Outrider

[Sammy]

4/3/02--Wednesday--4:30 in the P.M.

Another slow day at work...made worse but a trio of anticipations:

#1--15 cent wing night at Brother Jimmy's with friends.

#2--The Super Cagematch.

#3--TJ Jagodowski and Dave Pasquesi's two-man show after that.

Bring it on! I'm charged for a week of improv goodness!

 

[Sammy]

4/5/02--Friday--9:20 in the a.m.

I still can't figure out why I wake up at 6 a.m. every day even though I don't have to be awake for work until 7 a.m. Well, maybe it's a good thing given that it's Daylight Savings Time ("Spring Forward!") this Sunday. Instead of waking up, looking at the clock and cursing before I go back to sleep, I'll be waking up, looking at the clock and cursing before I go to work. Such is life.

* * *

Super Cagematch.

Holy shitballs, could it be any more crowded? The legal limit for the IO Cabaret is 65. The usual limit is 100 or so. The max is around 120.

We must have had 140 stuffed in there.

I ended up running lights for the whole shindiggy and got to meet and chat (briefly) with Billy Merritt, Andy Secunda, Sean (Shawn?), Delaney in the light booth. Nice to have faces attached to all the names I see on here.

Dual Exhaust played Toronto in the first match-up. Zach and Beth had a good show and topped the Canucks (who did a musical of sorts).

The second match-up featured the Improv Bandits, a 3-man team from New Zealand (last second fill ins for the cancelled LA team), versus New York's Swarm.

The Kiwis killed. They had a high energy, exhuberant set that had the audience eating out of their hands. Bits, bits, bits--but what funny bits. They topped the Swarm, who had a solid, fun show, and would meet DE in the finals.

DE went up and had another good show. And then the New Zealanders went up and did the ballsiest thing I've seen in the Cagematch, super or otherwise--they did a 22 minute silent piece. The whole 22 minute scene was set in a movie theater and had the audience engrossed and invested.

Ballsy, ballsy, ballsy.

And in the end, when it came time to announce the winners the Kiwis claimed the crown. I hear it was a 3-vote margin that separated the Improv Bandits from Dual Exhaust, so it was cool that two such different styles of improv resonated with the audience. It was also cool to see 3-man and 2-man ensembles duking it out for all the marbles.

Right after the Super Cagematch hoo-hah, the next show that night was TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi's two man improv show. (TJ bought me a beer, so I ended doing lights for that show also!)

Once again, it was 40 minutes of improv that I wouldn't have missed for anything in the world. It was fun, smart, playful and disturbing at times. God bless those guys!

* * *

CIF MAINSTAGE - THURSDAY

Our baby is all grown up.

Huge crowd, beautiful set, video intro, award ceremonies...

Wow.

But despite all the frou-frou, it was the improv that (rightly) stood out.

Craig Cackowski, TJ Jagodowski, Jean Augustyn and (Colleen? Eileen) represented Second City with a fun set that reminded me of the magic of the first SC-Detroit sets I saw when I first started improvising. (I felt awkward at one point because Craig made a reference to his teeth falling out--a recent thread on Improv Chicago--and I laughed out loud...the only one in a theater of hundreds. I felt like such a net nerd.)

Lo Roim Mimeter, Israeli Improvisers, were consummate showman, turning their limited English skills into a potent weapon. Although they did a simple game set, you rooted for them simply because you liked them so much.

Finally, JANE, IO's first (and only) all-female troupe closed out the night.

They rocked. End of story.

If this is them after several years off and limited rehearsal--I can't imagine what they must have been like in their heyday. I felt priviledged to have seen them play last night.

Sidenote: The Israeli Consulate General sat behind me during the show. I wonder how they would have felt having a man of Palestinian descent sitting right in front of them? Especially with all the crap that's going down right now. Sidenote to the sidenote: There was a guy who sat right next to me who I very seriously suspect was an undercover agent of some sort. Anytime I moved or accessed my bag during the show, he looked right at me without looking right at me. It was totally creepy. He didn't seem very interested in any of the improv and had that "Is this over yet?" aura emanating from him. End sidenotes.

