The holiday cards I made a few weeks back finally arrived. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Wish they had arrived a little sooner. Now they will be New Year's cards...
Dec 29, 2012
Cards arrive...
The holiday cards I made a few weeks back finally arrived. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Wish they had arrived a little sooner. Now they will be New Year's cards...
BSJ episode 9
NOW ONLINE... One last episode of the extremely unnecessary podcast Bike Soccer Jamboree before 2012 ends.
This one involves transportation, Ayn Rand and Wayne White.
Dig it... HERE.
Dec 27, 2012
I'm teaching a Workshop
The workshop will focus on a
series of exercises and techniques for improving the improviser’s “Improv Mind”
– both onstage and off. Especially helpful for the solo improviser, the class
will center on focus, play and seeking connection out of explicitly unrelated
concepts. Learn a new skill set for your improv while having fun and
celebrating risk taking!
At the Alternative Comedy Theater
February 13, 2012
Details coming soon...
Dec 20, 2012
The Sea Captain and the Robot
I have an idea for a graphic novel. It is a huge idea that I want to really do justice to. Then, in turn, I hope to adapt it from a graphic novel into a play. Because it is such a big idea and I have not written and drawn a graphic novel before, I have lately been brain-storming ideas for a sort of "practice" graphic novel. I guess I should say, mini-graphic novel. Something that can be told over, say, 24 pages and that I can make myself, zine-style, to sell at the STAPLE! Independent Media Expo in Austin in March.
I have been producing a bunch of doodles lately and I think I finally have something interesting enough to develop into a story... THE SEA CAPTAIN AND THE ROBOT. I'll post updates and pages as I finish right here on this site.
Should be fun. So, stay tuned...
Dec 19, 2012
Dec 17, 2012
3rd Annual Winter Monologue Jam
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| [click to see larger image] |
The Alternative Comedy Theater is producing the 3rd Annual Winter Monologue Jam in January (there has been one added during the year at the summertime Big Sexy Weekend of Improv as of this year). Info on the poster above...
Dec 16, 2012
Writing Is Hard
" I just got a whole bunch of comments in, and I noticed that these—like many I get—are from people who say (in various ways), “Encourage me to write! Tell me I can!”
I’m not going to do that. That would not help you. I would be doing you no favors what-so-ever by doing some empty cheerleading and poking and prodding you. Because writing is hard, and it is NO FUN and PRETTY MUCH POINTLESS if you don’t want to do it. And writing is revision, and revision is hard and often thankless work.
So if you don’t want to do it, don’t do it.
Author Maureen Johnson has a wonderful tumblr post about how she is NOT going to encourage people to write. I totally agree with her. Check out her full post HERE.
Dec 15, 2012
Two Blue Smiling Robots
New print up at Society 6. Head over and purchase a framed print for someone you love. After all, 'tis the season for buying orginal art... especially sweet illustrations of smiling robots!
Get the goods HERE!
Get the goods HERE!
Dec 12, 2012
My Six Titans of Comedy
In the January 2013 "Comedy Edition" of Vanity Fair, Judd Apatow has a photo of the six people who have most influenced his career in comedy. It is a good list he has. I was inspired to think about the same sort of thing for myself. Here's who would be in my pic as my Six Comedy Titans:
WILL FERRELL
Perhaps the most contemporary influence on my list. Ferrell is fearless and versitile and, well, big. He is a big guy and has figured out how to turn a lunk-headed oaf into someone audiences cheer for as much as the underdog misfit of smaller men ( a path not open to me at nealy six foot and well over 250 pounds).
The lines from his movies are infinitely quotable. Ferrell finds the funny and then leans on it. And he looks as though he is having such a good time while he is doing it, too.
GROUCHO MARX
...because this is what bottled chaos looks like. Groucho had the wonderful ability to ride on top of whatever situation he was seemingly entangled in. And talk about anti-authoritarian. The man could just tear down wall after wall of stuffiness and priviledge. Even better, he was often cast as an anti-authoritarian authority figure (great hunter, professor, dictator, etc.).And he could give as good as he got, especially on with his brothers Chico and Harpo. Best of all, he seemed to be operating on his own rules. He is an island of his own.
