Jennifer Aniston love letters to be auctioned

That's one of the Top Stories on CNN.com right now. Slow news day.

...but a slightly bigger news day within the Erdmania realm. The stars have aligned, and we will now be going into rehearsals for the next mainstage revue in October. It had been discussed as a possibility shortly after the January start date was announced, and frankly I had been banking on it coming through as it did. I couldn't wrap my head around January, but October is much more manageable. Even though it means that I'm still not even at the halfway point of doing the current show, but that's ok now that I know when our process will start.

Tonight (Monday) we did a short benefit performance of some scenes from the show, hosted by the director, Mick Napier. The context was to show various types of scenes (openers, blackouts, monologues, etc.) and how they fit into a Second City revue. The host for the evening was Second City alum George Wendt...just when the celebrity encounters were tapering off. He came backstage before the show started and talked about how different the backstage area looks now, and tried to plan a bit where one of us would call him on his cell phone while he was on stage. It was set to go but was aborted at the last minute when the walkie-talkie of the person on stage before him actually did go off. Bit diffused by reality.

After the show, castmate Matt Craig and I drove down to IO to do Armando, oblivious to the fact that there was a Cubs game. I dropped Matt off, parked literally half a mile away, and made it just in time to do the show. Following the show, four of us from the mainstage cast did Match Game, which was a lot of fun.

For those of you who don't know who these people are that I spend six nights a week with, you can find out more here: http://secondcity.com/?id=theatres/chicago/mainstage/cast

Enjoy my newscaster headshot while you can; I'm getting new ones next week.

Son, bring dad his old baseball jersey...

It's been awhile since I've written anything, but it's also been awhile since I've had anything to report. I don't have much now, frankly, but I don't want to completely neglect this venture.

I received some emails over the weekend about the upcoming 20th anniversary of my college improv group, Cheap Sox. I don't know if there will be a reunion or if I'd be able to go if there were, but it's fun to think about. I'm always up for a trip to Boston, anyway. But I do have a big place in my heart for Cheap Sox; seeing them perform at an open house at Tufts my senior year of high school was what clenched my decision to go there. When I auditioned for them as a freshman, I told myself that I'd be happy not getting into any plays my entire time at school if I just got into Sox...in hindsight, a terrible deal with the devil, which fortunately I wasn't held to. Interestingly, when I first moved to Chicago and started classes at IO, I told myself that I would be happy doing nothing else if I just got on a Harold team. But I guess that's the tricky thing about goals: once you reach one, it's never enough. Which is good, because otherwise I may be writing this entry from year 12 at Tufts, still wearing my salmon-colored Cheap Sox bowling shirt. I do still have it; it's in a rubbermaid box under my bed. Ready to go.

Welcome Visitors

A couple of nice things have happened in the past couple of days to help get me out of the minor funk I've been in. First, Sue and Paul of Norwegian Dawn fame are in town for the week, and Monday night all the boatco folks met up for some drinks and reminiscing. It was great to see them and to have everyone from the ship in one place for a little bit.

Second, at tonight's show, Paul Dooley was in the audience. He's a fairly old school Second City alum, and may be best known as the dad in "Sixteen Candles." But you'd definitely know him if you saw him. He came backstage after the show to talk to us, and on a whim we asked him to play the set and he said yes. Unfortunately, a lot of older alums, especially if they're well known, don't play the sets; I can't say for sure why, but I'm guessing they'd feel pretty vulnerable in front of an audience of people expecting brilliance. And some of them think that the improv we do now is different from what they did, and sometimes that's true. But Paul Dooley was talking about how he still does improv shows in LA, so we thought he might be up for it, and he was. And he was fantastic. I think we were all nervous, not knowing what to expect from him, but he didn't miss a beat. His humor seems to come mostly from natural reactions to things, which is always a good lesson.

Equally as important as just having a great time with him in the set, it definitely reminded me of the history of Second City and what a remarkable thing it is to be working there. I know I've been down as of late regarding the postponing of our writing process, feeling like I have no creative outlet and am just going through the motions. But there is more to it than that, and it's good to reminded of it.

I've added a couple of images of our celebrity guests in my flickr photos.

