Time well spent

Did I mention I got a new computer? Now look at all the useful things I can do!

Memo #2

I believe a moratorium should be placed on the following bits of comedy fodder:

1. Posters of the kitten in the tree with the "Hang in there" caption.
2. Telling skinny people to eat a sandwich.
3. "Intranet" or "Interweb"

And this last one isn't so much a comedy note but in general...

4. Anything- "palooza"


Now that I think of it, #2 may not be so comedy-related either, but there you have it. Thank you for your compliance.

Band Scamp

Last night I went to Halloween party in Silverlake, which is just east of me. And as I look at it, I'm actually not sure if it's Silverlake or Silver Lake. I'm pretty sure it's one word. Anyway, I do know that it's a very hilly area, so much so that as I was looking for parking in the neighborhood I had to turn around because I got to a block that was so steep downhill that I was afraid to drive down it.

My costume consisted of what I think is actually a men's figure skating top, a black skirt, and my piccolo, making me look close enough to a marching band member to gain me admittance to the party. Because I was toting around a piccolo all night, people were asking me if I played it, and I explained that I played flute and piccolo throughout middle and high school. They asked if I was in the marching band. I said we didn't have one. They asked if I played at football games, and I responded that I think we did that twice, but it didn't go over very well (possibly because our musical selections included "My Prerogative," "Under the Sea," "Walk the Dinosaur," and whatever march it is that's the Monty Python theme). So what, it was posed, was the point of our band? Where did we perform? I realized that our school band really existed more as an elective class than as a performance opportunity. We did a couple of concerts each year and maybe a couple of holiday events, but that was about it. But does that lessen the honor of me winning the John Philip Sousa award for excellence in band 1991-1992? It certainly does not.

Thank God I didn't end up playing the cello, or last night's party wouldn't have been as enjoyable.

News that has nothing to do with fire

So, I'm going to be on an episode of According to Jim. I actually had an audition for it last week, but didn't tell many people about it because I didn't want to make a big thing of it and then not get it. But I got it. And today I had my first table read on the set. Everyone was very nice and it was very quick - literally just reading the script. I have to hand it to Jim Belushi, he is fiercely loyal to Second City folks. Ian Gomez (also Second City) is also going to be on the episode, which we shoot next week. It will most likely air sometime in December; I think I'll find out for sure next week.

Week 2 in LA has definitely been better than week 1. I've hung out more with friends and seen and done more shows. And of course getting the casting news certainly didn't hurt. I'm sure life here will continue to have its up and downs, so I'm just trying to enjoy the up right now.

Gym Neighbors

There are a lot of weird people at my gym.

I think there are always weird people at gyms, and this one is the biggest one I've gone to so it stands to reason that there are more weird people there. Most of the time, I find weird people at the gym to be refreshing. It means that it doesn't matter if I stare at the directions on how to use a machine for too long, or if I fiddle with the TV monitor on the treadmill for 5 minutes before I realize it's not plugged in; there are always going to be people attracting more attention than me.

The most notable weird person at my gym is a woman who dances constantly. The first time I saw her was when she was coming up the stairs as I was going down. Instead of walking, she was "modern-dancing" her way up the stairs and into the weight room. She had no regard for me as I dodged her graceful arm movements. Then the other day I saw her on a treadmill, and she was standing on it sideways and dancing on it as it was moving. Maybe she's on to some great exercise phenomenon. I'll be on the lookout for her series of workout videos.

Do what I do

So, there are raging fires not far from here. That's exciting, isn't it?

Those Ziplock steaming bags can change your life. I highly recommend them, if you're not the paranoid, microwaving-plastic-is deadly type. (Side note: if you are that type, please go to snopes.com to find out why you shouldn't be.) Anyway, you just throw whatever vegetables or even meat in it and pop it in the microwave. Nothing takes more that 6 minutes I think, and that's for meat. I cooked a medium artichoke in under 3 minutes. Revolutionary.

I saw Michael Clayton last night at my neighborhood movie theatre. I thought it was good, but not the masterpiece everyone was talking about. I needed to know more and for the stakes to be higher, somehow. I'd recommend seeing it, though.

Coffee?

Apparently a week was all the time I needed to go from being insulted by the idea of doing an improv show to desperately needing to do an improv show. Every Saturday night at 10, a group called Edmund Serves Coffee does an improv show at the Second City space in Hollywood. It's an alumni show featuring people from the various Second City stages and touring companies, and usually 2-6 alums show up every week. I'd heard that the audiences weren't exactly busting down the door, so I wasn't particularly eager to play when asked last Saturday.

The week that followed, I did play Armando, but there were a lot of people playing and I definitely held back and while I enjoyed the show, I didn't really have that much fun playing. As the week went on, and I became a little more homesick - especially missing my built-in social network I had while on the mainstage - I became eager for Saturday to arrive so I could do the show.

And so I did, last night. It was former mainstage castmate Brian Galllivan, former Valhalla teammate Sarah Gee, former ETC cast member Andy Cobb, and me. And, to my delight, a 3/4 full, energetic audience. Our show was not only funny, I thought, but also a good improv show, and by that I mean that if those were all students in the audience, we provided a good lesson to them. We improvised more slowly and patiently than I think I ever have on any Second City stage. And the audience was with us the whole time.

I know not all Edmund shows will be like that, but I'm grateful that one was. I needed it. When you're used to improvising 6 nights a week and then you don't for 2-3 weeks, a fear sets in that maybe you'll forget how to do it. I guess the trick out here for me will be to not let the dust settle for too long. You know, nothing a Swiffer can't get to.

