I Can't Believe It's Not Comedy

All Sketch 2009! Doctor Doctor

2009-01-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

With Becca in India, Amber in LA (where she is a regular on the hit show Ad Men) and Keith up to his eyeballs in stand up comedy craziness as a member of The Coexist? Comedy Tour it will be up to Sid and Ben to represent ICBINC at The 2009 Sacramento "All Sketch" Comedy Festival, February 26, 27 and 28.
More details and exact schedule information soon.
Ben and Sid will perform as Doctor Doctor presenting a series of short vignettes examining the role of therapy and therapists in modern life.
www.AllSketch.com

Double Date, on sale now

2008-06-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

Tickets for Double Date
With Becca and Ben of ICBINC
and
The Keith And Kate Show
June 27th and June 28th, Sacramento
on sale now.
Click here for more information.

NEW SHOWS

2008-06-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

ICBINC All Stars? Or ICBINC Lite? However you slice it, it's a concentrated powerhouse of ICBINC action, a mean, lean ICBINC machine when Becca and Ben handle the duties of representing ICBINC on a DOUBLE DATE with Auburn's Keith and Kate Show.

Yeah, two of Northern California's most loved sketch troupes are teaming up for a super show with old favorites, new skits and some surprise collaborations.

It all goes down on June 27th and June 28th, 8pm both nights. Watch for advance ticket information soon.

Getting Ready

2007-12-31T08:47:00.000-08:00

Getting Ready for Sacramento All Sketch.
Though our cast is made up of four founding members and one member who has been with us for years, we will present a show unlike anything you've seen from us before.
Nope, I'll say no more. I've said too much. But we are ordering make-up kits, AUGGHH that just slipped out, forget you read that.
See www.AllSketch.com for more goodness (I know how you like goodness.)

My TV

2007-11-19T10:45:00.000-08:00

I just realized I never got this posted. Sorry about that. Here it is, My TV.
Stick around to the end for the smokin' dance number.
We're currently working on our set for the "Sacramento All Sketch" comedy festival.
It's going to be so far removed from anything else we've done. Just wait'll you see it. Woo hoo.

Ten West Show Poster

2007-06-12T12:26:00.001-07:00

Click image to enlarge

Tickets can be purchased by calling 916 451-4152 or by visiting SacActors.com

join our mailing list

Amber's Commercial

2007-05-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

At about second 23 of this commercial you can see our own Ms. Amber Kloss being darn excited about printing. She looks so cute in her blond hair and glasses. Since then she's become a red-head with 20/20 vision (or contacts at least.)

NEW SHOW and more...

2007-05-08T16:56:00.000-07:00

Our shows with Cody Rivers Show were so delightful that we had to jump at the chance to present LA comedy duo Ten West.
These two incredibly funny and unique vaudevillians are pals of the Cody Rivers boys who assured them we'd treat 'em real nice, so it is my pleasure to announce:

Ten West in Sacramento, July 20th and 21st for four shows at The Geery Theatre.

Well, yeah, that is still a long way off, but you need a reason to keep on living so I figured I'd give you one. The opening act will be the premier of One Man Sketch Comedy Show In A Box, featuring one member of ICBINC. (Don't worry, ICBINC will be back for Sacramento All Sketch next February.

We're most appreciative of our sponsor for this show, The Sacramento Hostel. We love staying at Hostel's when we tour, (especially the Seattle Hostel.) I hope that all traveling folks, and traveling artists in particular know about Sacramento's beautiful hostel. That is unsolicited praise by the way. It's our fondness for hostel's that led us to request their involvement in our shows to begin with.

Becca-nana

2007-04-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Becca Costello IS The Optimistic Banana.

We had a full house last night, and I can assure you, everyone had a GREAT time.
The night ended with a standing ovation for The Cody Rivers Show who did amaze.

Tonight is your last chance to catch 'em.
Hope to see you there.

Big Show this Weekend!

2007-04-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

Tickets are selling at a fast clip for our show with The Cody Rivers Show this weekend.
We have shows at 9pm on Friday, 7 and 9pm on Saturday.
Call 916 451-4152 to reserve ticets. CLICK HERE to see our ad with all the information.

This will be one fine show. Amber's up from LA so it'll be the full troupe. The St. Simon 3 is reunited for this first time in two years to provide our soundtrack and more and our Sid will singing with 'em. Plus the Cody Rivers Show is AMAZING! Hope to see you there.

The Cody Rivers, ICBINC Ad

2007-03-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

P P P P Please

2007-03-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

That subject line is my best Roger Rabbit impersonation.
Please vote for us. We got nominated late so we have to make up for lost time.
We REALLY appreciate it. .
Love love love.

Here's the link: http://kcra.cityvoter.com/Details.aspx?business=26243.

Look how freakin' cute we are. How can you not vote for us. And leave lots of comments at the voting page too! cuz we're cute. Yeah. And we put out, especially Sid.

Ben and KLJ to host Sammies again

2007-02-21T11:44:00.000-08:00

For the second year in a row Ben and I will be hosting the Sacramento Music awards at The Crest Theatre. Getting invited to host once was an honor. Getting asked back is even better. It means we did a good job, either that or they're saying, "Well, they couldn't blow it that bad TWICE!" If that is what they're thinking, they are in for quite a surprise, MWAH HA HA HA!
No, but for real, it should be a blast. Hope to see you all there.

In the meanwhile we're getting ready for our show with The Cody Rivers Show in April. More on that by clicking here.

KLJ doing Stand Up

2007-01-29T19:01:00.000-08:00

You can tell I'm nervous here as I curse more than I should, a sure give away. I was nervous because I hadn't done stand up in a while having been distracted by performing sketch with ICBINC and I was just getting my sea legs back. But it's still a good clip. Enjoy.

Kloss' Condom Message

2007-01-22T20:31:00.000-08:00

when I first saw this I thought Amber'd done a cute little photoshop, but nope, it's the real deal. Our own sweet Amber Kloss and her hunky man Nic were hired as models for a condom pamphlet.

Consider this a teaser post. Just as soon as I get the chance I'll bring the pamphlet to work and scan in the rest of it.

I'm still trying to get a hold of the anti-crank pamphlet that Nic did, I believe it even uses some of the same pictures.

Good stuff indeed. Ah that Amber, always up to something. I'm so glad us ICBINCers are out there spreading the word about not spreading the other stuff.

Diclaimer: Please know ICBINC endorses abstinence only sex education except when paid to endorse the other kind. Please paypal your payment to notcomedy@notcomedy.com.

Google Video

2007-01-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, I just noticed we've had over 10,000 views on google video for Vagina Monologues The Movie.
Click Here to make it even higher.

Now Playing

2007-01-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

Our best pals in the sketch comedy game are Gas, Food, Theater (the people who bring you Smooot Valley High) and now you can see them in their sketch show/play;
Love and Math.

Now playing, and featuring our own Keith Lowell Jensen aka ME!
Click here for more information.

Coming Soon

2007-01-20T15:33:00.000-08:00

The Cody Rivers Show
and ICBINC

The Geery Theater
2130 L Street, Sacto, 95816
8pm Friday 4-20-07
8 and 10pm on Saturday 4-21-07

Yes, this is advanced notice, but it's an exciting show. The Sacramento Bee is already hyping it as one of the notable comedy events of 2007.
All three shows WILL be sold out, so check back for reservations information in March, or join our mailing list to be eligible for advanced tickets.

.

Our poor abandoned blog

2006-10-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

I really do mean to do a site overhaul soon. Like many other folks, I've gotten caught up in keeping up with youtube and myspace rather than this site.
The new page I hope to design will have a front page blog so we can keep in touch better.
SO, here's what's going on with us.

We're shooting some video for a TV Pilot. More on that later.
We're performing with the amazing Boom Time, featuring Brent Weinbach on November 3rd and 4th In Sacramento. Details HERE.
Best Of Sacramento. The News and Review's readers have chosen our own Amber Kloss as the city's best actress, our Becca Costello as the best journalist and The Crest Theatre, managed by ICBINCer, Sid Garcia Heberger as best movie theater. Congrats all.
We've put lots of videos on line. Visit our myspace page here or, you can check us out on youtube.com by clicking here.

More news later, and yes, I'll get that redesign done eventually. Mwah.

