Robert Britt

We went to the theater on the lake - just north of my old apartment on Division street. Nice space, sorta warehouse like, but it is right on the shore of Lake Michigan. Saw improvised Shakespeare there. I was leary of going - didn’t know how it would be, but it turned out to be freakin awesome. The show went so quickly (both acts) and had me laughing most of the time. I gotta learn not to pre-judge.

After that we went to a 10pm show “Messing with a Friend” which features Susan Messing, one of the instructors of improv here at Second City, and she always has a guest of some sort. Well, we lucked out. We got Frank Caliendo. You know who he is. Right now he is doing all the celebrity impressions - John Madden is a particular favorite of mine, and he also was on Mad TV. the show was about 45 minutes long maybe, and it was seriously seriously funny. wow.

For my sketch writing class I am working on a skit involving the outline I did the other day and posted here. I am on the fourth revision at this point. It reads pretty funny, but is a little short. We’ll see how it turns out when it is performed today.

So like I said we went to see Comedy Sportz in Chicago and the shows were pretty good. How can you really complain when it’s free? Although free shit would still be shit. But this wasn’t shit, although we saw someone mime-ing throwing shit. not too funny.

The first act we saw was “District 9″ which set themselves up as like a CIA type thing. Black outfits and sunglasses etc. They were funny. Did their version of good bad and worst answer. They did characters with props for that. wigs, hats, glasses, etc. Somewhat funny. One guy played the lead singer in a heavy metal cover band - Rage against the machine, but they were like Anger Against Devices or something. He was funny, and later did standup.

Next was a group called “we are your density” who were funny (on and off) They did movie in one minute, thirty seconds, 10 seconds and 5 seconds. Schindlers list. It was prety good. The girl typing (Schindler’s secretary?) was funny, and was for some reason speaking in a spanish accent. (Closest thing she had to German, maybe) but still was funny. Did forward rewind on scenes from that movie as well. Then they had open mike for improv and of course I performed, as did members of my class. five us us made it to that show. They also intermixed some stand up comics who weren’t very funny. Sorry but just my opinion, guys.

At one point they had the comedy sports competition thing that they are known for the house act played against The Hot Karl, who I also think is a house act. That show was also fun, but delved into a lot of fart and sex jokes. part of it was simulated sex, both between men and women, and a little of that goes a long way. A lot of that goes straight to crap.

Enough of the night’s review.

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yesterday in writing we did an exercise where we deconstructed a fairy tale and then wrote a sequel. Mine was Goldilocks and the sequel was this ten point thing

1. Goldi’s mother Ravenlocks hears about the slaughter of her daughter

2. RL finds a gunsmith and test fires weapons

3. Bazookas were too loud

4. Lasers were too bright

5. chooses a M1A1 rifle with 30 round banana clip and M203 grenade launcher

6. finds cabin and kicks in door like she’s Chuck Norris

7. spray kitchen with all 30 rounds turning mama and baby bear into ground bear meat

8. drop rolls into living room and blast grenade at Papa bear. blows him to smitherines

9. fires up their grill

10. has bear bar b q

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assignment now is to break down part of that into a sketch.

Heading out to a show at Comedy Sports Chicago tonight. Should be some interesting acts. Wednesdays are FREE! so if you are in the greater Chicagoland area, join me.

403 Belmont Ave. 8pm

I’ll update this probably tomorrow and give a ‘review’ of sorts..

We went out to see a show last night at “The Annoyance” the two acts were Fish Nuts and Chicagoland.

Chicagoland was interesting in that they were mostly women. We just got done hearing in class how male dominated comedy is, and it is, but here we were listening to this female ominated group. They were quite funny. I don’t really know how much of their show was improv, although, if it true to the format of chicago improv, it started out as improv once and then got refined to become a show.

Their show was a series of very loosely connected skits. For the most part I thought it was better than the acts that we saw monday night.