According to Me

Tonight I went to my first sitcom taping. My friend and former Second City castmate Maribeth was guest starring on According to Jim this week, and kindly invited me to watch. I got there around 5:15 (we were told to be there by 5:30). The first hour or so was just people filing in, peppered occasionally by some comments by the warm-up/host comedian, Michael Burger. You would probably recognize him if you saw him; I knew him, believe it or not, from the short-lived mid-90's talk show "Mike & Maty." Basically his job the entire time we were there - which was over 5 hours, by the way - was to keep the audience's energy up. Mostly this was done through very tried and true stand-up bits, but I have to admit he did a great job involving people and making them laugh. His comedy may not have appealed to me ("guys pee like this; girls pee like this"), but I have to respect him for tackling a tough job.

Fortunately, I was rescued from audienceland about halfway through when Jim Belushi himself saw me and invited me backstage to watch the rest of the show. Now, before you think this is incredibly miraculous, Jim had done 3 improv sets on the mainstage in the last couple of months I was there, so he knows who I am, and - to my delight - recognized me tonight.

Things definitely took a turn for the better at that point, as he introduced me to some cast and crew, and I met up with Maribeth who showed me around backstage. Also on this episode were SC alums Meagan Fey and Mary Gross. I got to meet Mary Gross, who is incredibly nice and soft-spoken. The big excitement backstage is that the catering guy had made blueberry cobbler. I had first heard of this cobbler when I first got backstage and was watching the taping with the writers and producers, then Maribeth took me to see the cobbler firsthand. Though I never had any, I couldn't ignore it. Just about every crew member she introduced me to mentioned "The Cobbler." After Maribeth introduced me to Mary Gross, she (Maribeth) had to go back to shoot another scene. Mary Gross then turned to me and said, "Molly, do you know about the cobbler?"

All in all, it was a truly interesting experience. I think it was really helpful for me to see how a show like this runs, and it put me at ease to meet some nice people. Maybe someday I will go back and have some cobbler.

Memo

Note to self: regular Tylenol are red and blue capsules. Tylenol PM are blue caplets. In the future, try very hard not to confuse the two, or you will almost fall asleep in Best Buy as the nice man is explaining the difference in various GPS systems to you.

Yesterday afternoon I got home after running some errands, and heard yelling from a nearby apartment. I'm in a courtyard building where things reverberate nicely, so it was easy to distinctly hear a guy screaming "My arm! You broke my arm! Look at it! You broke my f'ing arm!" I went to my window and looked out, and kept listening, wondering if I should go outside. As he and the other guy continued to yell, I just stood there. And then, the two voices became very civil. Then the yelling about the broken arm again. And so on. Until eventually a woman came out of her apartment downstairs and went over to their apartment to see what was going on. To which the yelling, arm-breaking guys replied, "Don't worry, we're actors!" Yes, they were rehearsing a scene. This is how it is now.

Days and Nights of Molly Dodd

Does anyone remember that show? I think I watched it once and hated it, but I believe I was around 13 at the time, so maybe I just wasn't ready for it. But following its debut, my classmate Thomas Joyner would call me Molly Dodd all the time. I don't know why I thought of this today. Also, Thomas Joyner is the son of radio personality Tom Joyner.

Saturday night I went to a party with some Chicago folks, and upon arrival spent the whole time talking to the people I carpooled with along with one of the hosts and a couple of random people here and there. Another one of the hosts kept passing through the room asking people if they wanted to play a game. Responses were lukewarm. A couple of people suggested playing Murder, which I don't enjoy at all. Why? Because of this example of a typical murder game, starring fictional players Jim and Mary.

Mary: I think Jim is the murderer.
Jim: It's not me.
Mary: I totally heard your arm move when our eyes were closed.
Jim: I had an itch.
Mary: I can tell you're lying. It's you.
Jim: I'm not lying. It's not me.
Mary: Well, I know that it is.
Jim: Mary, I'm telling you honestly, it isn't.
Mary: Well, I know you are.
Jim: Well, I'm not.

And so on! Fun for hours! Fortunately, we escaped Murder. How? During the game-playing discussion, someone (who happens to be the manager to just about every notable comedy performer/writer in LA) recommended, presumably as a joke, that we make up a big dance and perform it. And so we did. We divided into 3 groups of about 8 each and all made up a dance to Run-DMC's "Tricky." I think ours was the best, though no official voting took place. Second City alum and great dancer Martin Garcia was our group's choreographer, and the themes for our dance were magic and Halloween, because they are both tricky. Not exactly what I thought my first LA party would be like, but being in a room of people dancing like idiots was oddly comforting.

Off to watch the first Drew Carey Price is Right.

Missing the bullseye

I have been to 3 Targets in as many days. And I still keep forgetting things. At one of them, a woman recognized me from Sonic, or at least I'm assuming that's what she meant when she said to the guy she was with "Oh, she's an actress!" Or maybe my Naomi Watts impression is just getting really good.

The Dangling Blog Entry

It's happening. Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct. 7) sometime in the 11am to noon hour, I will set off in my tightly-packed Ford Focus to Los Angeles.

I'm not good at saying goodbye to people or places

...So much so that that's as far as I got on that entry, on my last night in Chicago. It's now almost a week later, and I am sitting in my apartment in LA. Or at least my apartment for now. I'm subletting from former Chicagoan Craig Cackowski as he hits the high seas NCL-style until the end of January.

I have a feeling I'll have a lot more time for keeping up with this blog in the days/weeks/months to come. For now I'm trying to get adjusted without freaking out. My Tivo is gathering programming info as I type this, so hopefully before too long I'll at least have that comfort of home. It's kind of weird living in someone else's apartment, trying to make it my own without disrupting things.

Things I miss about Chicago (so far):
Driving towards downtown on Lakeshore Drive
XRT
Walking
Knowing where I am