Cheers!

Well today marks a milestone for SAK. We have finally secured a beer and wine license. The process was not as complicated as I had expected, although the hurdles to overcome still took us a couple of months. In fact, it was several months into our first year that we were finally able to concentrate on the effort to get the license. Now more hurdles to make sure we are as compliant as we need to be in order to serve and sell legally at the SAK Concession stand. I think we have all the ducks in a row. This will certainly test our core audience and clientele. We do not know for sure if our regulars will still be regular for us if we have beer and wine available. we hope they will still come, but the move seemed more than necessary to attract more folks to the SAK Comedy Lab. I am surprised how many people do not come to SAK simply because we do not have beer and wine available. If we lose patrons who are upset that we now serve beer and wine I will truly feel sorry. If we had enough of those folks coming on a regular basis, filling our seats to the projections we laid forth when we moved in, we would probably have not needed to consider it as we did when we did. We shall see. I think if nothing else if will be kind of nice after a show to enjoy a beer with my fellow performers without having to gather at one or other of the bars in downtown. I don't want to avoid those places completely, but it will be nice to have a beer right in our own place.

Parking "Whoa's"

Seems like every move forward has its complimentary setback, minor or major. SAK is very fortunate to enjoy the ability to offer parking validation for our guests at the Cinema Plaza Parking garage, which is conveniently located right across the street from SAK. There are other parking possibilities, but the Plaza is the most convenient. It seems also, however, it is the most confusing and complicated of the options - or at least until you learn how to navigate it properly.

We have recently learned that the restaurants at the Plaza no longer validate your parking ticket - but SAK still does!! The best news is if SAK is a part of your evening's entertainment you only pay $4 to park. Even if you go to a Magic Game on Friday or Saturday and see the 11:30pm show at SAK you will only pay $4 at the Plaza. This is GOOD NEWS we need to spread!

It is unclear who designed the engineering marvel, but chances are the designers and engineers all drive nothing but Smart Cars (or have lived in Manhattan all their lives). You have to be an expert driver to maneuver through the windy spirals and tight curves and corners your first time. Then there's the labyrinth of elevators, floor letters and numbers and payment options.

We have found through extensive research (and parking there every day) the following best best bets, hints and tips:

• If you're going to SAK or other downtown location park on levels 3 or above. These levels are reserved during the day but at night they are the best bet. The elevators on these floors will take you directly into the Plaza common ground level (plaza) area.
• NOTE:  Levels 2A, 2B and 2C will take you to an elevator on Church and Court and you will undoubtedly feel lost.
• When you exit, you can conveniently get to your car from the same plaza level elevators.
• Always return to the same elevator you arrived on.
• When exiting, if you're paying with credit card - bypass all the payment machines! You don't have to hassle with them unless you're paying cash for your parking. We recommend credit card payment. Not only more convenient but you get a receipt.
• Credit card payment can happen easily and conveniently from your car as you are exiting. Put in your parking ticket (validated if you've been to SAK and you only pay $4), put in your credit card, wait for your receipt after your credit card comes out and you're on your way!

Quantum Improv Back in Session

A new session of Quantum Improv begins this weekend, October 23rd at SAK Comedy Lab. Looking forward to moving forward with Quantum Improv and the Quantum Vision. The class filled to capacity in just 2 hours - very exciting. As the class start approaches I realize I feel like a little kid going back to an old toy box as I feverishly try to remember where I put all the pieces and materials for the Laws of Motion demonstration.

My handy visual aid (I'm now recalling in the 11th hour) takes a good bit of time to set up - and I'm still looking for ways to streamline the process and the demo so it can pack up easier as well as travel more easily. I can't wait to get back into it. I'll be doing a more condensed version this time around to make sure we get done with the class well before the Christmas holiday rush of things begins. This will be a 6 week course.

Bloggy Blog Backlog

What? A blog post? Haven't seen one of these in a while... I am chock full of great excuses though. First and foremost, we've moved the SAK Comedy Lab to a great new location! We're downtown at the CityArts Factory on the corner of Pine and Orange. In addition to that, they changed the rules at blogspot.com and I had to migrate my blog from the SAK site where I was hosting it to another place. They did do a good job helping to make the migration somewhat seamless and painless, but it took a while for me to get all the ducks in a row. Having said that, I hope you will enjoy the new look and feel of MeBloggyBloggy!

