Archive for June, 2008
Photos!
Monday, June 30th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 8 Comments
Monday Happy!
Me no write today good. Am Tired Am I from TCIF party too much. Photo here links. Yay! More as I get them done.
Night #1
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Night #2
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yay!
TCIF Day #1 Recap!
Friday, June 27th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Happy Friday! This blog may continue through the weekend. Wowza! Blogs on the weekend.
1. Last night was ridiculously good. All of the shows rocked, in particular SCRAM, which once again reminded me how fun it is to watch improvisers who are at the top of their game. Maybe that was what was so great about last night, despite the different experience levels on stage, the enthusiasm and energy skated right through every set. It was delightful. The atmosphere was fun, everybody was cool and Katie Hartmann delighted me with her crazy antics. Tried my hand at taking photos last night. After coming to terms with the fact that the majority of the audiences last night resented me and saw me as “the asshole with the camera”, I loosened up and took some pretty nice shots. I hope to have some of them up either later on tonight or tomorrow morning. Woot!
2. Seriously guys, the FMCS/JOSH and TAMRA show is going to come very close to selling out. For that matter, so is the BNW/BASSPROV shows. If you want to see them, you’d better order tickets now!
TCIF Starts Tonight! Saturday Shows Are Selling Like Hot Cakes!
Thursday, June 26th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Happy Thursday!
1. TCIF starts tonight! Woo hoo! Here’s tonight’s lineup. It is, of course, stellar. Come tonight and get caught up in the non scripted buzz!
7:00 - Larynx / T-Rex Force
8:30 - Stevie Ray’s / SCRAM (Chicago)
10:00 - Vaudeville With a Pig / 123 IMPROV!!
As for Saturday night, just a reminder that the Ferrari/Josh and Tamra(7pm) and BNW/Bassprov (830) shows are selling really, really well. These two shows are going to be way rad. Like running on a rainbow made of ice cream and your shoes are spoons. What? I don’t know. I do know that Bassprov is awesome and while I’ve never seen them, Josh and Tamra are spoken of in hushed, nearly reverential tones by people with their ears to the ground of the improv streets. As for Ferrari, we promise to be weird and zany and the BNW vows to smack your ass with laughter! That’s one hell of a night if I do say so myself.
That is all.
Mike
TCIF Is One Day Away!
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 | Plugs | 5 Comments
Happy Wednesday!
1. TCIF is one day away! Holy crap! If I were you, I’d buy tickets to the Ferrari/Josh and Tamra Show and the BNW/Bassprov shows a quickly as possible. They are probably going to sell out. Seriously you guys, this whole line up looks pretty ridiculous, with the word “ridiculous” serving as a positive adjective. Which is what the kids do. They make positive words negative and sniff model airplane glue. I said awesome when I found something to be, in fact, awesome. However, I did sniff glue. That was stupid.
2. My Mom has yet to comment further on my blog. This makes me really sad, I was really hoping to communicate with her daily via interweb journaling. Oh well. Maybe she’ll use her maternal ESP to detect my sniffing admission and put her powers to irritate into full effect.
3. I should point out that I am a huge fan of my Mom.
Mike
My Mom Figured Out The Internet!
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 4 Comments
Happy Tuesday!
1. This is a comment that my Mother left for me on my blog. Apparently, after nearly three years of trying, she’s finally figured out how to post it. If this doesn’t partially explain to you why I am the way I am, nothing will.
“Still trying to figure out how to comment How come I had to go back to March!! Oh and nice to see you didn’t say one word in June about being in the bosom of your family except to reference Chicago and the Cubs! Just crabbing…call me!”
Brilliant. Nearly indecipherable, as if she were typing out every thought she had the second she had it. She’s obviously pissed at me and is using my blog as her new tool of irritation. Well played, Mother. Well played.
2. Tyra Banks won a daytime Emmy. I’ll repeat. Tyra Banks won a daytime fucking motherfucking* Emmy. Maybe it was honorary. You know, for being the only retarded person to ever host a talk show on TV. That has to be it. Actually, I should find this news heartening. If that retarded can of stupid juice can win an Emmy, let alone host her own show, then I should still have a reasonable shot at getting on The View.