The Marathon Run Ends

2006-02-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

Last night we wrapped up an 8 week run at the Geery. 8 Weeks! I should be exhausted and thrilled that it's over, I know my family is, but instead I'm feeling a bit postpartum. As we approached this run, initially set for 6 weeks, I was full of dread. How on earth would I manage to balance my life along with this huge time commitment to ICBINC? Well, round about week 2 I was hooked. I had my pacing, I no longer felt on the verge of vomiting on show days and I loved the elation I felt after a great performance. Granted, there were nights when we didn't connect with the audience (see the blog about our show with the over 80 crowd) but we had far more hits than misses. Now, it's done. I know there'll be more projects on the horizon, film, podcasts and the occassional five year olds birthday party but right now, I'm sad that the show is over. Of course, I know that next Friday night while I'm sitting in my easy chair watching Friday night nick-toons with my kid I'll be glad that it's done but I'm glad to know that I'm up for the next challenge.

And speaking of this long run, Becca realized last night that having spent the last 8 weeks performing plus the preceding 6-8 weeks of rehearsals, the ladies in the group have, well, how to put this delicately? Okay, I'll say it. Our periods have synced. And, ladies and gentlemen I am proud to announce I am the Alpha female! Well, thank you, thank you very much!

Held Over!

2006-02-12T01:19:00.000-08:00

Weekend numero 6 under our belts and we've been extended. Now, before you get any dirty thoughts, that means we're performing for two additional weekends! So get on down for shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday through February 25.

Tonight, what would have been closing night, was a lot of fun. KLJ's mom came to the 7 p.m. (Yes, we talked about vaginas in front of Keith's mom AND Aunt Peggy.) and my pal's Mike and Chris were there for the 9 p.m. (my apologies to Mike for the puppet, nuff said.) along with Tara from St. Simon 3 who is busy making another baby!

I'm too sleepy to write more and I should go to bed before my spelling gets as atrocious as KLJ's.

G'night.

Vagina Monologues The Movie

2006-02-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Another weekend under our belts

2006-02-05T01:26:00.000-08:00

Well, we just concluded weekend number 5 in our 6 week run of We Live Here. As the run comes to its conclusion I'm beginning to feel that usual remorse. It's funny, at the beginning of any run (no matter how short or long) I feel like I'm ready for it to be over. Ready to have my weekends back and then when the show nears the end of the run the sadness creeps in, like loosing an old friend. It would seem logical that this run would be taking it's toll on us but the show keeps getting tighter, more polished and now I feel like I could just keep on going. It helps that I have a tremendously supportive husband and a kid who's used to Mommy's "show business ways" (between work and ICBINC I'm often gone on weekends). After the shows we headed to a local late night eatery where Ben and I entertained the group with "gorey childhood" stories with subjects such as shooting at birds, chopping off finger tips, child eating pigs and slicing open punk rockers. Not exactly dinner conversation but at least we waited until the entrees were nearly finished before we got into the really bloody stories.

The Alexander Technique

2006-02-04T14:14:00.000-08:00

Hoopla! Becca and I just returned from a 2 hour introductory course in the Alexander Technique. I won't go in to all of the details, not that it's some secrect society I just don't want to get bogged down. Basically, the method is about posture, breathing, body alignment. After just a short 2 hour introductory course I feel GREAT! Like I just had a nap followed by an Espresso Metro Zap Frappe! Can't wait to get to the theatre tonight. Rrrrrr!

Last night's show, by the way, was awesome and totally redeemed old people for me. Last week we had a crowd of older folks (see KLJ's blog entry for all the gorey details) who, despite having all of our comedic charm thrown at them, just weren't going for it. So, you can imagine how dismayed I was when the first folks to arrive for last night's show were of the, shall we say, " old" persuasion. But let me tell you, this audience rocked! KLJ even got one lady to get up on stage during the opening monologue and read titles like "The Vagina Hater" and "Vagina's Make You Gay" from the program. Bet saying "vagina" on stage in front of a crowd wasn't on her to-do list for the day. Hmm, water plants, pick up prescriptions, say "vagina" in front of a bunch of strangers. Nope. Anyway, the crowd was clearly loving the show and on exit I realized that once again we had a big showing of the over 60 set. But these were the cool old people. The kind I want to be when I grow up. Yeah!

Old People

2006-02-04T09:47:00.000-08:00

Wow. Last Saturday the audience for the 7pm show was all over 80. They wouldn't laugh during the skits but the were generous with the applause after. I guess they had a good time. One woman in the front kept guessing our lines, outloud, right before we'd say them. I'm not in favor of punching old ladies but I came real close to changing my stance this time.
So last night I spot an old lady, in the front row, and when I mention vaginas in my opening monologue she starts reading the program. I got her up on stage and had her read out loud from the program. She was so sweet and wide eyed, and hearing her say "Vagina's make you gay?" was priceless.
"When you got up this morning you didn't know you'd be talking about vaginas in front of so many people did you?"
"No, I didn't."
Great audience over all. Hoping for more good folks tonight as my dad will be there with an childhood pal of his from New York.

Red Hot Lizard Boy Action All Night Long

2006-02-01T11:14:00.000-08:00

We're too filthy for Cable Access. Our current show is one of the racier shows we've done, but we do have a very silly and innocent skit called Lizard Boys. Two reptile loving geeks are in the mall discussing their hobby "Yeah man, my red phase german giant mated with my sand fire high yellow. I got the eggs at home." When a woman passes they both display in the fashion of a male lizard trying to attact a mate. Head bobbing, arm waving, etc. This progresses with them fighting with each other and, well, I don't want to ruin the ending. The Sacramento Bee described the skit as "hilariously visual."

I just recieved a call from the producer of LiveWire on Sacramento Public Access. We were scheduled to appear on the show, and to use a video clip of Lizard Boys to give the audience a taste of our show. Lizard Boys was deemed "too sexual" by this producer.

"What? Lizard boys, the skit with the two boys acting like lizards?" I asked.

"Yes. It's very sexualized. We have standards we have to adhere to." she answered.

"There is no sex in that scene. I watch kid's cartoons every day. Men's eyes pop out of their heads, their tongues roll out, they say "Helllllooo Nurse! All our Lizard Boys do is bob their heads and fight with each other. If you see sex in this skit, it's on you, because it's not there."

She started to answer, but I was at work and I'd spent too much time on this already, plus I was getting pissed that she was projecting her smut paranoya onto such and innocent, goofy skit. I interrupted. "Look, let's just not work together."

"Okay." she agreed.

WOW! I'm still boggled by this very strange woman.

Perhaps it was the tantilizing line, "The dominant male gets first choice of breedable females from the clutch." that pushed if over the pg-13 line eh? It is a hot line, straight out of Penthouse Forum.

Oh well. My lifelong dream of being on public access television will not be satisfied this week.

Shows doing well, website redesign coming

2006-02-01T11:08:00.001-08:00

We sold out Friday and the early show Saturday, so it was a good weekend. Great audiences for the most part, but the early crowd on Saturday were all senior citizens, and very quiet. It's not easy talking about vaginas in front of a bunch of women who could be your grandmother. Oh well, my mom'll be at the show this coming weekend with my Aunt Peggy, so I better get used to talking about vaginas and all associated awkwardness.

I'm redesigning the website soon, to make it more geared toward content. Photos, video, audio, blogs, etc. I love the site design now but it's time to change. Time To Change is a great tune by The Brady Bunch by the way, with Peter's voice cracking as he sings. Good stuff.