Fish Nuts, I thought, were funnier. They started with a brilliant audience suggestion. Shoe lace repair. Yeah, it was my suggestion. Thank you. Anyway, the show started out with a man getting shoelaces repaired, but his shoes were slip on, so they had to make holes, and modify the shoes first. They split off into connected scenes (sort of like DB does with the ‘remember when’ part of vacation, but they didn’t make a big deal of the change of time and place, just jumped into a scene. For example, they had to operate on the guys bunions, and segued into the shoe lace repair guy delivering a baby. Then right back to the repair shop. They kept returning to that scene which gave the whole thing continuity.

it was a crazy scene at breakfast this morning. Lots of activity busy busy busy. I got down to the cafeteria area on the second floor and a marching band from Ireland had just arrived and semi-took over the place.

They just looked like a typical high school band but with slight variation. There was a bit of an odd look to them. Like I am looking around the room and the little things are making me wonder “what is different here?”

Subtle differences like the haircuts or clothing brands perhaps. Or some of the ‘girls’ looking more like women, but then again, you have that in US high schools as well. mostly speaking Gaelic (I guess) but all the shirts and clothing items are written in English, blue hooded sweatshirts bearing the words “Banna Chluan Meala” and Championship Irish Marching Band or something like that.

Some of them have “Jayhawks” silk jackets. Jayhawks. I would have thought that to be an American term. And it may well be. My eyes were playing tricks on me, and it actually says BlueHawks. OK, maybe that’s an Irish bird. As I sat at my table eating two French women sat down, first politely asking if the seats were free. They began talking in low voices in French. I love listening to foreign language being spoken and listening to the accents as they speak English. Tools I can use. Some of my accents are pretty good, some not so much. The toughest thing for me is holding the accent for an extended period of time.

Heck sometimes even for a few minutes during an improv is tough. Trying to think of interesting, clever or funny stuff, keeping the flow going, and, oh, yeah, that’s right I started out doing a Russian accent, now suddnely I dound more like I am from India. How did that happen?

Oh, yeah, and the wireless access is down this morning. I hate that.

Scene - the concrete slab looked like it had been around for a while. The green and white tin awning overhead leaned a bit to one side, but still protected the aging somewhat stained slab. Weeds, almost a foot tall were growing out of a crack on the one corner where they lifted a section of the concrete, a toe-stubbing waiting to happen.

An ashtray, nearly overflowing with cigarette butts was the sole occupant of the cheap round table. The two wicker bar stools that flanked the table had worn cushions on them and one was also adorned with yellow and brown leaves that had recently deserted a nearby maple tree.

–focus on the chair–

An old copy of The Great Gatsby marked with a bookstore receipt lay in the place of honor upon the threads stretched thin across  the worn pillow atop the wicker bar stool. A slight wisp of smoke rose from a cigarette balanced in the groove of the huge plastic ashtray. Soon it would join the legions that filled the cavernous abyss that had already captured its fallen ash.

Beads of moisture covered the lower half of the glass of ice tea that stood nearby.

–deeper to a character–

The white sun dress hung loosely on the gaunt lanky body. Yellow-stained fingertips squeezed what wasa left of the latest in a long line of Virginia Slims. A lengthening ash stubbornly to it, refusing to go gently into the night.

The other hand absent mindedly stroked the stubble on his chin as he gazed at the well worn copy of his latest read laying on the table

–a monologue–

I don’t care what it looks like. No, if I can’t feel it, how am I supposed to relate…and I have to relate.  What word am I looking for here?

Empathy. God I can’t …

I don’t give a shit who sees me. I don’t. I know you are embarrassed.

Why don’t you sit out here? I know why.

If he can walk around in public like this, I have to try to stand it in my own backyard.

I AM TRYING TO GET IT! or something.

My father would have disowned me. No, more likely he would have kicked the shit out of me.

Or killed me.

Of course it looks ridiculous, but somehow I have to find something.

Some understanding.

He’s my son too, you know.

