Thursday is Humpday Now.

Ugh.
I just fell asleep at my desk...for the THIRD TIME...TODAY!

I know I am getting older because I just can't stay up until 1AM and be in by 9AM anymore without feeling like my eyes are being punched. Its partially not my fault. The powers that be at iO decided to create a 10:30PM Wednesday slot. We thought there would be nobody there, but there were actually a significant amount of people (over 25). We had one of our best shows ever and the crowd loved it. Several members of the Harold Commission saw it as well, so that bodes well for us I hope. So needless to say I am a little sleepy from doing a show and then having to wait for the adrenaline to run out to go to bed.

While I was in my sleepytime state in my officle I came to the following conclusions:

1. I will be applying to be a contestant on Big Brother.

2. I will live here:

Its called Buckingham Pews, and its wonderful. I just hope something opens when I am ready to move. Also, I decided that if I love the place enough I will try and figure out how to get a subletter, or something. Wonderous!

3. I must choose my new custom show from either Puma or Nike...would you like to help? Puma is first...



Or Nike?...


Oh well that's what I think of when I doze off. That and how I really want a PS2 again so I can play Kingdom Hearts and Guitar Hero.

Strange? Of course. Good day.

Wow I'm behind...

The best laid plans...I got super busy and haven't updated this in awhile, and now I will.

Lets see, I am on my third week of working in the new spot, which means I get paid this Friday...I am so excited to see that money! I plan on buying the following:

• New shoes
• Some new clothes
• Some books
• Possibly a PS2 and Guitar Hero (for serious)

The guy next to me has finally stopped his secret masturbating, I think someone said something to him. Though the other day I caught him peeking through the window part into my office. Weirdo.

OK so that's the work wrapup.

Improv...
I am supremely excited about pH's new show, pHamily the Musical. Mike Descoteaux is a brilliant director and is super excited about putting this show together. I really think its going to be a huge hit for pH. We had our second core cast rehearsal last night and we are already putting together improvised verses, and he is giving us really great tricks to work from. Last night was the first all cast rehearsal in awhile too, and we announced the plan to break the group up into 3 mini groups going forward. Tuesdays are now officially my longest day...Work 8:30-5, Musical 6-8:30, General rehearsal 8:30-10. Egads.

This past weekend was another decent weekend, pHreedom pHalls finally hit a home run. Decent crowd and the show was really great. Everyone was on point and Alaina and Brad really stole the show, it was a good feeling. We didn't have pHrenzy that night due to poor audience turnout (stupid warm weather). Earlier on Friday night I had my last Friday show with Mr. Fahrenheit for awhile. The new schedule came out and we were put back to a mid-major schedule, so no more awesome weekends of shows. We went out with a bang though, the show was off the hook funny. I said it before and I'll say it again, this is a great team. MVP honors go to Sharon Kom this week for setting up a ballsy second beat that had the audience gasping with shock and laughter. Saturday night started with a Pastor show. What can I say about Pastor? Its just fun. We have the most ridiculous silly fun shows. This was no exception. I really had a blast and it was a good time. There was a moment of tension when one of the players decided to give us all a slightly negative note. I got a little panicked that this was going to start happening. I mean, don't get me wrong, his note was right, but I don't think its a good idea for someone who was in the show to give notes, and Pastor is not that kind of team. After Pastor, I headed over to Stage Left to do my first pHamily show in a long while. It was a pretty good show, good turnout and a pretty well-acted affair. I keep thinking of how much more fun its going to be when we can sing, but its still a fun show. pHrenzy pHucked that night was packed again, and Brad Norman hosted as Pete Aycher, pH's biggest fan. I can't decide if I think the chracter, helped or hurt our image. He was a big geeky guy that was lonely, etc...The show was really fun and Adal prevailed again. 4 in a row for that kid, he's on a roll. That show keeps me on my toes, because its so different and is always on the cusp of teetering into a dark place, but its been pretty solid for a month now. We even got a 4 star rating on GoldStar, so that's cool.

Sunday...probably one of the most fun Robbers rehearsals in a long time. There were just the four of them, but they worked their asses off, and it was a great productive rehearsal. Of note, a new warmup came called 3 Chair to Get. I can't explain it. Loyola was really productive too. Those kids are phenoms. Just so open to being brutally coached by me and my assistant, Cameron...they are great sports and working hard. They are performing more now so that's good too.

All in all a good week since last post. I am slow again at work, so there will be more later.

All I can close with is this:


HOLY CRAP.
Should I be this excited and this old?
HOLY CRAP.

Weekend Wrapup 1

I meant to write on Monday but didn't get the chance...my weekend was filled with performancey fun, I'll hit the highlights and low-lights.

