Fat Bad Robot Club

Of course it's been a while since I did a non-comic related post. That's how things go, apparently. I've been journeying through the wild world of temping and boy has it been interesting. I worked for Juilliard for a week, helping with their audition process. This involved me sitting in front of a door for around eight hours, breaking every fifteen minutes to knock on the door to tell the rehearsing instrumentalist that it was time for them to go down to their audition. During this time I read all of Mortified: Love is a Battlefield, David Sedaris' Naked and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, The Kinks: A Very English Band, and most of Bob Newhart's I Shouldn't Even Be Doing This. All of the Sedaris intake led me to write two humorous (hopefully) essays that will probably find their way to this blog at some point. I also wrote another five pages in my comic book and was interrogated by Asian men in blue smocks. The week at Juilliard was pretty grand. I've also temped for Classic Media and EuroRSCG, both of which lasted a day and weren't as interesting, although I've never seen an office as amazing and high class and modern as the one at Classic Media. It was pretty awesome. Hardwood floors, light walls, a huge aquarium, Eames-like chairs everywhere, and awesome prints of the cartoon characters they represent on every wall.

Improv has been going well. Between Cage Match, Harold Night, and the Chris/JR/Anna birthday party, I've had plenty of good times with good people (or the Fat Bad Robot Club). All it takes is a good house party for me to realize how lucky I am to be part of such an amazing scene with such truly friendly and funny people. When all you do is go to improv shows with people, you miss out on a lot of their personality. I'm glad nights like that happen so we can all do something other than the make-em-ups. I think a karaoke party is in order. Last night was the first time I stayed at Harold for all five teams and the 600 show in months. I saw Fwand perform their last show to a standing ovation and 1985 do a backwards Harold without warning. Nights like that remind me why I go to shows and what my goals as an improviser are.

I ventured to the Russian & Turkish Baths on that Saturday with Ethan for his small birthday celebration. I'd never been to a sauna or steam room before, so it was all a new experience... experienced in ill-fitting trunks and nothing else. After reading the essay in Naked about David Sedaris' experience in a nudist camp, it was all I could think of after putting my clothes on again. I had gotten so used to seeing people barely dressed for the almost three hours we were there that putting on clothes again seemed weird at first. Truly odd since I was meeting two of these people for the first time and was immediately introduced to them in all their glory. This was a lot of fun and is exactly the sort of thing I need to do this year. It was a true New York experience, even if I wasn't solicited for sex like in stereotypical bath houses.

I kept up the "non-improv fun time" theme the next day with a small Easter get together. I hooked up the Nintendo and we all had a nice relaxing time fighting with sticks and watching both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Turtles on Oprah, which will become a viral video whenever I figure out how to get it on YouTube. The night got me wondering why a faithful live-action adaptation of Super Mario hasn't happened yet. Playing "Super Mario 3" had me itching to write the screenplay, even though I already have one passion project with my draft of X-Men 4. But really, wouldn't it be awesome to see a big Italian guy crawling through a pipe only to drop out of it, land on top of a ferocious turtle, pick up his shell and chuck it at an ornate box, thus knocking a giant leaf out of it. It'd be pretty rad. In my head it is.

Things are going well right now and fingers crossed that I get a real job.