Shows doing well, web redesign coming

2006-02-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Rolling along, but what next

2006-01-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

So the shows are doing great, selling out every night. The good review in the Bee certainly helped.
I love what we're doing in this show. It feels to me like a really god combination of the silly and the experimental, getting dark in places but coming back and getting talkie, leaning toward theater type pieces but then giving a quick breather afterwards with some purely physical stuff like the lizard boy pieces.
But, having stepped up into a larger run, ultimately being seen by a much larger group of people with a much, much larger advertising budget I have to wonder what we do next? I mean, this was a big step and there'd be no shame in repeating it next year. Putting another new show up for a long run.
Hopefully the success of the run and the good press means we can get into theaters like the Purple Onion in San Francisco or Upright Citizen's Brigade Theaters in LA and New York. That's the goal now for me. Well that and as always doing more film work.
Artistically where do we go now? I don't wan to torture myself and the cast with always having to do something brand new. I do believe and artist group of artists can do what they do well and just workt to perfect their craft and grow in it, but I get a sense that there is some new ground we could be covering. That we're off in a good direction. We're experimental in a more subtle way than some of the really out there troupes that have wowed me, but I'm happy with what we're doing. I like the Woody Allen like attention to dialogue and story even within the often preposterous scenarios of sketch comedy. And I like pieces like She, Rolita, The Talk, or the Unborny Billy Skits that are willing to go to places the audiences might be reluctant to go. The audience is beginning to trust us on these little trips. They know we'll respect the subjects we're dealing with.
Okay, that's enough post show rambling. I've got at least for more weeks of shows so plenty of time to meditate on this stuff. For now, the show keeps getting tighter, better, funnier everytime we run it.

What an opening night

2006-01-07T14:44:00.000-08:00

The internet ate some of our reservations and so folks who had made reservations didn't get in, which sucks and I'm sure upset some folks, but having a packed house, to the point where people were sitting in the aisles was delightful.
The skits did well, pleny of laffs, the opening act Daisy Spot was enchanting and our house band Broken Home added so much to the show and were tons of fun.
We had a wine tasting after the show which was very cool and I look forward to two more shows tonight both of which are already sold out.
I'm anxious to see the review on Monday in The Bee.

2006-01-03T22:50:00.000-08:00

Sid, Ben, Becca, KLJ, Amber

Yep. Six week run. That's a lot of ICBINC. It's very likely that we'll be reviewed opening weekend so we really want to pack the house, plus opening weekend Daisy Spot is opening for us, so that's exciting. You can go to www.sacactors.com to reserve tickets and mention that you read about it here to get a six pack of tickets for $60. That'll save you enough per person that you can all pitch in on some cheap beer before the show. And listen to us on KXJZ 88.9fm Friday at 2pm also.

In this show we're doing The Vagina Dialogues, the best send up of The Vagina Monologues ever cuz it's done with an understanding of and affection for the source. And Becca has a new piece, Rolita that's FANTASTIC and pretty dark and challenging and beautiful and I really love it. Ben as usual turns in a manic piece based on his every day dealings with the folks he's forced to share a planet with. I'm in there too somewhere.

Broken Home is our band this time around and we love them. They totally immersed themselves in the show and they rule. So now, I BEG YOU, please, please, come have a good night with us, help us get this long run kick started and we promise not to have a secret wrap party without you when it closes. THOUGH you should note, folks that wait until closing weekend will NOT be told about the party (unless they have a real good excuse, or a box of wine, or Sid thinks they're cute.)

Okay, the skits we're doing, High Flying Kung-Fu, The Vagina Hater, Lizard Boys Cruise For Chicks, Shiela Learns The Truth, Vaginas make you Gay, Rolita, Yawning, General Gina, Curing The Vaginaphobe. As you can see 'Ginas A-Plenty.

Time for not sleeping well

2005-12-21T13:17:00.000-08:00

It's that point in the process of rehearsing a new show when I have dreams about being on stage almost every night, I wake up too early, my stomach feels awful. Why do I put myself through it. I keep telling myself that eventually I'll learn not to stress. That I'll just accept that we put it out there and do our best, and regardless of what happens we learn and we move on. For the most part our experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. Sure we've had a rough night here and there, but our shows have been huge successes, and yet still I stress.
So we continue to rehearse, to build props and set pieces, to promote and on January 6th we premier the new show as we prepare for a six week run.
TV advertising, flyers, newspaper ads, overall the largest promotions campaign we've done. I hope it pays off.
See you there.

Rehearsal at The Crest.

2005-12-05T21:05:00.000-08:00

We rehearsed at The Crest tonight. It was a fun rehearsal. Ben was home sick so we took turns playing his parts. Becca and Sid had a-lot of fun being Ben for a night. There's a yawning skit and Becca, as Sid pointed out, looks like a little kitten when she yawns. So cute.
Wednesday we'll practice at the geery on the stage where the six week ordeal will be endured. It'll be cool to work in the venue and to start getting a real feel for the blocking and what not.
Peace,
KLJ

New Show in January

2005-12-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been posting so little. I've been working on www.RockAss.net and I've done a-lot of cool things with it. I combined all my blogs so my work stories, my panhandling blog, my fiction, etc. are all through www.rockass.net now. I also broke my collar bone skate boarding. Yep. I guess I haven't grown up enough to quit skating and my bones haven't stayed young enough to keep from breaking.

We do have six weeks of shows coming up. SIX WEEKS! I don't know how we'll survive it, but it'll be the last shows we do for a while. We're working on some films and I'm producing a musical for next Christmas. Click on our shows page to see the new flyer art by Qwert and to check out the dates and such. The shows are downtown which is nice.

Come to opening weekend and see Daisy Spot open the show. And every show will have Broken Home as our musical guests! Nobody rocks a kazoo like Broken Home. Should be great fun.

I'm undead Lenny Bruce

2005-10-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend I put on The Dead Comedian's Special at Luna's. What a blast. I played zombie Lenny Bruce and I played the ghost of Mitch Hedberg. I wrote some original material for both pieces and combined it with material of their's that I altered to fit the undead theme.

My pal Cheese, who the News and Review just called Sacramento's best Up and Coming Comedian played Bill Hick's. My boss showed up with his girlfriend and some other friends right before Cheese went on. None of us could get my bosses girlfriend to shut up. She was AWFUL! It worked well for Cheese though, as Bill Hicks was known for shredding such audience members.

I hope I still have a job.

Steve Ferris did an original song he wrote called Dancing In My Whities and he did it, while dancing in his whities, stripping down to the underpants and nothing else. The sincerety that this guy exudes is awesome and his bit was SOOO much fun.

The St Simon 2 (what's left of the St. Simon 3) did a great set, playing good songs by dead guys, or by guys who they could claim were dead and none of knew for sure. And they had me onstage to sing some Allen Sherman with them, which rules as I am a big fan.

My pals in Gas Food Theatre did a lesson on how not to die on stage which was a riot. These guys play every role they play with complete conviction. Verry good stuff.

Quite a night. Now we get back to preparing for our six week January run at The Geery Theatre.

Back from Seattle

2005-09-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend. We saw some more great sketch including The Cody Rivers Show, Flaming Box of Stuff and Troop. I was bummed that we missed Fresh Meat, but we did get to hang out with them at the after party, which was about as much fun as I've ever had.
Click the links, check out the websites, get to know some of the countries best sketch troupes.
I'm sooooo glad to be home. I will sleep in my own bed, with my own fiance tonight. The fiance at the Hostel was nice and all, but mine just fits me better ya know what I mean?

Yes, we rocked Seattle, we did

2005-09-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

The show last night went great. We did a dozen very short form sketches in ten minutes. There were one or two that would have gotten better laughs if we had time for the slow burn (I know because they were adapted from long form skits that we've done) and there one or two that got a BETTER response in this short frantic version. Then we came back and did a second skit, Pinata, which went over well.
My Aunt Marie and Uncle Ted, my cousins Isa, Tim and TC all came, as did our friend's Natalie and Bill and some friends of Amber's and Becca's that I don't know as well. We got some great props from people.
Earlier in the night I saw Hypnagogia who did the best sketch performance I've seen live, EVER! They were up there with the best of Kids In The Hall, but they knew they were live and really worked with the audience, creating a creepy vibe one minute and then tearing it appart and cracking us up with silliness the next. I loved it.
Tonight I'll see Flaming Box of Stuff, featuring some members of Hypnagogia. I'll write more tommorow. and I'll bug Amber for some photos. She's out jogging right now, and I imagine Becca's sleeping as we were out until the wee hours of the morning.

At a Hostel in Seattle

2005-09-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Got into Seattle last night. Worked a volunteeer shift at the sketchfest, saw some sketch, and then checked into the youth hostel. What a nice hostel! I'm sitting at the free breakfast now, using their free wi-fi.
Amber and I are sharing a bunk bed in a room with an australian couple. They're hillarious. We can't get our key card to work, and the woman keeps showing us how to do it but it still doesn't work for us. I told her it must be some aboriginal trick and I think she was offended.
I've got to go move the car. We perform tonight at midnight. Our ten minutes of glory.
We'll try to find someplace to rehearse today.

