11:52 pm
Orange, CA
[picture of Jon]
The Emerald City Adventure Troupe took its sweet time getting up and going today, mostly because our only scheduled interview is experiencing a family emergency and we may not get to meet with her.
So Sunday was a well-earned day of rest, mostly to combat allergy-induced sick feelings and not at all because of post-St. Patrick's repercussions. Although our meeting with Beer Shark Mouse last night was quite the experience . . .
We had arrived at the theater at 7:30 (found free parking!) and told a few of the staff members who we were and who we were there to see. It wasn't until 7:45 that we learned the team didn't usually show up until right before the show, 8:30 at the earliest. So we cruised the boulevard on foot, where Forest met a fellow by the name of Elijah, which the fellow kept repeating, and then we later walked past Elijah, who was now making loud almost-puking sounds and spitting. "Now we know what Elijah does for fun" said Derek.
The theater was slowly filling up, and there was still no sign of any of the cast. We decided to play it safe and at least buy tickets for their show, should we get a chance to talk to them afterwards. It was right about this time when one of the staff members approached me and pointed out that Neil Flynn had arrived. Good luck, Jon.
I spoke much too quickly and spooked him a little. But as an actor, Neil was definitely on the other side of the ECAT inviting-ness scale, right where one would expect. He seemed tentative to commit to anything without the rest of the guys there, and I tried to assure him (through a clever tactic called "acting") that we were really just there to see Pete Hulne, who was our contact and self-proclaimed president of Beer Shark Mouse. The theater had opened up, and I was sucked inside. We decided against sitting in the front row, which might have spooked the guys even further (especially Neil, whom Forest refers to as "Jon's girlfriend").
It's always tough to quote improv, but let me say that these guys got it on and kept it on and poured it on and placed and stuck and rocked it on. Alexandra described the experience as "the kind of laugh er where you can't help it and you touch [and lean on] the people sitting next to you." There were special moments when we improvisers could see the games within the games the guys were playing with each-other. We even got a shout-out on stage as few of the guys assumed the role of awkward documentary filmmakers.
The lobby/ bar was packed afterwards, and the cast was in and amongst them, drinking to the Irish. We tracked down Pete who asked "which one-a you's Jonathan?" There was an awkward exchange over what he should call me before he sent us upstairs to a black box theater classroom to set up the equipment while he rounded up the rest of the guys.
Amazingly, all of them showed up, drinks in hand. Neil was first, followed by Pete, then Pat Finn, then Mike Coleman, and finally, David Koechner. Yes, linking each of their names to their imdb site is a little like name-dropping (you can see all their faces here), but this is one chance to name-drop that I'm going to take.
I can't do the 20 minutes of madness justice here, but know that there were some light-hearted racial slurs, some serious artistic affirmations, more than a few laughs, and some eye-rolling at the extensive contribution that Koechner (he's a last name kinda guy) had to the convo (he is even taped staying after and offering some additional advice while gesturing with his beer and we don't think he knew he was being filmed).
We were pumped. It was a killer interview and the kind of unsuspected awesomeness we were hoping would be plentiful on this trip. As improvisers and adventurers, we were fired up thanks to some seriously good improvisation and a little bit of star power and secrets. I hope to show you all the footage, including our re-cap afterwards.
-----
Today we strolled on down to the city, eventually hitting up the H&M in Beverly Hills (stands for Holey & Moleywhydon'ttheyhavethiswonderfulcheapclothinginSeattle) and doing a little bit of shop-ping (linen pants!!!) before bravely and quickly making it to Groumann's Chinese Theater for a showing of "300." Awesome.
We're nestled in our beds with Katy and Todd down in Orange (we're staying with them, but we're not in our beds with them), ready to hit the road for up to four interviews tomorrow, starting with Charlie Rosene of KNBC at the best pancake house in Manhattan Beach.
I'll update my NorCal thoughts one of these days.
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Thar She Blows!
[Imagine that there's a picture of Derek here]
12:59 am
Moorpark, CA
Get ready, folks, this will be a whale of a post. When last we (meaning you) left our hero (meaning me), I had settled in for a long winter's nap at the Hampton in in Daly city. Well, a lot has happened since then. The first thing Friday morning, after getting up, taking showers, etc., we returned to Oakland High School to talk with Kevin "K-Dub" Williams, another teacher there. K-dub teaches art (and his classroom is a testament to his prowess, when one enters the room, it's a bit overwhelming, as a melange of colors assaults the eye in the most pleasant way), and is also the founder of the Hood Games, Oakland's own local version of the X-Games, which provides local youth with a positive outlet. K-Dub spoke about his experiences as an student, a graduate, and as a teacher, and the theme that seemed to resurface again and again with him was that of getting out and experiencing new things. He encouraged us to "taste a new taste, smell a new smell," something that I am certainly proud to finally be doing for myself. I plan to taste and smell a lot of new things in the near future.
