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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

American Masters . Elaine May | PBS

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

We're supplying the commercial breaks fro a live presentation of The Twilight Zone this Friday and Saturday. We've chosen Unwanted William and a new skit that's a PSA for, well for nothing really. It's just a pointless little monologue about NOT having genital herpers set to the rythm of a PSA. That'll be on Friday. Then on Saturday it's Unborn Billy and Unwanted William.
We're gonna stay the night in the theatre where we're performing, or if we're too wierded out by the strange sex parties that happen there and the possible resulting carpet stains, we'll stay at a new theatre that's opening around the corner. Either way I'm really excited about getting out of town for the weekend. Usually we drive into SF (a 2 to 3 hour drive depending on traffic) and we drive back out. It'll be so great to wake up in one of my favorite cities, have a cup of Joe with my troupe mates, go do some record shopping, eat some falafal, have a good time. It'll be Miles, Becca and Myself. Maybe we can find a way to get arrested! Woo Hoo!

The incredible weather continues. I surprised the girl with a picnic yesterday. Some olives, a loaf of rosemary bread, stinky cheeze, some hummus for me, green apples, and some cheeze cake for desert. We went and sat by the river somewhere around Hood. Just gorgeous.

I'm still feeling excited about the CD. I think this project will expand our fan base way beyond california and allow us to do some travellng. Got I love going to other cities and performing. It's such a great feeling sitting in some other town sipping your coffee and knowing your art put you there.

We are of course having our disagreements about what to put on the CD. Miles and Ben really want D'Harlen on there, but I don't know if it will work in this format. I feel it's more visual than anyone realised, Miles and Ben being very physical actors. We're working on a re-write so we'll see what happens. Disagreements in this troupe tend to be pretty mellow. Unlike the early days when there was some vicious fighting the troupe gets along pretty well for the most part. Not to say feelings don't get hurt or that emotions don't run high, but there's no sarcasm and name calling and all that BS. It gives me a nice feeling of stability.
Of all the CD re-writes I am most excited about Yuppie Birth. It's the most re-written of all the skits but I think it's a good solid piece of story telling and it moves really well despite being pretty long. We're taking a big chance doing long skits. Naked Man is almost 15 minutes!!! I have to believe that there is an audience out there with an attention span. I also feel the keep it short rule is less applicable when you're telling a story and developing characters and doing more than just going for every cheap gag that you can squeeze in.

The News and Review was supposed to be doing a big story on us and Carry Rodda had already started writing it but it got scrapped. Someone at the N&R head quarters decided that Becca, who works there, being in the troupe presents a conflict. We had booked our April show based on news that this article would run. Hopefully The Bee will give us some press. We do pretty well at building an audience either way and our last few shows have done fine so I'm not sweating it too hard.

All is right with the world. The weather here in California is INCREDIBLE. It's feels like a nice mild summer AND IT'S ONLY MARCH! The CD is coming together GREAT! Ben and I presented the Radio re-writes to The St. Simon 3, so they could start on the music and they realy like the material. We had 'em giggling and they are uber enthusiastic about doing the CD and working with us more after as well. I've been writing like crazy, I'm reading a GREAT book on the rebel comedians of the 50s and 60s and I'm feeling all right.

It's gonna be a scramble to get our "commercials" ready for the onstage Twilight Zone at Spanganga next week but scramblin is what we do. Woo hoo.

CLICK HERE everyone, so you can all do the Kenya Lion and Tiger dance! Yay!

It's my birthday. I'm going out with my girlfriend tonight and then tomorrow I'll be hanging out with some funny friends who will be treating me to some presents and snackies. Yes, I just said snackies. On Sunday I'm heading to San Francisco to see Killing My Lobster's new show. The writer and Director Andy Miara did a skit with us at the Sketchfest and wrote to invite us to the KML show. He said he found us to be quite funny, and coming from him that is oh so flattering. He's rather brilliant you see.
I'm excited putting together the CD, and the DVD is looking better. At first I was sure the footage we shot was useless and we weren't going to be able to sinc the sound we got either so I figured oh well, we learned a lesson. But Bob has shown me the footage from the other camera and we've listened to the sound off of the camera mics, and we'll be able to get a decent package out of it. At least, it will capture what it is we do, and what we do, I believe, speaks well for itself.
Exciting times though it feels weird to not have a buttload of shows booked like usual. As soon as we're done recording we'll put together some release party shows. Yay.
Now I must quit typing and go on a super date with my super fiance.

