ok..I suck at blogging. In order to keep interest and to keep people coming back and checking out the site, i need to update this mother trucker. I’m sorry for not impressing you all with my literary prowess more frequently
This week was a whirlwind. I seriously didn’t get to see my wife from Saturday night untill Thursday. I had Groundlings Mon and Tues. ’til 11, we rehearsed our sketch show until midnight on Sun, Wed, Fri, and we performed on Saturday. .
Improv is not fun. It’s draining. And to pay $450 for the opportunity for a real Groundling to tell you suck for three hours a night is not the best way to stretch your dollar. The thing is though, at the end of the day, I learn a little bit more about the art form every class. I still suck…but i suck less and less each day. And one day, if I keep at it and drink milk every day, I won’t suck.
Our Over-the-Top show was a success by all accounts. I’ve never had as much fun as I have on-stage with those other three guys. On stage, there is a trust and bond that lets me forget the anxiety and really go for it. Jess consistently blows me away with his impressions and timing, Nick’s dedication to getting the show and keeping the energy and teamwork together is awesome, and Curt…well…forget the fact he’s twenty one and has ice water for blood…he makes me wish I’d have done this six years ago.
Jess, Nick and I tried to start a sketch show four years ago, but it didn’t get past three meetings. We’d start taking notes and gathering ideas, someone would break out the Jack Daniels and wrestling tapes, and BOOM! It was six in the morning, I had dried blood on my nose, and I had to be at work in three hours, and our notes had pot seeds on them. Interesting times. We were always a bit weird. When I think about it now, most groups of guys actually beat the crap out of each other, but Jess, Nick and I actually trusted each other with hitting a steel chair on the forehead or taking a suplex off a flight of stairs onto a mattress. After knowing Jess for fourteen years though, I can tell you this…NEVER…EVER…trust him to do a Pedigree on you…EVER.
Here’s some interesting tidbits from the Hollywood spectacular….
1) We almost didn’t have a show. The theater was double booked, and it was either us or another play. After negotiating with the theater owner, we got to go on at 8 p.m., and the other show didn’t want to wait untill nine…
2) We had to share a dressing room with 17 cast members of Macbeth. It’s a funny feeling, talking about what prop Curt should bring out as Cat’s Game Callahan for the Tic Tac Toe sketch to look more retarded, and then looking around and hearing ten actors praticing shakespeare lines. We got shusshed no less than three times by the other cast. Good times.
3) The show wasn’t recorded. I know. This sucks
4) I stunk. I haven’t washed my blue shirt and Over the Top brand jeans since we first performed in…umm..FEBRUARY. I think it’s time to wash them.
As people who know me are well aware, i’ve always had pretty bad anxiety. Elevators, crowds, parties, strangers…I don’t like change or conflict…never have. When your brain spends half it’s energy worrying about stuff that you know you shouldn’t be worrying about and you feel crazy for worrying about it, it gets exhausting. It’s the feeling you get right before a job interview, all day…and it comes and goes whenever it wants to.
The reason I bring this up is this…people always ask me why I think I have anxiety, and yet I can perform on stage and still want to do stand up and all that stuff. The thing is…it’s different. On stage, whether I suck or not…in my mind it’s not me…it’s lines, characters, movements, memorized motions. In real life, it’s me everyone is judging and staring and thinking my breath stinks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a mess backstage before a show…I can’t be talked to reasoned with, or calmed….BUT…it’s nerves that are there for a reason…and I know it’s logical why I’m nervous. When I’m sitting in a meeting at work and I feel everyone’s looking at me, and my mind tries to convince me that I’m going to start hiccuping or threatens to rumble my stomach the moment it gets silent…it’s illogical.
Umm…that’s enough for today I think, I just went into the “Too Much Information” Portion of the evening!!!!
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