Incidentally, I have launched several other blogs along with the MeBloggyBloggy migration, all about the Quantum Vision - which is the other thing that has been taking up my time. It all began with Quantum Improv and has grown since then. Feel free to check out the links at the top of this blog or use some of the other links for MyBlogs, etc.

Fagzilla

Tonight - what a wonderful awful rainy night. Tonight featured Princeton Elementary's "Evening of Excellence," a night of recognition of Princeton Elementary students. Both Marina and Walker were invited to take part. Both kids are on the Principal's Honor Roll meaning they've received A's on their report card for each of the grading periods this year.They both also were honored for reaching their AR goals (Accelerated Reading) for all three grading periods. And if that wasn't exciting enough, they both were honored with the distinction of Writing Wizard for their class. Great job kiddos!!

Afterwards we go to Jade Bistro on Edgewater avenue for a celebration Asian fusion dinner. While we're ordering, Walker is drawing on the back of his sushi form and Marina is writing on the back of hers. Suddenly Walker holds up his drawing and announces "Look what I drew - it's Fagzilla."
"What? We responded, embarrassed and surprised.
"It's Fagzilla." Now our minds are reeling, wondering how our writing wizard has bolstered his vocabulary with this word.
"How have you come to know this word, Walker?"
"Well, he's fat, and he's Godzilla, so that's Fagzilla."
"Oh, of course. Fagzilla." In our relief we didn't really realize how comfortable we'd now become with this new and wonderful name. So for the rest of the dinner we had a wonderful time saying Fagzilla over and over without any shame or remorse. Thanks Walker.


Oh, and this one is his follow up drawing - King Pong - it's a ping pong reference. See how he's shaped like a paddle?

Another Blog to Get Behind On

Hey, now I have 2, count em' 2 blogs I can struggle with keeping current. With that, I officially introduce my Quantum Improv blog to the world. If you get a chance to check it out, be sure to look at the foundation posts - they are easily bookmarked at the top.

Quantum Improv is a new venture that is be becoming a major part of my life, not to mention my improv teaching. The basics molded in Quantum are shaping a philosophy, process and program that will continue to grow. I call it the Quantum Vision and it has wonderful applications past even Quantum Improv. But improv is where it starts and improv is where it will always have a base.

I am currently writing the book Quantum Improv and plan to have the first published copies available by the end of the year. I'm excited to be entering a publishing agreement with a firm that will be a combination I guess you could say of self-publishing and mainstream publishing. I'm talking about a co-publishing arrangement which will allow me to keep my book rights while the publisher (having limited trade rights) will do all the marketing and promotion of the book to retailers like Barnes & Noble, Borders, Amazon as well as retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, etc. All the things I have no earthly idea how to do. I am very thankful for such an arrangement. My part of the deal will be to order an initial printing of books that I will sell myself through SAK, the Quantum Improv website, etc.

It is all new to me so surely I will post the victories and the defeats along the way.

Be sure to check out the Quantum Improv blog. Onward and Forward!

The Hammer Comes Down at Disney

Well the several weeks of nervous Disney employees is pretty much over. And how things can change over just a few months. Although I have served as a contract Show Director for the past several years and not an actual Disney employee, I was not really on the chopping block, as they say. But, the current climate has affected me as well. Last September, 2 of the shows I looked after closed - Comedy Warehouse and Adventurers Club. Luckily I still had Turtle Talk, Monsters Laugh Floor and World Showcase Players. And last week, I was informed that Monsters and Turtle Talk have been reassigned to one of the full time Show Directors at Maingate. I don't officially know at this time who has them, (althought I think it is Jason Surrell), I just know it isn't me. So the hammer has come down on my wee little head. I do still have responsibility for World Showcase Players so fortunately I get to keep my parking pass and still have a reason to stroll through Maingate from time to time. But my goodness - 8 months ago I was looking after 5 shows, and today, I have one. This represents a 90% decrease in my Disney responsibilities.