Leaving for Seattle

2005-09-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

We leave for Seattle in a couple of hours. I'm stoked, and nervous, as I always am before a show. This one is extra difficult though because we really want to impress and we've got only ten minutes to do it. TEN MINUTES!
We've put together a fast paced bizarred ten minutes that jumps from skit to skit like a hyper ten year old has posession of the remote control. Woo hoo.
Horrah. Um, yeah, wish us luck.

Seattle or bust

2005-07-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Not sure what I've got to do to get these other kid's blogging.
We've been invited to perform at Push, which is part of the Seattle Sketch Fest. So this takes us to Seattle for the first time and maybe we'll hit Oregon on the way up. That should be the weekend of September 15th. More details as they become available.
My last Funny Peculiar show sold out and was a big hit. I was VERY happy with how it went down. The next one is September 9th, and will be a celebraton of Tapan Trivedi's birthday. Woo hoo. Broken Home will be the musical guest. It will be a rockin' good time, this much is true.

Performing in SD

2005-07-15T20:38:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a whirwind 24 hours. I performed as Francois Fly in San Diego. It was a burlesque show put on by my pal Augusta of It's A Chick productions, and I shared a dressing room with all these gorgeous women. That seems to be the standard for these shows. ICBINC shared a dressing room with the Velvet Hammer when we performed with them too.
I pulled out my lap top not wanting to oggle the girls innapropriately. My friend Don saw this and thought it was the perfect image of a geek, sitting amongst beautiful naked dancers and working on his laptop. So Don took a picture. He had Kitten Deville and one of the other girl's stand behind me AND KITTEN DEVILLE CHEWED ON MY EAR! ! ! Wow. I'll post this picture soon.
The event was associated with Comic Con so the house was chock full of the geekiest geeks of all time. I fit right in. We saw a bit of the Comic Con and I finally got to meet Jeffrey Brown who I've exchanged e-mails with but never met in person. I got two of his smaller books, Be a Man and I Am Going To Be Small and I bought a Clumsy T-shirt. He's the best.
At midnight we drove back to Lizard Boy's place in LA and got in around 2am. I got up in the morning and had Breakfast with Sue Nice and Emily Wilson-Wilson (Mrs. Lizard Boy). Then a bit of pan handling in the banana suit and off to be interviewed on CBS news radio about my pan handling adventures. Tommorow more panhandling and eating at Planet Raw then Sunday morning I go home.
Fun, Fun, Fun. But I miss my girl.

Fireworks

2005-07-05T09:23:00.000-07:00

Oh my gawd I'm tired. Thankfully I have a sitting down job, I don't think I can stand. Was I out dancing all night? Was I drinking away the hours? No, I was just hanging out on a friend's lawn watching them light firworks 'til midnight. How did I become such an old man? I did play some Jr. Pacman. They had an actual, stand up Jr. Pacman arcade game that they bought years ago for $200. I'm oh so envious. Fireworks, of the safe and sane variety, are great fodder for heckling. My buddy was announcing the price of each one before he lit it and I've come to the concusiong that five five dollar fireworks taped together and fused to go off in sequence cost $50.00. Pyro-economics. Buy yourself some fuse and you can save big!

2005-07-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

I'm working on bringing the blog back. It was offline for a bit there. We want to use it more since our touring, as inviduals and as a troupe, has made us more long distance friends who can only enjoy the mad cap that is icbinc via the internet.
Ben will be leaving audio blogs weekly and god only knows what the rest of us will cook up.
Amber and Becca just got back from China!!!! I'm sure they'll write more on that.
I've taken up panhandling. See www.whylieineedadrink.blogspot.com for more on that.
Check out our links page, I updated it to include more of our pals in the comedy and entertaining game, and will expand it even more in the next month.
Check back, thanks,
KLJ

2005-04-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

So, we haven't posted here in a while. The new show is great. We played Sacramento with it, and this weekend we're in SF. Then a couple of weeks later on May 6th we're in LA. May 7th Arizona and I'm working on what to do after that.
I think I want to do a demo version of our next CD and then work with a label to fine tune it, produce it and get it out.
I love the first CD. The second CD will have more short skits involving music. This will make it more usefull to radio DJs. The shorter skits seems to be the direction we're heading anyway so this isn't too much of a stretch.
I'm working on a radio show with the guys from Gas, Food, Theatre called The Mustaches, or it might be called somthing else. It's a radio sitcom of sorts about four guys who escape prison together, grow mustaches and do their best to have a normal life on the lam. We should have some shows ready by next fall. I'm stoked to be working with these guys. They're so damn funny.
And I have my stand up comedy show at Luna's, "Funny Peculiar", still going strong. Check out www.indycomedy.com for that.

2005-02-06T21:24:00.000-08:00

http://www.kdhx.org/ Click to visit KDHX in St. Louis. The show "Slip of The Disc" has been giving our CD some good rotation. Listen online and request more ICBINC.
http://boogiepopwcsb.blogspot.com/ Another Fella's spinning us alongside Strongbad In Cleveland. Oh, an dyou can buy our CD HERE

2005-01-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

2005-01-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

The New Year is off and running. The last two Funny Peculiar shows have totally sold out, standing room only.
We're working on our next scetch show. Rehearsals are going well and it's turning out to be quite a different show from anything else we've done. I'm liking it a---lot. Lots of shorter skits in this one.

PRESS

2005-01-20T17:35:00.000-08:00

"I felt tense while I was listening to this piece.
I loved it, but I felt tense,"
Jeffrey Callison on NPR
Reviewing the skit "She" from our CD

"The group brings its warped humor to San Francisco for two nights with skits like "Satan's Receptionist," in which a self-pitying nobody seeks advice from a hellish secretary, as well as a hilarious think piece that skewers a vegan public service announcement."
Jane Tunks, SF Weekly 4/13/2005

"A mix of old time radio style and irreverent (but surprisingly non-profane) humor, the crew brings to mind some of the funnier bits of Monty Python and vintage Saturday Night Live. These guys could easily be the next SCTV."
Robert Berry, Retocrush.com

"'Yuppie Birth Scene,' got laughs in the right places; and the timing was perfect throughout the 'Team Urinals' sketch, in which three men bond over a shared affliction: shy-bladder syndrome."
Jim Carnes Sac Bee Ticket, Cover Story!

"Weird and Wonderful"
The Sacramento News and Review

"Sacramento's Premier Original Comedy Troupe"
The Sacramento Bee

"As the crowd at the onstage toilets grows, the laughs also geometrically progress until both actors and audience are busting their guts for very different reasons."
Sac News and Review "Best Of" Issue
Awarding ICBINC a "Best Of Sacramento" Award

"In case of accidental ingestion, contact a poison control center immediately." Chris Acosta, Short Bus Magazine

"Hilariously Offbeat" Sac News & Review Winter Guide 2002

"Surprisingly entertaining. These people can make serial killers funny! (In an unsettling, will-I-go-to-hell-for-laughing-at-this? way.)" Sacramento News and Review

"Thanks for the Laughs...They're terrific!" Dale Schornack News10

"Dale Shornack likes them!" Nick Toma Good Day Sacramento!

"A single father awkwardly giving his teenage daughter “the talk,” a childbirth gone horribly (and hilariously) wrong, and a trio of “pee shy” men caught cock-in-hand at a public urinal all are topics ICBINC's players mine for their comedic potential." Christian Kiefer SN&R

"Thrilling 3-D Action!" -Sac N & R Pick of the week!

"Sacramento's Hilarious New Comedy Troupe!" -The Comic Press News!