Ahhh, the academy awards. I watched them with Robert (retrocrush.com) and Linda Berry. The performance of the tune from Triplets of Belleville was great. And Peter Jackson referencing his earlier films Bad Taste and Meet the Feebles, two films you don't expect to hear mentioned in polite company, was nice. Billy Crystal was pretty boring, though his impersonation of Robin Williams was smack on. Jim Carrey was on a nice high. He was as bad as I've ever seen him. Blake Edwards was hillarious, pulling off a stunt wherein he crashed his wheelchair into a wall and then came wandering out to tell strange pointless stories. The Berry's have TIVO so we started late, watching on a delay and were then able to fast foward through much of the show. The only way to watch TV.

IT'S RAINING BUCKETS! The rain just keeps coming down. We lost power at work, so I'm home. There are trees down all over the place.
Hopefully we keep our power at home. This is great cuddle with my sweetie and watch a movie kind of weather.
The experts are predicting gorgeous weather all next week. I hope they're right.

Forgiveness.
So, I was working at Greta's. Great place. I worked with John McCrea of Cake (and Shawn McFessel, an early Cake base player) some great artists, as well my future Fiance, Bryna. I worked in the kitchen, mostly dishes. We'd all take turns playing music and I was introduced to Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, lots of great techno. I loved it. So, my turn comes, and knowing these guys aint too up on their hip hop I bring in some Urban Dance Squad. Joolie, one of the bakers decides she doesn't want to hear it and shuts it off. Now this pisses me off. I listened to her cheezy music plenty o' times, and I felt she was just dismissing UDS because they were hip hop without realy listening. It wasn't her I was interested in playing the stuff for, but I expected her to give me the same priveledge everyone else got. So, I turned the music back on. Joolie hit eject and THREW my tape across the kitchen, where it landed under a refridgerator.
I WAS FURIOUS!
That's my personal property. I told her off. I complained to Greta. When Greta didn't fire her on the spot I implied I might have some fun with some of Joolie's personal property. Did I mention I was pissed?
SO, that was, um..., let see, 13 years ago. I hadn't seen Joolie since, UNTIL...
This girls bagging up my groceries at Trader Joe's says I know you. I didn't recognize her and asked how she knew me. From Greta's she answered. I read her name tag. Joolie! Oh man. I didn't want to see her again. 13 years have passed, and within 45 seconds of running into me Joolie says, Hey, I was a real bitch to you once and threw your tape across the kitchen. I'm sorry I did that.
! ! !
Wow. My soul is a little less full of hate. The big ball of crap I carry through my dung beetle life is a bit lighter. Not just that SHE brought it up, but that it had weighed on her. That she grabbed the first opportunity to say she was sorry.
Thanks Joolie.
You're alright with me.
Even if you spell your name funny.

Yeah, dinner at Spag Fact was fun. I hope Miles tipped. The audio CD is shapping up to be pretty cool. I hope to start recording in May. We'll have to see how this meshes with all of our OH SO BUSY, schedules.
We should have hip one inch ICBINC buttons soon. Wahoo! And after that, STICKERS! mmmmmmm Stickers.....

Yeah, that's the guy. Sorry the photo is out of focus, but he wasn't all that focused to begin with. What a great fella. He was enjoying himself, and when I lost my car keys he was quite helpful as well, but that may have been because a bunch of attractive ladies sat at the table we had been at making searching for keys quit a good time.

IHATEHAVINGAJOB! I know I'd hate not having one too, but selling the majority of your waking hours away sucks. Must start record label and become my own boss. Yes!

We went to Cha Cha Chas before our show. It's a restaurant on mission. We had tired of the snootiness at the place we usualy go to. The wait at Cha Cha Chas was over and HOUR! Knowing we couldn't wait that long and would have to split I jokingly asked the host if it was personal, if he just wanted to get rid of us.
"Well, the moustache is kind of slimey" he told me.
I'll shave it off, I offered, not missing a beat.
"You shave that moustache off and I'll put you at the top of the list."
So, a trip to the convenienc store on the corner, a one dollar razor, and we were sat, moustacheless, in five minutes.
That host guy was great. Everytime he passed our table we'd cheer him. After awhile he sat down with us and pitched an idea for a skit. Maybe next time we're in SF we'll put him on stage.
Amber got his picture so we'll put up here soon.
Fun times.

Well I'm not the first to hit the blog after the weekend but I ain't the rotten egg either! Whew-thought sure I would be...

Saturday at Spanganga was the best of the run with an enthusiastic audience (special thanks to the "Oh My God" lady) and an impromptu performance by Sacramento-the band! I was so hyper after the show (boosted by Sacramento's set) that I chattered poor Bryna's ears off all the way home.

We've been invited to perform at Spanganga at the end of March at their live "Twilight Zone" shows. (www.spanganga.com) and are gearing up for a bunch of exciting new projects. No peace for the wicked little ICBINC'ers.

