RobertTheBruce.net

When was the last time you spent a Wednesday night, just sitting at home, watching TV for three hours? That’s what I asked my former boss who I was on the phone with last week, discussing some business. When business is good (and it is for both of us) and you have a ton of other things going on in life (like running an improv theater), you don’t have a whole lot of time to just veg out.

It’s a blessing and a curse–I’m really lucky to get to spend so much of my time on projects that really fire me up. On the other hand, I wake up Saturday mornings grasping for my to-do list, thinking of how I can squeeze in some extra work before it’s time to go out.

When my work was a 9 to 5 kind of deal, this didn’t happen to me. I would spend a decent amount of time putzing around on my computer while at work and when I got home, I would completely turn work off. So my nights would be free to do whatever I wanted.

But when you’re self-employed, or an entrepreneur, or you spend your free time trying to “make it” as a comedian/actor/musician/artist/whatever, all of your time is “in play.” Every moment I’m thinking “is this the best way to be spending my time? Could I be working on something productive right now?”

And even when it’s time to step away from work, I always ask “is this the best way to relax/chill out/enjoy me leisure time?” Because if you’re killing hours off the clock, Scrabulous is fine. But when leisure is precious, I want to really enjoy my time.

Does all this planning and evaluation increase or decrease stress? In the short-run, it increases stress, because the very act of questioning whether your current activity is stress-inducing. On the other hand, if you spend your whole week doing something other than what you really wanted to do–you’re going to feel terrible. At least I do. A little zen helps.

All of the BIF2008 performances were taped and all will be availableon DVD eventually. For now, videos of four of the BIG troupes and Safeword have been posted on Google video:

• Mister Licorice
• Gus
• Plan B
• Mrs. Uderhall
• Safeword

Keith Huang of SdViscous shot a ton of photos from the Baltimore Improv Festival, mostly from the partying after the shows on Saturday with Neutrino and a handfull of BIG people. He captured some of my favorite moments from the weekend, including the spontaneous-patriotic-outburst at Shorty’s and the dancing-in-the-street episode. I managed to sneak into a few as well.

Here’s the link to his very awesome improv photo blog.

Last week was my first time on the radio and my first time on TV.

Being on the radio was much cooler than being on TV. I’ve always loved radio–good talk radio, where you feel like the people are right there in the room with you. You can listen to good radio for hours while driving home at night or on a cross country-trip, and there was something very cool about having the headphones and the mic on and being part of the conversation.

I used to listen to Loveline with Adam Carolla and now it’s shows like the Ricky Gervais podcast and Keith and the Girl. I’ve never been into Stern but I can see why people listen to him religiously. And I could listen to NPR for hours on end (and I have), although their liberal bias bothers me more now than it used to.

TV on the other hand. I was on FOX45 and WJZ’s morning shows. I never watch TV news and watching TV news in the morning is a terrible way to start a day.

A year ago I would’ve been nervous as hell to get on TV but it didn’t seem like a big deal this year. I was still nervous but I don’t think it came off that way. I don’t think the performance anxiety ever goes away 100% but I can manage it now so that others don’t notice. I actually enjoy it somewhat now. It feels like… being alive.

P.S. I went to find the link to Loveline and when I went to the site, I discovered that it’s still on with a new host. I’m sorry, without Adam Carolla, it’s just not the same. Although I always enjoyed the Dr. Drew solo shows when Adam wasn’t around.

My brother Dave started a music blog with some friends. I’m not sure how long he’ll last but I’ve already derived some value from it. I started listening to David Bowie on Marcelo’s recommendation and goddamn is that Ziggy Stardust album good. I mean really fucking good.

Sarah Burton, an improviser with Full Ammo Improv, interviewed me for an article about the festival last week for WTOP.com.

“If you’re in D.C., come up and discover the great improv that we have up at Baltimore, share a laugh with us, and branch out and experience something new,” Carter says.

Read the lone comment on the article for a good laugh. Seriously, who was the time to troll an article about an IMPROV festival?

I created a quick WordPress site for one of my improv groups, Safeword. There’s a video posted on the site from our performance at the Baltimore Improv Festival last Friday.

Our next show? Hopefully at the Philly Improv Festival. I’m going to submit us this week.

I’m at the beach this week in Rehoboth, DE but I didn’t go to the actual beach today; I stayed in and worked all day. There was a time when I would have loathed the idea of not having a vacation completely devoid of any work time (there was also a time when thinking of work made me nauseous, no matter where I was) but now I gladly accept the tradeoff.

I’m taking four weeks of vacation this summer, two at the beach, one for the Chicago Improv Festival, and one for an improv intensive with Keith Johnstone at the end of August. In my old life, where I reported to offices, I was given at the most 3 weeks of vacation per year; a paltry sum.

One or two days spent on work while at the beach is not so bad; besides, everything’s better at the beach–even work. A year ago I probably would’ve struggled to adopt this attitude. It takes a bit of zen to enjoy the vacation today if work calls tomorrow.

I still only have a little bit of zen, but I’ve come a long way.

Miles, BIG’s excellent video guy, put together some intro videos for BIG troupes as part of this weekend’s festival.

Here’s the one for Mister Licorice. I’m the guy with the beard. If I looked zonked out in the interview it’s because I was on about 4 hours of sleep (damn 10am Sunday morning rehearsals!). The show clips are from our show on 3/22/08 at Load of Fun in Station North.

And here’s the videos for the other BIG troupes (except Plan B):

• Gus
• Mrs. Uderhall
• Moving Walkways
• Fresh Monkeys
• Plan B

Prescott and Bridget were on WYPR yesterday, doing some radio improv to promote the festival and yes, it was actually funny (radioprov is prone to disaster as I’ve learned this week). Listen here. Love the Bmore accent, hon.

And is it just me, or do people modulate their voices to fit the medium? I mean, people on NPR speak in NPR voices. It’s like a warm, quiet, soothing sound.