Back in January, I appeared on WFMU’s 7 Second Delay Live at the UCB Theatre. All the guests answered an ad on Craigslist to be guests on the program. Ken and Andy (the hosts of 7 Second Delay) were awesome, and my only goal was to make them laugh, which I thankfully succeeded in doing. Hit the link below to listen to my segment of the show (appx. 5 minutes).
Okay, I want to talk about this a bit, since both rounds of UCB Harold auditions are done.
My improv group Thank You, Robot is celebrating our 3rd anniversary as a team this week here:
Each day this week I will be talking about a different member of the group, and why I love them as performers. Today: John Robert Wilson.
JR is, in my mind, a wildcard, and I mean that in the best way possible.
When people say ‘wildcard’ in improv, they often use it with a negative connotation, and I think that may be because often people who play wildly can’t back it up. The reason their crazy, hilarious idea or character is often found wanting is because that person doesn’t have the skills to keep it focused. Not JR. He creates stuff out of left field, because he initiates first, then lets his mind catch up to what he’s doing. He trusts himself that he can deliver on whatever he’s promised the audience in that first or second line, and he’s right to do so, because he can.
He also is never NOT having fun on stage. He will make himself Swamp Thing in a scene, just because. He revels in the idea that you can create anything in improv as long as you sell it, which is why you will often see him as some type of mad scientist, wizard, mythological monster, or…well, Swamp Thing. It’s infectious and exciting. So often, we get bogged down by all the notes and instruction we’re given and forget that this is supposed to be fun. JR reminds me of that all the time.
Even though he always has fun, JR is also dedicated to working hard at improving. I believe that performing is fun, but it’s much more fun when you’re GOOD AT IT, and I know JR feels the same way. When we practice, he’s usually the first person to volunteer for whatever exercise we’re doing, even if we’ve never seen it before. Even during practices where we all feel like we’re failures as performers, JR is still the first one to bounce back and try again. That also goes a long way towards keeping me out of my own head, which is where I often find myself if I am not sleeping and am still breathing.
The guy is also one of the best straight men I’ve worked with. When he plays straight man, he’s hilariously unflappable. Once in a scene, he was, apropos of little else in the scene, accused of hoarding hobgoblins in his basement. His reaction was, dead faced, “guilty as charged.” He then launched into his sane reasoning for doing so, which made enough sense that I wanted to get a basement and some hobgoblins later.
If I had to sum him up in three words, they’d be: wildcard, fun, dedicated.
If I had to sum him up in three songs, they’d be these (right click to save):
The Rentals – Waiting
Lo-Fidelity Allstars – Cattleprod
Das Racist – Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper. RMX)
Visit JR on the web:
www.johnrobertwilson.com
My improv group Thank You, Robot is celebrating our 3rd anniversary as a team this week here:
Each day this week I will be talking about a different member of the group, and why I love them as performers. Today: Jeremy Bent.
I will posit this: the only reason Jeremy Bent hasn’t taken over the world is either because it’s not worth it to him, or he is just that benevolent.
He’s also great at tying our insanity together. Where we’re a bunch of flapping walruses onstage, silently panicking about what we’re doing, he pulls it together with one line. Jeremy sees the logic in whatever is happening, and grounds it in a way that doesn’t take the fun out of what is happening, but instead makes it more relatable, and thus, more interesting.
For as logical as he can play, he also knows how to make a scene explode right out of the gate. His initiations are always clear, dynamic, fun, and exciting. When he steps out and starts a scene with someone else, I find myself cursing the fact that I’m not in that scene, because it looks like so much damn, simple fun. He once started a scene, where someone else came out holding their arm, by revving a chainsaw and saying “that’s why they call me Dr. Chainsaw!” I was squatting in the corner, out of breath from laughter. I know that’s a “you had to be there” moment, but goddamn, I’m glad I’m there any time he performs.
If I had to sum him up in three words, they’d be: brilliant, kinetic, exciting.
If I had to sum him up in three songs, they’d be these (right click to save):
Julian Casablancas – Out of the Blue
Ted Leo – Me And Mia
Talking Heads – Lifetime Piling Up
Visit Jeremy on the web:
goodsongsbadlyrics.tumblr.com
Hi.
First off, I will finish the story about doing comedy that I started last May. For someone who seems to have no problem getting on stage and whooping like a fool in a rainstorm (in some alternate reality, that was a famous olde tymey saying), I get self-conscious about indulging my own work in that manner. But I will finish what I started!
So! 2010. It’s not even 60 days old and it’s already a better year than last. To say 2009 was the worst year of my life is a disservice to understatement. The understater making that remark would be fired for not working up to his own potential.
While I am a comedian, writer, etc, I still have to hold down a day job to help keep a roof over 3 heads – mine, my ladyfriend’s, and Henry Madison, the intense humping rabbit. However, I lost my job last year the DAY before I went on my first real vacation since becoming an adult (I took the online course to do that; got my certificate in 2005). I never realized how much stress and depression not bringing in money can put on a person. I spent 9 plus months of 2009 sitting on my couch without a job. It hurt A LOT. People trying to get in to the entertainment industry often times have to take jobs they don’t want to support themselves, and it’s tough to deal with the notion that jobs that you don’t want actually don’t want YOU.
