The Next Thing

It's a new year, right? Because I have such an unconventional schedule, there doesn't seem to be much delineation between week days and weekends. The same with new years. I was so busy working on shows, that it didn't seem like the end of one thing and the beginning of another for me. Until now. I had a lot of my focus and energy on the Sketchfest show with Don. Now that it's over, I feel like one chapter has finished and another has begun.

What made Locked in a Room particularly appropriate for this time of year is that it really is a touchstone for where both Don and I are at in our lives. We vented a lot about all the stuff that bugged the crap out of us in 2007. It was a blast to perform and we had a ton of support from the Sketchfest crew - Tim, Brian, Jill, Tom and the always ultra supportive Posen. On Saturday, it was nice to close the show and then go hang out at Don and Jen's with friends eating pizza, drinking wine and playing the Disney version of Scene-It. The next morning, at 10am, I was at a Robot vs Dinosaur rehearsal for our Sketchfest show on Thursday.

Some of the things I am looking forward to in 2008...

- Having Robot vs Dinosaur do our first run of a show
- Having Robowriters continue to grow
- Doing more with Fig Media as a creative director
- Having my play Metaluna remounted by WNEP
- Writing more and seeing my work produced
- Julie and I continually making our apartment homey
- The end of the writer's strike
- Bush and Cheney leaving office (I know - he technically doesn't leave until 2009, but I'm wishing and hoping he gets the long deserved boot before then)
- Working with Don and Jen more - Hopefully, we'll get The Nod cranking on a monthly basis and do another short run on Locked in a Room somewhere
- Volunteering more at 826
- Taking more classes at Columbia
- And while I always look forward to teaching, I don't think I'll be doing more than usual in that area this year, but you never know.

But, mostly, I look forward to the world waking up a bit more around being a global community. We're all on this planet together. And all those scientists and politicians on the oil and auto industries' payrolls who claim global warming is a myth can suck my ass because it's January 7th and we're having record-breaking warm temperatures in the 60's here in Chicago! How awesome that Bush is visiting here today.

In case you were unable to make our show...



And here's Saturday's audience. That's Geoff Crump laughing his ass off!

THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

Friday, I asked...

"Ricky Labit, who is 6-foot-3, 265 pounds, has been banned in Houma, Louisiana from doing what?"

20% said "Working at a health club"
- Yeah. Hard to be inspired by a trainer whose water bottle is filled with bacon fat.

20% said "Wearing a thong at the beach"
- I don't think you'd be able to see the thong. His body would absorb it.

6% said "Riding the bus"
- He can ride the bus. He just has to pay two fares.

54% got it right with "Eating at a buffet"

According to The Daily Comet, Ricky Labit says the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they're hearty eaters. According to Labit, the waitress gave them a bill with extra charges on it and said "Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much." Apparently, Labit went to the buffet as much as three times a week. Okay. Two things. One - it's a buffet, the management has to take their lumps when a human steam shovel comes in and starts to pack their innards to the neck with peel and eat shrimp. Two - dude. Being banned from this restaurant may have saved your life. Go grab some carrot sticks and go for a long walk.