I visited the official after-party for a few minutes to say hey to everyone and then walked a chilly two miles home--lost in thought. Replaying that night's scenes, thinking about what I'd done in the last two years and plotting what I wanted to do in years to come. You know you've seen good improv when you get introspective about your own work.

Sidenote #3. After TJ's and Pasquesi's show, Tom Flannigan quoted the guy who sat next to him during the show. The guy said, "After seeing TJ perform, you either feel that if he can do it, you can do it too...or you feel like you'll never be that good and you should quit."

OK, more thoughts later...

 

[Sammy]

4/6/02--Saturday--Morning

A long day of work ahead of me today--gotta monitor 7 programs with a total running time of 4 hours or so...I'll just plop down whatever comes to mind during the rest of the day.

* * *

Majorly grumpy tummy yesterday. I slept through CIF SOLO, but managed to drag myself to CIF DUO at IO and caught some hot, hot 2-man improv. Sheila's Sister had a fun set, TJ Jagodowski & Dave Pasquesi had another standout show and then Weirdass hit a homerun to close the night out. I was laughing so hard I forgot to be miserable.

During the show, I sat next to a girl who must have thought I was hitting on her because she kinda made a point* to tell me she was expecting a call on her cell from a boy she likes. I immediately opened the spigot and let the bits gush forth. I'll be damned if I'll be shot down when I'm not even TRYING to hit on her (not that I wouldn't have eventually, but that's irrelevant ). I made her laugh and that made me feel better for some odd reason--maybe it's because of that feeling of vindication, you know, "Yeah, I'm funny, intelligent and personable--your loss, toots! Pre-emptively ward ME off! Poop on you! And, yeah, I said 'toots'! "

*Well, maybe she didn't make a point of it, but it was definitely more than an offhanded mention.

Whatever. I made her laugh.

 

[Sammy]

4/6/02--Saturday--Early Afternoon

Taking a break from monitoring by watching the very indulgent You're Busted! on MTV. This is where the partiers MTV follows during spring break see the footage shot by the network in a room with their friends, family and significant others.

heheheheheheh

Lord knows you throw all the T & A nastiness that MTV is known for plus a dash of confrontation reality TV backed by a top 40 soundtrack and it is all too irresistable for me. (Besides, the looks on the cuckolded boyfriends and and stunned mothers are priceless in and of themselves.) The only downer is the Lenny Kravitz wannabe host Quduus.

Segment of note so far--MTV Fear Factor blender margarita made of Cow spleen, Rooster Jewels and Pig Rectum. Close second: the guy who lost his virginity to chick on spring break and then MTV tries to reunite them (she wants no part of it).

How come my spring breaks weren't this good? Well, they kinda were in a PG-13-but-all-the-R-things-happen-to-my-buddies kinda way.

For the most part, my spring breaks were kinda tame.

My first spring break was senior year of High School. A co-ed group of us went to Nassau in the Bahamas. It was the first time I had ever really gotten drunk, got freaky on the dance floor or kissed naked boobies. It was also the first time I ever hated my friends for being drunk, had people screw in the same room as me and did the awkward there's-the-girl-I-hooked-up-with-don't-look-at-her-phew-I-don't-think-she-saw-me thing.

Somehow, a rumor got out that I got laid a couple times down there and, of course, I did nothing to debunk that delicious untruth. (What made it all the more savory was the fact the other guys in the group boasted non-stop before and during the trip of their expected sexual forays while I, the awkward but loudmouthed Sammy, kept mum on that topic. Then, after they had struck out and I had a few makeout sessions away from the eyes and ears of everybody, the rumor started. Ahhhh...my sexual glory days...)

