Just got back from a workshop- phewweee hard work. But not as hard as others I've had so it went pretty well. Teacher seemed pleased with it and the kids had fun so that's all I can ask for... Sean was a Diva though, he demanded crisps before he'd do the second workshop... something about fainting if he didn't get them, probably from holding his breath and stamping his little camp foot ;) love you seanie.
OK... so I can catch you up some more again now... I've got as far as LA.
LA
Sunday
Arrived on Sunday and stressed about Steven and Ste getting there OK from the airport. Rachel was already there and I met up with her and Jer in the lounge which was, to be honest, just really surreal. Rach had already met Jill by this stage, which was cool, everything was coming together. Steven and Ste arrived safely and then we all went bowling (after we'd avoided the pool, too many boobs, both fake and real, knocking (haha, knocking) around). It was great fun bowling, I either won or came second in our team (I can't remember who was on my team... except Jeremy..
Jeremy with me and Matt Wheeler, bowling
I suck). I ate some random food, which wasn't great, and then toddled off to meet Evan. As Evan and I were chatting we both dozed off and the next thing we knew it was 10pm! Turned out that Jer had been into the room, tlaked to us, got no response, tried to shake me awake, no response, and then took a shower and left! Very very strange. Found out that Steven and Ste were pretty much dead to the world too so I went to bed myself.
Monday
We got up earlyish and headed out on mass to take on the world! We went to Mo's Diner and had food. I filmed the experience. It was tasty. We then headed out to Hollywood Blvd and checked out some of the groovy shops. Ste, Steven and Rachel decided to buy Hawaiian costumes... (to this day I still dont know why), so that they did. Ste decided to try his on in the street:
Ste trying on the bra while Evan and I watch
Suits him yes? Next port of call was the opening night shindig at the ComedySportz LA Arena. A lovely place! The backyard area - patio thingy - was all laid out with tables and food, and there was a Mariachi (sp) Band. Was lots of fun. Many people got drunk, I and Ste of course did not, for different reasons. Hung out mostly with Jill and Evan this evening.
Jill and I talk, but we can't help feeling like we're being watched.
Best thing about the LA outside area was that they had a photo booth! Now I've never seen one of these in the states before! No joke! I've seen novelty ones, but never just a normal one, surprised me. So we made the most of it and spent a gazillion dollars in there... here is just a small selection:
Jill and I probably paid for LA's tourney costs ourselves by using their machine!
So then we all headed off to a pub called The Pig and Whistle. It was a bit weird cos we'd got a good vibe going at the CSz building, so it was like starting again once we got there. Was a bit strange, I kind of got squeezed into a boothwith a couple of people, that then became about 7 people! Got to chat to Vlad (who I met a couple of years ago, and saw again last year) and meet new people including Myles, who seemed a bit too interested in my bag full of personal belongings... but that was OK cos I was a bit too interested in his hair. Fun night, just ended weird.
Tuesday
FINALLY some CSz stuff to get my teeth into. New Games Workshop in the morning which was fun. Saw the lovely Brian Allman for the first time in a year, we've been corresponding since last year, and he looked good. There were a few new games that I wanted to bring home, and it was fun to see EVERYONE in the room
yay for us!
This was the first day with workshops. Got to hang out more with new pal Myles in Larry Arrick's acting/impro workshop. Was pretty good, felt rather self concious though, but then, I usually do.
In the evening: Scrimm - age SCRIMMAGE! Sat on the front row and in slid next to me Brian Allman. Yay, got to chat some more. Also sat with Evan and Jill, turned round to see where my guys where and was confronted with this:
oh dear
The scrimmage was great fun, Brian and I kept shouting out to get more scenes going though, rather than games, although one game did allow us to see Von (6'6'' Black guy) slow dancing with Luke (5'5'' Ginger pasty white guy)... cute and funny.
