We have another show at the Improv Inferno, Thursday night, around 8 PM.

Yay, improv!

Marcus came by and wanted to play some games from “The Wiggles” website. So I pick him up and put him on my lap. I open my browser, and up pops my weblog page.

Marcus Man gets all excited and points at the WeatherPixie over to the left. With a happy voice and joy burbling up his entire body, he exclaims, “Mommy!”

He is very perceptive. I love my son!

On of the activities I had the honor to do on this trip was to be one of the guests on a. Panel Session entitled “Conducting Business in Network Centric Collaborative Environments.”

There were four people on the panel. One handled the military contractor, one was from the military, another was from the university setting, and I represented commercial contractors.

The session lasted an hour. We were each given ten to twelve minutes to give our points of view.

What I found amazing was how we complimented each others. One talked about how to educate people so they can work in cooperative environments. One focused directly on what the military vision is. One focused on the major problems. And I focused on the three pillars required for the effort: storage, security, and services.

I had fun with my talk. Instead of tons of slides, I only had four (including the title slide!). Those I gave at the end. I began by talking about storage. With props, I showed punch cards, two different sized floppy disks, a zip drive, cell phone, and USB dongle. I asked people lots of questions and had them interacting with my talk. I explained it using the story of how I used all these devices while growing up.

I think people liked it.

The only bad part of the panel was that there was only ten minutes left for people to ask questions. We got some good interactions and questions, so I think that it was a success.

On this second leg of this trip, I’m staying at the Adam’s Mark hotel. Not in a suite, but it is still an amazingly nice room, far better than I have been to for quite a while.

Let me describe it.

First, there is a small walk in closet, with a place to put your suitcase while you unpack. The bathroom is big and, more importantly, there is no mirror facing you while you are, um, doing your business. I have no idea why most hotels are set up that way, but they are.

Instead of two small beds, there was one nice big one.

But the best? The room opens up to an area with a round table and two real chairs to sit at! The television is on a dresser, that swivels so it can be viewed from the table or the bed.

Right now I’m sitting comfortably at the table, using a free complimentary Internet connection, watching television. The last hotel (two days ago) had me sitting at a desk with the television at an odd angle, so I couldn’t work on the computer and watch television unless I sat on the small bed.

And finally, there is the view. I’m on the 18th floor, and right outside my window is the St. Louis Arch.

How cool is that?

They also, on this top floor, have two pools (one open to the sky) and a really nice workout room.

The bad? The main mirror in the hall only goes up to my neck, so to check my look I need to use two different mirrors.

Also, like all hotels, they have those special exfoliating towels.

But that’s about it!

Except…I’d much rather be home.

When I travel, I don’t usually miss my family.

Hmm, that isn’t quite right.

Of course I miss my family. I love being with and around them, and when I’m not home (like at work, or driving somewhere), I miss them.

Traveling to California doesn’t make that much different. Yes, I’m further away, and yes, it will be longer before I see them again. But just as I gave a large part of my heart to Elaine, and my kids have, thankfully, taken even more, I have an equal exchange of their love inside to keep me warm during my travels.

Today was a bit different.

For dinner, instead of just hanging out at the hotel restaurant, I walked for ten minutes to Universal Studio’s entertainment park. Not the park itself, but right outside it is a place called City Park (or something like that).

When one walks down Main Street in Disneyworld, it feels like you are in a cute fantasy world full of Princesses and happy woodland creatures.

Walk down the main street of City Park, and it feels like some odd brightly colored land of superheroes and monsters. It was fun just walking around and gawking, but I felt alone. I really wanted Elaine, Marcus, and Cassandra around.

Last time I was at Universal Studios was in Florida, after a government meeting, and Elaine came down for the weekend. We battled time shares and taxis, helped Spiderman, and braved the Hulk.

I wanted to walk this street with her again. Same street, different part of the country.

And, maybe more so, I wanted to see it through the eyes of my son. What would he think of all the giant signs, the odd stores, and the interesting looking people.

I have so much to share with my family.

It is going to be a fun life.

Our Improv group had a good performance. I stuck around and had an terribly fun evening!

