Theater of Note Marathon show wrap up

I was happy to once again perform The Countess at the 2012 Theater of Note Marathon show in Hollywood last night. Also performing last night were my pals Betsy Salkind (who is also obsessed with the head found in Bronson Canyon Park), Marty Barrett and Brian Deschaneux with the musical stylings of Fogelfoot and Michelle Gardner, who I saw do a kick ass sign language version of Love the Way You Lie, but later that evening had another whole set.

the Countess

Michelle in motion

The house itself is small, seating 50 or so people at a time with a bit of SRO around the edges, and there are minimal production values. The green room is a card table in a parking lot with some PB&J and jug wine, and the stage is the bare floor with a painted brick wall behind it. What makes it incredible is that it is in the heart of Hollywood and the performers are all extremely talented, working actors. This is a night of show people performing for other show people, with a flying by the seat of the pants feel. That slightly crazy woman who can't seem to ever cover herself with clothing, that is a member of every single theater company everywhere? Here, at this show, she is phenomenal, summoning characters from the depths of her soul and has the audience eating out of her hand.

My favorite acts of people I didn't know: (I'm sorry, I didn't get a program. Maybe Michelle or Marty can fill me in)

The guy with the giant flow chart of all of his dead childhood pets, as he tries to explain why he doesn't want to date you if you insist on sleeping with your dog. He allegedly came up with the bit that afternoon. I hope he turns it into a one man show. It was hilarious.

The guy with the essay about winning a blue ribbon in tablescaping at the LA County Fair. I will be entering this competition next year.

The physical comedy duo Ten West. I am humbled. They are amazing.

Christmas Guillermotion! Or how I spent my holiday season...

Here is the intergration (aka commercial built into the JKL show*) I worked on back in November and December. It was a very intense 3 weeks before and after Thanksgiving, and we shot it the first Friday of December. The costumes were designed by my boss, Rodney Munoz, and almost all sewn by me. (We jobbed out the dancing girls.) The moment I am most proud of is Guillermo's break away Tiny Tim outfit that reveals his 100% sequined Santa suit. (okay, giant paillettes too) Guillermo's wife had their first baby that week, so he was not around for fittings too much. That Tiny Tim costume was a pile of clothes and a dream less than 24 hours before we shot this, and I got it built and rigged in time for it to be the second shot up. (tip o' the hat to the stitcher, Maria Haro, who came and worked for us on this job)

We did the breakaway sequence in one take, which is amazing. Jackie, Rocio and Nina had never done something like this before and didn't expect to have a fishing line thrust in their hands at the last second and they all rose to the occasion and pulled like champs. I was very proud, because the entire crew was standing by and executing this bit flawlessly set the tone for the entire evening's shoot.

*I like these intergrations, because it harkens back to the golden age of radio and television when the hosts would drop in these blatant sort of mentions of the sponsors and build comedy bits around them. You know it's a commercial and I think it's less sneaky than product placement or the discreet use of the products in bits. I am always amazed that the clients let us do all sorts of dumb nonsense, but it just shows you all press is good press.

Starting the New Year right

Welcome 2012 and hit the road, 2011! You were a good year, don't get me wrong. Best year in years, really. But time to go.

I'm starting the year off with a link to The Countess. My computer has been acting shitty for two weeks, since I downloaded a Flash update, and have not had the time to deal until today. I kept my membership in the Johnson Family AV club active by solving the problem all by myself without having Steve deal with it. I am bursting with so much pride over this task that it rivals the first time I blew up a kiddie pool with an air compressor.

ARRR!!! I FIX! I FIX!!!! I FIX!!!! ARRR! (bangs chest with fist and waves arms in air)

(I googled "Mac freezes when I use youtube." Turns out, I'm not the only one.)

This clip is from the 2010 Theater of Note Marathon Show. 24 hours of anything goes to raise money for this very awesome and well respected theater company in Hollywood. I hope to be doing the show on January 21st.

Holidays are here!