After our interview with K-Dub we debriefed for a little while in a nearby park before setting off for San Francisco. Regrettably, we didn't get to see much of the city, I certainly feel that it has a lot to offer and I hope to return again before too long. We did get to look at a couple parks, take a trip through Chinatown and enjoy some truly excellent (and plentiful) food. We visited Pier 39, and I was a bit sickened by the sheer touristyness of it (is that a word? no? It is now.). There were a pair of jugglers performing, and I was sad that we didn't have time to try to get an interview with them.
Once we'd exhausted our time in San Francisco, we set our course to Los Angeles and another 6 hour drive south. For possibly the first time in our trip, I found myself genuinely bored with the terrain. Perhaps it is more interesting by the light of day, but one can only take so many rolling hills. We stopped at a gas station that looked like it would be better suited to being a fortress in some kind of zombie-ridden post-apocalyptic world. It was surrounded by ten foot high fencing with rolls of barbed wire at the top. It was in this relic from the future (?) that I saw the first genuinely rude person I've seen on this trip. I'll try to recall the conversation I heard as accurately as possibly. RL is Rude Lady, and GA is Gas Station Attendant.
RL: Do you have air?
GA: No, I'm sorry, we don't have air.
RL: Where's the nearest place with air?
GA: Six miles, *place name*
RL: No, south.
GA: Oh, twenty-two miles, *place name*
RL: Wait, so is it six miles then twenty two miles or what?
GA: No, just twenty-two miles.
RL: Wait, so it's twenty-two miles
GA: Yes
RL: Ugh... fine.
Text alone can't capture all the nuances of her rudeness, but she did serve to remind me and help me appreciate how shockingly nice most people had been with us. After we left the gas station, the trip to Moorpark (where my aunt and uncle who graciously offered us accommodations for two nights live) was largely uneventful until the last half hour or so of the drive, when an extremely thick fog (think Silent Hill if you've played it) set over us, while we were forced to navigate extremely curvy roads perched next to cliffs. Yours truly had the good fortune of driving this leg. When we arrived at my aunt and uncle's house, we were all nearly falling asleep on our feet, so we chose to forgo blogging and instead get some extra sleep for what we knew would be a busy day ahead.
* * * INTERMISSION * * *
We woke up early today (Saturday) to prepare for our scheduled interview with Paula Donnelly, institute director for Cornerstone Theater. We ate breakfast on the road, and due to good (too good) planning, we arrived an hour early at Paula's house. Since we had some time before our interview, we poked around some nearby stops, including a thrift store where we each made out with some prizes (upon reading that sentence again, it sounds like I'm implying that we stole stuff. We didn't, don't worry.). I got far and away the best haul, though. Three CDs, one of which is by a terrible band named "Sexy Death Soda." I'm afraid I cannot recommend this to anyone, unless you happen to really like crappy bands named "Sexy Death Soda." The second, I can't recall the title, but it's a ukulele solo album, which was alright. The track entitled "I'm Big in Japan" was particularly... something. It combined Jake Shimabukuro style ukulele virtuosity with Weird Al style silly lyrics. The final, and most notable of the CDs was from a band called "Lovewhip" (http://www.lovewhip.net) and was called "Virtual Booty Machine." The band describes themselves by throwing a bunch of words like "disco" and "dub" and "synth" together, but really, their work cannot be expressed in words, so I won't try, but please, do yourself a favor and go to their website and listen to a track or two. It's something else. I also got a sweet tie that I'll try to post pictures of in the near future.
Then we returned to Paula's house for the actual interview. She turned out to be extremely friendly, and I was happy to feel that I was building bridges, as K-Dub had described in an earlier interview. She described how she had come to work at Cornerstone Theater. I was excited to hear that she had started as an actress in High School. Our paths diverged in high school, as she went backstage to become a stage manager. She was able to use this experience to stage manage for a number of professional troupes including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. With this experience, she joined the Cornerstone Theater company, and when they decided to create a position that would be in charge of the institute (that is, the workshops to teach others about community-based theater), she applied and was given the job. I felt very connected to her as she began to relate how she isn't "much of a planner." I often feel the same way, that I will remain open to what comes my way, but not settle for anything unsatisfactory. All in all, the interview proved to be quite enlightening and inspiring.
After the interview, Paula really went the extra mile, suggesting several things for us to do that day, recommending a place to eat, and even giving us excellent directions to both a delightful restaurant and the Getty Center, a major attraction/museum in LA.
Trying to find parking near the restaurant proved to be a nightmare, so we parked in a nearby Rite-Aid. We got some supplied at the Rite-Aid, and made sure to take a moment to gawk at the liquor aisle. The concept of liquor being sold in grocery stores seems almost as strange to me as having someone else pump your gas for you (take that, Oregon!).
