Tiny Marbles updates
I’m excited to announce that Tiny Marbles was selected to perform in the 2013 I.O. West Los Angeles Improv Comedy Festival! We’re peforming on Monday, June 3 in the 8:30 p.m. block at the I.O. West Loft.
Tiny Marbles’ Giant Hour is also coming back on Thursday, June 27 at a new venue - THE CLUBHOUSE - 1107-A El Centro, Los Angeles, CA 90038. The Clubhouse is an awesomely fun new improv hub and we are so lucky to have a spot there. We will be going up at 10 p.m. the 4th Thursday of every month, right after Shapeshift and before The Eleventh Hour.
Last night was my first show with my new Second City ensemble! Five of us are pictured below - we had so much fun! I can’t wait to spend about a thousand more hours with these guys.
Saturday night, I attended the screening of The Co-Star at the Women’s Independent Film Festival in Hollywood. The editor, Laura, Fisk, pictured here in the middle, did an exceptional job cutting the film and she is the MOST delightful person to hang out with! The Co-Star heads to both the Grand Rapids (MI) Film Festival and the 15 Minutes of Fame Festival in Palm Bay, FL this weekend.
I could not be more excited to announce that I have been cast in a performance ensemble at Second City Hollywood. My castmates and I begin rehearsing next week, under the tutelage of veteran SC director Katie Nahnsen. In about four months, we will launch a mainstage sketch show at Second City.
I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with the group of talented, supportive and generally amazing people. I look forward to the challenge of developing new characters and honing my comedic perspective in the unique and fabled Second City style… stay tuned!
April showers bring May flowers and Tiny Marbles is always down for a photo shoot! We have been rehearsing vigorously with our trusty coach Cissy in preparation for the triumphant return of our Thursday night show, Tiny Marbles’ Giant Hour (a setback with our venue has left us temporarily homeless but not to worry- we will be back again in no time)!
In the meantime, I am now on a house team at Neon Venus Art Theatre. The first show for Used To Be Babies is Friday, May 3 at 11 p.m. We will be hosting shows the first and fourth Friday and Sunday of every month. All shows take place at Neon Venus Art Theatre so check the website for our schedule! www.neonvenusarttheatre.com
Check out this new video from Scary/Funny →
Featuring me, Benjamin Klema, Rob Mailhouse, Stephanie Guiol, Ian Alda and Kimber Hall. (Produced by Shannon Dunn, directed by Ben Klema, shot and edited by Drew Hamilton)
No one cares.
That’s the truth. Unless you can pay them to care or add some value to their life, no one cares about you. Or me.
I think this reality is especially harsh for women. Guys tell us we’re pretty, we’re interesting, we’re smart - whatever it takes to get our attention for a minute. Over time, we’re so disillusioned by the frivolity that we ignore it. It’s not real interest. It’s not real concern.
But maybe we feed the fire. We want to be told we’re the prettiest. That we’re the smartest. That we can do no wrong (in many cases, that’s what our dads told us growing up, so these thoughts are all but imprinted on our brains).
So we seek that affirmation. We seek it in our relationships. We seek it in our lives.
What happens when someone comes along who really cares? And that care manifests in truth - the most hard and brutal truth along alongside the pleasant, easy-to-swallow truth? Maybe you are pretty and smart - but you are also afraid and impatient, petty and impulsive. Maybe you aren’t ready to handle any kernel of truth because to unwrap one kernel uncovers the whole disgusting overflowing box (this metaphor doesn’t work) - and you can’t handle that right now.
It takes an act of care - maybe love - to make another person see their real self. It’s painful and it’s uncomfortable. Sometimes you lose that person in the process. They may not know what you are trying to do, or how much you give a shit, until it’s too late, because they aren’t - or weren’t - ready for it.
It hurts when the care is so strong that it can’t be easy. When you love the other person but you can’t like them right now.
It’s easy to be told you’re the best.
I want to be better than that.
Festival Fever
February is an awkward short month. I never feel like I have enough time to get any projects started, let alone complete them.
For everything my February lacked in excitement, my March has started to compensate! About a week ago, I found out that a short film I acted in, The CoStar, will be screening at the LA Comedy Shorts Festival on Friday, April 5! I’m SUPER excited about this accomplishment for writer/producer/lead actress, Jeanne Taylor. She worked really hard on the project and totally deserves it. (As a side note: Jeanne’s performance in the film is heart-wrenching, truthful and hilarious!)
Jeanne Taylor also worked with me on another project that will be seeing its festival premiere in just over a week! The super-short spoof commercial I directed, Ann Romney’s “I Love You Women Face Cream” will premiere at the California Independent Shorts Festival, also in LA, on Sunday, March 24.
Information about the two festivals is available online at:
My NEW monthly stand-up show starts Feb. 16 at 9:30 p.m. The first line-up is coming together amazingly. My co-producer, Nina, and I will post more information soon at www.comedybandaid.com. Stay tuned!
How I write.
I don’t have a writing process. But if I did, it would be narrow and one-track. Essays and prose encompass one portion of my brain; stand-up and joke writing, another; sketches, scripts and TV specs, a third. Once I get rolling on one path, it’s difficult to cross back onto another. Whereas at another moment in my life, I wrote blog entries with fervor, I now find myself on a scriptwriting bend. The clever, yet uncollected, thoughts I was so used to jotting in rambling paragraph form have given way to dialogue… character, storyline, “economy of words.”
And so my darling blog has become a collection of videos and snippets - photos from film shoots, flyers denoting plans-in-the-works. I wish I could post witty observations from a shitty day at work. A story about a weird childhood friend. A farcical tale about modern Los Angeles living. But for the moment, I’ve written nothing except unproduced scripts! And I’m okay with that.
I’m really excited about a shoot I participated in this past weekend. My amazing all-lady improv group, Tiny Marbles, agreed to shoot a short spoof commercial that I wrote. With the help of our DP/Director John Highsmith, Sound Guy Daniel Raphael and Editor Jamie Grant, we anticipate a soonish debut for “Grown-Up Girl Talk: The Game of Truth or Dare!”
As you can see from the pics, we had waaaay too much fucking fun.
This collaboration was announced on Halloween but I’m a little late in going public. Look for more scary - but mostly funny - shorts from Scary Funny Productions!
(That’s me in the sunglasses.)