My second spring break was about 4 years later. A bunch of us drove down to Panama City Beach in Florida and drank an unholy amount of beer. We went down in two different groups, one mostly guys and one mostly girls and the hooking up occurred mostly between these peeps. I, being some 80 pounds heavier than 4 years previous, did not hook up. Nope. Not at all. Nada. I did drink until near blindness and that helped take the edge off of seeing all your friends hooking up or hearing them hooking up or hearing about them hooking up. By taking the edge off, I mean dulling the pain of realizing you're not going to hook up, make noise hooking up or boast about hooking up.

The highlights of the second spring break: stealing a neighbor's Santa Claus from their basement and taking pictures of it along I-75 to Florida and then in Florida with the ladies on the beach, the "Quote Board" (a huge sheet of paper where we'd write memorable lines spoken during our debachauries) and shooting pool against some pretty girls and kicking the shit out of them (I had a lot of pent up sexual frustration in me and I channelled that into destroying the egos of two girls via several brilliant combinations, a damn slick masse and a badass long distance jump...I like to think, that years later, they reminisce over baby carriages in the Central Park about the badass pool player in a Hawaiian shirt who cleaned their clocks in a spring break bar so long ago.)

The lowlights were not hooking up, not hooking up and, by the way, not hooking up.

Ach. I'm sad now.

 

[Sammy]

4/7/02--Sunday--4 in the p.m.

Ahhhh...laundry day. The day I feel most useless and trapped--I'm held at the mercy of three washing machines and two dryers...and one unseen person who is using some of them...

* * *

Saturday night I caught the CIF showcase performances of Detroit's YFF, ImprovBoston and NYC's Amnesia Wars. It was to see some old faces from home. I popped backstage before the next show and chatted with Chad Haught before heading downstairs.

I craftily cut into the front of the line of hundreds of people and was one the first score or so to secure seats to the CIF Mainstage show of Mother and ASSSCAT. The show started late, ended late and I went to sleep even later thanks to daylights savings time. (UCB bit at top of show by Ian and Matt was hilarious.)

I really wish Mother, The Swarm and Respecto Montalban got to play on the IO cabaret stage together as a UCB nights of sorts. I would really want to see them perform in a more intimate space for a regular (non-cage match, non-CIF) performance.

Observation: Colin Mochrie looks like an aged John DeLancie ("Q" from Star Trek: The Next Generation).

* * *

Well, the Project is rarin' to go. We pretty much have a handle on what we want to do and I'm going to try to get a time and space locked down from IO in the next couple days. As some peeps pointed out, we need a definite goal to shoot for to keep us motivated. I'm too tired to go over what we've worked out over the last few weeks, but basically it's a transformative piece based on sonic bridges and cues. We have other devices we can use in the piece, so we're going to explore and clarify their use in the next couple of rehearsals. More on that when we get closer to showtime.

* * *

For the final night of CIF, I'm just going to IO to see my friends play. Gonna watch Warden's Daughter and Deep Schwa and then try to get Jeff Griggs to figure out when the Project can perform at IO.

I'm feeling a little improv'd out, but maybe after a little dinner and beer, I'll be ready for more of the magic of improvised theater.

 

[Sammy]

4/8/02--Monday--10:30 in the p.m.

From WBBM-TV (CBS) Channel 2: SBC Ameritech conducted a poll asking customers who they wouldn't want a call from. The other person could be real or fictional. 40% said they didn't want a call from Hannibal Lecter. 24% said they wouldn't want to talk to the IRS. 9% said didn't want it to be the boss from work.

 

[Sammy]

4/11/02--Thursday--12:45 in the a.m.

DORK MOMENT OF THE WEEK #1

During Inside the Improviser's Studio with Charna Halpern, Jason Chin, the host, asked her to explain the rental policies and how shows got picked to play there.

At one point she asked, "Is Sammy Tamimi still here?" I said I was and she asked about the status of the Project. She mentioned how it had an 'interesting' group of people and wanted to know what was up with it. I was so caught off guard she remembered the Project proposal that I stuttered and stumbled out a flustered answer.

