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Jack McBrayer is a great guy. Full of energy and enthusiasm, he brings joy to audiences and colleagues alike. I was on the team, Bucket, with Jack and we had a grand ole time. His smile and sheer joy in performing shines through and he's just plain fun to watch or play with. Here's his bio from Second City:
"Jack McBrayer is extremely proud and honored to be making his resident stage debut in The Second City e.t.c.'s 21st Revue, History Repaints Itself. Originally from Conyers, Georgia, Jack has had the privilege of performing with The Second City National Touring Company, his team Georgia Pacific at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, and the nationally renowned G.O.C., wherever they could play. He is also an excellent waiter and temp. Jack extends his sincerest thanks to all of his fellow players (past and present), his family, and to his wonderful circle of friends. "
Of course, I should mention that I have personally watched as Jack McBrayer slaughtered an entire Dutch family with his bare hands and teeth. Anyway, Jack has consented to give us an insiders view of the creation of a Second City etc show. And now, heerreee's JACK!
ENTRIES: 1 ~ 2~ 3 ~4 ~ 5 ~ 6 ~ 7 ~ 8 ~ 9 ~10 ~ Special Edition! ~ 11 ~12 ~
NEW! 13 ~ 14 ~ 15 ~ 16 (Abby Part 2!) ~17 (Jack's Back!) ~ 18 new 12/5/00~ The Day Before! ~ The Last of Jack? ~
September 19, 2000
This is a journal of the rehearsal process for the Second City's 22nd revue. I am Jack McBrayer. My, that sounds dramatic.
Before I begin, I would like to thank Mr. Chin for the opportunity to share some of the things that happen during the process of putting together a Second City e.t.c. show. I am honored to be able to do it, and I hope it is interesting/enlightening to some of the people who may read this. I also preface this saying that I do not have the best vocabulary or sense of sentence structure, so please, please be patient with me.
I start writing this making some assumptions. I assume that most people know what the Second City e.t.c. theatre is, and that most people have seen at least one show at Second City. Just in case, though, I will give some background.
The Second City e.t.c. theatre is the studio theatre, or blackbox theatre, of the Second City mainstage. It came about in the early 80s as an alternative space for Second City shows to be produced, not so much in competition with the mainstage as much as just an extra play space. Or so I understand it.
The way a Second City show is developed is that a cast, director, stage manager, and musical director rehearse material for a period of a few months and then open a revue which will pretty much be "set" for the length of the run (usually from about 5 months to a year). The material comes from improvisation that happens during the rehearsal process, as well as ideas on how to satirize social or political concepts that are (hopefully) immediate and interesting. I had the great fortune of being able to help create the last e.t.c. show, "History Repaints Itself". We rehearsed from September 14, 1999 to December 17, 1999, when the show opened as part of Second City's 40th anniversary celebration. Today was the first day of rehearsals for our next revue (the e.t.c.'s 22nd revue), which is as of yet untitled.
This is the current e.t.c. ensemble: Martin Garcia, David Pompeii, and I return for this next revue. Martin and David were actually in the previous e.t.c. show, as well. They are our veterans. We have three new cast members. Andy Cobb comes from one of Second City?s Touring Companies (BlueCo), and takes the place of Craig Cackowski, who has moved on to the mainstage to create their 86th revue. Andy has done improv for many years. He was on the ImprovOlympic team Inside Vladimir (sp?) way back in the day, when the team had girls. I think with like Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. He?s a treat. Very nice, very funny, and very skinny. You?ll recognize him when you see him. Abby Sher joins us from BlueCo as well. She has taken over the role that Sue Gillan created for the last show. Sue is also on the mainstage now. Abby has performed for years, too. She played with her college improv group at the University of Chicago, she?s an IO alumni (Jane, and all sorts of other teams), and she currently plays in the Armando Diaz show at IO on Monday nights. She is a fantastic player and a dear friend. Ms. Deb Downing comes to us from RedCo, and this girl just cracks me up. She is a native of Texas, where she performed with Comedy Sportz. I think she might?ve been at ImprovOlympic, too, but I?ll have to check my facts. Deb is currently performing the roles created by Angela Shelton (who, also, has gone on to mainstage). This is especially challenging (but also hysterical) because Angela is an African-American actress, and some of the scenes that we created specifically address that fact. So when little white Deb came in, we had to modify some of the material. For example, one scene entitled Strollers has Angela in a big frosted wig being a Œghetto? nanny taking care of rich white children. We actually kept this scene as-is for Deb, and I tell you what?there is nothing funnier to me than a little white girl in a big wig speaking ebonics with a Texas accent. Unfortunately, I think we?ll be getting rid of Strollers fairly soon.
We retain our stage manager, Klaus Schuller, as well as our musical director, Trey Stone. We have a new director for this revue, Mr. Dexter Bullard. Dexter has directed BlueCo, the last Detroit Second City show, "Gratiot Happens", and Plasticene theatre. He is very energetic and enthusiastic, and we look forward to seeing how he can challenge each of us creatively (as well as physically - he?s totally into sit-ups- is this legal?). Anyway, we should have some fun.
All right, I'll conclude my first entry here. I'm just going to remind myself of some things to address in my next entry: the Actor's Equity union, understudying, first rehearsal, e.t.c. schedule, opening date, Jeff Awards.
I look forward to continuing these journal entries, and please, if anyone should have any questions or suggestions, feel very free to offer them up. Take care.
September 20, 2000
This is our second day of rehearsals. So far, so good.
I realized that after all of my typing yesterday, that I really didn't even say what all we did for our first day of rehearsal. So I shall backtrack.
First of all, we met with Kristen Larson. Kristen is a representative from the Actor's Equity union. Members of both the mainstage and e.t.c. stage of the Second City are required to join the actor's union. On the first day, we sign our contracts that tell us our salaries for the next 52 weeks. We also learn about health benefits (six mothers somewhere in this country all sigh with relief), causes for termination (just cause - that's really what's it's called, too. Isn't that funny?), and all the other administrative stuff that needs to be taken care of. We also figured out what our rehearsal schedule would be. Since e.t.c. performs Thursday through Sunday, we have a considerably easier schedule than the mainstage, which performs Tuesday through Sunday. Our challenge, however, is that we have only three improv sets during the week in which to try out new material. So rehearsal time during the day is very critical for the e.t.c. stage. Right now, we are rehearsing Tuesday and Wednesday from 12:30 to 4:30, and then Thursday and Friday from 2:00 to 6:00, with shows following rehearsals on those two nights. I can dig it.
