Had folks over for the fourth round of Russian Hill Living Room Improv last night. 'Twas only 3 of us, and while total scene quantity was low, quality went gangbusters. Seriously. It was awesome. And then I slept like a frikkin' teething baby drunk on rum. Between those two factors and looking fwd to working from home for half the day tomorrow, how bad could today possibly be?

Also, tonight is more screenplay stuff with Shorty. I'm always apprehensive about diving into that for some reason, but it always goes well and we have a ton o' fun doing it. Don't know what that's all about.

Oh! And this weekend is the first podcast recording! I'll be sure to post here when it's done, but I feel confident I can promise you awesomeness.

Happy Thursday everybody.

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After an almost two-week respite, I got my ass out of bed before 6am and went for a run this morning. Did the hill at Taylor & Broadway, the Broadway side because it's got stairs. Think I did 4 or 5 repeats on the stairs, and one or two recovery loops up & down the Taylor side. Best time getting up those stairs: 43 seconds. Now this was admittedly not a huge distance, nor was it an extremely long workout, but considering that my recent caloric intake has greatly exceeded output, it still made me feel much healthier & less pudgy. Plus I'm on my way to the opera at the ballpark, where I'm bound to need an extra inch in the cumberbund, so I've alleviated some future guilt. Logical, right?
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My wife is awesome. Less than a week after she was running around like a nut, trying to get everything done during her Busy (with a capital B) time at her new job that she loves, she has totally come to my rescue.

As I twittered yesterday, my fingers are in lots of pies… Even though most of them are fun pies for me to have fingers in, they still require effort, attention, balance. If I go too deep into one pie, a finger pops out of another, and both the pie and my sense of fulfillment are deflated, pierced, wrecked. And they start to rot. My wife has graciously swooped in and offered her assistance. She's there to help me keep each finger in each pie at just the right depth. And I love that about her.

Tis true that, behind every man who aspires to be great, there is a woman who has already figured out how to be both great AND patient while that man figures the whole thing out.

Thank you, dear.
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Last night R and I and her brother Adam went to Cobb's for some $7 stand up comedy. Arj Barker and Doug Benson were there, and this teacher from Oakland named Chris Tinkle (not making that up) was the emcee. I definitely laughed my ass off for a straight 2 hours, so as far as getting our $'s worth, mission accomplished. But the bigger news is that I can finally confirm for myself that what I read in Franklin Ajaye's book is true: a) comedians have a near-impossible career if they tell themselves that every bit of material has to be 100% original, because almost every joke has already been told somewhere, and at least one member of your audience was there when it was; and b) your subject matter is only maybe 40% of your schtick – more important is the voice/character you use to talk about it. Put simply, in comedy, the message is less important than the delivery.

This isn't exactly a higher being standing on a stage somewhere with a mic plugged directly into my brain & sharing some huge secret… But it does mean that I can stop stressing about originality or about inadvertently bogarting someone else's material. I can focus on figuring out which inner demon can have complete control of my brain and my body for 10-15 minutes of harvesting laughter. That, dear reader, is a comfort.

Sent from the tippy tips of my thumb nails.

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Last night we had some party people over, drank lots of beer & ate a ton o' pizza. Finally got to meet R's work friend Nick and his wife Carrie (sp?). Awesome people. Nick listened to me spout off about improv & comedy stuff for like twenty minutes while our wives bonded. (Given the way they giggled, they either shared wedding stories or compared notes on sexual habits as married women. No sign as to whether or not those compared notes were rave reviews or "constructive feedback.")

And Carrie is the life of any party; girl sure knows how to have fun, esp. when fun includes making people do shots in my kitchen. So in order to balance out the favor they did us – preventing us from having a semi-boring Friday night, here's a shameless plug for Nick's website: http://www.cliquepick.com.

Its kinda like a Yelp but for all types of stuff. I wrote a review for a movie (The Hulk I think?) and then got waylayed into other projects, but there's value in collecting crowdsourced reviews and making them searchable. They've got a healthy amt. of content at this point, so check 'em out and make sure you sign up & write at least one review. Do it.

Why are you still reading me? Write a review, will ya?!?

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Testing my ability to blog… FROM MY NEW BLACKBERRY!!!
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Hi Larry!
-Us

Old counter pooped out on me, and the last number I know I saw there was 561, so have started again. Let me know if I’m off.

More later, maybe.

You’re only this productive because you’re NOT WORKING. You may have made others feel less than adequate vis-a-vis your last post, and you have not explained as of yet that you are currently UNEMPLOYED (really you’re in between jobs with a nice two-week break, but UNEMPLOYED sounds so much tastier).

Your words have power. Context equals cushion, in some cases. Provide the friggin’ context before you go spouting off on your own accomplishments.