younger brothers and sisters(the children of an imprisoned SS officer) on a journey across country to their Grandmothers house. They meet Thomas, a Jew, on the road who joins them and uses his papers to provide them with safe passage.

The film is slow and vague almost to a point of making no statement at all. The characters never speak about their feelings, what they are thinking, or how they feel about each other. That wouldn't be a problem if we got to see them interact but most of the screen time is spent silently with them walking or sleeping. Lore believes what she has been taught, that Jews are bad and Hitler is a savior, but Thomas shakes her ideas of what a Jew is by helping her and siblings with seemingly no reason other than kindness.

The film goes no where, reveals nothing, and ends only because the kids finally reach their Grandmothers home. No statement is made, no ideas are truly explored, nothing goes above and beyond the film synopsis: Jew helps children of SS officer.

Don't See It.

A Fable About Apathy

There once was an eagle that lived in a nest.
His mother fed him every day.
He never learned to fly.
He never learned to hunt.
His mother kept on feeding him even though she should have stopped.
He should have been pushed out of the nest long ago.
He squatted and preened and became fat.
He had no desire to leave, no curiosity about the world.
He was content.
His most basic needs were met.
He had food to eat.
He had a place to shit.
He had a place to sleep.
He was content.
One day his mother flew off to hunt.
And did not return.
The day past and he became hungry.
Another day past and he became hungry and impatient.
"Mother! Mother! I am hungry! Where is my food!" He shouted.
But there was no one there.
The sky was empty.
Days past and his hunger became to much for him.
He looked down from his nest at the ground far bellow.
He saw a number of mice scurrying by the base of a tree.
He waddled over to the side of the nest and spread his wings as he'd seen his mother do.
"I will swoop down and feast on mouse flesh." He said to himself.

And fell to the earth.