So like many others, I eagerly await the next chapter in my life. I bet you'll be seeing a bit more of me down at the ol' SAK Comedy Lab, that's for sure. I'll be teaching more classes I think, especially Quantum Improv which is steadily growing. Two semesters under the belt and looking forward to more of that.

As sad as it is to lose the Disney shows, I'm still amazed that I had so many in-park shows to look after in the first place. It is very unusual for a contract (outside) show director to look after even one ongoing show. For awhile there I had 5. I'm pleased to say I have really enjoyed every one of them very much. It was very sad to see the Island shows come to an end. Obviously the Comedy Warehouse is especially near and dear to my heart. I really loved the Adventurers Club too. Somehow the closing of those was dignified and I felt we really celebrated the legacy and history of what those shows were.

My wife pointed out what a special and wonderful surprise that was - to have a chance to close the shows with a little celebration and fanfare. Usually, (as it was with the current layoffs), Disney likes minimal (if any) fanfare and quick closure. You don't even get 2 weeks if laid off. You're immediately escorted off property. What a great and wonderful opportunity we had (because someone leaked the plans to the press), to close the Warehouse and Ad Club as we did. Morgan said I was able to bring a nice balance of celebrating the legacy and maintaining the dignity of all those who lost their jobs.

For some reason - there is a deeper sadness to having Turtle and Monsters reassigned. I understand it is a better fit to have them looked after by the full time Show Director staff, but I have marshalled those shows from their infancy, after being birthed by WDI. It is with a great deal of sadness that I say good bye to those wonderful shows and especially the wonderful actors who made/make those shows what they are.

Good Bye my lovelies. I wish you all the very best.

Mad Disney Week Over

It has been a very busy couple of weeks with work on the Walt Disney World Resort Showcase. Several events culminated last week, each as part of the Resort Showcase. Since there has been little time to consider what to write - I have pulled something from the archives. Enjoy the following movie short. It was created 5 years or so ago when the Houseful of Honkeys performed a show called Hooray For Honkeywood!

Each week we had a show built around the game the Honkeys developed called "My Movie, My Movie, My Movie..." In our version, each week found one Honkey at the end of the show, riffing improvised movie titles one after the other until the current week's Producer proclaims - "Make That Movie!" That Honkey then had one week to create, write, produce, shoot, edit and premiere a movie using that improvised phrase, word or sentence as their title. The movie would premiere for our Honkeywood audience the following week. I think I got the call the second week. That title was "I Got A New Shirt." I eventually followed with several other titles, "Seething Biscuit," "Help! I'm Yearning For A Pale," and "Cinderheart."

I'm proud of them all for various reasons, but one of the wackiest ones was "Seething Biscuit." I made this little movie about 3 months before we heard of a movie being made for the big screen - "Sea Biscuit." It's mind boggling and a little scary how this improvised title could parallel what would eventually come to the theaters.

Mac Ingenuity at its Finest

I gotta admit I'm a Mac fan. As a proud owner of a MacBook Pro and an iPhone, both which I love, this video hits my funny bone rather well. In fact, I must say I have been enjoying very much comedy videos from the Onion. I am impressed with the level of production they are able to obtain. They score extremely high on news parody - they did so in print and now in picture.



Very funny.

The Christmas Lights are Still Up

This post is made after our neighbor comments to my wife Morgan - "Hey, what's up with the Christmas Lights?"

Disney Dollars Hard at Work

At this time of year I usually work on the Disney Media Resort Showcase and that is in full swing again this year. It takes place in Feburary but this year things are starting early. My work on them is generally to create characters the radio broadcast media can interview - they usually carry the current marketing / branding / PR messages from the Resort perspective in an entertaining way.

This year is all about affordability and value of the Resort Benefits, plus a new vacation package plan. So Penny Pinter (she's nicknamed Penny Pincher) and Val Eugenio (she's a Value Genie-us) help deliver that message. They're neighbors and friends and have started a club for Mom's across the country - Bargain Reconnaissance And Savings Hunters - they're BRASH Mom's. You see how I did that - clever clever - that's how I make those Disney dollars - with a ton of those wacky word play characters.

