That’s right – I finally got WYLT imported into this crazy/awesome new home; you no longer need to go to the old blog to read the old posts.  Gracias to Mike Cermak for helping me get WYLT imported; props to WordPress for making it (almost) idiot-proof.

Feel free to read back issues; if you’re behind on your subscription payments, it’s time to pay the piper, fork it over, cough it up.

Gimme it.

ACT III?  Nah, I don’t think so.  Why?  Because all the cool kids from ACT II are waiting until the fall, and we have SUCH an awesome crew – really, a solid bunch of friends – that I’d hate to miss it.  So I’m making the social decision to delay that one.

But dhat dhon’t mean I’m dhoing nahtingk.

Shelley Mitchell?  Maybe.  Voice / Singing classes?  Maybe.  Audition / Monologue classes?  Maybe.  Joining / starting an improv group?  Maybe, but least likely – most of my regular improv friends are either already betrothed to other crews, or they moved to LA.  So obviously, I’m not really sure yet what I’ll be doing from an education/craftwork perspective.  And there’s always the option to just take a break – but it sounds like the day job is about to pick up a solid pace for the next 2-3 months, and I need my creative outlet more than ever when the job picks up.

But, as many of you know (including my Mom), I’ve been toying around with stand-up material for… well, an embarrassingly long period of time.  But this summer, I am definitely – YES, DEFINITELY – going to put together a set for an open mic night and just get up & do it already.  In fact, I just got home from the library (one of my favorite places, in spite of the occasional waft of urine smell coming out of the bathroom) where I put together a set list & started to whittle down one of the beefier bits I’ve written to-date.  That’s an important step-until today, I didn’t really know how to go back into old material & figure out what works & what doesn’t.  Partly because I didn’t want to admit the first draft wasn’t perfect, but mostly because I had no idea how to edit my own work.  (Amazingly, I still graduated high school & college.)

But I think I found a way to do it, and am hopeful it’ll be as effective as it is simple.  Now the trick is to keep doing it, keep writing, keep rehearsing, keep exploring.  And in a few months (maybe even for my friend Joan’s b-day soiree), I should have a set.  Which, from a ‘personal accomplishment’ perspective, is going to be HUGE.

In the process, I may put you & your wisdom/humor/polite criticism to work & post some recordings here.  That would do a bunch of things at once:  add content to this awesome site; update you on the progress; force me to make progress; and give me another avenue for polite criticism/feedback on the material before I actually do the equivalent of shining a spotlight directly on my insecurities/psyche/penis in front of a crowd of complete strangers.  I think that might be a really good idea… comment if you’d be interested in listening.  I’ve already been pretty open with some new stuff via Twitter, but doing a 10-minute stand-up set that was written 140 characters at a time, while potentially awesome, is almost certainly NOT going to feel like a cohesive piece of anything.  (I do think there’s an opportunity for someone to write a LOT of hilarious stuff based on their tweets & their followers’ tweets… Conan’s writers made some pretty awesome Twitter comedy (around 20:00 in this clip) earlier this week.  Let me know if you see other funny Twitter stuff!)

That’s all for now, kids.

Dear friends – there’s new news over at my new website. See you there!

I have an audition tomorrow night.  Have had it on the books for a MONTH, and I’m only half-way prepared.  Why?  Well, it’s a musical.  Okay, it’s The Wizard of Oz, in Berkeley.  Of all the other kinds of athlete I’m not, I think the one I’m LEAST like is a vocal athlete.  I enjoy singing & karaoke, but it’s never something I do in front of strangers.  So I’m DREADING it; I may have effectively sabotaged it already by not securing sheet music (or even listening to the song again) for the pianist yet.  Alright, so it’s a song I’ve always loved, and could sing it in my sleep if I had to – but the idea of going into a room with new people, handing music to an accompanist, and standing on a stage, waiting for my cue… even my fingernails are sweating.

For what it’s worth, though, I’ve resolved NOT to chicken out.  Even if I completely screw that part up, they told me there are plenty of roles without solo requirements.  Plus, it’s frikkin’ audition experience, right?  This is #3 overall, and #2 for actual staged productions.  (First one was for a web commercial that had no lines.)

So I’m off to Dolores Park to practice for our final scenes on Tuesday.  I’m Baron Toozenbach in Chekhov’s ‘Three Sisters’, and we’re doing the scene from Act 4 where I say goodbye to Irina & head off to my duel with Solyony. 

Definitely NOT a role I would have chosen to play on my strengths, which is good – I asked for something that would stretch me.  However, this scene is all of … 12 lines total for the Baron, and less than that for Irina.  And if rushed, if done the way Olivier directed it in 1970’s film version, it’s over in less than 60 seconds.

There’s all of this complexity & subtext that we’re supposed to bring into it, which I’m game for… but the scene, the whole damn play, is a drag.  Granted, I’m new to ‘classical’ drama, so I don’t know a shrew from a seagull, but this play starts in a bad place and only seems to go to darker, worse places.  Upon further study I’m sure I could find a valuable meaning – I assume it has one given its incredibly long period of survival & revival – that would help push me into new directions with what I think of as Theater.  But right now I can’t explain why anyone would put on this production because I don’t know why anyone would pay to see it.  Such are the lessons I need to learn… best way to learn is to hang out with other actors & artists who love to do this stuff.

Off to accomplish that bit.  Will update you on the audition later this week; clap hands!  (I’ve decided to say ‘clap hands’ in places where you’d expect to see ‘cross your fingers’.  Look for that to come up in future pop culture references; after all, I started the whole ‘Balls!’ craze about two years ago.  I tried ‘Sack!’ first, but found its sibilance controversial/discriminatory to people with lisps, much like the word LISPS.)

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I know, I know… Where the hell have I been? Busy. Okay? Just busy. Work is blowin' up, social diario = robust, and running/gym stuff is back with a brand new edition, just like Vanilla Ice.

The updates are many, but I'm at SFO waiting for our Virgin America flight to Seattle… So I should just stop typing on the BB and pop open the old lappy top. Hang on.

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