The best and worst of KC improv.

Wow, a pretty broad topic for this, the first official KC blogging improvisers coordinated improv blog post. Maybe it needs a catchy new name.

So, here's the best of what's going on:

Groups are really starting to get into the whole cross-pollinating mind set. I think it's for a couple reasons: First, people are actually talking to people in other groups and finding that they have a lot in common. Not only that, but they're seeing things they definitely respect and enjoy about other improvisers, and want to get in on whatever it is that they enjoy about them. We're not quite where I would like our scene to be yet, but I think we're definitely on a good track.

OH, OH, I almost forgot. Part of what this cross breeding is also doing is pushing the limits of formats in the city. People are getting together to do these "special" shows with "special" people, and want it to actually be a "special" format, something that they ordinarily wouldn't be able to do with their home base troupe.

Now, for what can be improved...

I still think KC is struggling to build it's improv audience. Most of our shows are frequented by and large by people we know. Friends, family, and fellow improvisers. We all occasionally see normies that we don't know, but they are still vastly outnumbered by the Three F's. This is an issue that will get better over time, I believe, and the best we can do is just keep working at it. Experiment with different marketing schemes, work on getting in and keeping in with various news outlets, possibly explore sponsorships...There is a lot that can be done to build up our audiences.

So, there it is. I promise I didn't put too much thought into it, but these are what I see us doing well and what can be better done.

It's all in the timing.

So, I've been sick for the last 5 days. Today is the second day in a row I've called into work. 4 day weekend, completely wasted.

Here is the real kicker: My health benefits for my current job kick in on April 1st, exactly one week from tomorrow. So if I end up having to go to the doctor tomorrow, it's all going to be out of pocket. I should seriously consider moving to Vegas to be a cooler. Or try to get on at one of the boats here in KC.

Does anyone else still get teared up at the end of Forrest Gump, even if you're just flipping through the channels and happen to land on the last 5 minutes? Maybe it was the fever, but I was doing the part laugh, part cry thing Saturday when I came upon it.

The first half of The Karate Kid is underrated and rarely remembered.

Does PEZ go bad? I found an old Batman PEZ dispenser a few weeks ago, and it still has some orange PEZ in it. I dared Keith to try a piece, and after he did, I did. This was at least 3 weeks ago, so I'm fairly certain it's not the cause of my current illness. But Batman is sitting by my monitor now, and I know he's got at least 3 pieces of PEZ left. If I don't eat them, who will?

My shit ain't corny.

So, I don't want to just have a blog documenting my day to day life. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Not at all. Actually, I'm pretty sure that's what blogs started as. I just wanted this to be something else.

However, contrary to previous years, these last few months have actually been thrilling and exciting for me. I have a new job, I'm becoming more gangsta and more fit every day, and I'm learning things.

And I'm having fun!!!

(big subject change)

Tonight was the first CounterClockwiseComedy show in a long time, and here's the deal: it kicked ass. Seriously. Even with an extra, non-rehearsed game thrown in, it rocked. We had to spend an extra 15 minutes after everyone had left, cleaning up the socks that had been rocked off. Kind of a pain, but worth it.

I might someday start drawing my fantasies, but right now, I'm imagining a unicorn slaying a dragon.

Thanks for coming by, friend.

Late night, right?

Here's a crazy thing that happened at work recently: I had to fire some guy because he was stealing our company vans, the ones that we rent, and taking them out for his own personal use after work hours. I found out about this from one of my co-workers that lives in the same apartment complex as him. I had to fire him because, I don't have the authority to (yet), but my boss was out of town.

He has probably called me more than a dozen times since it happened, trying to find out how he got caught. He eventually decided it was me, based on the voicemail he left me last friday. I might try to record it and provide some audio later, but the message was "Snitches get stitches, Tommy."

He left it on my voicemail. Which he called from his cell phone. Kind of creepy, right? Wait, it gets better.

The next day, he calls my boss and begs for his job back. My boss had heard the message within minutes of it being left, because I was in the office when it happened. My boss mentioned that, not only had he stolen the van, but he had now also called and threatened me, and that now there was not a snowball's chance in hell that he could reclaim his job. After that conversation, the dumbass called me, apologized about the threat, and asked me to lie for him to get his job back. So I did, and he got the job back, and all was great!!

Actually, that last part didn't happen, but it would have been neat.

What really happened was, I told my boss to tell him that I did in fact lie for him, but that the job was still unattainable because of the theft, which he did. I thought it was going to be all good after that.

It wasn't.

Apparently, once we talked and he apologized, he deduced that the person that told on him in the first place was the woman that lived in the same apartment complex as him. So later that night, the night he asked me to lie for him, he went to the apartment of the woman that he thought had snitched on him and that now, logically, deserved stitches. She locked the door, called the police, and he eventually left. What he didn't know or expect was that, the following day, the woman's brother and child's father both showed up and beat the crap out of him. Like, seriously bruised and bloodied this dumbass guy.

SO, throughout all of this hood drama, there's me, right in the middle. Silly Tommy, the nerd. At this point, I don't know if it's all better, or if it might escalate further. Hopefully it does at least a little bit, because this shit doesn't write itself, and I would love to have another entry about it.

Web log post #2

Ok, so I have a few ideas about what people want. I'll start with a few of those, and otherwise just fly by the seat of my pants.

I bought groceries today, for the first time in a long time. Your first thought is probably "good for him, he's a mooch." Well, friend, you'd be wrong. The reason it's been so long is that I realized my eating habits have been horrible and dangerous for far too long.

I'll explain.

I've been working from 1:30 until 10:00 for the last 4 months or so. I'll get more into what my job actually is (saving the world) in a later post. So, working these hours, I have fallen into a habit of skipping breakfast, eating fast food for lunch at 3:00, then grabbing fast food for dinner at 10:30, just for convenience's sake. It's horrible. I'm not gaining weight, but I walk for at least 5 hours straight every night, so I'm also not losing the weight I probably could/should be. I'm staying the same, and am probably malnourished. So tonight, after work, I bought some salad fixin's, apples, OJ, chicken strips, thin sliced chicken deli meat and bread.

Hopefully, when it's gone, I'll have the motivation to go back and do it again. With as much exercise as I regularly get now, I might soon be the incredible shrinking man. Look out, Berrong.

Hey there, blog world. Can I just...sorry. OK, thanks.

Wow, this is my first blog post. Here. I'm pretty sure I have another blog, somewhere else, but it was more of a social thing and not really worth going into a whole lot of detail about.

Unless you're coming from that place, in which case Afrodiary rules!!!!

OK, so, first thing's first, I don't know what this will look like. The font looks huge on my screen, if it does on the first post, I'll change it as I go. This is a learning experience.

Let me know what you want me to blog about, and I will. I promise. Unless I start getting a butt load of readers with buttloads of requests, in which case, I will promise, if I have the promise of the love of a beautiful woman. Or promises of money or booze.

If I can figure out a way to put it somewhere else, I may also have a drunken post spot, strictly for drunken posts. If I can't figure that out, I will probably just label them as drunk posts from here.

Here's what I don't get about a lot of the blogs I read: you go to the beginning of them, expecting to get some sort of base rules setting the whole thing up, which are never there.

Not here. Here, there are few rules. We'll start with none, and as we go on, I will add some. I'm sure I'll add at least one, which is why I said "few" rules.

For now, flame away.