The Real Deal

Wednesday, April 18th to Wednesday April 25th.  That's when I'll be home.  I missed the holidays, so it'll be nice to be back.  I grew up in the town of East Longmeadow, a suburb of Springfield, MA on the Connecticut border, so I'll probably only be in Boston that Sunday, the 22nd.  And I'll probably go to the Comedy Studio then, too.

 

But on to more present matters.

 

Last week, after class, I spoke with the teacher to ask her where I was in improv.  Improv was always something that intimidated me, ever since high school when I would sit on the sidelines as everyone else in drama club jumped in for tag outs, in some simple improv games.  I took this class because it would be hard, and because I wanted to see the other side of the comedy world.  I think I've learned just how little improv understands stand-up and stand-up comics.  It would be arrogant and presumptuous for me to say I get impovisers after a sentence like that, but I want to.  We'll see what happens with level two.

 

But I still felt good enough about myself to make a consultation appointment for Monday for new headshots.  The old one I've been using is a nice enough black and white portait with my name on it, but relatively generic, and the world has moved on to full-color headshots.  I had been told the person I would meet was pretty eccentric, and pretty picky about punctuality.  So I made plans to be there a half-hour early.

 

It was raining this President's Day, and there was a sign on the door telling those with an appointment to come back at their appointment time, so I hung around under a porch roof at the photographer's house.  When I went in I supplied the old headshot and my press kit.  I also told her I had some of my stand-up online (Later I would upload more of my videos, sketches from Erin Judge Presents... available here on YouTube.  So far the one that seems to be the faraway favorite is this one, in which I'm at what is ostensibly a swinger's party acting awkward.).  I learned that she only schedules appointments for Monday through Friday, so I had to see what I could do to make that happen.

 

I wasn't sure what was going on with my temp job...so I asked.  The original assignment at the hospital was for two to three weeks while they look for a replacement for the person that left.  I said I'd be fine with staying, but if I could have the 15th off.  I kind of like the flexibility afforded me in this job.

 

Then it was off to my other job.  Charna Halpern, the owner and one of the founders of all things Improv Olympic was visiting.  I felt good about that because I felt confident in what I'd been doing for the past couple of months.  I did a good job calling the MADtv shows both last week and this one.

 

So of course everything went wrong.  There used to be a data projector, that had ads for new the next show, and there's a camera that provides a video feed to the bar of the shows on stage.  The switcher that controls the feeds was not hooked up properly and it was a problem that was pretty new to me.

 

There were also some problems with the timing and volume of the music, more than I usually had, and there were IO people smoking in the room next to the booth, which was another annoying problem that seemed to be growing.

 

Things seemed to be going better at my job.  I've managed to secure more solid hours, even on a four-day week such as this one.  My supervisor even bought me lunch on Friday.

 

I also continued watching my NewsRadio DVDs, and that cheered me up, with the wacky goings-on at WNYX, home of The Real Deal with Bill McNeal.

 

On Saturday, I went to the monthly internship meeting and got trained on a new computer that would show animated ads between shows.  It looks pretty cool.

 

Then there was the final class for Level 1.  In the second half of class each of us took turns evaluating each other.  In mine my positive comments were that I was the most original and creative person in class, and someone who charges into the exercises, and one who's very ambitious.  Apparently wanting to change the world forever is ambitious.  Things for improvement include basically my nervous tics, access cues, living in my head, and needing to relax.

 

I've always lived in my head I suppose.  I grew up kind of quiet and a loner, so I've always been one to think a lot.  I suppose it means I'm an over-thinker, so I'll try to break myself of the habit.  One thing I ponder a lot is the paradox of solving stressful problems by relaxing.

 

But this week MB will be back to visit, from another Wednesday to Wednesday, and on Monday I'll start Level 2.

 

Thank you, I'm Eric Cheung.  I'm on MySpace and Live Journal.

 

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