After doing all of our administrative stuff yesterday (which really takes up a lot of time), we finally got up and started playing. We had all worked together to some extent in the past, so it wasn't like we were all introducing ourselves to each other. Still, some parts of it felt like what the Brady kids must've been thinking when they first all came together. "You're not my real sister! You can't tell me what to do!" We did a lot of just very, very basic improv exercises. Some mutual initiations, creating environments, and so on. Dexter is very observant about how we each use our bodies, and I believe he wants to challenge each of us to appreciate and use our bodies more. I think I must have bad hips, though. This morning when I woke up after yesterday's rehearsal, my right hip and backside were SORE. It felt like I had fallen asleep on an airplane with my wallet in my back pocket. You know what I'm talking about, I'm sure. Anyway, it looks like there's a lot more of this physical stuff coming, so I'm gonna start eating Power Bars, or whatever it is athletes eat.
Today, we started talking about shaking up the running order. It looks like we might open the second act with maybe an improv musical or some scene tag instead of the scene Strollers. No more seeing little Debbie in that big ol' wig. Oh, I wanted to talk about understudying a resident show. While much of what Second City performs is developed through improvisation, once the show opens, it is pretty much set, just like a normal play like you'd see at a normal theatre. Since this is the case, understudies from the show are assigned from the Touring Company members, and they are given scripts and video tapes of the show to learn just in case they would ever need to go in. It is their responsibility, I believe, to offer the other actors as close to the performance that they are used to as created by the original actor. It will never be exact, of course, simply because the understudy is not the original actor. So it has been both frustrating and amusing to have new people come in and do parts that I'm so used to seeing be done a certain way for the past nine months. At the risk of getting myself in trouble, I must confess that I have "broken" (laughed) on stage more than once, especially with all of the understudies coming through. Even the smallest thing will get me tickled.
All right, I?ve got to go ice my hips now (I mean like ice ice, not frosting ice). I'll continue my journal in the next couple of days. I'm hoping that once this first week is over, I can chill out with all the exposition. I just feel that some of it needs explaining to be properly oriented to what the hell I'm talking about. Once again, if anyone has any questions of what I'm talking about, or any comments or suggestions, please bring them on. Hope everyone is well. Good night.
September 23, 2000
We just started performing shows with some changes made from rehearsals. On Thursday, we rehearsed some improvised musicals, and that's what we ended up closing our first act with. We moved our old first act closer, a cast scene called Lies, to the top of the second act. And we dropped Strollers. Although it is sad to see old scenes start to go away, we are all so eager to begin new material, we could just about spit. Plus, we could always put Strollers back in temporarily if for some reason the running order would need it anytime in the next few weeks.
Our set on Thursday night was really fun. This was the first improv set where we have assignments? from Dexter. We started off with a Speed La Ronde, in which we flip-flopped two-person scenes so that one character from one scene would also be one of the characters in the next scene, but in a different environment. We did this fairly efficiently. Next we did what we call a Dictionary Montage, where a suggestion is taken from a random dictionary entry. I must mention now that the audience was entirely medical students from the University of Chicago. When one group rents out the theatre for their exclusive use, we call that a buyout. They're not always a lot of fun, because stuffy corporate types often times do not make the best audiences. This group, however, was particularly hip to what we were trying to do.
Anyway, the dictionary suggestion was Pacinian corpuscle. These kids ate this up. They were hooting and hollering. Apparently it's some nerve ending thing that either causes numbness in the hands and feet, or makes it go away. At any rate, all of these mega-smart medical students went crazy. "They said something that relates to me!" That kinda thing. So then we had a series of scenes based on that suggestion. Lots of fun. We ended the set with the infamous game, Switch, in which two players will begin a scene. At some point during that scene, one of the other actors on the back line will yell, "Freeze!" and then tap out one of the players, assume their EXACT same physical position, but then begin a new scene taking it into a completely different direction. (I've done that introduction a lot). A fun set over all.
Yesterday in rehearsal, we continued with our improv exercises and worked on our improvised musical a little bit more. There is some sense of anxiousness, as most of us are just chomping at the bit to start creating new material. We have an assignment for Tuesday in which we make a list of people, ideas, or things that we can consider "targets" for satire. We don't need to have scene ideas or anything for them, just listed as a viable target for satire. For example, if someone thought that talent agents could be satirized, or the airline industry, or the Olympic committee, anything goes. From that, we will pick out some ideas that we want to explore further. I for one cannot wait.
A fun two shows last night. Our musicals went much better, much to everyone?s relief. Fridays can be pretty long because we have a four-hour rehearsal and then two shows, but no set. Saturdays are generally long simply because we have two shows and a set. No rehearsals, though. However, if Dexter wants to change up the running order or anything, we have to be ready for whatever comes our way. So, I?m looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we?ll all be a little more well-rested. Sometimes we get giddy during those late-night shows. And I'm the guiltiest of all.
More later.
September 26, 2000
Okay, I'm back.
I apologize for my sporadic documentation, but sometimes, more stuff happens than not. At any rate, I'm sitting here now, typing away. I've (unfortunately) just discovered Napster (I know, it's very March, 2000, but I'm a little behind the times), and so I've spent a great deal of time quizzing the music database. For those of you who haven't looked at it yet, it is UNBELIEVABLE! I don't know what your feelings are about downloading stuff from the internet, but you can find anything on it. I mean, anything. I just downloaded the theme song to Fox's "King of the Hill". I love my internet!
Tuesday's rehearsal was good. We actually didn't DO a lot, but we talked about a lot of stuff. A lot of brainstorming about ideas for targets that we want to hit for the next show. For me, personally, it was good to hear where other people were coming from. We had several categories that we grouped all of our ideas into. Some included: Family/Love, Politics, World Politics, Gender/Sex, Heritage, Society, Pop Culture, among a couple of others. There were a lot of great observations from these. Many ideas overlapped (Napster came up a couple of times in Pop Culture), but most ideas were disparate. Plus, each person's point of view was different than the next, so that was enlightening. We also had an assignment to list some personal fears that we had. That was particularly interesting me, because it shed a bit of light on each of the cast members. For example, one of the cast members has an incredible fear of throwing up. (Can you guess which one?) Another interesting one is the fear of robots taking over the world. I had some pretty deep ones myself (fear of failure, infidelity, etc.), but one that I feel very strongly about is the fear of losing my teeth. (Hell, I paid a lot of money for these pearly whites. They're my ticket out of this two-bit town.) Then we tried to narrow down the lists somewhat to try to create scenes based on that. I hope that tomorrow we can actually get some of these things up on their feet and just start generating scenes based on these ideas. Or hell, ANY ideas at this point. I'm so antsy to get the new show up and running!
