We were terrible for a long time. Painful. We would literally run out the back door and jump in Lake Michigan after some shows to rid ourselves of the horror of what we’d just perpetrated. I still think of the night that some of the actors ran into the bar where the other actors were, and one of them said, “Come quick: Mike has a character!” But we were, all the while, without knowing it, creating for ourselves a series of answers to what is a scene. And actually, only a few weeks ago in rehearsal, I remembered one of my rules from back then, which is that there are only three kinds of scenes: fights, seductions, and negotiations. Oh, and contradictions. As Elaine used to say, “When in doubt, seduce.
It’s really, really, really important to remember sometimes that even the greats sucked in their 20’s. It’s also really important to remember that the not-so-greats also sucked. The 20’s are just a time of trial and error, sucking and occasionally transcending.
I looked at a bunch of the ryan gosling hey girl things and watched a few videos of him before we shot this. I don’t think I’m being too gay when I say I’d totally fuck him. Right? Guys?
There’s a rule somewhere that my girlfriend can only be in sketch videos where she’s going out with my friends. I dance around in this and shot a bit of it too! Playa Dynasty!
I’m in another new video about a video game from Blue Goggles Films. It’s crazy these get so many views and comments so fast. I love reading the comments. Especially when people point out it’s impossible to play a game 100 hours in a week, because there’s only 168 hours in a week. Well put, gamer.
2 weeks ago my sketch group There’s Waldo did a Christmas special, Human Santapede. As the title suggests, it was silly, gross, and awesome.
In the show I did a stand up set as “Santa Dice Clay” I wore a santa suit and basically copied Dice’s act from his heyday. Instead of nursery rhymes I used Christmas songs as set ups, then filled in the punchline with something predictably wrong and ignorant. Example- Feliz Navidad. Go back where ya came from. (I know, I know)
After my set Tom Booker came back and hi fived me. “Two people walked out!” A guy and a girl nobody knows, who bought their tickets ahead of time online, were apparently so offended by my set they walked out of the theater. What?
I didn’t mind that much, I mean, the show was called Human Santapede. What did they expect?
The show was loosely structured on those old tv Christmas specials, so we would occasionally appear as ourselves hosting the show. We’d talk about what the audience could see next. I felt a strong urge to address the fact that people walked out. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I remember feeling relaxed, if slightly embarrassed about it. The response was awesome. It was laughter from something true and honest. We weren’t laughing at the people who left. We were laughing because we all shared an experience together.
I don’t know how to replicate that kind of response. I certainly don’t want to go out of my way to offend people. That was never my intention. But, I think just being present and observing what happens and acknowledging it is a great starting point.
Someone actually did ask for this, so I’m not just on a high horse (I mean, I am literally, not metaphorically; I’m riding a horse right now!). A lot of new people got put on Maude teams late last night and I thought I should share some things I’ve learned after being a writer on Thunder Gulch for…
Here’s a short I recently did with Blue Goggles Films. Batman fans and Gamers seem to be loving it. This is the first thing I’ve been in that has had any sort of success outside my circle of friends. Also, yes. I put the brass knuckles on the wrong way. And I did it just to piss you off.
