February 15, 2007
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Synchronicity II
My second improv show on Grammy Sunday wasn’t as bad as I felt that day. I was pretty exhausted from working late the previous four days.
I had e-mailed my improv teacher the night before, suggesting that since fans attending our show would miss the Grammy telecast, that we play more “music-themed” improv games (i.e Grammy + ComedySportz = GramedySportz!) . To my surprise, she and our team captains were OK with it! Not surprisingly, during our show, someone had to use the suggested line, “I’m bringin’ sexy back!”
One highlight during the show came up when our team had to a sing a “Grammy Winning Moment” from an improvised film. The title of the song? “I Can Make Pillows Better Than You: BAM!”. My teammates, Seth, Alison and I had a fun time interchanging verses; and of course, we peppered the song with Emeril’s catchphrase (rimshot and groan). Learning from my last show, I kept my focus on them so that 1) we wouldn’t cut each other off and 2) we could sing N*SYNC (more groans).
While I wasn’t at my best, I must say that my castmates made sure we all looked good, and had a good time.
Spirits in a Material World
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are The Police and we’re back!” – Sting: 2/11 Staples CenterI may have missed the Grammy ceremony, but there is always YouTube! Here they are opening the show with their first hit single, “Roxanne”!
Even better news was broadcast Monday morning, as the reunited trio announced their upcoming worldwide tour. No scheduled dates are set yet for Los Angeles, but they plan on coming back here to perform in concert. Now those tickets are definitely going to cost me more than a pretty penny!
Ghost in the Machine
Back to Sunday night after GramedySportz. I took a short drive from our theater to Club London to see my friend Tim (aka Phantom West) and his supporting band perform for his album release party. I had already listened to an advance copy, and was very curious how his complex electronic arrangements would translate live. Plus, it was his first show and I wanted to support him. It was a mini-reunion as well, since I met up with some old pals - drummer Jojo (who along with Tim and I, played together for theikedas wedding) and fellow thespian Ed, both old church friends of Tim.Given the difficulty of performing his set live with an AWOL bass player and very limited rehearsal time, I must say the band did a great job. Tim transitioned well between playing both rhythm and the bass axe throughout his set; not an easy thing to do while singing! And it was really good to hear Jojo pounding on the skins again. He hasn’t lost a beat.
If you were not able to attend, or are curious about Tim’s music, his record label head, German, told me after the show that there should be a YouTube video up of it soon. In the meantime, you can check out their Channel page for some snippets of Tim’s rehearsals and his debut music video for, “The Rain Expedition”.
