So another long stretch between posts, but a busy and exciting one!

The Carnegie Hall Show is still going great. We've been playing every week, nailing down what is essentially a new improv format, introducing our show to the community and the city at large and response has been very encouraging. I do think that lousy Toronto weather has kept audiences on the conservative side (size wise, not politically) so I hope that if this God awful weather ever breaks, then we'll get more happy people on the streets looking for fun things to do. Kensington Market is very quiet this time of year it seems.

Also, another ongoing yet irregular show I've gotten to play is the improvised soap opera Dysfunctional Utopia: A Serialized Romance. Directed by Ron Pederson, the improvised soap features over-the-top characters in a developing overdramatic storyline complete with adultery, conspiracy, murder and mad scientists - and we're doing it again this Sunday! Ghost Jail @ Clinton's on Bloor St.

On the writing front I'm still doing more reading about writing than actual writing, but I'm reading a lot. The latest book I've picked up is "The Way of Story" by Catherine Ann Jones - A book that while it contains some good reminders of the process of builsing outlines and developing characters that I've read in better books, there's a lot of new-agey type stuff about visualization and seemingly letting the story write itself, which I can't stomach to believe is actually very effective. As well, Jones packs the book full of self-congratulatory anecdotes about the few productions her career has consisted of, which do little to sell me on her advice since all the stories and ideas she's sold are never ones I would want to put my name on. (This isn't to say there isn't a market for writing a movie where Dolly Parton plays a country singer (what casting!) who dies and can't get into Heaven so has to go back to earth and do a good deed to get eternal bliss - but good God who would want to?)

More educational than any book I've read or heard of so far though has been the community of TV writer/bloggers that I've be uncovering. Alex Epstein has a great book and accompanying blog [Complications Ensue] about writing, the business of writing and (most importantly to me) the business of writing in Canada. Through him I also found Denis McGrath's killer blog of similar themes [Dead Things on Sticks] which also led me to blogs, groups and a killer weekly meeting of TV pros from Toronto. Last Friday I got to have a beer with Denis, Ed McNamara, Rob Pincombe and Rob Sheridan just because I showed up. This week was even bigger, plus George Strombo showed up. I've never been a proponent of networking (probably only because I haven't ever been good at it) but I feel like I meeting a lot of the right people to know a thing or tow about where to go and what to do once I actually have some product to show.

Anyway, Carnegie Hall is still every Wednesday and Ghost Jail is every Sunday. Come say hello!

New opportunity, new show, new challenges.

OK, so at least I've got a contributing gig here in Toronto now. A month ago I got into the Musical Director apprenticeship program at Second City. Great news! I also got a regular job to support my entertainer-artist-no income habit. Also great news, right? Well...

My new job required I spend some time out of town for a few weeks - the same few weeks that were the beginning of this great program at Second City. As a result, I was unable to start - but I will be getting involved in the spring when it starts again, meaning I can take some classes, study some shows and hopefully get to play very soon.

In the meantime, work is good and I'm playing a regular gig, the "Carnegie Hall" improv show on Wednesdays at the new Bread and Circus in Kensington Market in Toronto! The new location is at 299 Augusta Ave. and we helped play the grand opening of the place this past Saturday. Our regular show is Wednesdays at 9pm - we'll be on this Wednesday Dec. 10, and then on a hiatus until January - but then every Wednesday in 2009!

The show is a production of "The National Theatre of Canada" and features, nay, stars, Matt Baram, Ron Pederson and Chris Gibbs, with various guests of excellent talent. Shows so far have been terrible fun and hugely hilarious!

Funny People: George Carlin, Steve Martin and Carl Reiner

I rediscovered iTunes U today which is an incredible repository of online University education content for FREE! Videos, lectures, interviews, really cool stuff on a broad range of topics from string theory to ancient literature to anatomy and physiology, but also more rudimentary topics and a lot of K-12 topics too (for you teachers out there!).