Friday night - Show with Mr. Fahrenheit at iO. We usually open the 8PM slot and have had this slot the entire schedule. It bodes well for the team. What's more is we do a great job in that slot so I think we'll get to keep it. This particular Friday was another team, Quincy, last show and they asked if they could go first so that all their players could be there. We obliged. They had a great show...some of my favorite people are on that team...Kayce Alltop, Brooke Bagnall, Ryan McClelland, Chris Berzac, etc., and I was really bummed to see them cut. What's more I was really bummed to see many of them not reassigned. Hey, come to pH! Ha. So we went up after a very emotional last show. We knocked it out of the park. I have to say in 9 teams at iO this is by far the very best one I have ever been on. Alpha Squad (my first team) was incredibly fun, but this team is full of super talented, super nice people. I really love every show we do together. Our suggestion was "keepsake" and we immediately did our fun, "lets do an over the top Harold opening", where we created this huge treasure chest and described things flying out of it, like sparkles, hopes, Halmark ornaments, the year 2022, etc. This spun into a discussion of who put the box there, was it ancient Incans, was it Darwin or was it Jesus himself. After a press conference with Jesus we went into our first scene. The first scene was me, Kevin Sciretta and Jeff Sevener...it was about going through grandma's attic now that she's dead and how sad it was. Ryan Stone provided an ample walk-on as dead grandma. The show was fast and very funny and everyone had awesome moments. Our coach was very pleased, and I think some members of the Harold Commission (the governing body of quality at iO) saw it too and liked it. I am glad I got to play, because later that night I was supposed to be in pHreedom pHalls, pH's improvised sitcom. Unfortunately, we did not have a show that night. That slot has been tough to get people in, but that should change soon. I did get to watch Friday night's pHrenzy show, with guest stars Tim Baltz and Pat Dwyer. It was a weird wonderful show. The show was full of a lot of low-key, sarcastic, cerebral players...Baltz, Mike Berg, Aggie Hewitt, Meg O'Rourke, Marty Gangler and some newbies. The very first round saw Tim Baltz tie with Meg O'Rourke to go out of the show, and then Tim lost the tiebreaker so he was out...already! Then later in the show when Tristan (the host for the evening) called for the cast to come up for pHight or pHlight (the halfway point competition) nobody showed! They all thought they had one more round, so Tristan kept the show going without them and they missed their chance to get back into the show. Surreal! Not sure that it would have mattered much, because our new guy, Jeff Behrends brought a ton of people and they would have voted him back in...turns out he won the show and it was a good first outing for the lad.

Saturday was mostly spent figuring out how I was going to come up with a costume for my character later that night in pHrenzy pHucked, which is the dirty version of pHrenzy. My paycheck from my old job finally came but it hadn't "hit" the account yet so I was still cash-less. I could only write checks at Jewel to stay alive. Ugh. So most of the day was spent playing Guitar Hero with Tristan upstairs. I am getting a lot better. By the time I left I was on Medium on all the songs. Woo-hoo. I finally pieced together a costume and boy was it something! The night started however with pHamily, which had a solid cast and our new guy Dennis Frymire was in the center and did a wonderful job. The show was absolutely wonderful with some great performances by Aaron Ellsworth, Bryce Wissel and Kayce Alltop to name a few. Then came time for pHrenzy pHucked. I planned on playing a retarded leprechaun, as a statement to all the jerks in Wrigleyville who get obliterated on St. Patrick's Day. I was worried about the character because it is so offensive. But then I remembered the show is supposed to be offensive. So I did it. The show was out of control and awesome fun. It was dirtier than its been in a long time, but it was still really great. At one point Kayce Alltop and Adal Rifai were doing a scene where Jesus was getting S&M from Mary Magdalene. WOW. We had a packed house (again) for this show and I think the crowd really liked it. I gave out small green prizes for people as their favorite improviser went out. The prizes were: mint jelly, a lime, sponges, an apple, pistachio pudding, cookies, a can of peas and a box of Lucky Charms. They really liked it. The show was great, and Adal won his third pHrenzy pHucked in a row. That kid is on a tear.

Here's me giving Adal the tropHy in my outfit...


Sunday was an eh day for me. My voice was shot from hosting pHucked the night before and I felt terrible. So I called my assistant coach for Loyola and she took care of things for the night. Space Robbers also had the day off as they were all out partying the night before. So Sunday was rest day!

And now the second work week begins...

Weekly Work Wrapup

I have officially completed one week of my new job!
Here's what I learned this week...

1. Offices of 5 people make for lonely lunches. :(
2. Officles allow us to hear co-workers masturbating.
3. Cleaning people in the AON building are all Polish.
4. I got a free Shamrock Shake today because the agency I work for is residing in the agency that does McDonalds advertising.
5. This job is going to be a lot of work.
6. The AON building cafeteria is delish.
7. It takes approximately 30 seconds to go 41 floors.