Total dork moment.


DORK MOMENT OF THE WEEK #2

I was going to ask a girl out for coffee or dinner or something for next week. Totally chickened out even though I talked to her a lot that evening. I had many opportunities throughout the night, but I totally felt awkward about bringing it up.

Typical dork moment.


DORK MOMENT OF THE WEEK #3

Sitting in Panera Bread reading a tattered Batman Compilation trade paperback. The thick book has reprinted Batman stories from the '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s. Total trip to read. Off course I was wearing my crooked eyeglasses and hunched over, totally into it.

Dark Knight Dork moment.

 

[Sammy]

4/11/02--Thursday--6 in the p.m.

Well, I have to admit it...initially I was a bit leery and unsure of it, but ImprovOlympic's Improv Fantasy League has started to win me over.

What is the Improv Fantasy League? It is the new thing replacing Slugfest at IO.

From the official page of the I.F.L.:


THE RULES

Eight teams

One General Manager and one Head Coach for each team


THE DRAFT

The night of the Live Draft, a lottery drawing will occur to determine the draft order. There will be eight rounds. Once through the first round, teams will then draft in descending order (i.e. The team that drafts first will then have the 16th pick, while the team that picks eighth will also have the ninth pick).

Each team will have three minutes per pick.

Each team must have nine active players on their rosters.

Coaches and General Managers are not available to be drafted.

There must be a minimum of three female players on each team.

Once a team has drafted a player from an existing IO Harold team, they can not draft another member from that team. Of course, other Fantasy teams can continue to draft other members from that team.

Once the draft is finished everyone that's not drafte enters the free agent pool. Since there's only eight rounds, at least one player from each fantasy team will have to be a free agent.

A point system will be enforced so as to encourage equality between the teams. Each player will be given a point classification depending on their current IO Harold team. Teams can have a maximum of 33 points.

• 5 Points - Pitchers
• 3 Points - Outfielders
• 2 Points - Infielders
• 1 Point - Training Center Students
• 5 Points - Former IO Team Members (Must be Approved by Commissioner)


PITCHERS

Improvisers eligible for the draft as pitchers are members of the following teams:

• Carl and the Passions
• Deep Schwa
• The Pat Shay Dancers
• People of Earth
• Prefontaine
• Space Mountain
• Super Dreamers
• Valhalla


OUTFIELDERS

Improvisers eligible for the draft as outfielders are members of the following teams:

• Fox Force Five
• Garbage
• Honeyslide
• Missions: Improvable
• The Reckoning
• Warden's Daughter


INFIELDERS

Improvisers eligible for the draft as infielders are members of the following teams:
• Calcutta
• Johnny Roast Beef
• The Judith Collection
• Local 914
• Math Fight
• Metropolis
• Nolan on the River



Once the season begins each player will have a two show eligibility in an eight week season.

Trades and additions from the waiver wire or the free agent pool must be approved by the commissioner.

Roster moves must take into account the 33 point maximum and the two show eligibility rules.

There will be two leagues with four teams in each league.

One team from each league will be invited to play in the new season of the fantasy league.

The two teams will be decided from votes by the teams in the opposing league.


TEAMS:

The Andersonville Lesbian-Swedes
The Bucktown Gentrifiers
The Lincoln Park Trixies
The Rogers Park Cheap Rent
The Roscoe Village Condo Association
The Schaumburg Suburbans
The Uptown Homeless
The Wrigleyville Frat Boys


GENERAL MANAGERS:

Craig Cackowski
Bill Arnett and Danny Mora (Sale Pending)
Jason Chin
Charna Halpern
Peter Gwin
Joe Canale
Bill Saveley
(+1 TBA)


Personal note: Due to a loophole in the rules, I am worth either 5 points (Former IO Harold Team Member) or 1 point (Current Training Center Student)--point cost to be determined by GM when drafting me per official judgement of the IFL Commisioner.

