comic genealogy

I recently realized the links on my blog are quite similar to Stephen Colbert's "The Word" in terms of humor. It is important (or massively narcissistic (or both)) to know one's comic roots. I like to think I find myself on a comic family tree with Woody Allen, circa Annie Hall, circa the opening monologue, which I believe is one of his best written pieces. This places me in the same family as Larry David Jason Alexander and to a lesser extent Jerry Seinfeld. This sense blends in with my definite comedic father, Bill Murray (ignore his striking resemblance to my pediatrician's husband). A professor(no not that one) I had once described my sense of humor as recognizing the same "screaming madness" as Bill Murray, although for a period of time last winter I probably was taking things too far. Honorable mention on my comic family tree goes to Jeff Goldblum, Bradley Whitford, Ira Glass and John Cusack. The biggest philosophical drive behind my comedy definitely goes to the Bush Administration, in particular the DOJ and AGs, for teaching me there is no such thing as too destructive or too crazy, and lastly nothing, nothing is sacred. A friend of mine once likened my comic sense to Sherman's March to the Sea, and simply refers to it as, "scorch the earth".

Completely unrelated but somehow similar, in performances I tend to make references to movies or songs or anything that have found their way deep into my subconscious. It is not always overt or intentional, but I will lilt a sentence a certain way, or move a prop in a way that harkens to some piece of art I love. The most common thing which recurs is a reference to Christian Slater in the 80s teen movie, The Heathers. Heathers isnt the best movie ever made, but I think because I watched it so many times while falling asleep when I tell jokes on stage I find the same caustic dryness that Slater had at that time. The most similar resemblance is from a song, Alice's Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie. In practically every play, I find I steal some turn of phrase from the song, normally during a long stretch of text, most frequently I return to the "you may find yourself in a similar situation" line, or the near hysterical (seinfeld esque honestly) pitch Guthrie's voice reaches when talking about files in folders in Washington DC. The man who has fused himself most closely to my cerebral cortex though is Garrison Keillor. The man who made me scream as a child because of his hypnotizing fluency, still appears every time I go on stage. Thanks WUSF.

frame of reference.

this summer I spent a good deal of time in boston. the first night I was there, I told my brother my main complaint with boston. a lack of straight lines. when I think about boston I see the curving banks of the charles river, which is much different than my experiences with rivers (see: the hillsborough, the los angeles) which are usually tamed by large concrete walls, except when things go wrong. the houses themselves have these curves and flourishes in the northeast, the interiors usually have some amount of clutter, and coat rooms and vestibules, designed to keep out the elements. when I spoke to Ben about it I described it as a city built entirely in serif fonts. when what I really crave is the helvetica-like streets of washington dc.

yesterday I was walking on hillhurst though, and I realized I live in a neighborhood of curving(I live on the right side of that image) streets, above ground power lines, hills and infringing wildlife. objectively I life in a serif landscape, but when I am going about my life, walking to the grocery store, and seeing and old professor (one of the great unexplained characters on the west wing) they all melt away and I live my ideal san serif lifestyle.

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As a side note: I was cast as Hamlet in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead performing in November in Long Beach with the Alive Theatre. It opens Nov. 5.

too much postage.

Last friday I put together a mailing a many agents and casting directors here in Hollywood. A professor(no not that one) of mine once referred to this as 'taking a shower in money' which may or may not be right. I arrived at the post office with my stack of postcards which had eaten up my day with applying labels and running around town doing dumb errands. I thought I could just hand over the stack, they would put the stack through a postage machine, and would tell me the total. This is wrong. There was a big line and the lady asked me how many I had. I started to count the stack and could hear the line at the los feliz post office groan, so I just guessed. 600, and paid the appropriate amount thinking I could just return the unused stamps. This, too, is wrong. I had $84 in $0.28 stamps this morning, and now I have $83.44 in $0.44 stamps this evening, because I could only trade stamps for stamps, but not stamps for cash.