Tomorrow will be fun. I think we'll be doing push-ups and sit-ups as our warm-up (that's not the fun part, mind you). And then we will start playing. I think I'm going to try to see the mainstage show tomorrow night. They've been in rehearsals since August 8th, and I haven't really seen any of their new stuff yet. They've pretty much got all new stuff in, and they've still got over a month to play. I want to see it now, because more than likely, what I would see tomorrow won't ALL be there at opening, and I want to be able to say that I saw it way back when. Sometimes some real treasures just don?t make it into the final product, for a number of reasons. Remind me to tell you about Zombie Grandma.
All right, love-makers, makers of love, that is all I have for tonight. I just joined Bob Dassie and Stephnie Weir in their engagement celebration earlier tonight at Benedict?s on Lincoln. A fun time was had by all. Talk about a comedy dream team. These kids will have the funniest, silliest children in the world. And I look forward to doing bits with all of them.
Sleep well, and look up your favorite song on Napster. I guarandamntee you that it's there.
September 27, 2000
I just saw the mainstage show tonight, Wednesday. I loved it. It was so fun and playful. Those guys are such pros. I have to admit, it was sort of intimidating. The bar has been set pretty high. And I know that in the grand scheme of things there's really no comparison between the two shows (they're just different shows with different casts), but you can't help but compare. And you start to wonder, "Are we going to be that funny when we're at that point in rehearsals?" I'm pretty confident in everything we have working for us, but it's amazing how easy it is to psyche yourself out, ain't it?
One thing that I do know from watching the mainstage show is that I really, really, really want a lot of full-cast scenes in the show. They are so much fun to watch, and I know that they are just a blast to do. I think one challenge I'm facing right now is I don't exactly know what my role is in the whole group dynamic thing. I think I'll have a much better feel for this once we finally start just immersing ourselves in play.
A good rehearsal today. After rigorous warm-ups, we reviewed some of the topics we hit on from the previous day. We started exploring them in the format of Scene Tag. This game is just three two-person scenes that are frozen? out by one of the pairs taking the last line of the previous scene as the first line of their scene. We saw some scenes about the Klan, sexual harassment, overworked employees, animal cruelty, and bigotry as an industry (i.e., selling racist bumper stickers). David and I improvised a scene about a college R.A. who has a confederate flag hanging up in his dorm room and his defensiveness in assuring the student that he's not racist, it's just a flag. Abby and Andy had a particularly funny scene in which Gilda Radner comes back to Second City (she's just been hiding out in Michigan for a while), and she wants to join a Touring Company. There were, of course, a lot of inside jokes to this one, but it was actually very touching.
Later on, we just did some straight up improv based on our monster list of targets and fears. We looked at the notion of women either being virgins or whores, the death penalty, and the concept that boyish girls are "cute" whereas girlish boys are "wrong". We also explored conspiracy theory and the confusion behind the origins/meanings of certain holidays. One scene that was particularly memorable was one between Andy and Martin. I won't go into too much detail, but just imagine what might happen if Mary was not a willing participant in her Immaculate Conception. I will quote one of Andy's lines (as Joseph): "Mary, I'm just saying, we have options." Ah, sweet improv. We can say absolutely ANYTHING!
I look forward to a fun weekend of shows. I'm so anxious to get new stuff in the show. Hopefully we'll get at least a COUPLE of things in this weekend. That would be awesome.
As I close, I do just need to clarify one thing. As flattering as Mr. Chin's introduction is to my journal entries, for the record, I never OFFICIALLY played on the ImprovOlympic team, Bucket. I may have sat in for a show, but I was never a team member. And if he's confusing me for another player, like T.J. Jagodowski, then I consider that an even bigger compliment, and I thank him. That's all for now. Good night.
September 30, 2000
The past couple of days have been fairly successful. Our old running order is breaking up significantly, and we are trying out a lot of good new material in rehearsals. We have several improv games in the current running order, mainly just to get rid of some of the old scenes. There was a somewhat "passionate" discussion on Thursday on whether or not to close the first act with an Improv Musical, which we are (in my opinion) not too, too terribly skillful at. So for now, we have set Improv Musical aside and we close Act One with an improv Debate, in which two "politicians" leave the room and the audience suggests a topic of debate that the politicians have to then guess based on their teammates? clues. It's silly, but it's a lot of fun for both the cast and the audience. I did learn one good lesson from all of this, though. We are going to have some disagreement within this ensemble along the way (it's just the nature of the beast), and it is our responsibility as professionals to keep perspective and not let emotions cloud our view. One thing that I have learned about myself over the past several years is that sometimes I can make a HUGE deal out of the tiniest thing and I just won?t let go. The challenge for me now is to catch myself doing that and relax. Hell, life is too short to be sweating over whether or not I get to introduce an improv game. Lighten up, McBrayer.
We've lost a couple of scenes. We lost Poetry (David tries to seduce a white female audience member), we lost Self-Defense (I sing about taking a self-defense class so I know what to expect when I attack a girl), and we lost Priest (a blackout - a blackout is just a quick, one-joke scene mainly used to get a laugh in between some longer scenes). And we lost Strollers last week. Right now, it does not hurt my feelings to get rid of ANY scenes, because I just want to try out new material. Plus, in the process, some ideas that we pitch just won?t make it into the show. It?s good to be committed to scenes during the rehearsal process, but at the same time, some of our babies are just going to have to die, and that's okay.
We do have one new scene in the show. It's called Massage, and it's just a fun and physical bit where Martin gives me a violent, slow-motion massage. No real biting satirical message there, but at this point, I just want to try anything new. Also, in the next couple of weeks, we are going to be so mired in social and political issues, we won't be able to see straight. So fun and physical is good, too, if you ask me.
The shows went well on Thursday and Friday nights. Our Friday night crowds were very chatty, so that can be pretty distracting. Sometimes the audience doesn't exactly know their role at a Second City show because at some points we come to them for suggestions, and then the rest of the time, they are expected to sit there quietly. I can see how it would be a LITTLE bit confusing, but at the same time my God, people you don't yell out at your TV set, do you? It can be very frustrating, but sometimes amusing, too.
All right, I've got to go get ready for our two shows and a set tonight. It should be fun. Wish us luck.
October 3, 2000
Things are coming along. Saturday, we had two fun shows, and we tried out several new things in the set. There was actually very little improvisation in the set (besides the fact that most of the material we are trying out is so embryonic (is that the right word?) that it's still pretty much all improvised). This did kind of hit something home for me. Sometimes it's smart to just have some straight up improv in the set, not only to give the audience an idea of what they're about to see, but also, to take a little pressure off of us. An audience tends to be a little more forgiving if they see scenes immediately created from their suggestions than if we take a couple of suggestions and then make them sit politely through stuff that they had no participation in (our works in progress). So we protected our material a little bit better for Sunday night's set with some more improv right off the bat. I personally think it's more fun for us, too.
