Trick or Treats

Bella was so excited for candy!!!! And I am so excited to play a Republican. Although in this neighborhood, I was absolutely not coming off as ironic.

And we're so excited to be doing shows for 30 people! Oh boy. Hey, we had a lot of fun. Happy Halloween, friends.

Happy Halloween!!

Jason, our music director, risked his precious hands to help me get the lid off my pumpkin.

I think Bella was having much more success with her Play-Do Fun Factory than I am with my steel pumpkin.

A pumpkin for change! Ok, I took some shortcuts...but seriously, did I mention how hard this thing was to carve?

Tomorrow: my costume.

Barack-stage pass

Puns are back ya'll.


These things make me giggle backstage.

Kevin rocking the Epiphone. Those stacks of toilet paper aren't normally there.

Up in the greenroom there is a big corkboard covered in sketches. This corner caught my eye.

The running order. Pure comedy!

My Chicago weekend was fun. Busy again, playing Tetris with my friends' schedules and trying to see everyone. I came back to Novi today with an addition to my closet:

The best t-shirt I have ever owned, possibly. And it was a gift from Vinnie "I don't spend money on girls" Lacey. Thanks for making an exception, Vinnie. Wearing this in Chicago, I am the envy of the bus shelter. In Novi I'm the pariah of the strip mall parking lot. Different worlds...

Grand!

We had our second casino night last night, thanks to the benevolent Marke Sobes. He got a swanky hotel room at the Detroit MGM Grand and we all joined him to play some games and have some hang out time. I got very lucky on a dollar slot machine, but gave most of it back to blackjack and roulette. Overall, being in the room was more fun than being on the casino floor.

Jen: Let's tell them I'm without a toddler tonight! (upon learning the casino bar stopped serving liquor at 1:30am)

Marke: I have to update my Facebook with (undisclosed adult-themed statement).

Me: Marke, you're a teacher.

Marke: That's true. (pause) Aw, fuck it.

Rob's birthday was Thursday. He hates being on the internet, so I'll just post his "cake" picture. Here's some pumpkin bread I added candles to for a mini backstage party. Marke presented him with a sweet Detroit t-shirt to remind him of his time in the Motor City.

I'm excited for Saturday shows tonight and also excited to go home to Chicago post-show tomorrow night. I'm off now to work on updating some post-election show material. Hoping for the best, election-result-wise. If I write as though Obama wins...?

Like Jack Kerouac...

Road trip!!

Quintin captained our big white van.
This is Vanessa's put in! (she was great, btw)
Jason: Blurry and Angry. My favorite part of the van put-in was Jason playing the piano as it lay on the backseat of the van.
This was Vanessa's favorite thing. A giant potted plant prop center piece.
Me taking a picture of Marke taking a picture. It was all very artistic.

We had a really great time on the road. Did a van run-through, a ton of iPhone bits, some ship talk and some indie rock. The Central MI U crowd was really fun. It turned out to be a great way to spend a day off.

Nothing Special

My last post was my 100th post! I was remiss in recognizing it, so here it is. Balloons! Confetti! Whatever!

I'm working today instead of going home to Chicago, so in the spirit of a mixed up schedule, here are some random things...

Last night I lost some money to the Detroit MGM Grand casino. Well, I guess if you're going to get robbed in Detoit... (hey-o! I'll be here all week, folks)

Drew Carey finally seems to be making The Price is Right his own. Way to use your own bits, dude. I love it.

Thanks, This American Life, for being so great.

How about that Colin Powell, huh?? Nice work, sir.

I am extremely excited to carve pumpkins later this week.

My life is quiet right now. Not boring. Quiet.

Sunday, Sundae, Sundais

Sundays have always been a dichotomy of delight and disappointment for me. Church, groceries, gym...I love those things every Sunday, but it's also the eve of a new week of work and rehearsals and sleep deprivation. Not in Novi! Sunday is now my Friday, making it the most perfect day possible. We have one show tonight and an improv set. Normally we'd be off tomorrow, but we are travelling to Mt. Pleasant to do a show instead. No complaints. Riding in a van with this cast should be a good time. Speaking of...

Quintin is here in spirit. That gentleman to my left is Bryan, our fake Kevin for this weekend. He's no Kevin. But he sure is Bryan. He's been great.

Marke: Happy Sweetest Day!

Me: Sweetest Day isn't real.

Marke: (pause) Well. You'll wish you hadn't said that.

Marke is the BEST. He got us all Sweetest Day chocolates, marking the first (and possibly last) time I'll ever receive a gift for this Midwestern version of Valentine's Day.

Things of note in Novi:

• Holy Family Church. Right around the corner from the theatre, very friendly, conveniently timed 5pm Saturday vigil mass.
• Sunflour Bakery. Oh man...vegan chocolate chip cookies...
• Busch's Grocery. I've been seduced by their pumpkins since I got here.
• Halloween Superstores on every corner. I've seriously seen at least 4 of these in the 3 miles between my apt and the theatre. Why so many??
• Astarte Yoga. Thanks, audience member, for free class!

Happy Sunday!

Homes

Finally some pictures from the last two weeks, which have felt more like a month...We're on the marquis!! This was my last night with my show.
Fun poster, sad face.

But we had a great show. Happy face!Anthony "Smoky Eyes" LeBlanc and his lovely wife. Check out that new headshot back there! I got to see a little of the mainstage set before going to have a post-show drink with these guys.
My Novi room! Come on...how will I go home after this?
Not to mention this. Pies and soups, here I come...
SC Novi lobby. Huge face! Part of me wants to stand in front of my headshot after the show. But most of me won't do it.
Nancy and I clutching the running order before our opening show. We actually rememebered it all!
My make-up mirror on the girl/Marke side of the backstage area. Flowers courtesy of SC Chicago.