Later-Sid

YAY! I'm not the rotten egg.
The SF shows are going fairly well. It's a hard town to promote from here and I've not been successfull at finding someone to flyer and poster for us. Being at The Sketchfest helps and gives us some name recognition and we have some members of the media coming next weekend, which won't help for this run, but we'll wow them, as we always do and they'll write about us next time.
The Saint Simon 3 is indeed a great match, they soundtrack us very well. The audiences are having a good time and so are we.
I left my damn cell phone charger in SF at my friends Shannon and Aian's house. What kind of mover and shaker can I be without my cell phone? My god?
Sid is of course the egg that sits stinking, rotten through and through, and Sid is of course a beautiful person.

So after last nights post I went to pick Bryna up from The Crest. She was working as an usher and Gallager was performing. Wow! He's gotten so bad. People will dispute this, but at one time he was a fairly decent comedian. He gave in to the idiots who just kept screaming for his sledgematic shtick with the watermellon smashing and now he's just and angry, bitter, tired old man going through the motions.
Andy Kaufman chose not to take the easy cash of doing endless Latka (Foreign Man). It seemed a bad career move at the time but he would never have earned the bizarre place he holds in comedy history if he'd given in.
And Jim Carrey (who I'm not a big fan of) was on his way to being the next Rich Little when he decided he didn't want to spend his life doing impressions.
You got to believe in what you're doing, sometimes even when the audience is cheering for something else.

Ah, the glamourous life of a skit comedian. It's Saturday night and I'm finishing up some one month overdue paperwork for a job I don't have anymore. I should be in SF promoting.
I'm in a strange mood. I just read Disco Blood Bath and I'm actually pining for the days of reckless abandon. I like the stage of my life I'm at, and I don't want to go back, but I suppose it's okay to miss the past, like missing an old friend.
God, I had so much energy back then. People think I have a-lot now, but my GOD I could just run non-stop in my teens and twentys. I get more done now. I'm just so damn efficient.
I'm listening to Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, and also to The Birthday Party, Nick Cave's first band.
My new job's working out. I like working with Allen (Gallery Horse Cow). And it feels good to FINALLY be done with my old job. My new job won't follow me home. Much less pressure. It's less career oriented too, but I don't need a career. Comedy's a career. And it feels like it's going somewhere. It's moving. We just have to keep it moving. So far so good. We keep topping ourselves, but damn it's a long climb.
I think after these next THREE WEEKENDS of shows we should all sit down again and talk about what's on top of that hill.

I watched Triplets of Belleville at The Crest and I highly reccommend it. I also just watched a bunch of Buster Keaton, and a documentary on the Marx Brothers that I cried most of the way through. I always cry when I watch the Marx Brothers and I have NO idea why. Hmmm.

It's important to watch a lot of bad television comedy if you want to be a comedian. Hours upon hours of it is highly reccomended. The worse the better.

Oh, and let me add, The St. Simon 3 have been working with us and will supply the sound tracking at our SF shows and our back in Sac shows.
The music is really coming together, and I hear tell of another Naked Man song in the works!

I know I'm biased, but Becca's cover story in the N&R has been one of my favorite reads in this weekly thus far. Great job Becca.
So, we're all trying to get to SF as much as possible to promote our new shows. I've sent Michael Vav some posters and flyers via Horse Cow express. Amber and I are supposed to head to the city by the bay today.
We're looking to book time to record our first CD and while we're at it, we're laying down the audio for our first animation. Kendall Smith, a Spike and Mike regular, will be doing the animation.
We're working hard to get our video demo edited and we just booked a return trip to Sacramento where we'll be playing The Gallery Horse Cow again, February 20th and 21st.
Woowee, staying busy.
The News and Review decided we are still press worthy despit having recruited one of their writers into our troupe, and so Carey Roddah is putting together a story on us which should run right before the Sac shows.
YAY!

I JUST HEARD A NIRVANA SONG...IN A COMMERCIAL. WTF? I am furious. For real. Whoever owns that song, and allowed this is the devil.

HA HA! My friend Johnny, from Sac Cacophony just called me on his cell phone and let me listen as he and his cacophonous buddies drove by Goldie's Adult Super Store yelling "Who's buying porn?"
This is of coursed based on the stories of sweet little Amber Kloss doing the same thing and then giggling all the way home. Congrats Amber, you've started a tradition. Johnny is the fourth person to tell me of doing this after seeing our show. I wonder how many more folks are shoutin' it out.

Shoot, I got home and started to blog and decided I was too delirious to post. Now I'm the god damnned rotten egg!