So, what do I think of all this?

Well, in theory, at least 72 people are going to get two more shows per schedule. Those 8 new teams will be composed of interesting combinations of players who usually don't perform together. That's the main thing I really do like. I'm a little worried about if the actual execution of the idea, but I'll let things run their course and see how it all shakes out.

The Draft order lottery is tonight before Slugfest. The actual Draft is on Monday after Armando. More reports as things develop.

 

[Sammy]

4/12/02--Friday--9 in the a.m.

Dammit!

The IFL draft is closed to the public!

Oh, the lovely bits I had planned for Draft Night--all for naught!

sigh.

* * *

Draft Order (Determined by random drawing):

8- Jason Chin
7- Bill Saveley
6- Peter Gwinn
5- Charna Halpern
4- Craig Cackowski
3- Nick Kanel
2- Danny Mora/Bill Arnett(Sale Pending)
1- Joe Canale

 

[Sammy]

4/13/02--Saturday--9:30

Another Saturday, another monitoring hell...

* * *

Had an idea for a two act show on El this morning.

I was totally running/tweaking/morphing the idea and cast and staging in head. Yeah, that's right, I'm about to book the Project, I'm in pre-production for The Deuce and now I'm already planning my pitch to IO for Call & Response.

Crikey, when did I turn into such a improv mogul?

 

[Sammy]

4/16/02--Tuesday--9:15 a.m.

The weather is gorgeous and so are the women!

 

[Sammy]

4/17/02--Wednesday--9 in the a.m.

I don't know how they did it.

The other day, a group of improvisers took to the stage for 24 hours to raise money for an Uptown homeless shelter.

I managed to catch the last 5 hours or so at the Second City E.T.C. It was surreal. As the improvisers would perform, it seemed the audience would clap for no reason. Actually, the audience was clapping for callbacks of scenes from the past 19 hours! Yes, there was a contingent (about 8 or so) who had been there since the beginning and there was a larger number of those who had been there the night before and came back later during the 24-hour show!

The only way to describe the "show" was silly, exhuberant, bedraggled improv.

A couple of the performers looked rough (TJ looked like someone beat the shit out of him) and a couple seemed to be in a totally different state of awareness (Cackowski and Shortall stayed awake all 24 hours!).

Highlights: Watching these guys play through their exhaustion, seeing them be silly with each other, Mick Napier recognizing the 24-hour audience members and letting them play onstage, the standing ovation at the end of the show.

Lowlights: The 24-hour people right by the stage monopolizing suggestion giving. (A group of us in the back formed an alliance to outshout the the front row guys--sad, I know...but dammit, WE WILL BE HEARD!)

Memorable Moment: TJ revealing during the the "as you about you" interviews he had thrown up earlier.

I want to write more, but I'll find some of the veterans of the R.E.S.T. benefit and let them describe their experience in their own words.

 

[Sammy]

4/17/02--Wednesday--High Noon (oo-ee-oo--ee--oo wah-wah-wah)

EVALUATION TIME:

Finances--Got to get my shit together. End of story. I make around $1,200 after taxes and rent and bills eat half of that off the git go, leaving $150/week to live on. Not bad, but not ideal. I need to reign in the unnecessary spending ASAP. My reserves are way too low for my liking and I'm tapping into them way too much.

Physical--Got to get my shit together. Did Bally's for about a month, but had to stop due to crazy, crazy improv schedule. Hopefully, next week will sort out a couple of things for me and make it easier to prioritize some quality healthy-time. I want to buy a cheap bike finances willing. We'll see. Also, getting more sleep than usual...which is good because I usually skimp on that department.