Mike
*My Mother would not approve of the swears.
Big Week!
Monday, June 23rd, 2008 | Uncategorized | 2 Comments
Happy Monday!
1. On Thursday the 2nd annual Twin Cities Improv Festival will begin. The entire line up looks fantastic and the fest is a great way to see some really spectacular local acts that you might not normally get a chance to see. On Saturday, I perform twice. The first show starts at 7pm as Ferrari McSpeedy teams up with the improvised puppet lunacy of Josh and Tamra. At 830, The Brave New Workshop will be sharing a bill with the hilarity known as BASSPROV. Both shows are going to be really great and will sell pretty quickly, so do yourself a favor and book tickets.
2. Just read that George Carlin died. Bummer. He was great.
3. So, I am moving away from writing first drafts of sketches and am almost entirely immersed in re-writes. Sometimes re-writes are great and happen with great ease. You have new ideas, people have added wonderful insight, blah blah blah. What I’m getting at is that some re-writes write themselves. They don’t need you. In fact, if the scripts had fingers and could re-type themselves, you’d be rendered completely useless. Other re-writes, in contrast, are impossible. It seems like nothing you do works and that everything you try just makes things worse. Satirical points that were hanging by a thread in first drafts completely disappear and are replaced with blather. It’s incredibly frustrating. It’s kind of like sitting in traffic just feet away from your exit ramp. You can see the finish. You’re almost there. Too bad there’s construction. Otherwise, you would’ve been home by now. When did I lose control of that analogy? Was that an analogy? Who knows?
4. Here is a link to a comparison of analogy vs. metaphor. I am not sure I have ever been more confused in my life. Learning that most of the metaphors I use are considered “weak” was a terrible way to start the week.
Mike
Mad Writing
Friday, June 20th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Happy Friday!
1. Yesterday this man celebrated a birthday by eating sushi. He is now officially a very old man. Very old. If you see him in 
the next few days, speak to him slowly and use comforting phrases like, “Do you remember back in the good ol’ days when life was simpler?” He’ll really appreciate that. Oh who am I kidding? Despite my age, I’m older than anyone I know. For Butch’s bday we ate Sushi in Fujiya’s party room, which involved sitting on the floor and eating off of “floor tables.” I thought my knees were going to revolt. At one point my back locked, unlocked, fell apart and was struck by lightning. It was crazy.
Happy birthday, fella.
2. Writing for the Election show continues. If I haven’t responded, written, looked at you or seemed even remotely a part of this planet for the past two weeks, this show is why. Writing has consumed me. I like the sketches I have written but am now dealing with the proverbial writing wall. My brain is telling me that there are no more sketch ideas available to mankind. All of the ideas have been used. Actually my major problem, which happens with every political show, is that I am now mad. Mad at the last administration, mad at the two current candidates, mad at the morons who are okay with the status quo, mad at the dreamer moron fucks who think saying the word “change” is enough and mad at the morons who aren’t paying attention because they harbor that bullshit belief that their opinion doesn’t matter. I am just mad. Really fucking mad. The trick- like always- is funneling that rage into comedy. Which can be a tricky trick. Oh well, you know what the comedy elders say, “any political satire that isn’t based in anger probably isn’t very fucking good.”
3 . I am taking this Tim Russert thing sort of hard. The weird thing is that I rarely watched “Meet The Press”. I guess I am one of those uninformed fucks I was just bitching about.
4. This weekend is your last chance to catch Old Enough To Know Better at the BNW. Friday and Saturday at 730.
Mike
The Incredible Hulk Movie Review
Thursday, June 19th, 2008 | Movie Reviews | 5 Comments
Happy Thursday!
1. Last night I saw The Incredible Hulk. It was fine. The major problem with it was that the least interesting parts of the movie involved the Hulk. Any scene involving a giant green monster whose major skill is crushing things should be the most exciting part of any movie. Sadly, it wasn’t. The Hulk just didn’t look real. At all. He looked kind of adorable. Like The Green Giant going through a rather bad bout of puberty.
