So what's new? Hey, that's a clever intro, smartboy! I kind of have the end of summer burn-out blues. I've been waffling between two major situations lately: I've either got too much to do and not enough time to do it in, or lots of time and no energy to do anything! I'm trying to utilize it better by actually sitting down and writing.

Catch an Invisible Audience. Went with three other folks from Unity Singles to check out the Catch a Rising Star Comedy Club at the Golden West saloon downtown last Friday. There were a total of 6 people in the "crowd." This is yet another "comic hell" scenario. Actually all three handled it very well. The comics were local comic Dana Goldberg, L. A. guy Gary Brightwell, and rubber-faced nutball John Bizarre. Bizarre put on an awesome show. Lots of goofy faces, weird voices, rude noises and bouncing around. He is one of the funniest guys I've seen in a long while. The comics and management encouraged us to hang around for the second show, as they weren't planning on a much bigger crowd, and we would "bulk up" the audience a bit. There were a total of 15 people for that show, and we were singled out as "those wacky church people." There were two bands performing after the comedy, the Memphis P-Tails and Deja Vu (Funny, I feel like I've seen them before.). I stuck around for the P-Tails, who are an awesome blues, boogie and rockabilly trio, but I left before Deja Vu, because their lead guy, clad in black leather pants, open aloha shirt and sleeveless undershirt seemed a bit scary to me. Sort of like a bad 1980s gay Aerosmith cover band. I left at midnight, but Theresa and James stayed for Deja Vu, and neither one could actually describe what kind of music they played.
Bottom line: support the Golden West and Catch a Rising Star. Great venue, great fun, and I'd say that even if I hadn't wasted the better part of my early thirties there ten years ago!

Smoke Alarm Fun. Catapulted myself about three feet above my bed at 4:15 this morning when I jolted awake to the lovely screeching hell-tone of my smoke alarm. Apparently the battery was dying, and rather than gently beep every so often, the s.o.b. decided to wail like a nuclear raid siren! I didn't have an extra battery at that hour so I took the battery out....beep...beep...beep .... every few minutes. Turned off the power in the bed room...squeal, beep, honk, snort, fart...any noise it could muster. Finally got a very fresh battery..put it in...it was still beeping occasionally earlier today, but hopefully it will behave.

Gorilla My Dreams. I did something very impulsive this week. I signed up for an eight week $210 workshop on improv comedy. SInce the "self-teaching" thing has been going pretty horribly in regard to the stand-up comedy, I thought this would be a great help. It's at the Gorilla Tango Comedy Theatre, an improv house that just opened downtown. Since I kinda dabbled in seat-of- your-pants comedy with the "Never-Ending Comedy Show" on public access TV nearly 20 years ago, I thought maybe this would be a bit easier, more fun, and more comfortable for now. It will also be a great aid in helping me think on my feet. (Duh, how obvious can you be!) And I also get free admission to any of their shows while I'm taking the class. Very much looking forward to it!