Posts Tagged ‘Second City’

Crunch Time

Thursday, May 11th, 2006

Pictured above is six-tenths of my current Conservatory Class, who as you know have their grad show on Saturday, May 27th on The Second City Mainstage.Tonight they will experience a Second City rite of passage as their director (me) produces the running order of scenes for that show.

In an instant, all the work they’ve been doing since last September gets crystallized into two 45-minute acts. There is usually much discussion that follows, along with complaining, gossip and (hopefully) sighs of relief. But it’s still a magical moment, because for the first time we will have a concrete product… On paper, at least!

The Joy of Comedy

Friday, April 21st, 2006

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Though it’s really a sheer coincidence of timing, I’m gonna call the part The Williamson Playboys gave me in their radio pilot yesterday another birthday present.

What a joy it was to muck around in a studio with a bunch of really talented people, all trying to make each other laugh. If even half of the commercial auditions I’ve done over the years were like this I’d still be doing them.

Al Howell, Jack Mosshammer and I were talking just the other day about how we used to try to crack each other up on stage at Second City, more often than not at the expense of our fellow cast-mates.

But don’t be too quick to discount such behaviour—after all, Harvey Korman and Tim Conway weren’t exactly known for their smart writing on The Carol Burnett Show.
;)

Dodging Rob Smith

Thursday, February 16th, 2006

I stand by my decision to not audition for commercials anymore, and here’s another reason why: Somewhere in some casting joint waiting room this incredibly awkward scenario is going to be played out:

“Hey Rob Smith, what’s new? Oh. Oh, dearOh, dear god!