Monday night I played in the Armando Diaz show over at ImprovOlympic. That's kind of like my dessert improv. I can play without having to worry about rules or notes or anything. Plus, I'm playing with a whole new group of people who challenge me to do different things. I hate to admit it, but I really enjoy playing with Miles Stroth. We have a "bit" where we really can't stand each other (I have this bit with a lot of people a LOT of people), but I have the hardest time keeping a straight face with him. Plus, it's funny to see him try to be nice to me in front of other people.
Tuesday's rehearsal was groovy. We sat and pow-wowed about what we wanted to see come out in this show. Some really interesting things. Music was a pretty common response. Except from David. David hates singing in Second City shows. Although I must say, we were goofing off backstage a few weeks ago, and he does a better Little Richard impersonation than Little Richard did. Hmm. Maybe I'll just write a scene in which Little Richard comes to visit an orphanage at Christmas. Let's see what he does with that.
Other than that, we trimmed down our massive list of ideas to pursue, and re-improvised some scenes that we had tried out in previous rehearsals. I love just messing around with all of those guys. I have my dream job where I get to play-pretend every day. AND I GET PAID FOR IT! It is truly unbelievable. If I ever sound like I'm forgetting this or taking it for granted, someone please smack me upside the head.
I guess that's all I have for tonight. Take care.
October 9, 2000
Sorry it's been so long, kids. Rehearsals this past week have been both fun and frustrating. Sometimes it feels like there's just not enough hours in the day, and yet that day seems to last FOREVER. Nothing too much has happened with our running order. We tried a couple of new things in the show: Kwanzaa (an un-PC office party), Sleepy Surgeon (an overworked surgeon who blames mistakes on others), and Mary (the Virgin Mary deflowered). We've been having a lot more fun with the improv games we have in the show right now. I especially love Debate. If anyone is ever looking for a cast improv game, Debate is a fun one to do, even in rehearsals. One of my favorite moments this weekend was Martin and Abby trying to communicate (obfuscate (sp?)) through pantomime. To break it into syllables, I got cob? from corn on the cob, but when it came to fu?, they were trying to get me to say Kung Fu? but what came out was a horribly racist tirade of Chinese-accented phrases. I'm going to hell, but I have to say that I've had fun along the way.
Some nice scenes have shown up in the set. Abby and I had a fun scene where we are kids discussing our visits from the Tooth Fairy. It ends up that our visits are VERY different. David and Martin had a captivating scene in which a man unwittingly plays a game of chess with Death. This scene actually came from an improvised scene in which David was scared to board a plane (where Marty was working the counter) because Death boarded the plane just before him. Sometimes the concept behind a scene works better in a different environment, or with different characters.
Andy brought in a great scene idea where people are hanging out in a back room of a rave?, and it turns out that no one there is an actual partier. Everyone is either an undercover reporter, or working on a documentary, or a cop. Abby and Deb brought in a beautiful idea of two old ladies standing outside a sports bar watching gymnastics on the TVs inside, only to find out that they are two Olympic medalists from forty years earlier. And Deb and I played with a scene based on people we grew up with: white trash. Whether in Conyers, Georgia or Austin, Texas, white trash is everywhere. These are people we know and love, but we also love to laugh at them. One of my favorite lines that Deb improvised was, "Fine, baby, so maybe I cheated on you one or two or five or eight times, but that does not mean that I do not love you." It's funny because it's true.
Anyway, I also had a wedding this weekend, which was a lot of fun. The reception was actually at Germania Place, just two blocks from Second City, so I went and played there in between shows. It's fun to pretend to be rich every now and then. Everybody's all dressed up, and drinking beer out of a glass; it's nice. I played at ImprovOlympic on Monday night, which was a ton of fun, too. But, tomorrow is another work day, so I must get back to my homework. I hope everyone is well, and I promise to be more diligent with my journal entries.
October 14, 2000
Well, between long rehearsals and an addiction to Napster, I guess I haven't been too good on my promise to be more diligent with my documentation. But, man, I got some awesome CD?s!
Lots of new scenes came in this week. David is working on a scene about a man who has decided that he is only going to be honest from now on, and finding a girl who has decided the same thing. Andy brought in a scene about karmic retribution with Ronald Reagan in a nursing home. We worked really long and hard on a new improv game that is closing our first act. Right now it is running about twelve minutes long, but I believe that after more times playing it, we can tighten it up a little bit. The cool thing is, even though it is crazy long right now, the audience really stays with it. So, that's encouraging.
The shows have been fun so far this weekend. The running order is starting to look less and less familiar, which is great. I finally feel like we?re making some headway in getting a new show up on its feet. It's fun to be doing scenes in front of an audience that you don't know exactly what?s going to happen, or how it's going to end. It's such a fun sense of discovery for everybody.
We've gotten rid of our opener and our closer from the last show, so we're just opening with some old-school blackouts and closing with Story, an improv game in which players tell a story with different authors or literary styles suggested by the audience. The new scenes in the show right now are still finding themselves. Some scenes need new outs, some need to find out exactly what the scene is about, and some just need some tweaking. It's a good feeling to have a scene standing on its own in the show, and so everything from that point on is simply to refine what is already there. Plus, it is very exciting to be able to find stuff out about a scene WHILE you're performing it. Deb, for example, never fails to amaze me with new details or attitudes that she brings into works in progress. Very refreshing, and very funny.
I'll write more after the rest of the shows this weekend and after the Saturday and Sunday night sets. I'm starting to feel more and more excited about getting material in, and even about having to let it go. More ideas are NOT going to make it than the ones that ARE, so it's interesting to see some of the babies grow and play and realize that they might have to go away. And that's okay, too.
Be well, and I'll talk to y'all later.
October 16, 2000
Looking back, it was a long weekend, but I feel that we made some strides. The new material is standing pretty well on its own. Plus, some things might get even better responses once we have enough material to make an ENTIRELY new running order. For example, Martin and I are in about three scenes together that are physical and non-verbal. Once we get rid of two of those scenes from the old show (Ape and Chairs), then we'll see how the new bits work on their own. Right now, the audience sees me and Martin in a scene and they assume it will be physical and non-verbal. Which is not exactly what we would want them to do. I mean, it's not a bad thing, but you just have to shake up the energies a little bit.