"Knocking everyone's socks off with their original sketches" -StreetMail.com

"It's hard not to like a comedy troupe who's program guide boasts 'More fun than a gorilla with a martini!'" Elaine Hess KXJZ, Sac's NPR station

"Sophomoric" Jackson Griffith, Sacramento News and Review

2004-12-31T20:31:00.000-08:00

Bringing in the new year by listening to The Haints, (a Sacramento band featuring all 3 members of the Groovie Ghoulies and then some) hanging out at home, reclaiming the apartment from the mess Bryna and I created durring the Christmas week. I've been pretty emotional today over the Tsunami disaster in south Asia. What a mess. I'm buggin everyone I know to give what they can and to find creative ways to get others to give more to the relief effort. It's an amazing effort so far from around the globe. It's so important to get things cleaned up quickly though or the death toll can double from disease, thirst, exposure. We'll give whatever money comes in at the wednesdays Funny Peculiar show to the effort. Oh yeah, this wednesday is the third Funny Peculiar show at Luna's Cafe. See www.indycomedy.com for the facts.
Later I'll pick up Bryna from work and we'll decide where to be at midnight. I don't really care where we end up, so long as we kiss at start of the new years, as we do everyear. ELEVEN YEARS! Our anniverary is in a week. Congratulate are certainly in order.
Oh, and I went and saw my friends Johnny and Amalia's baby, Maya Luna. What a cutie. She came out a whole month early so she is TINY!
Well, back to the housework.
I'm thinking of trying to get a radio show together. I need a prolific musician to help soundtrack a weekly bout of storytelling and lies.
Peace. Happy New Year.

2004-12-29T06:35:00.000-08:00

Haven't written here for a while. I should make the blog more accessible from the site.
We were crazy with trying to market the CD durring the Christmas shopping rush. Now we're less crazy and just getting ready for March shows in Sac and April shows in SF. We're putting together all new material. We've got some great skits. Lot's of stuff about love oddly enough. It's the Love Show. I hope to do some more writing before we start rehearsing and I know Becca does as well.
It'll be good starting rehearsals again, though it'll be odd without Miles. Oh yeah, Miles is no longer with us. We've decided to part ways. I think he has too much going on. It seems like we've had much cast change in the troupe, but really we're still four original members and one newby, Becca, though she's not that new, she's been helping with lights and such from very early on.
We just started as a huge crew and we've shrunken down over the years. Three years to be exact. The March shows will mark our 3rd anniversary and my birthday.

2004-11-26T07:32:00.000-08:00

My new comedy show is tonight. I've though about my material but I've refused to let myself write it, which is nerve racking. The point of this show though is to develope my abilitiy to shoot from the hip, something I've always done well at. It sure can make you feel better though to have it all planned out. I can't wait to have tonight out of the way, and to be doing this regular enough that I go back to being chill about it.
A lot of my family will be there, which adds to the nervousness. Bombing would suck but bombing in front of your family would suck worse.

2004-11-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

2004-10-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

YAY! I'm pretty excited. I just got a comedy show at Luna's. Stand Up, storytelling, sketch, performance art, but mostly Stand Up. We'll do it open mic style but with some quality control so that the comedians get a place to work out (those that do the actual work) AND the audience gets a good show.
I'm doing one show on November 26th and then another on December 8th, then in January we'll go to twice monthly onWednesdays, with occasional "Big Shows" on Fridays to showcase our best and brightest.
I'll set up a website just for this eventualy.

Come to our cd release party. See our shows page on this website for more.

2004-10-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

College papers being written about you, yep, that's when you're a real success. My pal Mia is writing a paper on ICBINC for a class she's taking. The assignment called for a report on The SF Mime Troupe, The Pickle Family Circus, I think there were a couple of other choices. To write on something outside of the choices she had to submit a proposal and so she proposed to write on us. Pretty cool. I'm a high school drop out being written about in college.

2004-10-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

SO SICK OF BEING A BUSINESS MAN! I'm glad that I can do it, but I'd much rather be working on new comedy. I wonder if it would have been a better career move to just do my comedy ALL the time and then it'd be out there more frequently and the quality would be improving at a faster rate, and then someone else would come along an take care of the business. As it is, I feel like I was a lot of energy doing business. I try to find a way to do business creatively but I'd so much rather just be writing and putting on shows. Why such a drive to sell it then? So I can stop spending 40 + hours of my week working for someone else in a TOTALLY uncreative capacity.
Tired. This CD marketing thing is just wearing me out.
I've been thinking about the next show. I want to do something we've talked about from the beginning. I want to rent a bus and do the whole show aboard the bus and at various stops. It's not totally original, the inspiration comes from Popcorn antitheatre who we perform with in SF, but there's was a variety show and verry anarchistic. I want to do a full, fluid, bus ride, scripted and all tying together. Video, music, skits, shills, mass fun.
That'd be so cool.
There's no reason why we couldn't tour such a show. It's easier to rent a bus in every town then to rent a venue.
Hmmmmm.

2004-10-09T21:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, we got our first negative review. Kinda nice to have it done with. Almost three years at this and so far nothing but glowing reviews. The negative review was made much worse because it was written by a friend and he was asshole enough to mention that I'd been calling him and asking for a review. BY NAME he mentions me. All three names, of course. It suck because I never called and asked him for a review. I assumed that since one of our members works at the paper they couldn't review us. I was calling asking him to listen to it because I wanted his feedback, because we're friends. My other friends can tell ya, I've been bugging all of them too. So, it was a pretty harsh sting in that way. Otherwise it wasn't too bad. He mentions The Firesign theatre as an example of a good comedy troupe. I HATE the Firesign Theatre, so that's almost a compliment. I should mention that we've gotten some rave reviews as well. For instance Robert Berry at Retrocush.com writes.

"I can't stand what passes for comedy CDs these days. I like to see a standup comedian in action, not just listen to a soundtrack of their act. That's why Sacramento's own I Can't Believe It's Not Comedy Troupe's debut CD "Funnier Than God" is so great to hear. Using a mix of old time radio style and irreverent (but surprisingly non-profane) humor, the crew brings to mind some of the funnier bits of Monty Python and vintage Saturday Night Live. Highlights of the CD involve a couple episodes of "Naked Man", a crime-fighter who takes advantage of the discomfort he causes super-villains by fighting them naked, and "Pizza Sluts" which takes a funny angle on the real-life aspects of making porn movies."

2004-10-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

HEY! We're having a party. The CD is out. It's in stores, Dimple, Tone Vendor, The Beat, Tower on Broadway, and it's SELLING! We've sold a bunch online as well, including one to Stockholm Sweden which is pretty dang cool.
We're gonna celebrate with a HUGE bash on November 5th. It'll be 10 bucks to get in, but that gets you a copy of the CD as well so you can't lose. DJ Junior from the Trash Film Orgy is back in town and will be DJing as will Francois Fly. Our house band The St. Simon 3 will be playing and special Guest Bob Barango will be rockin' also. Who knows what else, piniata, stip go fish, whatever we can come up with. Maybe gorrilla strip tease. Woo hoo. See the Shows page of our website for more. AND BE THERE.

2004-09-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

They're running every episode of The Simpsons, from the first to the last. It's great to look back. I still love the Simpsons, but those early episodes we're realy something. Great show.

2004-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

2004-09-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

The new website is looking good. We're getting many compliments. Check out the Links page to find Scott Moon and Erik Lobo who designed the site for us.
We're still working on photo galleries and on making more visible links to this Blog.
Note, The CD is for sale. Woo hoo. Buy 20 of 'em. Now. Right away. Before they're all gone. There they go. Quick, quick, quick!
We're getting a tour together for Spring and Summer of 2005. I'm excited about touring and hopefull that we can get some support built up in cities we've never been to before by putting the CD out there.
In the meanwhile I'll be making trips to as many towns as I can to sell the CD to record stores and the like and to give copies to all the college radio stations.
We can use all the help we can get so if you know of cool record stores or DJ's who are willing to play weird indy comedy stuff let us know.
It's always great to get mail from folks. It's inspiring. So by all means, drop us a line. Make us feel all famous and stuff.

2004-08-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo from the ICBINC cd recording studio and one from an ICBINC BBQ!

2004-08-22T09:17:00.000-07:00

Done, It's Done, It's Done! The CD is Done! But I mean it for real this time. After the last time I said it was done I went back to the producer and had him tweek a few things. Now it's ready to ship. It's getting some great reviews from the folks who've sneak peeked it. Most exciting.
The new website is going up quickly too. From our current front page you can click Cast to get a look at the new pages. There are still broken links and what not, which is why we've not put up the new front page yet, but those should be worked out in no time. Woo hoo.

2004-08-17T19:39:00.000-07:00

I've been having a-lot of strange dreams, probably the result of stressing over the CD. Here's one.