Today, as well as being Inauguration Day we had a high level review with the Walt Disney Entertainment executives. All went well, and luckily the work continues. I have done this project for the past 4 or 5 years, but somehow it seems to be much busier this year, taking up much more of my time. I remember in the first years the job was creating the characters and prepping them for the interviews.

Last year they added an element called the "Dream's Player" where each broadcast media partner has a Disney site customized for them that their listening audience can check in with to follow their journeys. We schedule the radio personalities for various segments that can be played and viewed later from their respective site. The characters I develop will have an interaction with each radio personality that is loosely scripted. All that development and scripting is added into the mix.

Every night there is some or other themed dinner or dining experience we send them to. One of those for this year seems to have blossomed into a large scale dinner event. The theme is What Will You Celebrate? - one of the current promotional themes at Walt Disney World this year. I am floored with the amount of production and money that flows through Disney events such as this. As a Show Director at Disney I get to live an alter ego life compared to my SAK life. As is often the case, however, the SAK experience is closer to my heart, and ultimately more fulfilling. So this week I hurt my head concentrating on how we can find a thousand dollars for 2 LED light instruments for our SAK show, and I unveiled a vision for the What Will You Celebrate dinner event with a team of 5 designers from different departments all eager to bring that vision to life - for only $60,000!

A collision of 2 completely different worlds.

Resolution Held

Okay I'm two weeks into my resolution and luckily we're still holding. Seems there's so much busy work - the weeks go by so quickly. It's been almost 4 months since the Pleasure Island clubs closed, which made up about half of my Disney work, but there is no shortage of work to be done. 4th Quarter of 2008 had me very busy with SAK stuff. Keith moved to Nashville and we're looking for an in-house Sales person. In between all the interviewing and getting set for that transition I've been the Sales person, Production Coordinator and Production Manager. Lots of layers of business.

This weekend is Robyn Pedretti's (one of our SAK ensemble) wedding. That's the good news. The bad news is she's invited the whole SAK ensemble to the wedding. The good news is I've scheduled a Comedy Warehouse Reunion Show that Saturday. The bad news is I might have to hang back and be at SAK to be a conduit of familiarity for the Comedy Warehouse peeps. We'll see. I'd sure like to be at the wedding if that is possible. I'm also trying my best to plan around what promises to be a very hectic traffic night down at SAK. These are the times that try our patience and test the fortitude of our audience. We've got Riverdance at the Bob Carr (which I'd really like to see sometime) and Ringling Bros. Circus at the Amway Arena. Now those Ringling cats is some hard working folks. They've got 3 shows scheduled on Saturday - 11:30am, 3:30pm and 7:30pm. Wow. I guess for the acts it's an okay schedule - just do your act 3 times in a day but my goodness, circus folk work it. The epitome of cross-utilization. If they're not swinging from the trapeze 40 feet in the air, they're holding the flaming hoop for the zebra to jump through. (Incidentally the zebra's not a zebra, it's a white-haired horse who's just gotten charred from the flaming hoop over time. I think they switch them out every couple of performances.)

Finally - a Christmas lights update. This year I was fortunate enough to have the time to put up extensive Christmas lights on our house - thanks to PI closing. they look great - best on the block - and I love Christmas lights. They are still up and I'm not sure when they will be coming down. If it was up to me I'd have them up all year long. The only downside is the electric bill. But it seems like we just got them all up and now it's time to take them down? I'll keep an update as to the date they actually come down. It will be a sad day for me.