The first scene was just genius, and two of my players (Ste and Rach) were in it! PLus I got to see my new curly haired pal Myles perform, which was great fun. So fun, Rach at the end almost made me cry laughing! Great... I mean , how was anyone going to top that scene? But Brian and I ran up for the next scene. I managed to become The Tab Ghost, while Brian was PacMan! It was all rather odd, and funny... especially when I suggested that someone was trying to poison me by feeding me 'Diet Tab'... aparantly, the huge laugh I got for that came from the fact that Tab IS Diet, and is famously the first american diet drink! Ahh well.
After the scrimmage there was the U-sical, the LA team performed an improvised Musical, and it was hilarious - I wish I'd have filmed it. Sat next to new pal myles who let me touch his hair some more.
I can't remember what happened afterwards, this may have been the night we played elevator hide and seek... not sure.
Wednesday
I'm a bit hazy on this day, maybe Evan can fill it in a bit as I spent most of the day with him. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,had a smoothie and then walked down sunset blvd.
Pretty sure this picture was from that day too:
although I may be wrong... does this place do films?
Later in the evening we went to Improv Olympic and I met up with my pal Jen (an online friend that I'd not met before)... I dont have a picture online with her yet, maybe she'll send me one ;)
Then I ran around to try and find the place that everyone was meeting up in. Bordiers or something... aparantly it was down one street, so I walked down there, it was late, and very dark, and I was on my own... I coudlnt' find it so I started to freak out a little, I gave up and headed back to the hotel, and that's when I saw it. So I walked in... and realised i didn't like it.. so left anyway.
Thursday
Tonights the niiiiiiiight....... this was the day we played!
The day was filled with workshops. Had my first with lovely BA, we laughed a lot, mosstly at the way the instructor delivered the class, it was fun... naughty childish fun. Then, I said goodbye and that was the last time I saw him for the trip :( Anyhoo life goes on. My second was with Evan and Jill and Myles... and was FUN FUN FUN! I felt like I was on fire, I seemed to get laughs for everything, I felt great, and all I could think was I hope I manage to pull this off tonight! Got to do scenes with Evan and Jill, was sad I never got a chance with Myles.
Half way through the workshop my parents turned up! Which was a lovely surprise. Well, not THAT much of a surprise, I knew they were coming to LA! So i finished at the workshop, went back to the hotel, (via Myles' hair) and grabbed the teeshirts and made my way back to the theatre for the match.
THE MATCH
NOLA warmed up for like an hour, we're not used to such intense warm up, so we kind of sat around and chatted for a while. We tried to join in but just seemed crap so we stopped.
We began with What Are You Doing. Where I got NOLA to dig up Walt Disney and Ste made them try and do Rudolph Clouse! Hmm... but they did it, whatever that was.
Next we played Group Therapy. Which was interesting. I've never been much good at this game really, if anything I'd normally guess, not saying that that goes too well either. Steven is our tournament guesser anyway ;) Ste got Grey Puopon (or however that's spelled) as you will know, we dont have that in the UK so Ste had to have that explained... and bless him he managed to get Steven to guess it!! I was amazed, I didnt' think Steven would have heard of it!
NOLA then played Four Corners and after that we played Oscar Winning Moment, which turned into a new game we like to call Silioquey (again - spelling)... basically for some reason we stepped forward to deliver a monologue instead of just intensifying the scene! Bit strange, dont think we've done that before. Actually, tell a lie, for some reason that's what I did in Minneapolis! I think it's cos they put a spot on the stage for it... I dunno.. it was strange, but still funny.
Then NOLA played 3 Way Dub (hard HARD game) and we went into the final game, continuation. And the greatest thing about that was that we didn't have to resort to accent copying for the laughs! It was very physical and fun, and Ste was BB'd during it, so we had to lead him around the stage on the switches. Near the end he ended up in the audience! Funny.
