Bike Soccer Jamboree Ep. 8 is up!

The 8th episode of the exceedingly off-the-radar podcast Bike Soccer Jamboree is now online. Originally recorded over two months ago in mid-September, the episode has finally made its way on to the internet and features Jeff Hernandez and yours truly discussing our summer travels.

Jeff talks of staying in his first hostel, his summer road trip to San Antonio and getting a Manske Roll at Gil's Bakery in San Marcos, Texas. He also prefers his potato chips in a jug...

Brad likes sharks in tanks in Las Vegas. He doesn't care for two English girls who ruined a youth hostel stay for him one time in Sydney, Australia. And he doesn't seem to care for the New York International Fringe Festival...

Check it out... HERE.

Fun Grip plays at Dyer Street Bar... for the last time

The Dyer Street Bar in Dallas is closing. They had a bunch of improv troupes come in and perform one last time tonight. Swearingen and I performed some FUN GRIP goodness. It got as little more physical than usual, perhaps bordering on dangerous.

I speak about ATL

I was recently questioned about the theatre company I'm associated with, Audacity Theatre Lab. More info about the company at: www.audacitytheatrelab.com

14 Hours: A Trip to Austin

Jeff played a "Magical Chair" in our set about dueling laboratory assistants...

Last Friday, November 16, Ruth, Swearingen and I set off to Austin. We left Dallas around 3 PM. The original goal was to get there around 7:30, chill a bit, check into a cheap hotel (Jeff was going to stay with Chris Humphrey), then do an improv set at the Hideout on 7th and Congress. We had been invited to do a split bill as FUN GRIP in "The Spectacle" with the house troupe Parallelagramaphonograph.

We did not anticipate Formula 1 weekend. Lots more traffic. The hotels were all super-expensive. Bars all super-crowded. We ended up doing the show, grabbing some grub at Kerby Lane, catching up a bit with Chris Humphrey, then driving back. 

Back to Dallas by 5 AM. That makes a 14 hour round trip. Huzzah!

Watch The Skies Teaser Trailer

"Watch the Skies" is a short film directed by Benjamin Davis and co-written by Tyler Hiott, Benjamin Davis, and Jonathan Kirby. I play John Brownlee, an inventor and a father who disappeared, leaving a mystery behind for his sons.

For more information on the project please visit http://www.watchtheskiesmovie.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/watchtheskiesmovie

Coming soon. Looks like is gonna be kinda awesome.

A Very Potent and Effective Instrument Is Theatre...

I have written before on those who have influenced me in my slow journey of creative maturity. One of the most impactful is the English theatre director and thinker of the theatre, Peter Brook. 

Chiefly among the many many things I take from Brook is his basic and consistent questioning of what the theatre is and why it has value to the human experience. Writing this out, if seems like a common sense thing that most theatre artists would do, but it isn't. Most theatre artists take for granted those basic questions. The focus is usually on the less profound and more practical questions of what is performed and how is it presented.

With this is mind, I came across this beautiful talk Brook gave in 2005 to Tel Aviv University. He displays his amazing and rather mischievous resistance to being considered "a guru." He also formulates his thoughts so clearly and reasons out his ideas so deeply (and without notes).

Work Space

Oliver Jeffer's workspace [via the Guardian]

Today I straightened up my work area. Sometimes the space gets really messy with piles of papers, clothing, random books and DVDs laying about, half-done artworks, pages and notes from plays I'm working on... all just kind of dumped and strewn about. This is okay when I'm in the middle of a big project (like making puppets or building set pieces for a show or actively creating a play, etc.). After all, art is a messy business. But when I'm not in the "belly of the whale" the mess just starts to make me feel ill-at-ease and slobbish. I find it harder to focus when things are in general disarray. To some degree, like an empty stage, a desk or drafting tables comes off as a sacred space in my world. Without getting too far out about it, I believe that outside or one's own body and brain, the work space is the closest you can get to the epicenter of where magic can happen... where novel new things are forged into creation out of the nothingness... 

I'm also interested in the way a work space is used in that the thinking about something may or may not take place in the same place as the actual making of the something. I often make simmer over something during my day-to-day activities, making little notes and such, and then bring all this preliminary stuff to the table and actually work on the thing I'm making. Can a work area encompass both, as place to think and a place to work?

I did a quick web search on others works spaces and was delighted to come across a bunch of inspiring ideas. I love to study these photos and imagine what kinds of art and new ideas are invented in these spaces.  Sometimes, looking at the space is like a small glimpse inside the creator's mind.

Sirima Sataman's studio. on DesignSponge.com

From Geninne's Art Blog

Office studio on Pinterest