First, I'd like to welcome Fabric.com as my very first ad. In honor of that, I'm going to talk about my work. Where I use fabric. Every. Single. Day. Fabric, fabric, fabric. Sew it, glue it, tape it. I craft stuff for money. Out of fabric. (I think that is what is called optimizing) I have used Fabric.com, and they are great, which is why I asked them to place an ad. BTW, click on that link and get free shipping. How awesome is that? I should use my own link!

I've been very busy professionally over the last month or so making Christmas happen. Here is the first of the spots to air...

Simone Williams, Carol Binion and I made all the little costumes for Bix Pix animation studios in Burbank. I'm not sure where the costumes end and the computer sweetening begins, but I assure you, there are tiny little clothes made of felt and polar fleece in there somewhere.

Last week I wrapped up about three weeks of crazy busy work on a Christmas commercial for Ford Taurus that will run on Jimmy Kimmel Live next week. It is spectacular, and involves breakaway costumes, dancing girls, dancing boy elves, Little People elves, miles of rick rack and a crap ton of sequins. Both myself and Maria Hora who was my stitcher on the job each ruined a pair of scissors working on it all. Anything that could get snow or glitter on it did. I will link and show photos as soon as it airs.

shake my money maker!

I have no idea if I'm doing this back asswards, but after following a link on Mister Jalopy's Hooptyrides blog (which I've been reading for years) to MOO.com (which I've been meaning to patronize for years, and finally did) I realized I can sell ad space on my little blog. Duh.

And thus I enter 2002.

Because I do this for the ART, I'm being choosy for now. I've invited MOO and Fabric.com to tattoo their names on my virtual ass, because I have been customers of theirs in the past, and I trust their products. Let's see how this rolls...

I think the Elves are up to no good

As we enter the holiday season, Dexter has been getting us prepared by inserting the novelization of the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon into the bedtime book rotation. Early October is never too early to be thinking about Santa when you are four.

This book sucks for a variety of reasons, the most heinous to me is that the pictures are cartoon illustrations inspired by the Rankin Bass animation, but not actual STILLS of the cartoon itself. Also, they play a little fast and loose with the dialogue as if it's not licensed, and they are staying just on the right side of the law which makes the whole thing a little stilted to read aloud.

None of this matters to the child, who clearly has no taste or standards.

So after repeated readings, what has become very apparent to me is there is a gigantic corrupt coverup going on at the North Pole.

One of the plot points is Rudolph floats off and ends up at the Isle of Misfit Toys, who request that Rudolph put in a good word with Santa if he ever makes it back alive.

From the beginning of the story, we are to understand that Elves Make All The Toys. Therefore, they must have made the misfit toys and secretly dumped them on this remote island to cover up their ineptitude. Is Santa even aware this is going on? And why was the dolly even there? She looks fine!! And why is Aslan in charge? And why can't they leave? Is it the Hotel California of Toys? Steve suggested the Island of Dr. Morrow.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving...

...is a giant bag of Kirkland chicken breast tenders!!

As I go to the bag AGAIN for what seems like the 3rd or 4th time to thaw out 8 pieces of chicken I marvel that there is still MORE. This is a good thing. I have not had to buy chicken in a month. Whatever it cost, it was worth it, it was cheaper than buying it all by the pound, one small pack at a time. It goes on my permanent "oh alright, I'm gonna make a trip to Costco" list of things I can no longer live without.

I'm sure the meat is filled with hormones and the chickens lived in horrible conditions and died miserable deaths.

But having that bag satisfies me in so many ways- I feel like a frugal, efficient modern woman cooking tasty, healthy meals for my family, even when I am working. It gives me that Enjoli feeling, like I'm kicking ass and taking names. All wrapped up in some frozen, packaged chicken breast tenders.

Somewhere, a Kirkland marketing exec just jizzed all over his desk after I typed that.



(edit-when I went to steal the photo of the bag off the Costco website, it turns out that the chicken is hormone free, and I don't have to thaw it. The jury is still out on if they were in good moods or not when they were slaughtered.)