Huzzah! Til next week...

On being poor...

So I am way too poor. I am almost 30 and working in a great industry yet I can't buy lunch today because I have $1 and change to my name. You see I worked at an ad agency through the entire 9/11 downfall of advertising and made it through without being laid off. BUT because of that I didn't make any money either. I stayed there for almost 8 years and was making the salary of about a junior level person. EEEK.

Then came the new job...fell into my lap and I took it. I started this past Monday and the job pays significantly more money. Almost double my old salary! That's a lot of moola. So I am about to go from poor to comfortable. However, there's a catch...I don't get paid at the new job until the end of the month...and I didn't work a full 2 weeks at my last job so the paycheck won't be full (the paycheck I could barely live on before) and what's worse...they are mailing me my final check so I have no idea when I am going to get it.

So for the time being, I am almost 30, and too poor to eat.

Disgusting Office Worker...

OK I have yet to post about improv and I will, I promise, but I have to comment on something that has been puzzling me and making me laugh/cry all day.

So I started a new job on Monday of this week, and I have this weird "officle" thing. Its like an office for all intents and purposes. It has a door, its big, there's seating but the walls stop about 1 foot from the ceiling...RETARDED.

So as a result of this I can hear EVERYTHING around me. And what's worse is that nobody plays a radio or anything so its eerily silent. Its very weird. So the guy next to me is a pretty young guy and has been friendly to me. Well the other day I was in my officle for an extended period of time and I hear him talking in a really creepy "sexy" voice. The gist is he is talking dirty to his girlfriend and being super-inappropriate. Here's a sample...(of course these are just his lines because I can't hear her)

"I love you so much"
"I wish you were right here"
"God I love you so much"
"What are you wearing?"
"Oh God I love those panties, take a picture and send it to me"
"God I love you"
"Yeah I got the picture"
"God your fucking hot"
"I love you so much"
::GROANING for 2 minutes followed by a grunt of relief::
"Thanks baby, I'm going to do that to you tonight"
"God I love you"
"Miss you too"
"See you at 5:30"

So I think its pretty clear that my next door officemate is masturbating in his officle to the woman he just saw 3 hours ago and will see again tonight.

He has done this 3 days in a row now.

Irrational Fears...

OK so I really hate my apartment. I don't hate my roommate, he's great. I don't hate the neighborhood, it's great. But the apartment itself, it's a massive shithole. I have the back bedroom which is barely big enough for my bed and one other piece of furniture and I have to keep the closet door open because it can't shut (my bed is in the way). I can sit on my bed and do everything. Plain and simple...it sucks.

So because it is an older building we occasionally get the errant insect (moth, spider, ant) roaming through our apartment. Well since I have moved into this apartment I now have an irrational fear of spiders. When I first moved in there were cobwebs everywhere and I cleaned them all, and maybe the first week I was there I saw a spider on my bed. The next week I saw a spider crawling up its "line" to its web ABOVE MY BED! So now I keep waking up in the middle of the night and thinking I am seeing daddy long legs, and spiders on my pillow next to me, or on the wall next to my bed. I throw my covers back and start throwing my arms and legs around and turn the light on and breathe heavily for about 20 minutes. I look all around the room, and of course there is no evidence of said spiders. But I am convinced they are there.

And I was convinced at 5:15 this morning too.

I'm almost 30.

My First Post

So I have decided that I really should start keeping a journal per se of my life experiences, as my 30th Birthday approaches. I have 3 months until I start my 30s and I have to say its been a great road thus far.

I am going to try and keep a daily account of what's going on in my life AND some thoughts on what it's like to be a working professional and an aspiring actor in Chicago.

As of right now I am doing the following with my life:

PROFESSIONALLY
Associate Creative Director at Alcone Marketing, making great money and working on some cool brands. I can't say what they are but they involve hot dogs and cheeses! I am basically a super senior art director. Just started this job 2 days ago. Before that I was at another agency Draftfcb for almost 8 years. WOW.

ACTING
I hesitate to call it acting...since all I really do is improv and sketch, but I would assume that's enough to consider myself an actor. At the current time I am helping to run a comedy theater company, that I also was one of the founders of...pH Productions. We do shows every Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Stage Left Theatre in Chicago. Its pretty awesome. In addition to that I play on a team at The Playground Theater called Pastor of Muppets and I coach a team there called Space Robbers. I also play at the iO Theater (formerly Improv Olympic) on a team called Mr. Fahrenheit.

So I'm a pretty busy guy. That being said, I'm always trying to take on more!