The Sketchfest experience was absolutely fabulous. We performed with a bunch of great troupes and the venue was completely sold out! We led off with SHE with me in the main role, performing it for the first time. No pressure (hah!). Thanks to KLJ for that vote of confidence. It went over great, lulled the audience into a trance then hitting 'em with the punch. Oh Yeah! Then we slid into UNBORN BILLY which knocked their socks off then closed with MILES BIG SURPRISE. Always great to end on a musical number and this one is a gas!

Thanks to Candance for coming all the way to SF to see us and for hanging in there to the bitter end at the taping session on Saturday. That kid's got Moxie!

I'm feeling like we're really starting to break into SF. The Spanganga run is gonna rock. The timing on the Sketchfest couldn't have been better for publicity. Everyone got a little taste of the ICBINC magic and now they want more. We had many requests for our posters and flyers, now that's flyering gold.

Hah-I do believe that Becca is now the rotten egg.

OH IT'S GREAT! We did really well at the sketchfest. I don't know if any of the big shot performers were there from SNL and what not, but the place was sold out. Thanks to Uphill Both Ways, The Disclaimers and, my new heroes, Ludlow and Canal. They were great folks to perform with and it was really and honor to share the stage with them.
It's awfull late for a boy who works at 7 AM!!!
Good night.
Sid's a rotten egg.

Yep. Quite a night. The fan club was out in full affect. I'm so friggin' tired. The taping went until 1:30 am and then clean up and shmoozing and what not. I knew this would run long. I'm soooo glad we decide to cut Jesus Christ CEO or we'd have been there until 4 am.
Great audience though. Mark Halverson, the writer who gave us the 'Best Of' nod from the News & Review came out to the show with a bunch of friends, Robert Berry of Retrocrush.com was there with his lovely wife Linda and our pal RetroRandy, who really hates that I call him RetroRandy. Poster artist Paul Imagine made it out. Chris & Michelle, Johnny and Amalia all came out. Johnny is the founder of the Sacramento Cacophony society and Chris and Michelle build tesla coils and blow stuff up. Some folks from The Free Hooch Comedy Troupe came out. The guy from Quitter, I forget his name, but he came out and talked with him for awhile aftewards. Really nice guy. Diciembre Gris came out. I love those guys. The two brothers in the band are from a family of five boys, just like me. Irina, the graphic artsist that makes us look so good on our posters and flyers was there, but of course she was since her husband was one of the filmmakers. I'll have to get links up to the filmmakers websites. They're the best.
Thanks to everyone who came out.

Holy Crap! I just got home from our taping of "Live at the Crest"! What a night! The troupe was on, on, on! Everything just clicked, the audience was great and it all just felt so electric. We turned away soooo many people. We could have filled the room twice over easy. Once again I spent all day sick with nerves, pacing around wondering why I put myself through this only to be reminded that I do this because this is one helluva troupe and one helluva show.

Thanks to Nate, Bob, Dave, Bill (smoochy), Tony, Jen, Loren, Mickie and my little princess of puke Heather who stayed to the bitter end.

I sleep now.

Okay, so I've had a chance to call most of the troupe and tell them, now I can tell the random stranger who may be reading this.
I just got back from Vegas.
My mom sent Bryna and I there for our tenth anniversary of bein' a couple.
I asked Bryna to marry me.
She said yes.
We're engaged.

Becca wrote "Xeno and Miles' son, Gabe" which is pretty crazy. I didn't even know that Miles and Xeno had a kid together. Hmmm? Pretty cool.
HOLY SHIT, Amy Anne's gonna be there!
WOW! That's so GREAT!

Just so Amber's posts do not mislead, we are not all drunk crazy girls. I'm never drunk, rarely crazy and only part girl.
Amber skipped the rough teenage years of drinking and drugs so she's making up for it now. Ah god bless her. Someone has got "go wild" and I say better she than I.

NO FAT GIRL JOKES!
Mad TV is doing this Plump and Pretty style fashion show and it's just so mean. Two anorexic bitches making fat jokes, included jokes about fat girls crying all the time and being alone all the time while anorexic bitches in fat suits parade around showing the "Fashions". Then they take callers from men who call in and make fat girl jokes. The ladies then degenerate into fat girl jokes of their own.
They make it okay by letting the fat girl make skinny bitch jokes in the end, while wearing her fat suit. She gets some ugly jokes and ends with "I got to go take the junk in my trunk and go work my funk".
We're just so much better than this. SOOO MUCH BETTER. I can't get any inspiration from Mad TV at all, and very little from current SNL. At least NetFlix has Mr Show episodes, and I got my Simpsons and I just ordered some League of Gentlemen and some Gentlemen Prefer French and Saunders. I'll do some reviews after I get 'em.
Man, I can't wait to get some of our good stuff on DVD so we can spread the ICBINC to the masses.