For our Saturday night set, Dexter let us just flat-out play. That was a welcome suggestion. We didn't have to test any new stuff out or anything. I personally feel less playful right now, so any chance to just be stupid/silly is usually such a good release for me. Of course, as I'm typing this, I'm missing Monday night's Armando show. Oh, well. I'm running behind on errands, so it could not be helped this week.
Sunday night we tried out some new things as well as some revised things. It was a great crowd, so everything got great response. It's a strange thing, too, trying stuff out in front of audiences. For example, I personally prefer our crowds on Thursdays and Sundays. These people all have work the next day, so they made an active choice to come out to see a comedy show. Whereas on Friday or Saturday night, everybody is drunk and rowdy, or drunk and exhausted. So trying out material in front of them could have a skewed reaction.
Stress levels are rising throughout the building. The mainstage show should be opening in about a month, so they are all different shades of frazzled. I can kind of tell this because some of the actors come and hang out in our backstage area before and in between shows on the weekends. I suspect they want to be around people who don't have anything to do with the new blocking for that one song, or the switched lines for that one blackout. And believe you me, I know that feeling. Sometimes I'm so grateful that I have college buddies who live here in Chicago who really don't give a rat?s ass about how stressed I am that we're really hitting gun control too hard in the first act, or some other actor-y bullcrap. These are the friends I talk to about nothing just sit and enjoy each other's company. And I love them for that.
All right, that's all I got for now. I?m going to invite other cast members to submit a journal entry over the next couple of weeks, if they're so inclined. It would give readers a different point of view, and it would give me a break, too. Also, please check out the Second City website for any information about shows and other goings-on that I may fail to mention. It?s at www.secondcity.com. Also, Craig Cackowski is keeping a journal for the mainstage rehearsal process. I don't know exactly what the website is, but I think you can find the address on the IRC forum website thing, which I don't know the address for, either. But somebody should. Take care.
SPECIAL EDITION: Several people wrote in and asked for more information about Mr. McBrayer's improv background, so I asked and here it is!-- Ed. Jason
October 17, 2000
Hey, all
This is actually a sidetrack from my usual journal entries. Mr. Chin has informed me that it might be helpful to readers if I gave a brief history of my improv education (which, for the record, is ongoing). So, at the risk of boring some people to death, here goes.
I moved to Chicago in May of 1995, having just graduated from the University of Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. I came to Chicago, mainly to move to a big city that was not Atlanta, but also because I had many friends from college who were living up here. I had never really seen improv, much less participated in it, outside of exercises that we would use in classes in college. I first saw an improv set at Second City during the heat wave of '95. I saw Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit, Scott Allman, and Jon Glaser. And the rest is history. I fell in love. I enrolled in the Second City Training Center in October of 1995. Some classmates might sound familiar: Bumper Carroll, Cordell Pace, Julia Wolov, and Sabrina Harper, and later on Kevin McGeehan. We had a great ol' time in Martin DeMaat's class.
My next move was to take classes at ImprovOlympic. I started there in January of 1996 with Charna Halpern as my teacher. Fun times, and I of course fell in love with the Armando Diaz show. Neil Flynn, Miriam Tolan, Brian Stack. That was actually the first time I had ever seen Steph Weir perform. I feel very proud to say that I knew people way back when.
Throughout my Second City classes, some of my teachers included Martin DeMaat, Fran Adams, Pete Zahradnick, Mick Napier (yes, Mr. Napier taught at Second City), and Anne Libera. At IO, I was instructed by Charna, Craig Cackowski, Miles Stroth, Paul Valencourt, and Del Close. I do have to say (with some amount of celebrity worship) that Tina Fey substituted one of Craig's classes one time, and she remembered me like a year later. I about died!
In May of 1996, I began performing with my first IO team, Zamboni. Oh, we were horrible. But we had fun. Good, good people. We were coached by Terry Shusta, with some sub-coaching by Peter Gwinn. After a couple of schedules, Cordell and I got moved to a new team called Spank. Still horrible. But we were coached by Bob Dassie and Paul Grondy, who I could never say enough good things about. Plus, that's where I met Don Bardwell, Dennis Dreyer, and Chris Day, among many others. In February of 1997, Chris Day and I got moved to yet another team, Georgia Pacific. This is where I think I really started to find my legs. Is that the right expression?
Georgia Pacific had been around for a year (maybe more) already, so they were fairly comfortable with each other. I had actually just finished performing in a play at the Jane Addams Hull House (it was an updated version of Moliere's The Miser?), and that is where I met my dearest friend, T.J. Jagodowski. T.J. was already a member of Georgia Pacific, as were Tami Sagher, Lisa Lewis, and Kris Hammond. Chris Day and I showed up to our first rehearsal scared out of our britches. But Georgia Pacific welcomed us with open arms, and they have been nothing short of family ever since. I mean, like we take vacations together and stuff. I'm not even lying. Joe Bill has been the most supportive coach and most fun player ever. I am so grateful to have worked under him, as well as along with him. So many people have come and gone from that team. But to me, the core of GP is JoeBiz, T.J., RisaRoo, Hammond, Day, Shat Pay, and Bumper. I love those guys.
I auditioned for the Second City Touring Company in February of 1997. I got called back, but I didn't get hired. My callback was with T.J., Abby Schachner, Rich Sohn, and two other people. I was so nervous. I don't think I've ever been more nervous in my life. Although I didn't get hired then, I still had my Level 5 shows at the Second City Training Center, as well as IO shows. After Second City had depleted its understudies for the Touring Companies, they held a special audition in August of 1997, and that is when I got hired. I toured for about two years, and got placed on the e.t.c. stage on August 25, 1999.
And that's pretty much the way I got here. It's been a long ride, but man-o-man, has it been fun! I have met more fun and talented people along the way than I ever thought possible. I am very grateful for every opportunity I've had here in Chicago. I wouldn't change it for the world.
Thank you for indulging me in my eternal recollection. As I read back over this, I realize I sound like an eighth grade girl recounting a slumber party. I'm such a freakin? name-dropper. But I don't care. I hope this gives just a little more insight to where I come from in my journal entries. Enjoy, and take care.
October 23, 2000
PERSPECTIVE, PERSPECTIVE, PERSPECTIVE!!!
It still amazes me how easily I lose it. I can get hung up on the tiniest little things, and that becomes such a stumbling block to me seeing the entire picture. I would've written a journal entry earlier this week, but I can guarandamntee you that it would've sounded like something from Diary of a Mad Housewife, or Flowers for Algernon, or some other literary reference involving someone spiraling into insanity. But now that I've had a couple of days to just relax and reflect, I think I can be a little more objective.