I was looking for material about comedy and writing, and found a few related things but I found a great series (only 3 entries so far) called "Funny People" from the 92nd Street Y that has three awesome (and recent!) interviews from three awesome comedians, Steve Martin, Carl Reiner and the late great George Carlin. iTunes U functions within iTunes and it podcast format, so you need iTunes to hear them, but they are totally free and very enlightening to students of comedy.

Find the series here.

Week 1: The rain smells good

So I've been in Toronto for 7 days now. It rained today, and the air smells like it's been cleaned out a bit. I don't know from what, really, I don't recall what it smelled like before, but I've heard claims of the city's odour ranging from "smoky" to "like a towel that didn't totally dry so it ends up smelling like wet dog."

It's been hot here, like borderline too hot. It's muggy and humid. and yes I did know it was going to be like that before I came here, but it didn't make it much easier to adjust. I haven't worn jeans since I got here (apart from when I arrived) which is weird since that's pretty much appropriate every day in Vancouver.

So I got all my stuff, (the boxes virtually disintegrated after I got them from Greyhound, but my stuff inside was mostly okay) a place to sleep for a while and a 416 phone number. Now to find work. What kind? Well I'm looking for everything from my "fall-back Joe-job" IT support gigs to sound and music work, because for the time being I just want to do something, anything to help me settle and get back into the black financially. I got some great deals moving out here but it's still a hit to the wallet, as I'm sure so many of you know.

So in short, I'm here, I'm good, and I'm ready to get to know the city a little better.

Big thanks to Rob, James, Brandon, Jorie, Denise and Brett and any smaller players that helped me translocate. All help is hugely appreciated.

Revelations (Book of Jeff) : 1

I spent the last long weekend on Lake Kalamalka (thanks Shane!). On the drive out, in the various towns we passed through I noticed the high number of Hot Chicks With Douchebags, which is not unusual, but always strikes me.

When Ben and I stopped in Vernon, I caught a glimpse of myself in the reflection of a window. I was wearing:

1.) Aviator sunglasses
2.) Cargo shorts (camouflage)
3.) A T-Shirt reading "Your Favorite Band Sucks"
4.) A newly cut spiked hairdo
5.) at the time I was also on my cellphone

...and I realized: I have a chance.

RIGHT ON.

Too much week, not enough weekend

Got a call Thursday night to see if I could work on Caprica late Friday. I had said that I had an early morning on Saturday so I couldn't if it might be late. The agent tells me it's a 4:00 call and shouldn't go long, and it'd be a huge favor for him if I could make it. I say yes.

Call time: 7:30 pm. Wrap time: 4:30 am. Class time: 10:00 am (In North Van). God Damnit.

Interesting show though. Without giving too much away... well, I guess I can't say much because there's a lot of weird stuff about the show that nobody's talking about. But there's enough widespread info about it to say that it's supposed to take place about 50 years before Battlestar Galactica, before their planet explodes or whatever and they're on the run from killer robots.

As for my class, I took the Vancouver Film Industry Orientation weekend class that the unions require you to have. It doesn't really pertain to Vancouver specifically really, except for a little P.R. info about why we're supposedly so great, but I'm told that the ticket I get for taking it might be worthless in Ontario because... well supposedly IATSE Toronto is jealous of Vancouver getting all the work or something. I dunno. Turns out the union thing isn't a big deal anyway because the number of non-union shows being produced in Vancouver has been on a steady rise in the last few years, so you don't relaly need to be a member to work on most of them.

Wish I'd known that before I sat around waiting for them to return my bloody phone calls.

Will Wright talks "Spore" and the evolution of game design

While waiting for my AirCare passage ($45 for a 20-second diagnostic? That's $8100/hr by my count!) I was listening to Q on CBC Radio and today's episode had a cool interview with Will Wright, designer of SimCity (now open source!), The Sims and the upcoming Spore, hailed as perhaps the most anticipated video game of all time (By who? I don't know.) In it, he discusses a lot of his ideas surrounding his unique approach to Game Design, widening gamer demographics and the new experience of emergence in the gaming experience (or something like that.)

Is a fun listen for anyone who's interested in video game design, or all the new kinds of video game style that are emerging these days, with the Wii and such. Have a listen to it here.