So if you or anyone you know needs $84 in postage. I will sell it for $80. Im not a very good investor, but I do have experience scalping hockey tickets, so if you need me you can find me at Vermont and Finley selling stamps to passersby until the LAPD makes me move.

an ode to southern california modernism.

when your name is as common as wright, you learn there are many wrights in many fields(like kitty hawk). I find it to be kind of a rorschach test of a person of what famous 'wright' they identify the last name with.

the people I truly love are those who know 'wright' as Frank Lloyd Wright. who I love because of his contributions to southern california modernism, but more particularly how that movement manifested in the southern california middle class home later. my friend ian lives in one of these houses, but his beach house in laguna niguel is the best example I have ever spent much time in. here it is in a few pictures.

this american life/my american life.

this is a combination of pictures from my life, combined with the words of this american life.

may 1. los angeles harbor, san pedro, california.

september 15. los feliz boulevard, los angeles, california.

july 28th. keith and duck, raymond, maine.

july 14. boston T, cambridge, massachusetts.

sony 3d workshop

This week I started with this workshop at Sony Pictures. The idea is that there will be a lot more filming in 3D in the future so directors, cinematographers, and directors of photography all have to learn how to use this technology. So they have these little nonsense scenes on various sets for the directors to play with. On tuesday a pretty star studded cast of directors was there, not to name names but the directors of Thirteen Days, Boys Dont Cry, and Alvin and the Chipmunks were all in attendance. In the morning they were loudly arguing over the technology, some bemoaning the fact they had to be there, others wondering what would become of their critters in 3d. So me and Lauryn Cantu went through a scene with a pizza delivery boy, too much furniture and ex cons operating the cameras. In the afternoon I got to watch the footage and it was really just a cool experience all around. Today I did it again for some directors of photography and it was a completely different experience, and a room with more polaroid cameras than any room since the late '80s. It isnt paying but it is a useful experience any time you can get up in front of the best technology in the world with some of the most successful directors working today.

Track of the Day

Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars

drew carey walks into a bar

let us entertain conjecture of a time where you have limitless power. you have had a self titled sitcom. your glasses are a signature trait.

monday night rolls around.

nothing to do.

where do you go? the big foot lounge.

why? because its karaoke night.

what songs do you sing?

undercover angel

indian lake

kanye west and a snake

#1 today I saw a big snake in griffith park, at least 3 feet.

#2 Kanye West Tweets as New Yorker Cartoon Captions

wright files

the wright files moves from my bathroom door, to my blog.

Wright University

Just this morning I realized I have essentially cultivated a fake university for myself. This is very important when you work a 25 hour work-week that pays like a full time job, and you need time in your day for auditions. Unemployment seems to be getting the better part of some of my friends, particularly the ones who are living with their parents in the South Bay. So, without further ado I would like to present my schedule at Wright University this term.

Monday

Guided Hike at Griffith Park - Tuition $0

Restaurants of Vermont Ave Independent Study - Tuition $5-$15/w

Tuesday

Photo Editing and Posting on My Silly Blog - Tuition $0

Chandelier Design - Tuition $50 in lights from Target

Wednesday

Advanced iPhone App Research - Tuition $0.99 - $2.99/w

Chicken Frying 101 - $10/w

Spanish Class at YMCA - $0

Thursday

Jazz at LACMA - Tuition $0

Guided Research To Find Best Restaurant in Westside with Prof. Sofer - $10-$20

Friday

No class!

Sunday

Williams and Sonoma Technique Class - $0

Track of the Day - Boggis Bunce and Bean from The Fantastic Mr Fox

tuesday photo: comic sans

last night at calvin's house funemployment 2010 rolled on, and the legos rolled out. I present my masterpiece, "Comic Sans"

the 110 south

when I graduated college I was worried not being in school would give me some disconnect from community. there was always something comfortable about belonging comfortably to a community, waziyatah, tampa prep, and usc normally being my communities. tonight as I was driving though I realized I am part of a really cool community of all the people who came out west looking for something, it spans across time to oklahomans risking life and limb to see the pacific ocean. the life and limb I risk to see my friends in manhattan beach on the 110 south is not exactly comparable, but you know what I mean. also LA has so many actors, that even though it is a fierce competition there is wonderful community among the artists. just today a playwright friend and me talked about just getting together some friends to work on a script in development. this is the kind of work I love doing, and its really invigorating.

these revelations are wonderful because I had been watching these civil war documentaries. every time I watch those documentaries I totally assume I would have died in war before age 22 at any other point in history.

dwarves?