The show is almost entirely new material right now, which I think is awesome. Still clunky in some spots, but at least we're in that place of, "Okay, let's figure this out together". The only old stuff we had in this weekend was Lies (a high energy cast scene), TimeLine (a high energy cast improv scene), and Chairs (a fun, physical, non-verbal piece). And we even took Chairs out on Sunday. We have a lot of fun, character-based new scenes in the running order. The challenge now is how to shake them up a little bit so that we don't have the same, patient energy throughout the whole show.
We have some official assignments for this week. One is to bring in a character and to list five momentous events in this character?s life. Things that he or she would reflect upon if they were on their death bed. That should be fun to play with. We also have the assignment to bring in something musical. I'm also giving myself the assignment to bring in some fun cast scenes. Currently, we don't have any new cast scenes, and the cast energy was something that I really appreciated and enjoyed from the last revue. When the entire cast is on stage, everyone is playing with each other and contributing to the fun. It's fun to be a part of, and fun to watch, I'm sure.
Kelly Leonard, Second City's producer (our boss), came and watched the late show on Friday night. He seemed to be pleased with the progress so far, so that?s a good sign. One thing that has become a pet peeve of mine is when other improvisers, especially Touring Company members, purposefully avoid coming to see the shows while they're in rehearsals, so that they'll "be surprised" when it opens. Well, hell, sometimes I just need somebody out there who's watching with an impartial eye to tell me, "That part was really funny", or "I didn't understand that part", or "Your fly was down for most of Act One". Because, as I have mentioned above, after a while, I COMPLETELY LOSE PERSPECTIVE. Not to mention that if a Touring Company member wants to "be surprised", just wait until somebody breaks a leg during rehearsals and they have to understudy with no scripts transcribed. Yeah, SURPRISE!
We have an extra show and set added for Tuesday night because mainstage has a buyout. That will be helpful. Plus, it was Andy's birthday today (Monday), so we'll celebrate that tomorrow night with the traditional Second City Birthday Pizza. We turn into such a bunch of middle-schoolers whenever it's somebody's birthday. But I love it. It's good, and it's pure, and it's innocent, and that is something I need right now.
I'll try to be better about writing. Wish me luck. Have a good week.
October 30, 2000
A very energetic weekend. We tried a lot of un-tried material in the shows, and I do have to say that for the most part, it was all pretty well-received. We had two completely different running orders between Thursday night?s show and Sunday night?s show, but we pulled it off. We've had a lot of fun, too, in finding new things in scenes that we've been running for a couple of weeks now. There's one new scene in particular that intrigues me called Achmed. David and Martin are terrorists, and I play an American military guard. I didn't exactly know what my role was (in terms of serving the scene), but with just playing and having some fun with it, we?ve really made some nice discoveries. It's far from being finished, but it feels better not to be treading water.
We brought in ideas for improv games on Friday. Some really nice things were proposed. One topic of deliberation was the amount of input we got from the audience. For example, do we want to bring an audience member on stage? Or does that invite inappropriate behavior that could've been avoided? I personally believe that it's one thing to have to deal with drunk audience members while they're just sitting there, but to bring them on stage might just be opening Pandora's box. If I'm using that term properly.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun to play the games. My personal favorite was Andy's. I won't give too much away, but it involves visual art. I really want to work on that one some more.
I mentioned last time that I appreciate friends coming to see shows during rehearsals. And here's some more evidence of that. Bob Dassie watched once this weekend, and after some brief discussion, he gave me a great gift of an idea that I have since used, and it has helped out immensely! I trust my friends, and I truly appreciate impartial points of view.
Nothing much else going on. I went and watched the mainstage show last week. They're in really great shape. I?m excited to see them open. They're going to have a lot of fun with the run of this show. I can just tell by watching.
I hope everybody had/is having a wonderful Halloween. Take care, and enjoy your week.
find
funny.
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help.
November 6, 2000
Still chugging along. The running order, she is a very tricky thing. Right now, we've got a ton of two person scenes, which is fine, but I would love to have more high energy (and ideally, cast) scenes to shake up that energy. And I am personally going to try to bring in scenes that are just flat out FUN, no message, no thinking, just plain FUN.
This week we have assignments to bring in some of these things, as well as some blackouts and some ideas for devices we can use within scenes (for example, cut-aways, replays, fore-shadowing scenes, etc.). We're also going to work on scenes that we have pretty regularly in the running order. Sometimes you forget that just because something has been in the running order for two weeks that it's far from finished. It's just that there's only so much time in the day to rehearse stuff.
Kelly Leonard has given us a TENTATIVE opening date. We're aiming for December 10th. That's a Sunday. And it's coming up quick. Yikes. I think we're supposed to have a show title sometime this week. God help us.
Mainstage opens on November 16th. Make sure you tell those guys to break a leg if you see them between now and then.
Abby Sher has very generously offered to write a couple of journal entries for this next week. I gratefully took her up on that. I think it will be very interesting to get a different perspective on the process. I'll make sure she introduces herself in her entries, so y'all don't think I talk like a girl.
Have a pleasant week.
And now a word from Jack's castmate from the Second City etc... The Wonderous Ms. Abby Sher!
Hello there.
Let me start out by saying that working with your former husband and father of five of your children is NOT that hard. Jack and I get along fine.
This week has been good and hard. I am picking my scalp to get some group scenes up in our show. We have such an awesome group, and I'd love to play as a group. We worked on one scene today that I really like which takes place up in a space station. It's
always funny if you get to see Deb orbit in slo-mo. I saw the Mainstage show last night and they have amazing group energy - it was really inspiring.
That's another general note I can say. I've come to a place now where I'm looking for ideas and inspiration so hard that I wake up with my stomach stuck in my ears. It's really hard to turn off at night and I'm afraid I'm running dry. But maybe reading more and just watching Regis can help that.
Thanks for listening, and I hope everyone is in a camper driving to Florida to revote with the elias
Larrain Cheesemouth.
This past weekend was really fun. We tried a bunch of new pieces and scrambled the others up and made a whole new mess. The set on Saturday night was definitely some of the worst improv we've ever done and then Sunday night was some of the best. We just played and did a whole lot of group spots which was delicious. Dexter also announced before the Sunday show that we would have to cut out a beat from each scene in the show that night, and it worked amazingly well. Everything had a new lift to it, like a good wonderbra.
I hope some of the group scenes from the Sunday night set make it into the show. Oh, and I also literally peed my pants this weekend at Deb's hilarious silent clown. Good thing I have two pairs of pants.
Take care and enjoy the snowflakes!
November 20, 2000
I feel like a kid at college who hasn't called home in a few weeks. Sorry, sorry, sorry. But I'm back, and a lot has happened since we last spoke.