Resolved for 2009

Forgive me Father for I have sinned. It has been 4 months since my last blog entry. Holy Samoli! What's the use of having a blog if you never write on it? Well, this is a new year, old habits are off, new ones to begin. I am resolved in 2009 to blog more regularly. In fact, my resolution is to write on my blog at least weekly. What has kept me generally from blogging more often is that I think too much about what this or that entry will be and then go about trying to make cute graphics to go with it so it doesn't look like just a bunch of words. To make this resolution come to pass I may need to sacrifice some of that. I believe I am prepared to do so, although even the thought of just writing words makes my stomach churn a little bit. Surely this will be a good growth experience for me. I did however, in preparing this post, make a little slide show of our end of year/holiday times. What a great time of year. I just love Christmas and the holidays. This was our first holiday season in our new house and we just love it. We bought this house at the end of last year - closed on the 17th of December and moved in Christmas Eve night, so we did have our Christmas here last year. But this year we were all settled in for the whole Christmas season. I had some extra time on my hands this year what with the closing of Pleasure Island at the end of September, so I got to do one of the things I've always wanted to do but never really had the time - put up Christmas lights. I like that very much.

So this is the beginning of a more regular output schedule as far as my blog goes. You can expect posts at least weekly. Keep in mind, however, without much forethought sometimes the posts might get a little boring, be very brief and have no pictures or graphics. Who knows, that might be better in the long run anyway.

Summer's Out for School

Summer over already??? And now it's time for School??? My goodness time flies when you're having kids. This summer blew by like a real hurricane, not that imposter Fay. (Well, for us in Orlando anyway). All it meant for us was an unplanned extension of summer vacation with no child care and no opportunity to swim in the pool. At least it's Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday mom.

We were supposed to drive down to Miami today (just Morgan and I), celebrate her birthday and do a SAK seminar on Wednesday for Brown University. A free date night on Mom's birthday with an overnight hotel stay in Miami on someone else's dime? AND a per diem covered meal? Are you kidding? Awesome way to spend her birthday. But alas, Fay had different plans. The gig postponed, the county closed the schools. We are relegated to Jade for dinner. Don't get me wrong, we love Jade - Asian/Fusion delicious. Our neighborhood favorite. But we were planning for something a little more - um, not with the kids.

So the children had one day of school and then a hurricane day now to be made up in October. And only gentle winds and light rain so far for us in Orlando. The kiddos looked great for their first day. Marina proclaimed - "I'm excited, Walker's nervous." Indeed she was. What a delight to see her in such a mood. Indeed Walker was. Not sure why, maybe just first day back jitters. He did fine once on school grounds.

Marina is not with her best friend Abbey for the first time in their elementary and preschool history. They both seem to be adjusting okay. Well, here's to another year of school fun.

Have fun kiddos. Mommy and Daddy love you.

From the Archives

Saw this video on my old hard drive. This was from almost a year ago, doing a show with Wayne Brady at the Venetian in Las Vegas. It was actually a very fun audience environment scene. When you're in Vegas, you get audience volunteers like this lady who's wearing close to nothing. At SAK, not so much. And, I also get to make a wonderful racist reference to an old Chinese Woman who works in a laundromat. Hope you enjoy this blast from the past.

We're now in official summer vacation mode with the kids out of school for the next (90?) days. We look forward to many fun hours in the pool. I guess I never mentioned on this blog - We got that house we were looking at late last year. We closed on the 17th of December and that night we all camped out on the wood floors and made S'mores in the backyard fire pit. We then moved in on Christmas Eve and had Christmas morning in the new house. Yippee. We still have our other house which we didn't sell.

We've done some fixing and now we're renting it out. House to our good friends Tim and Alice Bass and the apartment to wonderful Denna, our SAK House Manager. We did a good deal of work on the house and apartment in the first part of the year, stepping into the uncharted territory (for us) of home remodeling and general contracting. I guess I would say it all went pretty smooth considering what it might have been, especially knowing as little as I do about renovating. New roofs, new AC/Heat, electric and plumbing updates, new cabinets and some additional remodeling in the apartment as well as redoing the floors. 3 months of time and $45,000 later - whew!! Now we've got to sell it in the next 3 years so we can avoid Capital Gains taxes on the transaction.

Wild Abandon Walker

What's this? Six months since the last post. It better mean a lot has been going on!

Well not really. We moved to a new house on Christmas Day. Since then we've been slowly getting settled in there, and it might take a little longer. Less than 10 days until summer vacation for the kids. Woo Hoo!!