The restaurant was Fred 62, and it was fantastic. I had a brunch that combined poached eggs, salmon, hash browns, bagel chips, cream cheese, onion, tomato, and hollandaise sauce into one giant playground for the mouth. Truly outstanding.
The Getty Center had so much to offer that we really couldn't take much of it in during the short time we had to enjoy it. What little we did see was amazing, and when I return to LA (as I hope to do in the not-to-distant future), I hope to explore it more thoroughly.
When we finished at the Getty center, it was nearly time for one of the interviews that I had been most nervous and excited for. That is, with the cast of BeerSharkMice, an improv troupe that performs at Improv Olympic West, one of the branches of the theater formerly headed by Del Close. The cast consists of Michael Coleman, Pat Finn, Neil Flynn (yes, that Neil Flynn), Peter Hulne, and David Koechner (yes, that David Koechner). Through a miscommunication, we arrived significantly earlier than they did, so we spent some time putzing around the area, including checking out the walk of fame, and observing the hordes of people going to see Wicked at the Pantages. My favorite was a group of young ladies being driven around in a red stretch pickup truck labeled "Elegant Limousine."
We eventually met up with the cast and they agreed to chat with us after the show. The show was as hilarious as one would expect, the cast played wonderfully with one another and even did great work incorporating an audibly drunk audience member into the show. Afterwards we spoke to the cast in one of IO's classrooms. The interview was positively amazing, and I'm still reeling a bit from it. It was amazing to hear these guys, accomplished actors doing improv, basically my ideal life, talk a bit about how they got their, and offer us some of their advice. Their advice was so relevant it is a bit mind-blowing. Perhaps I'll say more about it when I've had a bit of time to absorb everything.
After the talk with BeerSharkMice, we headed back to Moorpark for another night of rest at my Aunt and Uncle's, which I will now be concluding this post to enjoy.
12:59 am
Moorpark, CA
Get ready, folks, this will be a whale of a post. When last we (meaning you) left our hero (meaning me), I had settled in for a long winter's nap at the Hampton in in Daly city. Well, a lot has happened since then. The first thing Friday morning, after getting up, taking showers, etc., we returned to Oakland High School to talk with Kevin "K-Dub" Williams, another teacher there. K-dub teaches art (and his classroom is a testament to his prowess, when one enters the room, it's a bit overwhelming, as a melange of colors assaults the eye in the most pleasant way), and is also the founder of the Hood Games, Oakland's own local version of the X-Games, which provides local youth with a positive outlet. K-Dub spoke about his experiences as an student, a graduate, and as a teacher, and the theme that seemed to resurface again and again with him was that of getting out and experiencing new things. He encouraged us to "taste a new taste, smell a new smell," something that I am certainly proud to finally be doing for myself. I plan to taste and smell a lot of new things in the near future.
After our interview with K-Dub we debriefed for a little while in a nearby park before setting off for San Francisco. Regrettably, we didn't get to see much of the city, I certainly feel that it has a lot to offer and I hope to return again before too long. We did get to look at a couple parks, take a trip through Chinatown and enjoy some truly excellent (and plentiful) food. We visited Pier 39, and I was a bit sickened by the sheer touristyness of it (is that a word? no? It is now.). There were a pair of jugglers performing, and I was sad that we didn't have time to try to get an interview with them.
Once we'd exhausted our time in San Francisco, we set our course to Los Angeles and another 6 hour drive south. For possibly the first time in our trip, I found myself genuinely bored with the terrain. Perhaps it is more interesting by the light of day, but one can only take so many rolling hills. We stopped at a gas station that looked like it would be better suited to being a fortress in some kind of zombie-ridden post-apocalyptic world. It was surrounded by ten foot high fencing with rolls of barbed wire at the top. It was in this relic from the future (?) that I saw the first genuinely rude person I've seen on this trip. I'll try to recall the conversation I heard as accurately as possibly. RL is Rude Lady, and GA is Gas Station Attendant.
RL: Do you have air?
GA: No, I'm sorry, we don't have air.
RL: Where's the nearest place with air?
GA: Six miles, *place name*
RL: No, south.
GA: Oh, twenty-two miles, *place name*
RL: Wait, so is it six miles then twenty two miles or what?
GA: No, just twenty-two miles.
RL: Wait, so it's twenty-two miles
GA: Yes
RL: Ugh... fine.