Back at home for two days, my Mon-Tues weekend...I got to visit Meredith's office and see her do some real lawyering. She's super professional. She has a lamp budget! And a lot of shelf space. Her plan to fill it with Archie comics is the best idea she's had since she applied to Northwestern Law. I'm proud of my BFF.

My two days in Chicago were a whirlwind. Lunch with Tyler and Sarah, hanging out with Meredith, gym, tons of walking...it was nice to be home in a completely different way than it's nice to be here. I got introduced to an awesome new place downtown. I strongly recommend that you go get dinner/drinks/dessert at Graham Elliot on Huron and Franklin. Vinnie took me to see a bartender he used to work with and it turns out my friend Alice also works there. The chef sent out a sample of all the desserts on the menu, and I also got to try foie gras for the first time...on a stick, lined with Pop Rocks. It was ridiculous. My drink was called Smashing Pumpkins. Go. Seriously.

So many things to report on being here, but nothing would appropriately capture it. It's like living inside a cloud here. Vinnie called it a comedy paradise, and it's not far off. I get to sleep and cook and talk and work out and watch TV and then go and do a fun show with great people and play at improv afterwards. This week I plan to read and write and play some guitar. Oh yeah, and see W. I'm intrigued.

I hope the debate replays soon...

Ten Days Later

Even though I dropped the ball on bringing my camera cord with me, I still have a camera phone! Not the best, but it's something...
Andiamo, the restaurant attached to SC, is amazing. Marke took Rob and I out the night before our show opened and I was amused at how classy show-plugs can look.
Opening night! Beth took us out after the show. This is The Library, a pub right by the theatre. Kevin and Jason are clearly in a life-changing discussion. Rob is pensive.
Chuck E. Cheese! Jason, Rob, Vinnie, Jen, Bella and I had a magical (the official word of CEC) afternoon of games, tickets, pizza and animatronic rats. This is Bella in the kid habit-trail (Rob is just behind her up there).
My first visitor! Vinnie came up to see the shows and the wonder of Farmington/Novi. He braved 3 whole shows and was one of our guests in last night's set. Thanks to Vinnie, I finally went dancing in the Dirty Martini (another addendum to the SC theatre space) and found a church for Saturday mass. We had a lot of fun. Novi is fun...do you hear that, Chicago friends? You can totally visit me....

Last night I got caught up in a "I can't believe I get paid for this" moment. Our second show was sold out and we hit a lot of home runs. That launched us into a really fun set with Vinnie and two understudies. There was a pile-on scene in a strip club where all the guys were dancing and it ended in Quintin semi-pantsless on Marke. It took us a few minutes to recompose and continue the set, which eventually ended in a callback to the strippers at a Bar Mitzvah. Genius. This cast is so smart (even in pantsless moments) and supportive. Siiiiiigh. Love.

Tomorrow I go back to Chicago for a couple days. I'm excited to see friends while I'm home, but it's actually a little hard to leave this cocoon.

Deface!

We're open! Again, took some great pics, and they will be up when I finally get my camera cord from home Monday. In the meantime, this poster is in our lobby...

We had a good time last night. Made it through the show with little incident, played a fun set and then got taken out by our benevolent producer. It's sad to have Andy leaving us...we're on our own! But the run will be great. I really love this cast. I've had incredible luck with casts this year between the Spirit, Maine and here. Everyone has been so amazing onstage and off. Makes me nervous about when I'll eventually get cast with a bunch of jerks. Well, with that attitude...

Some of my favorite things about here so far:

• The way Isabella calls warm milk "coffee milk"
• Rob's obsession with money and the imagery that goes along with it
• Jason's small smile when we hit the right harmonies on our closing song
• Watching Jen ruefully sew a Klan hood...only to have the blackout cut (aw!)
• Jen's cooking
• Rob's cooking
• Malls...Williams & Sonoma made me weep with joy
• TV. Jeopardy is coming on momentarily!
• Nancy: You, your face, your mom!
• Nancy: I've never seen a pink bear. Kevin: I have!
• Quintin's newcaster voices
• Marke...just Marke

Today, back to the gym and some more shopping. Work, work, work...

FALLing in Love with Novi (puns are back!!)

Today couldn't have been better. I spent most of it in a mall in Novi going to Starbucks, Williams & Sonoma, buying a ridiculous amount of fall home fragrance from B&BW. It was the first day off we've had since I got in on Friday, so it's nice to be lazy and domestic. Especially when I have what I can pretend is a real home.

I'm really happy with the show and the cast. We saw the outgoing show on Saturday night and got to play in the set after. It was really fun to play and great to see Katy! Last night Rob and Jen made dinner for everyone. I'm looking forward to baking again while I'm here, so I hope to be able to supply some pies for future dinners.

It is delightfully quiet here.

Re-burb

Hello friends. I'm sitting in my lovely suburban apartment, my home for the next 7 weeks (thank you, Second City). The day started at 6am when I finished packing, put it all in a rental car and picked up my new friend Rob to make the drive to Novi. Straight to the theatre, straight to rehearsal, happy to see people I know and some brand new ones. I'm excited about the show and the people in it. Also, SC Detroit and the attached club and restaurant are TOO fancy.

So why aren't I posting any pictures....well, I left my apartment without my stupid cable for my camera. Really dumb. But I'll be back in Chi next Monday and I'll remedy that. Trust me, I'll have great pictures.

Rewind: last night's final Hopelessly Devoted (with me...go see Lori!) went really well. Huge thanks to our clutch players, Brian and Kyle for jumping in and being pros. After the show I got to see Anthony following his mainstage show. Go see this guy...he's great. And he's got new headshots. But watch out. I'm still wandering around in his eyes.

I like it here.