I particularly love his asides: stepping away from an interaction he wasn't even that invested in to begin with to rattle off a faux Eugene O'Neill heaviness filled with tangents and non-sequitars.
STEVE MARTIN
He deconstructed the whole concept of a comedy act. Martin also had a wonderful and subversive code of conduct resulting in a singular form of performer dignity. For instance, as he outlined in his wonderful memoir Born Standing Up, he had to be the only act. He didn't open for anyone and he never had an opener. Also, the audience had to be in darkness. No one laughs when the light is on them.
Martin would keep ironing out a bit, show after show, until it shined like a diamond. And he very successfully branded himself with his white suit and "happy feet" (on par with Groucho's cigar and painted on moustache).
Martin also "turned off" when not onstage. He was not constantly on. It shows he took his role as funnyman seriously. Unlike his contemporary, the equally crazy Robin Williams (who I also love), Martin refused to be a dancing monkey for interviews and such.
NICHOLS AND MAY
You can trace back most threads in contemporary comedy to the groundbreaking work done by Nichols and May, first at the Compass Theater in Chicago (my youthful Camelot of theatre companies), and later around the country, on Broadway, and on thier awesome Grammy-winning comedy album. Relentlessly honest and ironic, the pair used impeccable comic timing to pack every routine with tiny explosions of subversive hilarity. The two excelled at urbane characterizations and mundane-turned-absurd relationship dynamics. And the percision. Oh, man! Mike Nichols usually played straight man to the flamboyant Elaine May.
SAMUEL BECKETT
On the surface, this seems like a surprise to have on this list, but Beckett is hilarious. And his humor is painful.
If you haven't read Waiting For Godot, do it. It is funny at its most sad.
"Let's go." followed by the stage direction... (They stand.)
BUSTER KEATON
Ah, the Great Stone-face. I like Chaplin, don't get me wrong, but I love Keaton. Where Chaplin was bouncy curves and gooey emotions, Keaton remained all angles and stoicism. He never melted or weakened into bendiness. He never descended into sentimentality. Like Groucho, he stood firm against wishy-washiness (maybe not as aggressively hostile as Groucho, though). Keaton's stance invariably demands uprightness, backbone and a firm gaze set ever-forward. A Keaton character had to win hearts not warm them. He was all irony and fatigue, high velocity and tough luck, frustration and toil, and hard-line grace.
One of the most profound lessons of comedy I rememeber, upon discovering the world of Keaton as a high schooler, was from the opening bit of his 1921 film "The Goat." A starving Buster is sent to the back of a breadline that stretches down a sidewalk outside of a clothing store. He gets in line, but doesn't realize he is standing behind a couple of mannequins. And he waits. And waits. And waits. And the camera waits there with him. He's doing absolutely zilch and this comic tension just slowly simmers and builds. This stretching out of time was so simple and so relevatory for me. It has shown up in so much of my work since I first saw that Buster Keaton film as a sophomore in high school.
WILL FERRELL
Perhaps the most contemporary influence on my list. Ferrell is fearless and versitile and, well, big. He is a big guy and has figured out how to turn a lunk-headed oaf into someone audiences cheer for as much as the underdog misfit of smaller men ( a path not open to me at nealy six foot and well over 250 pounds).
The lines from his movies are infinitely quotable. Ferrell finds the funny and then leans on it. And he looks as though he is having such a good time while he is doing it, too.
GROUCHO MARX
...because this is what bottled chaos looks like. Groucho had the wonderful ability to ride on top of whatever situation he was seemingly entangled in. And talk about anti-authoritarian. The man could just tear down wall after wall of stuffiness and priviledge. Even better, he was often cast as an anti-authoritarian authority figure (great hunter, professor, dictator, etc.).And he could give as good as he got, especially on with his brothers Chico and Harpo. Best of all, he seemed to be operating on his own rules. He is an island of his own.