On to today's post. My son Walker recently performed in his school's Variety Show. He fancies himself a dancer - a break dancer not less. This is the video of his performance. Click the play button when you're ready, it's not a photo. What amazes me most about his performance is his utter and complete abandon. He has absolutely no fear. He practiced his moves in our currently unfurnished living room on the wood floor. We convinced him to only try those moves with some sort of padding, so he had us lay out a small carpet. (We actually brought the same carpet to the school for his performance.)

In improv (especially at SAK) we really encourage our performers to play with wild abandon. Obviously we have to consider our own safety. My son hasn't quite got to that point yet. I guess it's going to take a boo boo or two to learn his own limits, but right now he sees stuff on TV, etc. and he just goes for it.

As much as I want our SAK performers to be free enough to flail about we have to be so everlovin' cautious. Of course I don't want our performers to get hurt but when you flail about sometimes there's a bruise, sometimes there might be a little blood. I am so nervous about every little mishap because of Worker's Compensation Insurance. Even the slightest ding, trip or scrape could result in hundreds of dollars in increased Worker's Compensation Insurance costs - not to mention an actual injury. We have to ride a very fine line between "Go for it! Pedal to the Metal! No holds barred!" and "Oh be careful, you might hurt yourself, don't jump on that. Watch out! Eek. Don't do that!" In many instances I have to just put my hand over my eyes and pray.

I've got at least one guy at SAK - Benji Hurlburt - who exhibits much of the same abandon as Walker. (What a great name for a guy who throws himself about - Hurlburt). I love to watch him throw caution to the wind on our stage - the audience loves it too. But I have to say I cringe sometimes and feel that tightening in my intestines when he does. Will he break something or hurt himself? (Benji Hurlhurt) Will he hurt someone else? Will he break our set or our microphone? I'd love to have the freedom and resources not to have to worry about it. The other night on David Letterman, David dropped his Jamba Juice Smoothie. A few minutes later Kevin Spacey came out for an interview and purposely emptied his Jamba Juice all over the set. Was that good or bad? Surely they can clean it up - even put in new carpeting on the set if they have to. Was it worth it for the emotion of surprise we felt or the "Oh my Gosh! Can you believe he just did that?!?!"

Back to my beloved little Walker. I love the concentration he shows on his face. As soon as it's done, you can see the concentration break as he begins to wave. All he needs now is to end up in his underwear or with his shirt off and he'll be just like his old man on the SAK stage.

I believe most of us would do well to take back to at least a portion of that abandon we've lost or given up tucked away due to fear. Throw caution to the wind. Look silly! Do something a little dangerous! Don't worry about what others might think of you. Yesterday on Oprah a therapist took OCD sufferers to a healing boot camp. Part of their journey was to go into a downtown Philadelphia back alley, put their hands inside an old smelly dumpster, run their fingers through their and even lick their fingers. When was the last time you did something insane, wacky, wild, unexpected? Holy Cow - when was the last time I did!!!???

Great job Walker Russell! You're awesome!

SAKtoberfest was a complete and utter... SAKcess!!

Enjoy a sampling of the music from SAKtoberfest, our 30th Anniversary celebration which took place on October 6th, 2007 across the street from SAK. It was a great day.

What a great time. What great shows! From the SAKtoberfest outdoor festival to the week's worth of shows culminating in some 3 awesome history making shows at the Lab on Saturday night.

Lots of great visits with faces we hadn't seen for many years. The SAKoberfest celebration on Saturday October was one of the most amazing parts of the whole 30th event. You can see some photos of the event. More will be posted and updated in the next couple of weeks. As we approached the date for SAKtoberfest, we were watching the weather reports rather closely. A week out, there was potential hurricane activity to the east of the Lesser Antilles islands. As the days crept closer we saw thankfully that there was enough wind sheer to tear that potential storm up and send the remains well to the south of us. But looming behind it – or beside it was a lot of warm humid air. Rains came late Thursday night and into Friday – and through Friday. The forecast was for more of the same through Saturday and even into Sunday. We made the choice to wait until Saturday morning to see what the weather would do before calling the festival off (which we would have done if it had rained through the morning like it was supposed to. But there was a little break in the clouds right over downtown Orlando so we went ahead with the set up. And then – it didn't rain. It never rained. Not throughout the whole day. There was rain in the area, quite a bit of it actually, but nothing where we were. There was sunshine (as you can see from the photos) and enough cloud cover to keep it from getting beastly hot. I've posted here a video of my time in the dunking booth. The thrower is my son Walker, and as you'll see, he drops his dad on the third throw. (He had some help, but if you watch closely you'll see he had pegged the target anyway and would have soaked his pop even without the helping hand of Herbie)

