Howdy, strangers - you may have been wondering what I’ve been up to in the over-a-month since I last posted. Well, good news, because now I’m going to tell you all about it.
When last I wrote, I was in rehearsals for Henry V and looking for a job.
Well, now Henry V is over. It was an interesting theatrical experience - it was a teeny-tiny theater (our biggest night we had 25 people, and we had to open up the over flow seating to fit everyone in) with copious amounts of alcohol flowing both in the audience and backstage (the last weekend the director/actor playing Henry V sent an e-mail out to the cast telling everyone to stop getting drink before intermission). It was a fun time; dunno if I’ll be in another play there, but I’ll certainly go and be an audience member.
Much of my time not spent sending out more resumes and doing the show was spent following the Obama campaign, which looks like it may officially take the nomination as early as a week from now. The Texas primary isn’t until next Tuesday, but I went and voted in the early voting last Friday, so now all that’s left to do is to go to the caucus on Tuesday, and try to get out the vote as much as possible.
But the biggest news is what I’ve been saving for last - I have (kinda-sorta) gotten a job (finally), and the real exciting thing about it is that it’s not even a lame Toys R Us-style job - it’s my first actual professional writing gig, writing sketches for Esther’s Follies (you probably have never heard of it, but it’s kind of a big deal). I haven’t actually gotten any money from it yet, but I will shortly, as some of the sketches I’ve written are being incorporated into the presidential debate sketch, and another is going in as a stand-alone segment. After almost a year, I’m finally starting to make real progress towards being a professional writer/actor (the actor part hopefully comes on Monday after I go to my second audition).
That brings me to why Stephen Colbert is On Notice - I wrote four sketches this past week to present at the writer’s meeting on Monday - one of which was on Hillary Clinton going after Obama for plagiarism. The gist of the sketch is that Clinton goes on about how plagiarism is bad, and then devolves into her screaming famous movie lines (”I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!” and the like). It went over very well at the writer’s meeting, and that’s one of the ones that’s being incorporated into the debate sketch.
Well, on Tuesday night’s Colbert Report (a full day after the writers meeting, and several full days after I had written the sketch), during his opening, he also talks about the plagiarism charges, and has a rant about how plagiarism is bad, and then devolves into him screaming famous movie lines (”I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!” and the like). Sound familiar? The really funny bit is that the movie quotes he uses are the exact same ones I used in the sketch, with the exception of the last one - he ended with “Nobody puts baby in the corner,” which I had in my original draft, but changed to “This! Is! SPARTA!” at the last minute. So, Stephen Colbert - you are on notice.
That’s about it, I think. If you’re in Austin and would like to join me in seeing Esther’s Follies this weekend, let me know.
More news to come, hopefully in less than a month this time.