We have a title for our show. It's going to be called "Better Late than Nader". The title has received a lot of positive response, so that's good. Second City wants a title that is funny, simple, and will sell tickets. So far we have two out of three. Keep your fingers crossed on that last criterium.
We also have an official opening date. It's going to be Sunday, December 10th. That'll be good. That's just about 51 weeks after we opened "History Repaints Itself". That's a pretty long run, especially for an e.t.c. show. From what I understand.
The mainstage opened on Thursday, November 16th. It was a great time, with lots of people there to support and celebrate all of their hard work. The show has gotten some great reviews, too. They should be very proud. I know I am.
Sheldon Patinkin, one of Second City's Artistic Directors, came to our show this past weekend. His job is to watch the show with running order in hand, and critique what all we?re doing. Are we being political enough? Are we being too offensive? Is anything just not making sense? He seemed pretty pleased with the progress of the show. It was weird. We were all expecting him to just tear into us and remind us of how unfunny we've convinced ourselves we are. But he was surprisingly complimentary. I guess we can be our own worst critics. We still have a LOT of work, though. I do have to say that I think the cast was able to sort of relax a little bit, knowing that we're not throwing up complete crap at this stage in the game.
Although we have plenty of stuff that deals with politics and issues, we don't necessarily have anything that directly addresses the presidential election. I think for a while we were kind of holding off to see what the verdict would be. But the fact that the headlines EVERY DAY are about recounts and litigation and all sorts of mumbo jumbo about this election, we probably need to directly address it. Especially with the title that we have. Some people may disagree with me. I just feel that when John Q. Public comes to see "Better Late than Nader", he will expect to see some satire on this specific ordeal. How do other people feel about this? I'm actually interested in knowing.
Okay, I'm tired of hearing myself think. I'll be better about updating over the next couple of weeks. Have a great Thanksgiving, and I'll talk to y'all soon. Take care.
December 4, 2000
I once again apologize for my sporadic documentation.
The pimple is now coming to a head, so to speak. We open a week from yesterday. That means four more scheduled rehearsals (maybe more, depending on what needs to be worked on between now and opening). And we would have two more sets to try stuff out, but if I understand correctly, a resident cast traditionally does not do a set the night before opening. I think that's what I heard, at least. That means that this Thursday is our final set. I can't believe this is actually going to happen. It seems like forever ago that we started this epoch (epic?). But after this weekend, this is it, take it or leave it. WHEW!
I'm pretty sure we?ve all lost perspective on this thing. We all look like we've been punched in the stomach after the shows. I've heard the word "stunned"? used more than once this weekend. Not always in a bad way, mind you. Oh, you will LOVE this. So, this being our final week before we open, we naturally have four buyouts as audiences. Oh, yes, you heard me correctly FOUR! For groups as varied as Fuji Medical to The Tourette's Syndrome Association to U of I Sigma Chi fraternity. Unbelievable. Unbelievable! Sigma Chi was perhaps the worst audience I have ever performed for in my entire life. Ever. In all my years at ImprovOlympic, Second City Touring Company, the Playground at the Cue Club, the back room at Sheffield's EVER. ANYWHERE. They were horrible. First of all, they had bought out the entire theatre, so they WERE the audience. They were half an hour late getting there, so we didn't even start the show until about 9:30. They were sneaking liquor into the theatre, they were lighting up and smoking IN THE THEATRE! They would not shut up. They weren't even paying attention to anything happening on stage. It was such a miserable experience for every employee at Second City. The poor hosts and waitstaff had to actually deal with these monsters one on one. At least we got to play-pretend that we were other people in other places where these "people" didn't exist. And they seemed to take delight in the fact that they were so ill-behaved. They thrived on it! It was one of the most disturbing things that has ever happened to me. The good thing to come out of this whole ordeal is that Second City took a stand. They're going to make it so difficult for a fraternity to buy out the theatre again, that it wouldn't even be worth its while. That felt good to be so well supported by the administration.
The show is looking pretty intact. We're still trying different things with the opening, but it's getting good response. We just need to clean it up for ourselves more than anything. One thing we are still reaching for is a good, funny, run-out closer. We've got a lot of things on the table, it's just a matter of. well, of making them work. Please submit ideas by Thursday.
The set is finding itself. We've got moving partitions. I'd personally like to see them used more. There's a whole media theme running with the set. Walls and surfaces are papered with newsprint, telephone pages, movie reviews, trashy novel pages, and even crossword puzzles. It looks really cool. I can't wait until it's completed.
We discussed what our show clothes would be. Lyn Pusztai, Second City's costume consultant, came in and gave us suggestions on clothes to buy based on conversations she had had with Dexter. Since we play so many characters, the costumes have to be basic enough that they will translate to any time or place we might play a scene. However, they should also communicate something about the feeling of the show, as well as express something about each of the actors. Lyn encouraged us to buy as if we were going out to a club. So that was kinda cool. I had no idea what that meant, but it was cool. I was in blue for the last show, and now I'm in a silvery gray. Martin and Abby are both in leather pants! Andy is in a knit sweater. The whole thing is very casual, but very smart looking. And if anyone is ever looking for sort of casual dressy stuff (for show clothes, Christmas gifts, whatever), I highly recommend Marshall's over on Fullerton and Clybourn. Good stuff and cheap, cheap, cheap!
I can feel the stress of opening take its toll on me. Sometimes I'm just plain snippy with people. My sleep has been less than regular. I'm breaking out like a 13-year old. I really, really value improv where I don?t have to think about anything but playing and having fun. No pressure to make it a group scene. No pressure to remember beats that we talked about a week ago. No pressure to do anything but play. We had a Quartet last night at ImprovOlympic that was so fun, I cannot even describe it. The show was probably not even the best or most cohesive we?ve ever done, but right now, it is EXACTLY what I needed. Playing with T.J. and Bob and Jean is like taking a little 45-minute vacation. And that feels good.
All right, I?m tired of hearing myself talk now. I?ll keep you updated. Wish me luck.
December 10, 2000 (2:54 a.m.)
I am writing this now just because it is hours before we open. I am almost numb. I cannot think anymore. It borders on delirium. But it's beautiful. I'll write again after we officially open, but I wanted to have one more communication beforehand, just in case I get fired or something. Which I have not entirely ruled out.
The past couple of days have been nuts. The good thing is that the first act has remained mostly intact for the past few weeks. The second act has been a puzzle. We have a brand spanking new closer for the second act. It's funny, because I imagined that these last few days, we would be at each other's throats, arguing over lines or running order or something. But we have really just pulled together. It's a very interesting phenomenon. And I have to say that it feels really good. I can't deny a sense of fear as we prepare for opening, but I think that's only natural. And it's that feeling of "safety in numbers?" that makes it seem okay.