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Afterthoughts. We were given direction to describe a porch, and then a chair. Emphasis was placed on adding details, so there would be more to work with, to give some hints of the occupant, and then we were told to describe the person in the chair. I was initially going to have an old lady in her 80’s or something, but I thought it was too cliche.

Then I wanted some reason why someone who was not a tranny to be wearing a dress. Then the monologue came out.

Not something I would have ever gotten to without going through the whole process. Very interesting and that was just day one.

Writing class yesterday was interesting built up a scene by drilling down a location. Starting the class with freeform writing, so I thought I’d transcribe that here. some of it I already talked about on earlier posts.

Basically we had to write non-stop for 15 minutes.

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On the way to chicago we stopped for gas three times, once to eat and once just to pee. It was good that I got the speedpass for the PA turnpike as it also worked in Indiana. That made the trip go so much faster. Andi took a turn driving. We switched off when the gas tank got filled. That worked out because it didn’t slow us down. We ate food at some place I don’t remember. (*note - a rest stop) My Brain was barely functioning because of waking up saturday around 7am doing all the preparation for the trip. Then setting up the theater, out to dinner (Chinese Buffet) and then the show at 8pm. Directly after the show we started driving. Tweleve hours later we arrived at the hostel only to find out checkout wasn’t until 3pm. We parked the car ($27 per night for that) stowed our gear in lockers and then went out to Grant Park and “A Taste of Chicago” festival.

It was quite warm out and the stands only took tickets fo rth efood. Twwelve tickets cost eight dollars and it took eight tickets to buy a sandwich. I guess that makes the food fairly reasonable, but drinks were anywhere from four to ten tickets. Ten tickets bought you a beer. I think taht is something close to $6.50 a beer. Prettty expensive if you ask me. I had to buy 24 tickets just to eat. Buying samples of food and didn’t get anything to drink at all.

Once we got done with that get got our mass transit pass and went on the L to locate the Second City training center. We managed to walk in circles for a while but finally found SC only about three blocks from the L station. We probably walked 16 blocks to find it. We even stopped for a beer and directions and maintained being lost. Well not really lost, but actually just not finding our way quickly.

Finally we found it. Then we left to go check in at the hostel. I got my room but Andi and Adam couldn’t get theirs. They weren’t ready yet. I got a shower, did a couple blog entries and tweets, met them in the lobby and then went to the show at Main Stage, SC.

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I know she never reads this, but Happy Birthday Stephanie, my sweet daughter. She’s 18. it seems like just yesterday….

Thinking on your Seat

I was reading an article from the Wharton School of Business website, knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu about people being burned out on jobs and their workplaces and it made me think about aspects of work and jobs.

The main point of this one article was that it isn’t necessarily the job that people were tired of, so much as the people that they work with, and how true is that? You can be stuck in a really crappy job and work with great people and the job doesn’t seem so bad or vice versa. Of course if you feel like you are being taken advantage of , or are unappreciated, those really factor into job satisfaction/disgust as well.

My last corporate job was a combination of those factors. I really didn’t feel like my proposals were taken seriously or that changes I saw as necessary were dismissed without much thought. My job was pretty cool. My co-workers were excellent. My boss was very amiable and the whole situation was laid back, but the feeling of fulfillment was totally not there.

How do you deal with that? I quit, but that isn’t feasible or an option for some people. Letting go of the familiar is a tough thing to do, and if you don’t have a plan of action for afterwards, it gets even tougher.

The real question I wanted to ask is, how many people view their jobs as a temporary situation, and how many view them as a long term commitment? Do you think your employer feels the same way about you that you do about them? Does your boss or supervisor or the hoi paloi view you or your position/function as a temporary situation? Or is the function ongoing, but they expect turnover? There sometimes are people who are happy just filling a niche for 30 years, because their ‘real life’ is outside of work and they just need some income, and the mechanics and details of the job don’t matter. Wow, Eddie is still running the elevator?

If you view your job as temporary how do you keep your focus? Some things may seem imperative to those around you, but as your commitment wanes, are you still pulling your weight or just getting by?