More on SAKtoberfest later. The SAK staff – Gina DiRoma , Keith Dickerson, John Hunter, and Dana Robbins all did an amazing job to make SAK 30th happen. I'm sure no one attending the weekend had any idea what all they were able to accomplish, but great and powerful and numerous kudos go to all of them. There were also many wonderful additional volunteers but an extra dose of gratitude goes to Jaimz Dillman for an impressive contribution of help as well.

So that kept us all very busy. Since then we've slowed a little, but now, much to our surprise – the Russell's are looking to buy a house! Oh my goodness! We had not been specifically looking but something opened in the market that got our attention, curiosity, and hearts. Although we don't have a deal yet with the sellers, we're hoping the negotiations will be successful. I'm sure I'll have more on that front as it develops.

As Promised

As promised, here's a sampling of my recent show with Wayne at the Venetian in Vegas. This scene is a word at a time story. Click the 'play' button on the control bar to view.

IN OTHER SAK NEWS - I had what has now come to be a rare appearance at SAK on Saturday night (August 11th). Gotta say how delighted I always am when I see the audiences coming out of our shows. I had a great time performing and both the 8 and 10 shows were fun and funny. The 8pm show was completely sold out which warms my heart - for the theater, for the performers, and for the bottom line. Shows and nights like that give me a breath of relief thinking about the next payroll, knowing we'll be able to pay everybody for their hard work and keep the bills current as well. I had family at the 8pm - Morgan's mom Joyce and her husband Bill, a relative from out of town I can't even title - cousin? Grand nephew once removed on mother's side? I don't know, his name was Tim. As well as Morgan's step brother Scott and his friend Holly. They just happened to be there on the same night. They looked at the SAK web site when trying to find something to do Saturday night and saw that I was playing (sak.com - What's On Tonight? - Tonight's Cast). So it was a great night with lots of friendly faces in attendance.

After the shows it made me realize how much fun I have on the SAK stage. I really ought to be there performing more regularly. The other ensemble members I think really come alive when I'm there. Some of it I'm sure is "the boss is here, better shape up" but I like to think some of it is my energy when I'm there is infectious and livens up the place. Everybody was so funny and I had such a good time performing with them and even just sitting on the side of the stage and watching them perform. But the best part is watching and listening to the audience as they're leaving the theater. Everyone seems so filled with joy - exactly what we're after. And seeing the many differences in age, race, etc. is so wonderful. It truly is something that is equally enjoyed by young and old, black, white, asian, hispanic (leave anybody out?), oh yeah, Lithuanian. I love hearing the comments about how refreshing it is to watch a comedy show that isn't filled with profanity, harsh language, and content that makes you feel a little yucky inside. I love to be part of an experience that parents can do with their kids and neither feels awkward with the other there.

A highlight of Saturday's show was the "Slice of Life" - a part of our show dedicated to one individual with the entire cast performing a musical or shakespeare style scene about their life. This moment in our show has become so popular we now charge for it and it's still sold almost every show. Well last night we were performing a Slice for Adrian Matlin, celebrating her 24th birthday. Her boyfriend Kahlil has set it all up and called us earlier in the day and asked if it would be possible for him to propose to Adrian during our show as well. This too has become an increasingly popular event at SAK so of course we were happy to oblige. We performed the scene and at the end found silly excuses to bring Adrian on the stage replacing the improviser playing her, and then did the same for the improviser playing Kahlil. We then just sort of drifted away to the sidelines leaving the two alone on the stage and Kahlil took over, got on his knee, showed the ring and proposed. Thank God Adrian said "Yes." We do have it on tape and I'll probably get a piece of it posted sometime soon.