My class improv group, Weird and Uncomfortable, performed at Ann Arbor Michigan's Improv Inferno. We did a 25 minute show, opening for their Thursday night catfight show (two teams perform, and there is a winner at the end).

The Monday before, one of our previous Second City teachers coached us (from 10 PM until 12:15 AM!), and we needed it. We figured out our show and he gave us tons of tips and advice. This included where to stand, how to enter and leave, and that I need to nail my feet to the floor when introducing things.

The stage was quite small, and it was sort of a theater in the round, with people seated in front and on either side. We did two routines: Switch Left and Commando. Because I have some good skill in when to cut scenes, I got to introduce the group and run the Switch Left game.

The place was packed. I think that means there were 40-50 people, but I'm not sure.

This meant that I got to ask the audience for suggestions, and as we were doing a large switch left (6 people, not just 4!), I got to ask a lot, things like (this is just a sample, I honestly have no idea what I really asked):

* What is your favorite color?
* What would you not want to have land on your head?
* What is your favorite pick-up line?
* What is the most exciting piece of furniture you have?
* Where did you lose your car keys?

I ran through the game quickly as it was basically warm-up.

Then we did Commando (a bunch of scenes, each started by asking the audience a suggestion). At one point I asked for a profession, and someone called out Mathematician, and that brought me right in my element. At a good point, the owner killed the lights and turned on the music, and when the lights came back on, Christopher reintroduced us and we left the stage and a good note.

I think we did quite well, especially for our first time, and we got tons of complements the rest of the evening. It was definitely a good experience.

The next two groups were incredibly good, although Eye Candy was the best. Two out of the three members of Eye Candy were teachers from Second City that I had!

I stayed for the rest of the evening.

At 10 PM they had three more troupes perform. The first two were fine, but the last (made up of some really good players and the owner of Inferno) group was awesome: The People’s Republic of Funny. They pretended to be former Soviet improvisers, and did their beginning and end routines in a totally deadpan fashion. Quite funny!

The night ended with Hot Sauce, an 'open mic night' improv time, and I did some fun scenes there.

Started the night at 8 PM, and left sometime after 1 AM.

Our group is going to perform there some more, and I'm very much looking forward to it!

I really should have just stayed in bed today.

There is an old phrase that is said by many improvisational performers right before they walk onto the stage: Fuck it.

(Hey, no one commented on my May 2nd entry, and besides, if I lose my PG-13 rating, people will stop reading this.)

Basically, it refers to the attitude that a performer shouldn’t worry about whether they will do well or not. Just get out there and perform. Don’t think, just do.

So, with that in mind, I’m changing my mind. Not only am I announcing that the group I’m in will be performing this Thursday, May 12th, at 8 PM at the Improv Inferno in Ann Arbor, but I am inviting everyone I know to come.

I don’t care if we end up stinking up the house. If we are really bad, then when I’m a famous performer, all of you can say, “Wow, I saw his first performance, and I can’t believe how well he is doing now! Oh well, if Adam Sandler can be a star, why not Charles?”

Our past few rehearsals have been pretty good, and I’ve been able to up my energy level a lot. I’m having a blast, and I’m ready to do that on stage in front of everyone. (And thank you, Pj, for staying late at Second City and giving us advice and quality feedback! Those were two hours well spent, and I’ll try to remember to staple gun my feet to the stage.)

So, if you can make it, please show up. We’ll be on for twenty minutes or so, and then you’ll see some other improv groups perform. Some of those people were my teachers!

We are “Weird and Uncomfortable,” and I’d like a suggestion from the audience.

Thank you!

[At the rate I’m going, I figure I’ll get to all the people who responded to my ‘do you want a positive affirmation’ entry sometime in the middle of the next decade.]

Like everyone I know, there are tons of positive things I could say about them. I want to limit it to one aspect, though, that hopefully isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

For my friend Ghita, what I admire most is her positive attitude. In the SCA she has what some would consider a horribly stressful job. She deals with people and groups that behave in a way that would get them kicked out of daycare.

Yet through it all she remains upbeat, friendly, and inspiring.