We won, and we rocked, as did NOLA, was a great feeling. Still didnt' quite top the year before for me somehow... but it was good :)
That evening we celebrated somewhere that I can't remember, actually this may be the elavator hide and seek night, who knows... it all grows hazy
pix from the match
Friday
More workshops this day. I did Shakespeare second, for some reason I cannot remember what I did first! It may come to me. Learned a fair bit in Shakespeare workshop, some that I actually remembered from school! It was rahter indepth and interesting. I bet I know why I've forgotten the first one, becuase I'd forgotten my notebook for this day and had to borrow paper and a pen at the managers meeting! I dont know if I even wrote notes for the first workshop... grr. OH WAIT! How could I forget! It was the Team Building workshop! And it was my favourite of the whole week!! Loved it! SO many games and trust excersises and the teacher was amazing! Really envied her.
So, the matches that evening I didn't see too much of. For some reason I couldnt' sit still for most of the matches this year, I dont know why. I just needed to move around. Steven and Ste were selling teeshirts again. I think this was the night we went to the hilaroiusly titled BIG WANGS... Ste managed to get in! As did Matt Wheeler (btoh who are under age) and I saw Rip Taylor there.
Saturday
Managers meeting at 8.30am!! Ugh. I was tired, I think I only got to bed about 3am. But that's the fun of tournament. We spent a fair chunk of the afternoon doing 'tourist' photos that we could use for publicity (if any sodding newspaper gives a shit) over here.
us with Burt Reynolds hand prints! Oh yeah.
Chorley Chaplins meet Charlie Chaplin.
TIRED!.
It was a hot and sweaty day. At the match that evening we were given bogus information that there were no seats left! Steven and Ste sat outside with the teeshirts again while I escaped with Myles to watch him tap dance (amazing btw!). Got back for the party, which was over far too soon in my opinion! I think it started wrapping up about 3ish. I got a lovely massage from Matt and lots of hugs from lots of people, chatted to Chris Tallman (of Crossballs and Reno 911 fame) about Doctor Who, Shaun of the Dead and Spaced, ate ridiculous sized pizza, watched lots of drinking games, saw Dick in an amusing wig, ate an apple, helped clean up. Said goodbye to so many people, made me really sad :(
BRON
x
ps - thanks to Evan for most of these photos!
OK... so I can catch you up some more again now... I've got as far as LA.
LA
Sunday
Arrived on Sunday and stressed about Steven and Ste getting there OK from the airport. Rachel was already there and I met up with her and Jer in the lounge which was, to be honest, just really surreal. Rach had already met Jill by this stage, which was cool, everything was coming together. Steven and Ste arrived safely and then we all went bowling (after we'd avoided the pool, too many boobs, both fake and real, knocking (haha, knocking) around). It was great fun bowling, I either won or came second in our team (I can't remember who was on my team... except Jeremy..
Jeremy with me and Matt Wheeler, bowling
I suck). I ate some random food, which wasn't great, and then toddled off to meet Evan. As Evan and I were chatting we both dozed off and the next thing we knew it was 10pm! Turned out that Jer had been into the room, tlaked to us, got no response, tried to shake me awake, no response, and then took a shower and left! Very very strange. Found out that Steven and Ste were pretty much dead to the world too so I went to bed myself.
Monday
We got up earlyish and headed out on mass to take on the world! We went to Mo's Diner and had food. I filmed the experience. It was tasty. We then headed out to Hollywood Blvd and checked out some of the groovy shops. Ste, Steven and Rachel decided to buy Hawaiian costumes... (to this day I still dont know why), so that they did. Ste decided to try his on in the street:
Ste trying on the bra while Evan and I watch
Suits him yes? Next port of call was the opening night shindig at the ComedySportz LA Arena. A lovely place! The backyard area - patio thingy - was all laid out with tables and food, and there was a Mariachi (sp) Band. Was lots of fun. Many people got drunk, I and Ste of course did not, for different reasons. Hung out mostly with Jill and Evan this evening.
Jill and I talk, but we can't help feeling like we're being watched.