I particularly love his asides: stepping away from an interaction he wasn't even that invested in to begin with to rattle off a faux Eugene O'Neill heaviness filled with tangents and non-sequitars.
STEVE MARTIN
He deconstructed the whole concept of a comedy act. Martin also had a wonderful and subversive code of conduct resulting in a singular form of performer dignity. For instance, as he outlined in his wonderful memoir Born Standing Up, he had to be the only act. He didn't open for anyone and he never had an opener. Also, the audience had to be in darkness. No one laughs when the light is on them.
Martin would keep ironing out a bit, show after show, until it shined like a diamond. And he very successfully branded himself with his white suit and "happy feet" (on par with Groucho's cigar and painted on moustache).
Martin also "turned off" when not onstage. He was not constantly on. It shows he took his role as funnyman seriously. Unlike his contemporary, the equally crazy Robin Williams (who I also love), Martin refused to be a dancing monkey for interviews and such.
NICHOLS AND MAY
You can trace back most threads in contemporary comedy to the groundbreaking work done by Nichols and May, first at the Compass Theater in Chicago (my youthful Camelot of theatre companies), and later around the country, on Broadway, and on thier awesome Grammy-winning comedy album. Relentlessly honest and ironic, the pair used impeccable comic timing to pack every routine with tiny explosions of subversive hilarity. The two excelled at urbane characterizations and mundane-turned-absurd relationship dynamics. And the percision. Oh, man! Mike Nichols usually played straight man to the flamboyant Elaine May.
SAMUEL BECKETT
On the surface, this seems like a surprise to have on this list, but Beckett is hilarious. And his humor is painful.
If you haven't read Waiting For Godot, do it. It is funny at its most sad.
"Let's go." followed by the stage direction... (They stand.)
BUSTER KEATON
Ah, the Great Stone-face. I like Chaplin, don't get me wrong, but I love Keaton. Where Chaplin was bouncy curves and gooey emotions, Keaton remained all angles and stoicism. He never melted or weakened into bendiness. He never descended into sentimentality. Like Groucho, he stood firm against wishy-washiness (maybe not as aggressively hostile as Groucho, though). Keaton's stance invariably demands uprightness, backbone and a firm gaze set ever-forward. A Keaton character had to win hearts not warm them. He was all irony and fatigue, high velocity and tough luck, frustration and toil, and hard-line grace.
One of the most profound lessons of comedy I rememeber, upon discovering the world of Keaton as a high schooler, was from the opening bit of his 1921 film "The Goat." A starving Buster is sent to the back of a breadline that stretches down a sidewalk outside of a clothing store. He gets in line, but doesn't realize he is standing behind a couple of mannequins. And he waits. And waits. And waits. And the camera waits there with him. He's doing absolutely zilch and this comic tension just slowly simmers and builds. This stretching out of time was so simple and so relevatory for me. It has shown up in so much of my work since I first saw that Buster Keaton film as a sophomore in high school.
Dec 8, 2012
Christmas Cards 2012
My wife and I are teaming up this holiday season to do something special. She's crocheting a bunch of "snowflakes" and I'm creating an original Christmas card. we'll put the snowflakes in the cards to send them out. I only have to make a funny, but "Christmasy" card design. Which sounds easier than it is turning out to be...
I am on my second attempt. This one has a snowman. The first try had a reindeer (pictured above), but was roundly vetoed by the few people I showed it to. I think I'll go with the snowman version. Goes to show... the creative process is exactly that - a process.
Dec 3, 2012
Painting Big Underwear
I've written and am directing a bunch of first graders in an after-school play that they gave me the ingredients for. It involves robots, the ghosts of robots, mermaids and giant underwear. So this is how I'm spending my Sunday evening...
UPDATE: 12/3/12
And here is the giant underwear in action...
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