I'm at a party where the organizers of a film festival honoring a particular director are gathering to screen a few of his films and to discuss which ones to put in the film. It's realy nice. Some pleasant snacks, nice folks, even the colors of the room and the cloths are soothing and comforting. My friend Steve is there (a film buff in real life) and he puts on the first short films.

The Film
A young couple is talking with an adult woman, presumably a parent of one or the other. The woman is assuring them that whatever secret they have, whatever they're hiding, it can't be too bad. They can get through everything. The parent seems bright and intelligent and you're sure that even if the couple is about to announce a pregnancy or the like it will be handled well by all involved. After a few stare between the youngsters and a few reassuring smiles from the adult, they instruct her to look in the bathroom. Looking intrigued more than concerned the woman makes her way to the bathroom door. She opens the door and their is a chubby asian exchange studen, haning horizontal above the bath. He is tied and hanging by yards of piano wire which is cutting into his skin. He is pale and chubby and looks like the Hollywood stereotype of the nerdy exchange student. He looks up and smiles like an injured dog, more immediately happy to see company than aware of his prediciment. He then seems embarassed as he spits a mouth full of blood into the drain. The camera zooms in on the blood which pools as the drain is plugged with vomit and a few teeth. The blood drains down slowly sifting through the solids.

I wake up.

2004-08-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

Today we listened to our new CD together. The whole thing beginning to end. Candace (our fan club president) as well as a couple of friend of mine who just moved back to Sac from Santa Cruz joined us in listening as did Chip and Simon from The St. Simon 3.
It's a good CD. I'm pretty happy with it. I don't feel like I'm hearing it all that objectively. I'm way to close to it right now. It's fun and it's pretty unique. I'm all ready to do another one but I know that's quite a ways off. Now comes the task of getting this one out there. We ship it to the manufacturers on Monday and we should have 1,000 copies with Irina Beffa's excellent artwork on the cover by September 3.
Our CD Release show on Sept 10th is to be postponed as the venue lost it's alcohol permit. We may move it to Body Tribe (Chip's Gym).
Scott Moon and Erik Lobo continue to plug away at the website redesign. It should be online very soon.

2004-08-12T10:16:00.001-07:00

As we all sadly know, Sacramento's own True Love cafe will be closing in just two short weeks!!And to close it out in style they will be featuring some FREE local entertainment this weekend!This Saturday night see "I Can't Believe it's not Comedy" perform some of their classic and 'best of' all original comedy sketches for free at 5:30, we are gleeful to say we will be opening for Dana Gumbiner of Deathray who will be performing right after us! So that's two awesome acts for the awesome price of FREE!! That's right folks! We're giving you the guest list treatment! So if you wanna get 'hooked up' with some free tickets, you just let us know and it's done! You see, on account of it's free already...The True Love Cafe is located at:2406 J Street SacramentoBe sure to get there early as there's limited seating! And if ya sit in the front row we'll make sure it's as equally as fun as sitting in the front row of the Dolphin Show at Marine World!So join us for some comedy, some rock, some coffee, some fruit tea freeze, and some True Love Cafe goodbyes!Ambot!www.notcomedy.com

2004-08-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

It never ends. I've now spent 42 hours in the studio. With the troupe, with the band, with just the producer. I still have about 9 hours to go, and anything not done at that point will just have to wait until the next CD comes out. I'm still keeping up with my day job, attempting to give attention to my relationship and trying to find time to breath. Add the appearance at the Trash Film Orgy, the Kid's Birthday party I'm doing tommorow, the work we're doing on the computer tommorow to get the CD manufacturing paid for and to download some sound FX, the interview with Jonathan Morken I'm doing regarding his new film Nwar which I'm writing up for The News and Review, and finally the TFO wrap party tomorrow night. I'm squeezing a haircut in in the morning also.
The funny thing is I still find time to be board. I can't wait until we're producing a film and every second of everyong day is occuppied with frenzied creative energy. If I can learn to be calm and peaceful then I will be a Zen Master.
I've decided to try to write one short story a day. Usually very short. Like four or five lines. I'm reading a book of Zen stories that my friend Allen turned me onto and I'm really liking it.

2004-08-04T10:24:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Come see I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT COMEDY live and FREE at the True Love Cafe closing weekend entertainment a thon for 24 hours! Were scheduled to play at 5:20 but for only a half hour slot so get there early as it will be packed! The cafe is on the corner of J and 24th Street! Let is know if you have any question! We hope to see you there! Below are pictures from our cd recording session! Enjoy!

2004-07-31T12:17:00.000-07:00

blog blog blog blog blog

We've sheduled a CD Release Cocktail Party. Woo Hoo. September 10th, at Uptown Studios, 9 and 1/2 J Street. Xeno and The St. Simon 3 will provide music, there will be a well equiped bar and we will be dressed to the nines. Woo Hoo. I'm happy.

The CD continues skyward budget wise, but it's coming out SOOOO well that It's worth it. At least that's what I think. Convincing our financier, well, that's another story. But you all, you will be convinced. I believe we have a completely unique recording, smart, funny, risky, silly, I can't wait to start playing it for folks.

We may do a small tour in February or March. Just a couple of us heading up to Portland, Seattle etc. That'd be fun.

2004-07-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

I just got back from editing the CD with David Houston. We got through Yuppie Birth Scene, most of SHE and some of Naked Man. David had some realy great ideas and I really like the way this editing session went. After the recording sessions I was full of doubt about my performance and what not, always wishing we could do another take, but the editing process goes the opposite way. I'm amazed at how good we can make it all sound.
Back to it tommorrow. These are long days, what with the day job and all.

2004-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

We had a nice little BBQ at my place. It was great seeing all the little ICBINCers again. Bob and Irina came by and stayed afterwards to watch a movie. They're great folks and I'm glad we're working with them. Reminder: Bob is our filmmaker, Irina is our graphic artist.
After the BBQ I headed to Barbarella at the Trash Film Orgy. Their live musical number beffore the show and durring intermission was great. I didn't get into bed until 2:30 am, very late for me. Up early the next day for an all day gig MCing the Power Tool Drag Races. I am beat.
I'm heading to David Houston's tonight after work and again tommorow to finish editing the CD. I'm getting excited. We're almost done. Woo hoo.

2004-07-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

Keith! The cd layout looks awesome!!!! Great job to everyone involved! Also, I'd like to take this time out to congrat to XENOPHILIA for being inducted in to the hall of fame at last nights SAMMIES awards! Sooooo proud of you guys! Also congrats to my pals in QUITTER and CALL ME ISHMAEL for receiving critics choice awards, and QUITTER for receiving best cd of the year! SUPER exciting!!! It was great to see almost all of ICBINC out at the SAMMIES last night, I had a great time at dinner with you all and the party was a blast!

2004-07-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

2004-07-06T20:06:00.000-07:00

I just spent six days camping in the Black Rock Desert with Bryna, Allen and Steve from Gallery Horse Cow and a whole bunch of other folks. The Desert is gorgeous. I decided not to bring my lap top as I would not be able to replace it if the desert were to eat it. Too bad as I would have liked to have gotten some work done. I was on megaphone duty for a rousing game of Flaming Bryna Ball. It's like soccer but there's not goals, teams or point, just balls made of toilet paper rolls dipped in gasoline and set on fire, sometimes with mortars inside them. The players then randomly kick the flaming balls around the desert hoping not to be close to one when it explodes. If you should decide to play this ridiculously dangerous game I can bear no responsiblity, after all, it was Bryna who accidentally gave Allen the idea to add the mortars. Hence the name; Flaming Bryna Ball.
I was wearing polyester and suffering with a bad back so I provided megaphone MC duties instead of playing. Plus I encouraged survival instinct lacking folks not to smoke near the big bucket of gasoline!
I met some great folks from Portland, Seattle and LA. The people are events coordinators, members of Arts Colonies and all around neat, creative people. I'm hoping they will be anxious to help us bring our show to their towns and to share in the experience.
For now we continue to plug away at the CD. Nothing new to report. Just waiting to be done recording. I am going to Irina's now to peak at the art.
First, on last piece of news. Patrick, AKA DJ Junior will be returning to Sac after Burning Man. It will be good to have him back.