Best thing about the LA outside area was that they had a photo booth! Now I've never seen one of these in the states before! No joke! I've seen novelty ones, but never just a normal one, surprised me. So we made the most of it and spent a gazillion dollars in there... here is just a small selection:
Jill and I probably paid for LA's tourney costs ourselves by using their machine!
So then we all headed off to a pub called The Pig and Whistle. It was a bit weird cos we'd got a good vibe going at the CSz building, so it was like starting again once we got there. Was a bit strange, I kind of got squeezed into a boothwith a couple of people, that then became about 7 people! Got to chat to Vlad (who I met a couple of years ago, and saw again last year) and meet new people including Myles, who seemed a bit too interested in my bag full of personal belongings... but that was OK cos I was a bit too interested in his hair. Fun night, just ended weird.
Tuesday
FINALLY some CSz stuff to get my teeth into. New Games Workshop in the morning which was fun. Saw the lovely Brian Allman for the first time in a year, we've been corresponding since last year, and he looked good. There were a few new games that I wanted to bring home, and it was fun to see EVERYONE in the room
yay for us!
This was the first day with workshops. Got to hang out more with new pal Myles in Larry Arrick's acting/impro workshop. Was pretty good, felt rather self concious though, but then, I usually do.
In the evening: Scrimm - age SCRIMMAGE! Sat on the front row and in slid next to me Brian Allman. Yay, got to chat some more. Also sat with Evan and Jill, turned round to see where my guys where and was confronted with this:
oh dear
The scrimmage was great fun, Brian and I kept shouting out to get more scenes going though, rather than games, although one game did allow us to see Von (6'6'' Black guy) slow dancing with Luke (5'5'' Ginger pasty white guy)... cute and funny.
The first scene was just genius, and two of my players (Ste and Rach) were in it! PLus I got to see my new curly haired pal Myles perform, which was great fun. So fun, Rach at the end almost made me cry laughing! Great... I mean , how was anyone going to top that scene? But Brian and I ran up for the next scene. I managed to become The Tab Ghost, while Brian was PacMan! It was all rather odd, and funny... especially when I suggested that someone was trying to poison me by feeding me 'Diet Tab'... aparantly, the huge laugh I got for that came from the fact that Tab IS Diet, and is famously the first american diet drink! Ahh well.
After the scrimmage there was the U-sical, the LA team performed an improvised Musical, and it was hilarious - I wish I'd have filmed it. Sat next to new pal myles who let me touch his hair some more.
I can't remember what happened afterwards, this may have been the night we played elevator hide and seek... not sure.
Wednesday
I'm a bit hazy on this day, maybe Evan can fill it in a bit as I spent most of the day with him. We saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,had a smoothie and then walked down sunset blvd.
Pretty sure this picture was from that day too:
although I may be wrong... does this place do films?
Later in the evening we went to Improv Olympic and I met up with my pal Jen (an online friend that I'd not met before)... I dont have a picture online with her yet, maybe she'll send me one ;)
Then I ran around to try and find the place that everyone was meeting up in. Bordiers or something... aparantly it was down one street, so I walked down there, it was late, and very dark, and I was on my own... I coudlnt' find it so I started to freak out a little, I gave up and headed back to the hotel, and that's when I saw it. So I walked in... and realised i didn't like it.. so left anyway.
Thursday
Tonights the niiiiiiiight....... this was the day we played!
The day was filled with workshops. Had my first with lovely BA, we laughed a lot, mosstly at the way the instructor delivered the class, it was fun... naughty childish fun. Then, I said goodbye and that was the last time I saw him for the trip :( Anyhoo life goes on. My second was with Evan and Jill and Myles... and was FUN FUN FUN! I felt like I was on fire, I seemed to get laughs for everything, I felt great, and all I could think was I hope I manage to pull this off tonight! Got to do scenes with Evan and Jill, was sad I never got a chance with Myles.