We arrived in Chicago after a long road trip, twelve hours total driving time, plus a bit for stops, eats, etc. I got maybe an hours sleep but not really solid sleep. Sitting up, neck bent at an angle, looking like the trap under my kitchen sink, I can feel that kink now in the left rear part of my neck.

Andi was great about sharing the driving. I mostly just feel comfortable driving my own car, or with Deb driving. Who really knows how someone else drives, especially when they are just friends? You never much experience their habits, not given all the sleep depravation anyway, but she took the second shift of around four hours maybe. We were switching off with filling the gas tank, so I took the first and second tak and she took the middle one. Perfect really because she relived me when I was starting to get tired and I got the wheel again and drove into the city.

I lived here in the summer of 1985, so the overall layout is familiar to me, even though it’s been, holy shit, 22 years?!?! where did that time go? That summer was an alcoholic daze, but still  I retain a great deal of the layout of Chicago. Surprising to me, too.

I am tired beyond the point of sleeping. It is 4:16 local time, and in an hour we need to catch the L to Second City to see the show, “Blogovitch, Super Star” on the SC Mainstage. Mocking Blogoyovich. I saw bits of it on cnn and youtube, and think it looks pretty good. We are getting a tour or something prior to the show, and then tomorrow we have orientation and then classes all day. We hope to see some shows at night after classes and get some discount tickets with the class tuition.

Adam seems more interested in aspects of this trip other than the improv workshop. I hope it is a growing and learning experience for him. Today he was looking at boat tours and cd’s and food and more food. I tried to tell him about conserving money. I think he was a little upset about it, but we’ll see how things work out. It’s an odd position for me and Andi to be in. We care about Adam, but know he has to learn some lessons on his own, and we aren’t parental units. It’s best he doesn’t learn of this stuff from anyone reading this blog (hint hint) But a word to him about the cost of maybe attending shows and unexpected expenses might be better received from somewhere else. (another hint?)

I think it’s going to be an amazing growing learning experience for all of us and I look forward to seeing the results. I love and miss my family already, especially Deb.

I took Zack to get his driving permit today. As my youngest child, it is a bit of a shock to see him as a driver. Luckily I don’t have to worry about that yet.

Last night I talked to him about being prepared. Not just did he study for the written exam, but actually being awake and ready to go at 8am, so we could beat the rush. Well, you can’t beat the rush by being there 15 minutes early, but the line grew twice as long after we arrived, so it still was pretty well timed. Funny part was that Zack saw a few girls from his old school there, but he didn’t want to talk to them. “wrong crowd” I guess. Meaning preppies and honor students.

So like I said, last night he told me he was ready. He just finished driver’s ed at school and thought it was a done deal. He has worried us a bit with his cocky attitude towards driving. Perhaps he wasn’t ready. Not mentally mature enough. Thoughts that go through all parent’s heads, I would imagine. He has told me repeatedly that driving was going to be a snap.

So we are sitting at home and I said, so have you studied at all? He looked at me like I had two heads. OK, I do, but get your mind out of the gutter. He was ready.

We get in line and shoot the breeze. Small talk while time time time ticks away (and tocks away)
He’s using his passport as ID, a cute but somewhat girly looking picture of him. Seriously, even he said that. We fill out the paperwork and I write the check then we wait in the seating area until the number is called. Finally he is up and getting his eyes examined. now back to the computers for his test. I wait. and wait. Finally he shows up, and is ready to go. It’s a failure.

Now what does this say? I want him to be confident, but overconfidence can kill the golden goose. He gets home and is all bummed out. Understandable since I told him we would wait a month to retest. I told him that last night when he refused to study.

Life is like that. Preparation somehow makes tasks go easier. Your ‘elders’ sometimes know a few things. I listen to my Mom, and move on and make my decisions, but I keep her words in mind. After 80 years on this Earth, you know a couple things (if you can remember them) After my 46 years, I know a couple things, too. Oh to be 16 again, and know everything.