Enough for now. Look for more video from my Vegas show with Wayne Brady in the near future.

LIVE! in Italy - I Mean Vegas...

Got to do another show with Wayne - this time at the Venetian. Looks like Italy, but it's Vegas. Complete with gondola rides, singing gondoliers, and a 25,000 sq. ft. casino. Just like in Venice. Wayne's got a 3 to 6 month engagement there. 5 shows a week, Thursday through Sunday. Jonathan had other business and I was available. As usual I love doing the Wayne shows. It's a little more energy to fly in day of, do the show that night, and fly out the next morning, but it's always good to pick up these opportunities when I can. The shows are fun and it's great to see Wayne, as well as Cat and Trent (his permanent band members). The room is actually really good for improv. Wayne does some straight song and dance in this show, as well as a bunch of improv.

When I go to Vegas I always cruise the casino floor, but never seem to have the energy to lay some money down. Really can't afford to lose anything, so I just watch.

One good thing of note - this time I was able to get some video of the show, so in subsequent posts look for some video trinkets featuring me - (and Wayne) of course - in the show. For now, all I have is this little slide show of some pics from the show.

Enjoy, and look for those videos - right here - very soon...

Time Ain't on My Side

Another long pause between posts. This one was filled partially with an excellent summer vacation. Having learned some valuable lessons from last year's summer vacation, this year would be even smoother. I discovered - wait, I didn't discover at all - I only confirmed - wait, I've been confirming this in many ways for many years, so I guess this is the first admission. I'm incredibly anal retentive. I'm not compulsive (I don't think). But boy, I'm a stickler for certain things.

Here's the thing. I want everything to be like it is in movies. In movies, everything is always perfectly set up. In fact, directors and DP's go to great lengths to make the shot look just right. So when we go to the beach, I want it to be just right.

In order to enjoy a week at the beach, one needs convenient and efficient protection from the sun. Last year it was beach umbrellas, and to make sure they don't blow over when the wind kicks up, you bring in the umbrella pole auger anchors. You twist them and they drill/burrow into the sand and will hold your umbrellas. But I remember when the clouds came in and the winds kicked up - it was still hard to maintain them an entire day. Along with that there was the cabana. A little tricky to set up, what with the wind you get at the beach and all those "convenient collapseable rods, but it offered us a little space to store beach accoutrements throughout the day. Another drawback, this beach camp took about an hour to set up, and about the same to take down. Granted, we kept it up all day while we went back and forth from pool to beach, but I would usually get a good start on a burn just with the set up. A good workout though, with all the sweat lost.

So this year it was going to be different. Went to Wal-Mart, picked up one of those portable canopies - certain I could set it up and take it down by myself, a nice big-wheeled cooler and some more canvas chairs. Not as easy to set up by ones self as I had imagined, but I worked it out. (The canvas top acts like a giant sail with the wind coming in off the water especially at the end of the day.) And when all was said and done, it was easier to set up than last year. Set up time on New and Improved Beach Camp - 35 minutes. And easier to camp out in. This sucker wasn't going to blow away. We wouldn't have to chase down umbrellas.

For further protection from the sun this year and to avoid body boarding sand burns, we all got rashguard swim shirts - a GREAT investment if you're planning a week at the beach and you want to keep the impact of the sun down.

This year's beach camp was more convenient, relaxing and efficient. I was pleased and all the extra anal retentive work and planning paid off. I want things as picture perfect as possible, even if it takes a little (or a lot?) of extra work on my part.

This makes for wonderful and impressive outcomes generally, but it grabs so much of my time scheming, planning, executing, then inevitably troubleshooting when it doesn't go as I'd planned and now being too stubborn to give up, I end up spending way too much extra time solving the puzzle. And I almost always seem to solve the puzzle. I did this one.

Beach camp was cool this year. We had a great week. I wish we could have stayed longer. I think I'd be very content just to be with Morgan, Marina and Walker all day long. I like doing stuff with them - like living at the beach. Even being at home (our second week) and finding fun stuff to do is quite enjoyable.

I think I would make a good professional vacationer.




Don't be shy - crank up the volume for some beachin' tunes.