too much to discuss

my faithful blogateers,

i have experienced so many blogable things this past weekend that i cannot fully recount them to you here for fear typing for the next 23 hours. i will attempt to list some things that happened in non-chronological order as they come to me, with only a brief explanation to follow.

- on thursday i did one of my best shows ever. the 'catch all format' wherein i improvised with every member of the audience through a series of unrelated scenes was excellent. everyone i performed with surprised me with their stage instincts and i think they were surprised, too. plus, seeing my mom play soundball during warm-ups was priceless.

- I had my big new troupe retreat at a sweet lakehouse on lake marble falls down in texas.

- We bonded in a usual manner.

- We named our troupe The Available Cupholders.


L to R: michael joplin, jon benner, bearded lamb, ace manning, bill stern
five Cupholders to rule the improv world

- I was super extra massively happy that tasks that i am afraid of were taken up by other members. I'm not solely responsible for taxes and sales like i thought i might have to be. that's a huge weight off my mind.

- The lady who owned the home we rented for the weekend came to get my credit card number on saturday afternoon and discovered that we were attempting to find a name for our new business venture. she said a prayer for us right there in the living room. it was surreal. appreciated, but definitely surreal.

- i felt real good about a workshop i taught thursday to the PITS kids. i'm getting more confident with my teaching and its nice to see them progressing into a real good group of performers. They had their first non-Westwood High School show Saturday night at the hideout. I wish I could have seen it.

- while teaching this PITS workhop i came up with another maxim for improv. Observe before you act. I had them all get on stage and try to do a silent scene. i forced them to observe everyone around them before jumping to their own conclusions about the environment and the situation. i really like that phrase and i think it will be said by me several times in the future.

- saturday afternoon on break from the big troupe talks we went down to the water and hung out in the lake. i was sitting on a rock half submerged in water when i felt something on my leg. i tensed up a bit. its always weird when something touches your leg and you can't see it or weren't expecting it. i looked into the water and it was a little fish, maybe like a 1 pounder. he bumped into my leg again. i watched him disappear and then reappear to ram my leg. i was half-worried that he would bite me or something but i knew that's not really possible. i relaxed and he just bumped into me a few more times and then disappeared.

last but not least, shaved head bebe:



that's all i got.
keep your eye out for any available cupholders.

b