New Years Resolutions

Hi all - I have been holiday-ing with my family and bumming around a lot, because this next year I think will be huge for me. Here is a list of things, some big some small, that I will accomplish next year

Write my thesis (I am defending in May)

Get competent at banjo and accordian

Get very good at piano

Learn some card magic tricks

Read 2 books a month (not related to work)

Stop smoking (I am not forgoing chewing tobacco, so no big whip)

Get paid to do a stand-up gig

Leave a good staff to continue the Diligent Delegate (a student paper I co-founded)

I got the DVD!

Of my show. It is really cool, and seeing a professional DVD makes it seem more crazy in retrospect. Really cool. I am trying to splice out my clip: tell me what you think. Should I post the whole thing? Or make people come to the show?

I am going to an open mic to observe tonight. My coach advised checking out a room before you work it. I will go up tomorrow, at the place I have been observing for a month now.

Kids say the darndest things

In a recent survey kids ranked "being fat" as worse than "dying".

Pink Shirt = Confidence

It turns out my parents recorded most of the show using a digital camera! So I spliced together a highlight reel for those of you who couldn't make the show. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Oh jeez. I can't figure out how to embed files, which is frustrating because I am sure it is easy. I did google it, so I'm not that lazy. Leave a comment if you know the code. In the meantime, you can view me if you click this link

!!!SHOWBIZNESS!!!

Wow! The show went really well basically as good as it could have every punchline hit except one joke that I knew wouldn't work but I tell that joke for myself anyways. Ok, so here's how it went:

First disaster. I take the blue line to the red line, and I get off the blue line and they tell me that the red line isn't running. So I am in the middle of downtown during rush hour trying to get to my show. I catch the 22 bus, which is the Clark St. bus, but there is construction on Clark street so I am going like 1 mph. And even though I wasn't driving all the honking was stressing me out. Plus the girl sitting next to me on the bus screwed up her Sudoku, and it broke my heart to see her continue to fill it out until that inevitable point where she knew she screwed up. So I was a little late, but I was planning on getting there 1.5 hours before the show and so I wasn't late for the show.

Second disaster: the mic wasn't working. I don't know what happened. I talked into it before the guests arrived, but then when they show up it died. The show started about 25 minutes late and the guests were restless. I think also because we are amateurs it sort underscored that in a subtle way (and not a good way).

My set: Amazing. I was later in the show and didn't really feel nervous until the person before me went. Then when he was done I remembered something my teacher told me - it doesn't matter how you feel, just take the stage with energy. So that's what I did. It was weird: once I grabbed the mic it just happened. I didn't feel nervous at all when I was actually on stage.

I think my friends and family took some pictures so I will put some on my blog soon. I have more to say but maybe tomorrow.

I just febreezed my jeans

That means I'm ready to go.

(not quite) Dress Rehearsal (comedy update)

So we performed our final set in the room we will be performing in next week. It is a cool room, but way to big to perform for only 10 people. Now I know how the Royals must feel. I went just ok, as a lot of the class had jitters for various reasons. After I performed, I have decided to change my ordering to something more conventional and put more time into memorizing it. Come to the show and wish me luck!