Mental--Shit is semi-together. I've started a chess renaissance of sorts at work. I brought in my nice chess board (picked up in Greenwich Village during my NYU year) and taught Paul and reminded Mike how to play chess. Now, Paul is an avid student and Mike a ready player. I have my wooden board, my vinyl board and my chess clock at my desk. To avoid trouble with management (since we play all the time), we now play via e-mail with www.postcardchess.com--check it out, it's awesome. My learning Italian is going slow. With the nicer weather, though, I'm more apt to grab the Italian books and sit in a coffeeshop and do some studying now.

(Sidenote: I'm watching The Outer Limits on TV right now. It's the one where two humans are chosen to fight for Earth against aliens on the Planet Arena. The winners and their planet survive. The losers and their planet are destroyed. I decided if I got kidnapped by the Master Alien and had to chose a battle partner, I think I would pick Beth Melewski: she's smart and comes from from hardy stock. She could help us in a battle of brains or brawn. If I had to choose a male in my place, I'd send Ed O'Rourke, my former roommate. There would be some serious alien ass whuppin' if Ed went--that is if he didn't befriend the aliens and then go out drinking with them on Planet Bacchus first.)

Improv: Things are going to shake out in the next couple weeks. Plates spinning: Celtic Shame Circle, The Project, Carrane's Class, IO Schedule, The Deuce and the incomparable Ms. Parker.

Celtic Shame Circle--Our last show is this Friday. The run is done and my Fridays are free once again.

The Project--we're wrapping up the first part of the rehearsal process. We're taking a break until we get a set performance run. Once we have those dates from IO, we'll rehearse during the four weeks leading up to the first show. So, Sundays off...for a while.

Carrane's Class--Jimmy Carrane is teaching a class and I'm taking it. It's a bit pricey ($270--ouch! Feel the financial hemmorage...) but I got a feeling it's going to be worth it. That starts this week and eats up my Thursdays.

The Deuce--The new SC show goes up in mid-May, so it's getting to that time where I gotta pull together who's in and who's out and figure out the schedule of rehearsals.

Ms. Parker--Kate Parker invited to start rehearsing two-person improv with her. Looks like Sunday rehearsals is what works for both us. Gonna start that in a couple of weeks. So, Sundays are back on...in a little while. If you're reading this Kate, this is no way nullifies my constant teasing/goading of you on Improv Chicago.

IO Schedule--Schedule's supposed to come out next week. I talked to Charna last weekend, so we'll see how things shake out. I may be back on a team, or I may not...so I may have an extra rehearsal/show a week or not. If I don't get on the Schedule, I got do some serious thinking about what's what and re-evaluating about things.

So, in theory, the next couple of week will be me in class with Carrane and rehearsing with Kate. With any luck, I'll get on a team. If not, I'm seriously hurting for stage time.



OK, thanks for indulging my thinking out loud. It's a damn slow day at work, so I'll probably do some more yapping later on.

 

[Sammy]

4/22/02--Monday--10:30 in the p.m.

Doped up on Dayquil and Centrum ("From AtoZinc").

Of the five transcribers, two called off and the third came in two hours late. Many news shows to monitor. Many transcripts to transcribe. We are beyond slammed.

My nose won't stop running. I can't stop sneezing. I'm having flashbacks to the feverdreams of last night (For some reason, the mutant genetic seed in improvisers was activated--with half the improv community at the first stage of mutation and the other half at the second stage of mutation. For some reason, Jason Chin was a focal figure in all this. That's what I get for reading Earth X and Universe X when I'm really sick and loopy).

News: The Project has slotted a run at IO. Details forthcoming.

News II: I'm back on an IO Harold team. Details forthcoming.

Must get back to work.

 

[Sammy]

4/23/02--Tuesday--9:20 in the a.m.

Some People (Doctors) would say the reason I feel better is due to copious amounts of water, an overdose of Vitamin of C and 11 hours of sleep. Some People (Doctors) would dismiss the restorative powers of a pair of pulled pork sandwiches from Joey's (formerly Brother Jimmy's). Well, Some People (Doctors), poop on you!