Sheldon came by one more time to check us out. He seems pleased with the results. Lyn came by to see all our show clothes. She seemed pleased with the results. Right now I'm just so numb, I can't really evaluate anything. So I will leave for now. The next time you hear from me, it will be over. The rehearsal process will be over. I'm pretty sure I will have a beer after the show tomorrow.
Take care, and I'll talk to you soon. Wish us luck.
December 12, 2000
WE ARE DONE!
We officially opened on Sunday night. Twelve weeks of rehearsal all come down to one night. It was the weirdest feeling. Everyone was so supportive. The audience was packed with all of our family and friends, people who would support us unconditionally. So that was a comfort. There were critics in the audience, too (meaning like theatre critics, not just like critical people), but the response from the audience made it easy to forget that. And just for the record, I haven't seen or heard any reviews from the show yet, so this entry will be pretty objective. Or I hope so, at least.
I got to the theatre at about 5:30. I had spent most of the day finishing up all my opening night cards for the rest of the ensemble (I just like to let my buddies know that I appreciate them). We had just a couple of notes and then we ran through some of the big musical stuff. Of course, new stuff is coming in at the last minute. We had entirely new lyrics for the last song, and one of Klaus' friends was making final touches on the set. The house opened and we all got into our show clothes, pacing back and forth like caged animals. Deb and Abby were doing each other's hair, and all the boys were just staring holes into our running orders. Being the obsessive/compulsive that I am, I checked and rechecked my props at least eight times. People would come back every now and then to wish us luck or drop off a card or something, so that was a VERY welcome distraction.
So then, the show eventually starts. It was the weirdest feeling. I had no way to gauge anything. It felt like when an emergency happens, and you just kinda go into this zone where you remain calm, but you don't exactly feel like you're there. Plus, when you hear and recognize the laughs of some of your friends, that can be jarring, too. And I do know that opening night audience is completely different than any other audience we'll have for the rest of the run, so I know that timing and pace was probably a little off there, too. But we got through it. And then we did the second act. Since there was so much more technical thinking in that act (we've had the first act pretty much set for a couple of weeks now), all I could do was to keep smiling and make it look like I wasn't about to collapse; that poor little hamster in my head could not have been running any faster on that wheel. In fact there's this one part in our final song where I'm doing (fake) sign language, and with all the new lyrics thrown at us, most of it was just acting out what the actual words were so that we could remember them. But we got through it, did our curtain call, and then it was all done.
People were very kind afterwards. They were all very complimentary to all of us. We had a toast backstage, and then went out to talk to people and eat some great food from the Adobo Grill. Their guacamole is incredible. It actually took me a while to relax and realize that we were done. Like I said about the emergency analogy, you just are moving, and not really aware. I know it sounds like I was on drugs, but I wasn't. I don't do drugs. Except beer.
Anyway, here's the running order for Better Late than Nader?. If this is not interesting to you, or if you haven't seen it and would like to be surprised, then just skip down to the bottom.
MARKET - This is our opener. It is a chance for the audience to see all of us as ourselves and to kind of clue them in to what the show is going to be like. The message behind this one is that we are all pitched? stuff every day, and what we choose to accept or not accept can be based on how it is presented, or packaged?.
KWANZAA - This actually came about through some improv in rehearsal. An office holiday party goes horribly awry as white employees go out of their way to understand a black co-worker's "traditions".
TALK LIKE LOVERS - This is a scene Andy wrote where he and Deb are on a date and speak their intentions and/or stage directions rather than actual dialogue.
AIRLINES -A fun game-y scene where we get to imagine what some other less-known airlines might give as their welcome speech.
TOOTH FAIRY ? This was a scene that came out of an improv set. Abby?s Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, etc. are all just horrible excuses for her parents to practice mental cruelty.
AHKMED ? David originally called this "The Reluctant Terrorists". It is just moments before two terrorist bomb a U.S. Embassy and the thoughts that go through their heads. And of course, a healthy dose of American ethnocentrism, too.
TRIAL ? This improv game closes our first act. We put an audience member on trial. One activity that he or she neglected to do has catastrophic results. This is lots of fun.
REAGAN ? Do we excuse Ronald Reagan for all his wrong-doings just because he's old now? Andy confronts Reagan in an old folks' home.
HONEY BOY ? Originally called Fats? (that was his first name), this group scene (including Trey Stone) explores cultural theft in the sanitizing of black rock and roll to accommodate the tastes of white audiences. Very funny. A crowd favorite.
SUITE ? This is actually just the word we use. This is three two-person scenes all split up and interwoven. The first scene is called FABULOUS and explores cultural theft in straight white males wanting an identity and therefore stealing some of the more fabulous elements of the gay lifestyle (i.e. Kenneth Cole shoes). The second one is called HONESTY. Abby and David are sitting in a bathtub expressing the benefits of being completely honest in a relationship. And the last one is called DONNA. This is the white trash scene where me and Deb pretty much just play people from our home towns. It?s simple and stupid, but I love it.
CROSSFIRE ? This is a parody of those debate/talk shows. Also a great chance for us to tackle gun control, abortion, and other political issues.
HELGA ? This is a silent, slow-motion scene where Martin gives me a horrible, violent massage. He grabs my nipple when nobody is looking. Yeah, I told on you, Marty! Ha-ha!
FOCUS ? This scene used to be a focus group, but we decided to make it deal more with our show and what it was trying to say. Characters that have already been seen are now Œpitched? to, and they eagerly accept the products and services being offered. This goes into the big song at the end that I still don?t know all the words to. I do have to say that one of my favorite moments of the old focus group scene was where we were being pitched a brand new baby doll called ŒLil Miss Carriage. Oh, it was so funny?to me. Ah, it will live in my memory.
WILLIAM TELL ? This is what we?ve been calling the Œcookie?. It?s not exactly an encore by any means, but it is a high-energy, physical scene that gets the audience clapping at the end. Lots of fun.
Anyway, that is our show. We enjoy it. And we hope the audience does, too.
So, I guess this does it for my journal entries. This has been a real treat to be able to do this. It has often been very therapeutic for me. I hope they have been helpful/entertaining to anyone reading them. I would love any feedback, in case I ever try to do something like this again. Please give Jason Chin a holler, and he can send me any mail.
I would like to thank Jason Chin for this opportunity. I also extend my gratitude to my cast and co-workers, and I would also like to thank all of you readers. Please take care, and I'll talk to you soon.
Your buddy,
Jack
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