Half way through the workshop my parents turned up! Which was a lovely surprise. Well, not THAT much of a surprise, I knew they were coming to LA! So i finished at the workshop, went back to the hotel, (via Myles' hair) and grabbed the teeshirts and made my way back to the theatre for the match.
THE MATCH
NOLA warmed up for like an hour, we're not used to such intense warm up, so we kind of sat around and chatted for a while. We tried to join in but just seemed crap so we stopped.
We began with What Are You Doing. Where I got NOLA to dig up Walt Disney and Ste made them try and do Rudolph Clouse! Hmm... but they did it, whatever that was.
Next we played Group Therapy. Which was interesting. I've never been much good at this game really, if anything I'd normally guess, not saying that that goes too well either. Steven is our tournament guesser anyway ;) Ste got Grey Puopon (or however that's spelled) as you will know, we dont have that in the UK so Ste had to have that explained... and bless him he managed to get Steven to guess it!! I was amazed, I didnt' think Steven would have heard of it!
NOLA then played Four Corners and after that we played Oscar Winning Moment, which turned into a new game we like to call Silioquey (again - spelling)... basically for some reason we stepped forward to deliver a monologue instead of just intensifying the scene! Bit strange, dont think we've done that before. Actually, tell a lie, for some reason that's what I did in Minneapolis! I think it's cos they put a spot on the stage for it... I dunno.. it was strange, but still funny.
Then NOLA played 3 Way Dub (hard HARD game) and we went into the final game, continuation. And the greatest thing about that was that we didn't have to resort to accent copying for the laughs! It was very physical and fun, and Ste was BB'd during it, so we had to lead him around the stage on the switches. Near the end he ended up in the audience! Funny.
We won, and we rocked, as did NOLA, was a great feeling. Still didnt' quite top the year before for me somehow... but it was good :)
That evening we celebrated somewhere that I can't remember, actually this may be the elavator hide and seek night, who knows... it all grows hazy
pix from the match
Friday
More workshops this day. I did Shakespeare second, for some reason I cannot remember what I did first! It may come to me. Learned a fair bit in Shakespeare workshop, some that I actually remembered from school! It was rahter indepth and interesting. I bet I know why I've forgotten the first one, becuase I'd forgotten my notebook for this day and had to borrow paper and a pen at the managers meeting! I dont know if I even wrote notes for the first workshop... grr. OH WAIT! How could I forget! It was the Team Building workshop! And it was my favourite of the whole week!! Loved it! SO many games and trust excersises and the teacher was amazing! Really envied her.
So, the matches that evening I didn't see too much of. For some reason I couldnt' sit still for most of the matches this year, I dont know why. I just needed to move around. Steven and Ste were selling teeshirts again. I think this was the night we went to the hilaroiusly titled BIG WANGS... Ste managed to get in! As did Matt Wheeler (btoh who are under age) and I saw Rip Taylor there.
Saturday
Managers meeting at 8.30am!! Ugh. I was tired, I think I only got to bed about 3am. But that's the fun of tournament. We spent a fair chunk of the afternoon doing 'tourist' photos that we could use for publicity (if any sodding newspaper gives a shit) over here.
us with Burt Reynolds hand prints! Oh yeah.
Chorley Chaplins meet Charlie Chaplin.
TIRED!.
It was a hot and sweaty day. At the match that evening we were given bogus information that there were no seats left! Steven and Ste sat outside with the teeshirts again while I escaped with Myles to watch him tap dance (amazing btw!). Got back for the party, which was over far too soon in my opinion! I think it started wrapping up about 3ish. I got a lovely massage from Matt and lots of hugs from lots of people, chatted to Chris Tallman (of Crossballs and Reno 911 fame) about Doctor Who, Shaun of the Dead and Spaced, ate ridiculous sized pizza, watched lots of drinking games, saw Dick in an amusing wig, ate an apple, helped clean up. Said goodbye to so many people, made me really sad :(
BRON
x
ps - thanks to Evan for most of these photos!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home