Archive for the ‘Gigs’ Category
So what’s next?
All of my comedy and poetry responsibilities have been fulfilled! My performance calendar is empty for the first time in a while.
Maybe now I can get back to some projects I’ve been neglecting. Because the world deserves a one-act play from me. And possibly a new short story. And there’s always the podcast to attend to. And more little ditties to write and record.
After another cup of coffee, maybe. Or you’re also welcome to contact me about performance opportunities.
Just us chickens…glazed with snow.
April is National Poetry Month. To help celebrate, I’ll be sharing my poem for John Fahey at this event. 
But first, here’s a little photo of what April looks like in Minnesota. Cruelest month, indeed.
Unready for my close-up.
I’ve been working on my smile. Obviously.
I was asked to provide a headshot for a Valentine’s Day reading at the Walker Art Center, where I’ll be sharing 20 seconds of my poetry. That’s how much time I afforded this photo, too.
Recent and upcoming sightings.
It was recently brought to my attention by absolutely nobody that I’d not updated my site since mid-January. I have my reason: I’ve been busy. Writing, performing, podcasting, etc.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a pic of me teeing up an old story I performed at the Just Vote No Show at the BLB a while back. This charity gig had to happen because cowardly statehouse haunters are asking Minnesotans to vote to amend the state constitution to discriminate against gays. Which is ridiculous.
Happy, loving couples of every orientation deserve insufferable in-laws.
The above photo’s by Emma Freeman Photography, a talent with a taste for photographing gay weddings. Hint, hint, Minnesota.
The January, February and March editions of You Are Hear, the monthly literary podcast I host for mnartists.org, are available for download at the links above and on something the kids call iTunes. (Extraordinary poets Paula Cisweski and Todd Boss will be featured in April.)
Upcoming gigs include comedy at the MIA (for Third Thursday, April 19) and a new story at the Soap Factory (for a Talking Image Connection reading, May 12). Then I prep for the 2012 MN Fringe. So see you around.
Free tree hugs. (I have boundary issues.)
Next up on my creative calendar is a reading at Silverwood Park, as part of a project co-sponsored by the great peeps at mnartists.org. My stories “Squirrels” and “Nuts” will be available for audio download to enjoy as you take in the park’s trails and autumnal colors. On Saturday, September 24, I’ll be at the park to share my ridiculous li’l nature tales in person. So if you hear about Bigfoot sightings, you know why.
Forget if you want. But remember again by 9/11.
I’ll be performing a mix of vintage and brand-new stand-up at this the Sunday after I return from Scotland.
I hope folks are able to understand whatever brogue I pick up across the pond. I hope I’m sober by then, too.
I’m thrilled to be gigging for/with the Workhaus Collective. At The Playwrights’ Center, where theater begins.
That can only bode well for those “acting” gigs not in my future.
Once upon a time ago.
If you made it out to Ferrari McSpeedy’s “Once Upon a Time in the Suburbs” at the 2011 Minnesota Fringe, thank you. If you happened to review the show on the Fringe site or on your blog or for a more official print or digital media outlet, thanks again. If you were one of the reviewers who suggested that I speak an unfamiliar form of English out of your ear’s range, believe me when I reply here, in typed words that I hope your eyes can read, I got the message.
I heard you loud and clear.
I used to review books and music for money, so I understand the impulse to protect innocent consumers from bad art for money and/or a lack of self-esteem.
What I think of the Pioneer Press and/or its theater criticism isn’t the point.
The point is this: I learned a ton performing in a big, goofy female western in Ayn Rand’s idea of a theater. Last time I got to perform with such talented folks in such an impressive venue was back in 2007, when I did vaudeville with Ned Beatty. Of course that Ned Beatty. No shit.
And, no, we’re not related. We established that chatting backstage, as soon as we were introduced.
But he’d be a cool grandpa. Too bad he wasn’t available for Fringe.
What’s new, what’s next and what’s not.
Rehearsals for “Once Upon a Time in the Suburbs” begin soon. The Ferrari McSpeedy production for this year’s Minnesota Fringe, this hilarious play will be my first “acting” gig. I’ve said many things on many stages, but never anything written by other people in the U of M Rarig Center Thrust Theater.
Fortunately, Joe Bozic and Mike Fotis are funny dudes. Smart dudes, too. They’ve (type)cast me as a cranky coot. That I can handle. I’ll also be playing original banjo ditties in the show. Because I’m incapable of playing other people’s banjo ditties. Anywhere, anytime.
Between now and August, I’ll be recording audio versions of my two stories about squirrels for a project I’ll post more about later, after it’s been officially announced to the world. Or at least the Twin Cities arts and parks communities.
I’ve got a couple of new stories in the works, which means I’ll be distracted by new poem ideas any minute.
Finally, the gf and I are preparing for our Scotland visit in late August, which means developing a taste for haggis and/or heroin.
Here’s what you missed.
So last week I performed half an hour of old and new material at The Brutenanny. I played a few banjo and guitar ditties, too.
That’s not detailed enough for you, you say. Well, I made fun of children, liberals, conservatives, reality TV’s Kardashian sisters and, mostly, myself. I hope you’re happy now.
The Cub Scouts and the audience’s discomfort with my comedic point-of-view were also critiqued.
And when the closing joke of my set turned out not to go as planned, I detailed my own rudeness to a dude in a wheelchair earlier that evening, a mean little story that I made up for easy laughs. Then, after my set was over, I learned that there had, indeed, been a dude in a wheelchair out in front of the bar before the show.
I’d not seen him. Maybe the camouflage he was wearing in my made-up story worked better than I thought.
By way of comparison, I tell a terrifying true story on the latest episode of Mike Fotis‘s podcast for METRO, Story Time Explosion.