 

[Sammy]

dUaL ExHAuSt and The Project present DOUBLE FEATURE

1boy… 1girl… 1suggestion! : Beth Melewski and Zach Ward perform a new full-length two-person improvised show every week. Seamlessly weaving monologues and scenes together, dUaL ExHAuSt creates a world of characters that take the audience on a thematic trust walk...well, run.

Courtesy Sleeve : Second City Alum TJ Jagodowski directs an experimental form that explores organic transformations and celebrates the communal nature of reality. The Project takes one suggestion and creates a free-flowing, trippy show.


SATURDAYS @ 8pm, May 11th thru June 15th.
Improv Olympic, 3541 N. Clark.
Tickets are $10

 

[Sammy]

2/26/02--Friday--11:15 in the a.m.

Spent too much money on comic stuff yesterday. Way too much.

But it was sooooooo worth it.

Picked up the softcover trade paper back of ASTRO CITY: The Tarnished Angel. Great underdog/redemption story of a villian trying to do the right thing. Very suspense, mystery feel to it. $20.

Grabbed a copy of Writers On Comics Scriptwriting. 235 pages of interviews with industry scribes like Kurt Busiek (Astro City), Chuck Dixon (Batman), Warren Ellis (Transmetropolitan), Neil Gaiman (The Sandman), Mark Waid (Kingdom Come), etc. Bought it for insight into the industry and their creative processes. $24.

Snatched up Wizard Magazine #129. Definitely a fanboy mag, but I love the pretty colors and the shameless enthusiasm for all things comics. This ish's cover is about the '80s boom in comics--i.e. the return of GI Joe, Transformers, Battle of the Planets, Micronauts and TMNT to the comic scene. $5.

And, of course, I actually picked up an honest to goodness comic book.

Spiderman's Tangled Web #13. STW is an anthology series and this ish's concept totally intrigued me. Spiderman's enemies hang out at a supervillian bar and bullshit about women, crime and Spiderman. Loved it. $3.50.

After taxes, $56 or so.

Man, I am such a nerd!

 

[Sammy]

4/26/02--Friday--11:30 in the a.m.

I would just like to amend the previous post with this comment:

That is the most money I have spent at one go on comic stuff EVER in my life. My monthly purchases average about $10. I do most of my comic reading at Border's or Virgin for free.

But man, sometimes you just gotta plunk down the ducats for the goods, y'know?

 

[Sammy]

4/26/02--Friday--11:35

I'm sitting in with the Union tonight at the Playground. I'll be playing with Dawn Franklin, former Uptown roommate/Juanita Bobo castmate.

Even though Dawn and I have shared many laughs, beers and tears together--we haven't shared the stage together since we did a Cagematch together back in the winter of 2000. Also sitting in is her current roommate, Ally. I've never performed with Ally outside of classes, even though I've known her since I moved to Chicago, so it'll be a treat playing with her also.

By the way, I also designed the website for The Union, if your definition means "was soooooo lazy he just used the Geocities web wizard and a layout so simple my Aunt Mabel could have designed it."

* * *

Two, maybe three, rehearsals left before The Project takes the stage. Since we're being double slotted with Dual Exhaust, I'm hoping we'll get nice houses off their rep and fans. A little nervous, but it's a good nervous. I spent the last year trying to get something to get something like this off the ground. It's gone from Mato Grbvac, Jim Schiedhauer, Pat O'Brien Shelly Gossman and me working with John Lutz as Our Thing/Cookie to this larger, even more talented group, working with TJ Jagodowski. It's like I can't believe it took, or lasted, this long. And now, in a couple weeks, we start a run at IO.

Awesome!

* * *

So, after six months of going back to classes and working to get back on a team, you'd figure I'd be ecstatic and overflowing and bursting with joy about getting back on a team.

Well, yeah. I'm happy and excited and all...but it's a muted enthusiasm.

It's like "whoo-hmm!" instead of "WHOO-HOO!!!" (notice the use of EXTRA CAPITAL LETTERS and !!!s).