2004-06-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

We did our live recording session. Thanks to those who came and played the part of the audience. Xeno came and did the soundtracking for She and Dharlin' Big Break. It was great to work with Xeno again. We have one more recording session in the Studio with The St. Simon 3, then some editing and we'll have this thing wrapped. I am anxious to have it done and to start getting it out there. Finally they'll know who we are in Boise.

The website is getting a major overhaul and the changes should start showing up in the next month. Mr. Lobo of www.cinemainsomnia.net and Scott Moon of www.planetxmagazine.com are doing the redesign which will include some multimedia and TONS of pictures.

I went and saw Slider, the new show from Abandon Productions. Amazing show. I'm so flattered that these incredible performers and their director are into what we're doing. We may even end up working at The Space, where they do their shows. Slider is over now but be sure to watch this space for news of their next show. They are unlike anything else you've seen.

2004-06-05T08:11:00.000-07:00

Went to st Simon 3 rehearsal yesterday to run over the music for the CD which we're recording today. They've put together some great sounds. An overly dramatic organ durring the Naked Man Action Radio Hour, some ominous David Lynch style soundtracking for Yuppie Birth Scene, surfie x-mas music for Unborn Billie, a bit of prorno soundtracking and some red hot Jingle action too. We record the music today. Then one live session and a bit of touch up and we're done. The artwork's all done too and it's great. I can't wait to be distributing this CD.

2004-06-01T12:49:00.000-07:00

Wow....it's been a crazy holiday weekend! Thursday was a very special and uber fun night for me, I had a Short Bus show I booked over at Capitol Garage, before hand I had a BBQ/cocktail party at my place with all the bands and friends and fans! I was extra happy because a good but far away friend of mine Jacy (who plays in Askeleton & End Transmission) who lives in Minnesota's band was one of the bands on the bill to play the show that night and I haven't seen him in a year and a half, but we've done a great job of keeping in touch through email and phone calls....so when I heard him knock on my door it was truly a happy time! He was followed into my house with rest of the band and we all partied before the show! The other bands on the bill that night were Killing Buddha, The Woods and The Velveteen side project; The New Trust! Afterwards I went with the bands to Lyons and we ate junk food till 3:00 am....after a few hours all the nice kids from Askeleton came over and crashed with me, I was sad to see them all drive away that afternoon, we sure had fun, but their tour had to continue! That evening I went to one of the coolest, biggest underground parties...it started at a parking lot/warehouse near 25th and R st...there were near 200 people there, all my downtown friends from over the years were there, it was amazing, then we got kicked out and then the party got moved to the art warehouse at Broadway and 5th, it ended up being this sort of tailgate renegade style party, nearing close to 300 people now....I was operating a mini bar out of the trunk of my car making sure all my friends had a drink in hand....then there was a band that set up to play in the parking lot....super cool electro dance band, then one of my fav Sac bands; Mr. Metaphor played...amazing...my good friend Angelie and I were blasting some Miss Kitty out of her car....running around like a couple of school girls....my other dear friends; Adam, Candice, Andrew, Nick, Robbie and I were all cruising this crazy party and running amuck. I ended up getting to sleep at 4:00 after the cops came and kicked us all out....this is by far one of the best Sac parties I've been to. Sundays cd recording for our ICBINC cd was super fun, it was my first time in a recording studio and I took some cool pics I'll share soon! The time went by fast and afterwards we had a Lil' party and ate and drank! :)

2004-05-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon, a sneak peak at one of the tracks on our upcoming CD release "Funnier Than God."
I'll put a link up to an mp3 sometime in the next couple of days.

2004-05-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our own Miles Miniaci just recieved a rave review from The Sacramento Bee for his role in the play "Art".

The Bee's Marcus Crowder says "Ignited by Miniaci's comic tour de force portrayal of Yvan, the friend caught in the middle, the production locks on to the boisterous humor of "Art" and never lets go."

We've got the best actor's in this city in our troupe. I wish we could get Crowder to come review us. It's strange that they don't treat sketch comedy as theatre. I've been to One Act festivals and it's just sketch comedy with a different name. Oh well. I can't complain. Wether they call us theatre or comedy the papers have been most generous and we're certainly not hurting for support.

The CD is coming along GREAT. Last night's rehearsal was really good. I'm excited about the recording sessions.

2004-05-16T02:48:00.000-07:00

haven't posted in a while. It's 2:45am, I just got back from the fashion show at gallery horse cow. wow. how do thy build up SOOO much hype. lots of it was really cool but i think less skinny girls would have been nice. I worked the door and every other person was sure they were supposed to be in free.
i've been listening to TONS of Brian Eno. Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy, Here Come the Warm Jets and Before & After Science. Three amazing albums.
We went and saw Elaine May. It was really cool. She's just got a natural charisma and grace in storytelling that I love.
I saw Stella on comedy central and now I don't feel so bad about missing their show. I was most underwhelmed with what I saw.
okay good night. must go to bed/

2004-05-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

I have a crew? Amber, you are my crew. But yes, Thursday's happy hour at the Hukilau is a go! If anyone wants to go, it's at 16th and O! (Check out those rhymes, baby.)

2004-05-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Triple damn! Last night half of ICBINC, me, Becca and Miles rocked out at the Short Bus Magazine Presents show I had over at Capitol Garage! We saw local fav PETS, Sekiden (from Australia) and one of my fav dance bands; The Love Makers headlined (they just got signed to Interscope records, YAY!) they were hot as always -scantilly dressed, making out and singing thier sexy dance beats non stop!! favorite DJ Shaun Slaughter spun songs uber fun dance trax inbetween sets! Everyone was dancing at the show! In the front row me, Becca and my pal Robbie (from the band Quitter...uh yeah, the ones that opened for the MF'ing Pixies last week!) danced till our feet hurt (well Becca and I did most the dancing as Robbie didn't wanna mess his hair I'm sure) it was a blast!

But my rocking doesn't st stop there! Tonight I'm going to see Muse, and tomorrow night I'm checking out Pretty Girls Make Graves playing with my pals 'Mr. Metaphor', Thursday night, I'm going to Hukilau with Becca and her krew for happy hour drinks before checking out De La Soul! Then Saturday night is my next Short Bus show at Old I with Popgun, Red Planet and The Goodmornings.......rock rock rock and don't stop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2004-05-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

Larry Gonick, cartoon histories, This guy is brilliant. His cartoon histories of the workld are just amazing. Really cool. I just read volume one and two, I can't wait to get three.

2004-04-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

American Masters . Elaine May | PBS

2004-04-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

We're going to see Elaine May next Monday. That is so cool. I hope she'll autograph one of my Nichol's and May records.

2004-04-26T14:54:00.000-07:00

Alright, alright already. I'll blog dammit. The Stella show was fun, but it would have been more fun if anyone I knew was there and also if there had been any place to sit down. (My feet started to hurt by the third hour.) The format was three guys in suits (all of whom used to be on that show "The State") doing a sort of three-way stand-up routine. There were no breaks and the topics were all over the place. They were good at the segueways though, because I kept trying to retrace their train of thought in my head and I couldn't really. Some of the highlights: The way Michael Ian Black kept mentioning that he had been on VH1's "I Love the 80s" show, as if he had reached this career height far beyond the other two; the Zots and Crumbles bit (I can't explain it in writing); their analysis of "Who Let the Dogs Out?" ("The Baja Men don't force an answer down your throats. They let the ambiguity stand. Who let the dogs out?"), and the wild and crazy bare-assed simulated sex. Bet you wish you'd gotten a ticket, now! I wish you did, too, cause I was laughin' with myself, laughin' with myself, oh oh oh oh...

2004-04-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

We drove to SF to see the comedy troupe Stella but it sold out and Amber and I were unable to get in. Becca however did get in and maybe she'll post a review here. Maybe. Hint hint. Becca, you reading this?
I was waiting outside The Independent for Becca to get out and I ran into a couple of guys from Kaspar Hauser, one of the organizers of the Sketchfest who is also in Totally False People and also one of the women from Killing My Lobster. It was pretty flattering that they all knew who I was. I feel like we're getting known in SF which is really nice. It can be a hard town to get noticed in.