Text alone can't capture all the nuances of her rudeness, but she did serve to remind me and help me appreciate how shockingly nice most people had been with us. After we left the gas station, the trip to Moorpark (where my aunt and uncle who graciously offered us accommodations for two nights live) was largely uneventful until the last half hour or so of the drive, when an extremely thick fog (think Silent Hill if you've played it) set over us, while we were forced to navigate extremely curvy roads perched next to cliffs. Yours truly had the good fortune of driving this leg. When we arrived at my aunt and uncle's house, we were all nearly falling asleep on our feet, so we chose to forgo blogging and instead get some extra sleep for what we knew would be a busy day ahead.
* * * INTERMISSION * * *
We woke up early today (Saturday) to prepare for our scheduled interview with Paula Donnelly, institute director for Cornerstone Theater. We ate breakfast on the road, and due to good (too good) planning, we arrived an hour early at Paula's house. Since we had some time before our interview, we poked around some nearby stops, including a thrift store where we each made out with some prizes (upon reading that sentence again, it sounds like I'm implying that we stole stuff. We didn't, don't worry.). I got far and away the best haul, though. Three CDs, one of which is by a terrible band named "Sexy Death Soda." I'm afraid I cannot recommend this to anyone, unless you happen to really like crappy bands named "Sexy Death Soda." The second, I can't recall the title, but it's a ukulele solo album, which was alright. The track entitled "I'm Big in Japan" was particularly... something. It combined Jake Shimabukuro style ukulele virtuosity with Weird Al style silly lyrics. The final, and most notable of the CDs was from a band called "Lovewhip" (http://www.lovewhip.net) and was called "Virtual Booty Machine." The band describes themselves by throwing a bunch of words like "disco" and "dub" and "synth" together, but really, their work cannot be expressed in words, so I won't try, but please, do yourself a favor and go to their website and listen to a track or two. It's something else. I also got a sweet tie that I'll try to post pictures of in the near future.
Then we returned to Paula's house for the actual interview. She turned out to be extremely friendly, and I was happy to feel that I was building bridges, as K-Dub had described in an earlier interview. She described how she had come to work at Cornerstone Theater. I was excited to hear that she had started as an actress in High School. Our paths diverged in high school, as she went backstage to become a stage manager. She was able to use this experience to stage manage for a number of professional troupes including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. With this experience, she joined the Cornerstone Theater company, and when they decided to create a position that would be in charge of the institute (that is, the workshops to teach others about community-based theater), she applied and was given the job. I felt very connected to her as she began to relate how she isn't "much of a planner." I often feel the same way, that I will remain open to what comes my way, but not settle for anything unsatisfactory. All in all, the interview proved to be quite enlightening and inspiring.
After the interview, Paula really went the extra mile, suggesting several things for us to do that day, recommending a place to eat, and even giving us excellent directions to both a delightful restaurant and the Getty Center, a major attraction/museum in LA.
Trying to find parking near the restaurant proved to be a nightmare, so we parked in a nearby Rite-Aid. We got some supplied at the Rite-Aid, and made sure to take a moment to gawk at the liquor aisle. The concept of liquor being sold in grocery stores seems almost as strange to me as having someone else pump your gas for you (take that, Oregon!).
The restaurant was Fred 62, and it was fantastic. I had a brunch that combined poached eggs, salmon, hash browns, bagel chips, cream cheese, onion, tomato, and hollandaise sauce into one giant playground for the mouth. Truly outstanding.
The Getty Center had so much to offer that we really couldn't take much of it in during the short time we had to enjoy it. What little we did see was amazing, and when I return to LA (as I hope to do in the not-to-distant future), I hope to explore it more thoroughly.
When we finished at the Getty center, it was nearly time for one of the interviews that I had been most nervous and excited for. That is, with the cast of BeerSharkMice, an improv troupe that performs at Improv Olympic West, one of the branches of the theater formerly headed by Del Close. The cast consists of Michael Coleman, Pat Finn, Neil Flynn (yes, that Neil Flynn), Peter Hulne, and David Koechner (yes, that David Koechner). Through a miscommunication, we arrived significantly earlier than they did, so we spent some time putzing around the area, including checking out the walk of fame, and observing the hordes of people going to see Wicked at the Pantages. My favorite was a group of young ladies being driven around in a red stretch pickup truck labeled "Elegant Limousine."
We eventually met up with the cast and they agreed to chat with us after the show. The show was as hilarious as one would expect, the cast played wonderfully with one another and even did great work incorporating an audibly drunk audience member into the show. Afterwards we spoke to the cast in one of IO's classrooms. The interview was positively amazing, and I'm still reeling a bit from it. It was amazing to hear these guys, accomplished actors doing improv, basically my ideal life, talk a bit about how they got their, and offer us some of their advice. Their advice was so relevant it is a bit mind-blowing. Perhaps I'll say more about it when I've had a bit of time to absorb everything.
After the talk with BeerSharkMice, we headed back to Moorpark for another night of rest at my Aunt and Uncle's, which I will now be concluding this post to enjoy.
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