So this week I went back to my account on Actor's Access, a site where actors can submit themselves to auditions at the low low cost of $2 (great) per submission(not great). That cost is only to tell a director, or casting director that I am interesting. The equivalent of having to pay $2 to apply to starbucks. So I was already less than enthused with being back on Actor's Access, especially after this past spring I paid +$100 on LAcasting to only get 2 auditions.

Anyway, so I'm back on, cruising around looking at breakdowns, having a good time. Then Actor's Access asks me if I want to sign up for email notifications of breakdowns that fit my profile, sounds good no? Then I start getting these emails, and they are all for dwarves. Like little people. Here is one of the latest ones:

1,000 WAYS TO DIE (Little Person)
Non-Union Episodic
NON-UNION
LITTLE PERSON
A person with Dwarfism, less than 4 feet 10 inches tall. He is a junkie that pulls a gun on Marcus - who owns an Ice Cream Truck and deals drugs from the truck. SHOOTS 9/15

sometimes I think L.A. is trying to drive me insane

wazi wazi waziyatah

this past summer I returned to my old summer camp, camp waziyatah. when people hear the name waziyatah they generally have an immediate reaction and say they know it from somewhere, and then start singing the theme song to salute your shorts. unfortunately these people are morons, wazi was on a tv show, but is was on the far superior disney channel show bug juice(5 stars on imdb.). I was a camper at wazi from 1999 until 2003, coincidentally the years wazi was at its largest in a post-disney channel boom. While I was there I made some of the best friends I have, whenever any of us are in the same city it is an immediate bond and no time has passed, even when we dont see each other for two or three years. When I was there I learned improv, fell in love with theatre, had my first kiss, learned how to sail, and had just an absolute blast. I would come home from camp, and it would feel like I had just been laughing for a month.

Then in 2004 I wasnt able to go to wazi, then again in 2005, when I could finally be a counselor I was going to school in los angeles and wanted a little time in Tampa, so I missed 2006. 2007-2009 I was in resident advisor training and had a conflict. This year I was convinced it was important to break into hollywood immediately after graduating USC, I set my eyes on Wazi 2011. Then a friend of mine died in a car accident in february, and I realized I didnt have forever to go back to Wazi so I signed up and was named the director of the performing arts.

Which was huge for me, to go back to a place where I had the experience that really launched me wanting to be an actor. I remember I was 15, had just finished freshmen year of high school, without a real niche. No particular path in front of me, and then I was cast as Charlie Brown. This was a really cool shock, I lied and told my mother I was cast as Schroeder before I heard official news because that was the best part I could conceivably get. Then I was a great Charlie Brown, counselors who were young campers when I performed Charlie Brown said they remembered it being great, which is a clouded, dumb compliment but I still love it. Regardless I felt great about it, and it was all thanks to Wazi. Coincidentally in second session I would direct You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, with my old counselor as my technical director, talk about full circle.

In june I showed up back in Waterford, Maine at Wazi, kind of on the run from Los Angeles. I had stressfully produced, directed, and acted in a show in west hollywood, graduated college, moved out of the place I lived for three years and seriously needed a break. So when camp was really a lot of work I was seriously overwhelmed. My co-counselor was a total deadbeat and I was in charge of ten ten-year-olds running every which way by night, and by day I was directing a production of seussical which would not have passed muster at USC.

So I tried to quit, but the owner got a few more days out of me... then a few weeks........ then the whole summer.

I still can not say whether I had a 'good' summer this summer. It was tough, I was stressed, I was dealing with people talking behind my back, I was feeling like a total failure, like I could not measure up to the great counselors who changed my life, but at the same time some of the kids were really great. I saw some of my campers really have a great time, just like I did when I was at camp. There was no particular moment when things got better so I didnt have to quit, but I am glad I stuck around. Towards the last few days I realized the reason I always camp back to wazi was because of my fellow cabinmates who I was with every year from age 11 to 15. Last time when I got together with my friend Jack who lives in Los Angeles these days, we talked about how cool it would be if we had kids the same age who could go to wazi and bunk in Pines 11 together.

It is really hard for people to understand the summer camp thing. When I meet people I can pretty quickly tell who went to summer camp and who didn't, invariably when I talk to people who went to camp there is this tremendous moment of recognition between two people. Almost like when you find out someone went to your high school or college, or you were at the same concert, but a million times more powerful.

The best way to get the idea of what camp is is the 'track' of the day, from my favorite radio program This American Life, Episode #109 Notes on Camp.