The chase scenes involving Eddie Norton were actually pretty great. In fact, I think I would have really liked this movie if it was just about a scientist who was on the run from the government. That would have been pretty sweet. Tim Roth was delightfully maniacal and William Hurt looks like the prototypical abusive father with that mustache he’s sporting in this movie. Seriously, his mustache should be nominated for best supporting actor. Speaking of awards for acting, Liv Tyler shouldn’t get one. She’s pretty bad. Unless she’s screaming. When she’s screaming, she’s actually pretty good.
FOT
Sorry, for the short blogs. Week crazy. Mike mad. You not like Mike when Mike mad. Mike smash!!!!!!
Mike
I Will Never Write About Golf Again…Until I Do.
Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 | Solo Show Stuff, Sports | 6 Comments
Happy Tuesday!
1. The Skirt Turtles won their first game of the Summer schedule. Man, we really played well last night. Aside from what is becoming known as “the fifth inning curse”, in which everything that can go wrong, does, we are turning into a real ball club. What’s that odor? It’s sweet. It smells like victory.
2. “Why would I want to read a blog about a guy watching golf on TV?”-Jimmy Gaines 6/16/08. I have no idea, Jimmy. But I appreciate your readership. I really do. Tomorrow I promise to tell the story of some obscure band from the 70’s that no one’s ever heard of, and how with a few breaks that never happened, they would have been bigger than the Stones. I promise.
3. I am in full fledged writing mode right now. Fringe, BNW, videos, bills, letters, you name it. If it needs writing, you can bet I’m writing it. Hillary dropping out of the race has added a whole lot of clarity to my writing for the upcoming BNW show. Sure, she was the easiest target out there and I’m a little sad that I’ll have to wait to use some of my better pantsuit jokes, but I’m going to go glass half full on this one and say that it’s better this way. Maybe after years and years in the spotlight Hillary was getting too easy to poke fun at. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
As for the Fringe show, it continues to putter along. I really just need to pick some stories and then write them. Ugh. Just ugh.I don’t know why in my head I’ve decided that the show needs to 3 longish stories. There’s no reason to do it that way just because that’s what it was last year. I could do 5 less longish stories and still be just fine. Good Lord, me. You are a pathetic non-deciding fuck tart*.
4. Al Franken is a short, short man.
Mike
*I really hope Tiger Woods says that to himself right before (or after) a big putt. There, I got a little more golf in there. Ha.
GOLF!
Monday, June 16th, 2008 | Sports | 2 Comments
Happy Monday!
1. Ok, ok, so golf isn’t very exciting. I’ve played golf my whole life and I can admit that. It’s a sport that hinges on patience and self control. That’s not exactly a hockey fight. I get that. Sometimes, I turn on golf just so I can take a nap or zone out or imagine I’m riding a flying elephant to candy island. But seriously, the final round of this year’s U.S. Open was A-FUCKING-MAZING. Rocco Mediate? Rocco Mediate? Awesome. When Woods hit that birdie putt on the 18th to force a playoff and let out that primal scream coupled with the pumping flailing arms, it was hard not to fall into a state of delirium. Hell, I missed the last few holes and saw that pump on ESPN after hearing what happened and I still screamed when I saw it. It was awesome. AWESOME! I bet a bunch of little kids who were forced yesterday to watch the final round with their Dads -against their will- became instant fans.
That is all for today, I’ve got softball rosters to solidify.
Mike
Recent Brilliance
Recent Reader Brilliance
- LizRM on Podcast and Oh My…
- Mike Fotis on The Site Gets Cooler.
- Ben Thietje on The Site Gets Cooler.
- Jay (no, really) on The Site Gets Cooler.
- Thami on The Site Gets Cooler.
Brilliance By Month
- November 2008 (12)
- October 2008 (22)
- September 2008 (17)
- August 2008 (19)
- July 2008 (17)
- June 2008 (19)
- May 2008 (21)
- April 2008 (21)
- March 2008 (1)