2004-04-18T09:56:00.000-07:00

Ah, so it is, I am the rotten egg yet again. Oh what a lowly lot in life to be but an egg, a cholesterol bomb that is frequently devilled. What further torture might I be subjected to? I should not ask such, for life supplies an answer only too soon. To be devilled is indeed too good a fate for this egg, as it is revealed that I shall spend my eternity cursed with rottenness.

Yeah, last night's shows went great. The audience was with us all the way. Some of the folks from Abandon Productions, whoes physical theatre I am a big fan of, showed up. It threw me off a bit, that is to say, I was a bit intimidated by their presence. They seemed to realy like the show. My friend David AKA The Kid FINALLY came out to the show and he brought two pals who were falling off their chairs laughing. Poet BL Kennedy showed up with our mutual pal Linda and they were crackin' up pretty good as well. All in all a good time was had. Better than I expected realy as I've been a bit burnt out from our nonstop schedule as of late. It is nice to know the CD is all we have to worry about for next few months. Well, that and getting the DVD edited.

2004-04-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

P.S. Keith, I believe this makes you the rotten egg. Har!

2004-04-18T03:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight was ICBINC at it's finest. There are nights when the show just pops, we connect with the audience and the exchange of energy is intoxicating. Tonight was one of those nights. Now we're off to the studio for the recording of our first CD (note I say first 'cause there's sure to be more!). Remember to write if you want to be party of the live audience.

Socko is off to the Bahamas for a well deserved break (he definitely needs some color) and he's hooking up with Toadie in the Hamptons when he returns.

Good night.

2004-04-17T10:17:00.000-07:00

The show last night went well. My brother John and my Sister-In-Law Raquel came to the show.They're up from Southern California to see us all before they leave for Australia for two years. They really enjoyed the show. Afterwards we were hanging out in the gallery and some drunk fool banged on the door and asked if he and his girlfriend could come in and party. I told him no because we were closing up and he said well I'm coming in and started to push past me. I called for my brother as he is an ultimate fighter and would handle this guy with ease but drunk guy changed his mind before John even responded and he headed back out to harass other folks. I felt bad for his girlfriend.
Two more shows tonight. Just between you and I, blogger, I'm kind of anxious to get this weekend done so I can turn my full attention to our CD.

2004-04-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Hey, I've mentioned my friend Sean Hetherington before. He's a local comedian, only he's increasingly less local as he's getting lots o' out of town bookings. Anyway, he's pretty damn funny and he's got lots of interesting things to talk about. He used to work in the reality TV game in Hollywood, He's beat a weight problem, he's recently come out, and he is realy a robot sent from the future to make sure that the lame ass shit jokes passing as risky comedy these days does not bring about the end of humanity in the near future, but luckily he's not being played by Arnold. So anyway his site's at www.sacramentocomedy.com

2004-04-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Oh man, I had the funnest evening. The Sacramento Bee is doing a little artist profile on me and so they sent a photographer to grab some shots. Well I put on my most fabulous fop get up and headed over to the crest where she got lots of shots of me in front and in the Crest fountain. The pictures in the fountain are hellza funny. The shame of it is, I can only get a copy of the photo they use for the aricle and not all the others. Oh well. What's a boy to do? I put the photo up as soon as I get. If you want to check out my article grab the Sacramento Bee on Friday April 16th.

2004-04-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

I've been updating my journal and making sure the ICBINC story is well documented. From the day I first said Hey, we should start a comedy troupe that doesn't suck to the day we had to share a dressing room with the ladies of The Velvet Hammer Burlesque.
It's a pretty interesting story. And I'm recording it accurately with all the fighting and crying and borrowing each others make up left in. Of course I'm writing it so I come across like an angel.
I've made a new friend. A gal from Germany name of Dani, who is a big Ellen fan found us when she searched the web for Ellen. You may remember that a good friend of ours, comedian Jeff Cosgrave went to Hollywood and ended up Ellen's personal assistant, a member of her writing staff and a regular on her show. She is now the first brick in the foundation upon which our German fan base will be built.
I have a friend named Paul Weller (not the one from The Jam) who live in Germany but sadly, I've lost track of him. Anyway, Dani's website is www.rainbowdee.de
. Now I am off to rehearsal, but I'll try to bring you back some donughts.

2004-04-02T06:44:00.000-08:00

April Fools gone too far? We aren't realy being flown out to New York by Sub Pop. But Amber has friends that work there, and seeing my April Fools prank she started writing her friends and asking about Sub Pop bring us to New York. Hee hee. Sorry Amber. But who knows, perhaps this will put ideas in their heads eh!

2004-04-01T18:08:00.000-08:00

I'm back from Lake Tahoe and gambled away! Good news! I came back about $40 bucks richer and the Caesars host offered me a free hotel/ dinner night! I hear an ICBINC Tahoe trip coming on!!!

2004-04-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

HOLY CRAP! AS I FINISHED POSTING BRYNA HANDED ME THE PHONE. SUB-POP RECORDS IS FLYING US OUT TO NEW YORK TO PREFORM FOR THEM AT THE UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE CLUB! THEY ARE INTERESTED IN SIGNING US!!!
GOTTA GO!

2004-04-01T06:58:00.000-08:00

HA! Amber is the cover girl at www.Retrocrush.com.
The 2nd night of Twighlight Zone sold out by 5pm for a 10pm show. Great crowd. We did Unwanted Willy as it's been re-written for our CD and it came out great. We did Suicide Hotline, a new skit written for the CD. Both went over very well.
Miles, Becca and I spent the night in the theatre. I noticed I was sleeping under the lights, which would smash my head and kill me if they fell. So I moved my futon so that falling theatre lights would only smash my hips and render me unable to walk, have sex or go to the bathroom on my own. Only then was I able to sleep.
We went to breakfast at a great place, Ep Tide I think it's called and then we did a wee bit o' thrift store shoppin' before having to get Miles back to town so he could escort his son to a birthday party.
Now we're back to work.

2004-03-27T07:51:00.000-08:00

The damn near sold out crowd at The Twilight Zone show last night really enjoyed us. Lots o' laffs, some in places where I expected only a giggle. And we got a number for a feller who may be our next SF PR guy, cuz being a Sacramento entity we will definately need some help if we gonna get any SF press. And I sure am ready for some SF press.
I'm glad we took this gig even if we are insanely busy trying to get our april shows and our CD ready simultaneously.

2004-03-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone check out the Dallas Observer here: http://www.dallasobserver.com/issues/2004-03-25/music.html/1/index.html

Two of my friends from Texas called me yesterday and told me the journalist was referring to me in the article, yup....that was me, I even remember standing next to the writer of the article during the show, I waiting through 5 bands just to get in the front row for the Riverboat Gamblers show! I left covered in Lone Star beer and potato chips (the band threw out hundreds of bags of potato chips in the audience!) The Riverboat Gamblers are one of my fav. bands, too bad they live in Texas.....but I felt honored to be written about/ referred to in this article!

I'm going to be throwing a secret underground house party for them next month when they tour through! Stay tuned, maybe I'll tell you where the party is at! I'm also going to be talking to them about the comedy troupe possibly doing a 'rock n' comedy' tour with them in Texas, an idea they had last time we talked as they are all really into sketch comedy! That would be boss. This weekend will be super busy, I have two back to back Short Bus shows I'm hosting and I'm having a pre show party at my place tonight. Come on by!

2004-03-24T10:40:00.000-08:00

MESS WITH TEXAS!!!!

I’m finally back from a week of sin and debauchery in Austin Texas for the big South By South West music festival, 400 bands in 4 days, I lost count of how many Lone Star beers I had after the first day, I don’t ever, ever, ever, ever wanna drink again in my life, well until my Short Bus show this Friday, but until then, I'm still sobering up. I had the time of my life and stayed with my friends in Austin , and got to see a bunch of other friends out there, and friends bands who played out there, I caught Quitter, Cake and Frank Jordan (from Sac) I was all proud of them. I got invited to some rad industry parties and got to meet with the head dudes from Warner Bros. And Capitol records which was great, super nice people! It’s great to be back home now though, thanks to Austin band the River Boat Gamblers for the show and time of my life! FUCK YEAH! Those boys know rock n’ roll! Also thanks to Becca for letting me crash in her apt. for a night! :) Tonight I’m headed to SF to see Blonde Redhead...but no drinking tonight, no no no!!!