I guess after six months of classes and Project rehearsals, I've got this very calm mindset of--"Let's punch in, roll up the sleeves and do some good work, Tamimi."

I guess maybe that's the way I feel, it's not an opportunity to perform, but an opportunity to do some good work.

Yeah, I like how that sounds. :up:

* * *

Last Friday, was quite the night.

Celtic Shame Circle ended on a high note. A classmate had sent out an e-mail making some good points about what was working and what wasn't with the show. That night before we went on, we all touched base and got on the same page about what we wanted to do on stage. It was probably one of our smarter, patient shows. We let scenes breathe and players really invested in each other's characters. Altough we could done tighter editing, I was happy we didn't have the walk-on/pile-on/on & on mentality of shows previous. It was quite the nice way to end the run.

After the show, the Project was offered the doubleslot with Duel Exhaust. Then, I was told I was being put back on a Harold team. In a frank manner I was told what was expected of me as a member of the ensemble...and, for that I was grateful--I knew where I stood and what my specific goals were. Too many times I had felt a bit lost with the nebulous goals I was given before on my trek to getting back on a team--and now that I was on one, I felt I had something solid to grab onto.

A word about the team (which is currently slave-named "Schneiderman"), I get to play with former Donker and current Projector Erin Cunningham and ever amiable beer buddy Andy Mason. I cannot explain how deliriously giddy I am to be playing with these two peeps.

* * *

Back to work...

 

[Sammy]

3/8/02--Wednesday--Morning

I'm in the middle of a three-hour monitoring report, so I'll be popping in all day.

* * *

Slowly, my improv routine is ramping up...

I've got a Harold team rehearsal tonight, a Harold show Thursday and Double Feature's opening night Saturday. The week after, I've got an Uncle Joe show on Friday and another DF show Saturday.

waitaminute...Uncle Joe?!

Yep, looks like the Cagematch is going to end with a brawl to end it all...the best of the current Cagematch and the old school Cagematch are going to duke it out.

So, apologies to Gator Girl, with any luck Uncle Joe will make it to the finals and play in the last Cagematch ever.

From Jeff Griggs' post:

We're altering the final few weeks just a little bit. Instead of a championship that involves four teams, it will involve eight teams and will run through the end of June.

The IO website will reflect the new changes in the next couple of days.

Here's the schedule:


Quarter Finals

May 17th- Tim Chidester's Cage Match Team vs Uncle Joe
May 24th- Dual Exhaust vs Leather and Lace
May 31st- Rockstars of Siam vs Rooftop Players
June 7th- Maximum Party Zone vs Cheetarah McNutt


Semi-Finals

June 14th- Winners of the 17th vs Winners of the 24th
June 21st- Winners of the 31st vs Winners of the 7th


Championship

June 28th- Winners of June 14th vs Winners of June 21st

Ironically, Uncle Joe--the team that ended the previous iteration of the Cagematch in controversy--is playing Tim Chidester's Cage Match Team--the team that ended the current Cagematch in controversy.

The other interesting 1st round matchup is Dual Exhaust, 1-girl, 1-guy improv, vs. Leather and Lace, also 1-girl, 1-guy improv.

I'm scrambling right now to let my peeps know--the announcement was yesterday and our show is next Friday.

UNCLE JOE roster:
Ryan Archibald (People of Earth)
Matt Chapman (Valhalla)
Jim Carlson (Valhalla)
Christina Gausas (Prefontaine)
Rush Howell (SuperDreamers)
Patrick Jacobi (Garbage)
John Lutz (Valhalla)
Eric Purkis (n/a)
Brian Shortall (SuperDreamers)
Andy St. Clair (People of Earth)
Miles Stroth (n/a)
Sammy Tamimi (Schneiderman)
Craig Uhlir (Deep Schwa/Valhalla)

Of course, this is what a FULL roster looks like--we'll have to see who shows up. Needless to says, this could be interesting...