Ghita is amazing.

Well, we tried. That should count for something, I suppose.

My Second City Improv class has formed a troupe, which we call “Weird and Uncomfortable.” Even though we haven’t even made it all the way through the Conservatory program yet, we considered performing in a public venue.

If we were ready.

One of our teachers, though, convinced us that we should always try to perform in public. “Have you ever played D&D [Dungeons and Dragons]?” Um, of course. We are geeks. Prick us and do we not roll for damage? “Well, going to class is like getting one or two experience points. But, performing on stage in front of real people, that is like getting 100 experience points. Get it?”

Got it.

Good.

So yesterday we practiced at one of the player’s house. It was awesome. I even wrote down some of the scenes for later work and use. I think they were hilarious.

We ended on a high note, all ready for our first show tonight.

The fact that I’m home early enough to write this up is probably an indication of how the night went.

The place was The Plymouth Coffee Bean Company. It was a hole in the wall right off of Main Street in, you guessed it, Plymouth, Michigan.

Hey, at least they had good coffee.

Our group leader had called ahead and asked if, during their open mic night they wouldn’t mind an improv group performing. The perky woman on the phone said, “Sure! Sounds like a blast!”

She wasn’t there that night.

Instead, it was run by a young intense man named Jeffree.

We were there by 7 PM, and hoped to perform a few times during the three hour open mic window. Jeffree wasn’t there until 7:20 or so.

While waiting, I ducked back to see where we’d be performing. There wasn’t a stage. There was barely any space. There was one nice area that would work, although it would be tight.

When asked if we could do some improv, Jeffree wasn’t as bubbly as the lady on the phone. “Well, I guess, if you want to. There are some conditions though.”

Conditions? No problem.

“You only get fifteen minutes, and you can’t be raunchy.”

Right. Short amount of time, and no donkey dick. We can handle it. We are [plan on being] professionals [one day].

We finished our coffee, and after it started we went back there to talk to Jeffree about when we could go on.

This is when we realized that even our pseudo stage wasn’t available. People were sitting there. Jeffree was at the performance space. It was the size of three postage stamps, with two microphones and one chair fighting each other for air.

Jeffree was singing. We waited patiently. There was a woman near him listening to messages on her cell phone, not talking, but the phone was at her ear.

Mr. Jeffree stopped his singing, looked right at her and with a raised voice said, “I am trying to in-flu-ence the world with my music! Take your cell phone outside!”

And we were out of there.

While standing outside talking about what we would do next, about twelve people left the Bean Company. While they were listening to the music, Jeffree got up and said to them, “Unless you buy coffee from this establishment, you aren’t welcome here! You can’t just hang out around here without supporting the music!”

Ironic note #1: Half of the people left with coffee cups in their hands.

Ironic note #2: Jeffree doesn’t even work there.

And so ends the adventure of our first attempt at a public performance.

Next week will be better. We have scheduled an actual gig at a real improv theater next week, where we open for another troupe.

A real stage at a real theater, with a hopefully friendly audience.

Oh, and Jeffree? You aren’t invited.

Last night Elaine and I went to a wedding of two of our friends. It was a wonderful time! One of the best parts is that Elaine wore a sexy elegant gown, and I got to wear my tux. Everyone there was dressed up in fancy clothes, and I like going to places where there is a great excuse to dress up.

But that wasn’t the best part.

Instead of a full dinner, they had snacks and, wonder of wonders, the best bar I’ve ever had the pleasure to use. The choices were wide and varied, but I went for my favorite.

First, I took three scoops of French vanilla ice cream. Around the edges of the bowl I put sliced bananas. Strawberries, with strawberry sauce, I poured in the middle. Then lots of chocolate syrup covering everything, with whipped cream piled on last.

Yum!

The ice cream bar had tons of other fixings: jimmies, hot fudge, nuts, other fruit, and more things that I can remember. It is the best type of bar. I want one in my home. Instead of a drink bar, I want to open up a huge cabinet and have the dry ice fog roll out as I reach in for a bowl of heaven.

Forget alcohol. Ice cream with all the trimmings is the addiction I am glad to have.