The opening, and after.

I figure I owe everyone an entry. It’s very hard to keep this up, you know.

About a week and a half ago, Boom opened their new show, “Why Aren’t You Happy Yet?” It’s not a catchy title, but the advertisements are nice — everyone can check them out at boomchicago.nl. But anyhow, the show is the standard mix of Improv and Sketch Comedy … but somehow muted and less dynamic than I wish the show was. About one week before the opening, I was extremely proud of the show. It was a very dark, even cynical piece about people being spoiled and the contemporary obsession with laughing at other people’s pain. But going into the opening, the show was cut down and edited by the executive staff. We lost our smartest sketch, our only relationship piece, and there were band-aids put all over the show — it was patchwork Dutch Comedy to compensate for the young cast. We aren’t Dutch, nor are we full-on-expats like Brendan Hunt was. So, fittingly, there was no Dutch humor in the show. It was a more universal edginess, I thought. But in the week before the opening, we replaced those universal jokes with inside-Amsterdam-jokes in a demeaning and elitist way. Our Dutch sketches last year were enjoyable and informative to the tourists, and familiar to the Holland locals. This year, we name drop.

The reviews have been positive, for the most part. There have been some negative reviews, but you won’t see those at the Boom website. Spits came a week later when the show was being taught to the other five actors, and tore the show apart, apparently. I don’t feel bad about that; the show they saw *was* terrible. But the opening went very very well, and the improv was amazing. I just wish I was more proud of the overall package we were presenting.

After the show, it was alumni week. MadTv friends Ike and Josh and Jordan and Nicole came in to play with us again, and Seth and Liz from SNL dropped in. We all went to Six Flags and had a fantastic time. It’s really lucky that these stars are also such great people. I’m not very comfortable around people I don’t know … I mean, to the point of paralysis … but Ike is a good guy, and I feel like I got to know him a bit better this week. It was also fantastic to catch up with Liz, who I haven’t seen since Northwestern.

The real treasure of the week was the sudden and delightful days off. After the alumni disappeared, I took my bike on a five-hour-trip to the farmland past amstelveen. I had no idea that such beautiful country was so close. Took pictures, read, found a bakery and bought a loaf of bread in the middle of nowhere. It was the best bike ride of my whole life. I passed a table where a woman was watercolor painting in the middle of a field. Breathtaking, sunny and cool enough for a light jacket. Total bliss.

Finally … I ordered two cds and a t-shirt a million years ago and they seem to have been eaten by the Dutch mail service. Fub, your shirt is still missing in action. And so is my Final Fantasy VII piano collection … . I’m gonna give it three more weeks and then order it anew. Sorry it’s taking so long.

Another Long Entry

For the last few weeks, I’ve been working on the new Boom Chicago Show, “Why Aren’t You Happy Yet?” It’s a grueling and rewarding process that taxes me to my limits and then props me up for another session. 14 hours a day or there abouts. And that’s why I haven’t written. The last thing I want to do when I get home is write about what just happened.

Tonight, though, I had the night off. A bath, some pasta, some trip-hop courtesy of Live 365.

And then, I started working on sketches. It’s what I’ve been doing for the last few hours; working on an Opening to the show. I decided to Google the phrase “aren’t I happy” for some inspiration.

Holy shit. I unlocked Pandora’s Box. It seems like everyone on earth is unhappy, regardless of what they have or don’t have, what they’ve accomplished or haven’t. Of course, Google is a Filtering mechanism, and when you look at the world through the filter of “aren’t I happy,” it seems like everyone isn’t happy. Regardless, I didn’t realize how universal the new show’s theme really was.

I point now to a webpage with a wonderful lecture — it’s http://www.collegeofteachers.ac.uk/brainofthefuture.htm … and it’s about our brains. And of course, I found the article because of the phrase contained within it somewhere, “Aren’t I happy.” Which, by the way, is always preceeded with “Why”. Or so it seems. Anyway, the lecture is about alzeimers and neurobiology and such … really great reading, and nice and long, too. Lots of ideas for an opening for a comedy show … but none of them funny.

I’m really ranting here - stream of consciousness stuff - but I thought I’d try to update quickly before I got back to work. Enjoy the article!