Sad News

Some of you may be familiar with one of my college drama professors, Tony Cornish; some may know him because you knew me in college, and some may know him because he's always been one of my favorite people to imitate. Imagine me sitting cross-legged in a chair with one arm over my head, saying, in a British accent, "It wants to be less...bad, yes?" That's Tony.

Anyway, I just found out that Tony passed away this past Tuesday, July 5th. I had been aware that he was ill; a few weeks ago my friend Josh had started a website for people to post stories and tributes to him. He was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease, and came down with pneumonia last week and took a bad turn.

The last time I saw Tony was about 5 years ago I think. He was in Chicago and organized a gathering of some Tufts alums. He was healthy and just as I had remembered him from college. But when I saw Josh in LA in December, he mentioned to me that Tony wasn't doing so well, but I'm not sure his illness had been diagnosed.

Even before his death, I was touched in the past couple of weeks by all the people who had posted stories on the website. If you'd like to take a look, go to http://www.celebrate-tony.com/

I often have regrets involving people from my past that I lose touch with. I'll go through periods where I intensely miss people from a certain point in my life, maybe even people I haven't thought about in years. Those of you who know me well know how much I loved my time at Tufts, and the people I met there. Tony's passing and reading things from old acquaintances have definitely made me sadly nostalgic.

So here's to Tony Cornish, the man for whom I will try to make my performances less...bad.

Editor's note and please feed me

First of all, I want to apologize for insinuating that Michael Nesmith's "Elephant Parts" is of "questionable value." It's not only funny, in a campy sort of way, but it's fairly groundbreaking in its use of music videos - this was back in the late 70's. For those of you not aware, Michael Nesmith essentially invented MTV. I watched the commentary on the DVD and there's a lot of interesting information about how he figured out what did and didn't work in creating videos. I also appreciate when he mentions several times how certain scenes began as bits at dinner that they found funny and decided to write and film. If I did that with all the bits I've done and observed at meals, rehearsals, backstage, on tour, wherever, I'd have a whole volume of videos. Maybe I should start.

When I was a freshman in college, my appendix ruptured. For almost a month afterwards, I didn't have much of an appetite, and I was specifically repulsed by the idea of hot food. For some reason, that feeling has returned, 13 years later. I feel hungry, but nothing sounds good to eat. Although yesterday afternoon, peanut butter Oreos sounded good, so I had six. Gotta listen to your body, you know.

The good news is...

It's July 1st, and that means I have health insurance for the first time in 6 months. Many thanks to Sonic and the Screen Actors Guild for making this possible. If you're in Sonic country, please go buy an orange cream slush and drink to my health.

New Year's Resolution

I'm watching a recently purchased DVD of "Elephant Parts," a comedy/music/variety special from 1981 created by my favorite Monkee, Michael Nesmith. I had it on tape when I was in junior high or high school, but I haven't seen it in ages. I had a big Monkees fascination starting in 7th grade, and I still like them quite a bit. I've seen three incarnations of their reunion tour, all sadly missing Mr. Nesmith. I was touched this past Monday night at Lori's last show when Joe, the musical director, put in part of "The Girl I Knew Somewhere" as transition music between scenes. That's a great song, written by Mike but sung by Mickey Dolenz. But I actually have a version sung by Mike too, so there.

Anyway, I find The Monkees and their later projects of questionable value comforting in times of uncertainty, which is why I'm watching this DVD at 2am. We just found out tonight that instead of going into rehearsals for a new mainstage show in three weeks, we will be waiting until January. That's right, 2006. It's disappointing. We were all really gearing up to start writing, probably most of all Matt and myself, who are new to the cast and didn't create the current show. Don't get me wrong - it's still a thrill to perform the show, and it's an excellent show...but it would be an even bigger thrill to perform my own material, and now that will have to wait. So life goes on, but it makes me sad.

There are several reasons for the delay: the possibilty of some of our cast getting scooped up by SNL, the ETC stage going into rehearsals early in the fall, the holidays, and then you get to January. So what are you going to do.

Well for starters, Andy (of Andy fame) and I are starting a 2-person improv show this Sunday at IO, after my show at Second City. I'm looking forward to it. Please come see it.