Keith is out in the desert burning a man so I felt compelled to blog in his absence. I just watched the clip reel that Bob made for us from the first season's footage. It's really a great reel and it gave me new excitement about the troupe. We put on one hell of a show if I do say so myself! We some God damn funny folks. The reel really represents us well and it's great to see our "friends" Crazy Chicken Tony, Toad-ie, Drag Man, El Tigro Diablo, Naked Man and Jerrod again. Ah, memories... I sent the clip reel off to the Sketch Comedy Festival in SF along with a full packet of press clips.

Michelle, of Velvet Hammer fame, and I are working together to get the flyers ready for the Derby show, yes folks, that's the Brown Derby where the Velvet Hammer and ICBINC will grace the stage together! There'll be a show there with us monthly and the first one is September 20th if yer in that neck of the woods.

I wonder how Keith is fairing out there in the desert without e-mail and a cell phone. Now that's roughing it.

Generaly our writing process has involved one of us writing a skit and then durring rehearsal the other cast members may make some suggestions and the skit evoves. Occasionaly the person writing the skit may have gotten the idea from someone else in the troupe or from a bunch of sitting around yacking, many hours in the van going to LA and SF means much yacking. Last night we all got together and had a big brainstorming session. This was GREAT! I wish we'd done it sooner. So many great new ideas. I definately want to do more of this kind of writing. Now we will all divide up the skits and start doing rough drafts but we'll use e-mail and message boards to help each other flesh it all out. We've got some good stuff coming. We're so busy it's hard to say when we'll get a chance to stage another original show, but soon. Soon my little eskimos.

Damn Right, KLJ! The only underpaid employees who should get star profiles are the members of ICBINC!
I Can't Believe It's....nearly time for Burning Man! Thanks to "Keef" for encouraging me to go this year. Between Nate's (of Cheap Thrills, for you midtowners) camp, my friends (& Amy's roommates) Jacob & Stephanie's Love Shack, Allen & Co.'s pryotechnic wizardy, and Em's friends at the Love Posse and Blue Light District, this year promises to be one long performance-cum-ecstatic celebration....oh, yeah! and lots of gay sex in me & Keith's tent! Woo-hoo!

On a sadder note, Em's bombshell really caught me off guard last night--I literally didn't know what to say, which is rare for me. I fully understand her dilemma, though. I also really love my day job; hard as it is to believe, I actually have a lot of responsibility there, and as we saw in LA last time, balancing that with my commitment to the troupe can sometimes be very difficult, indeed. I only hope that Em decides it's something she can accomodate, because I'm going to miss here sorely--I agree that we should keep a spot open for her and that it should be right next to ME! I love you, Em Yay--hope you're reading this.

The future's so exciting, though--I know everyone's all kinds of stoked about the new skits, and on drawing on Becca & Xeno's talents, as well! And the Velvet Hammer awaits...y'know, chicks just can't resist a guy with a STEEL DRUM. Remember....Yes means Yes!

Celebrity!
I worked for corporate America and I wore a namebadge. I've always hated name badges. I hate when some cleanly scrubbed guy or girl says, with fully good intentions, "Hi Keith! How ya doing?" I give someone my name out of friendship, trust, it's a signifigant thing to me. I don't want it plastered on my chest for any jerk off to come pluck it off and use it. The worst is when they're unhappy and they use it. "You listen to me...(reading name tag) Keith!" I used my middle name when I was working which took some of the sting out of it. I've always wondered if this is what David Byrne was singing about in the Talking Heads' song "Give Me Back My Name".
So I've become obsessed with name tags. Durring my days with The Company there was a big revolutionary trend going on in corporate America. Starbucks opted to call their employees partners. Petco had associates. They all wanted this co-op type feel, like they were worker owned. At my job I changed my name tag to read Comrad. Nobody noticed.
I've noticed now that the trend has turned to celebrity. Jamba Juice has "Stars" making their smoothy. And the "Stars" each get a "Star Profile" that hangs in the store. The Old Spaghetti Factory, Rite Aid and even Taco Bell are following this trend. How Freaking humiliating for these employees. "High I'm a star. Would you like a free boost?" "Um, excuse me, the restrooms will be closed for a minute while I clean them. I'm a star."
Okay. I'm done.

So many shows! It's gonna be strange to not have a show next weekend. Of course I'll be heading off to Burning Man on Fridays so I'll have plenty of distraction. Miles is heading up with me and I expect to have a grand time. The Marsh Comedy Festival was fun. We had a lite audience on Friday but Saturday saw a nice packed house. We performed with Lee Levine out of LA, who is a FUNNY FUNNY man. He realy stole the show. Lee is a good friend of Sacramentan Jeff Cosgrave, a comedian buddy of mine from my Laughs Unlimited days.
We were very well recieved. Thanks to Tom Smith at The Mock Cafe for putting this gig together and for including us.
Next up we are putting together a demo concert film type thing and we are going to do monthly Cabaret shows in LA with The Velvet Hammer. I'm pretty stoked on that. We're going to be associated with one of LA's hottest acts and I couldn't ask for a better career boost then that.
Anyone interested in being in the audience when we shoot the demo should get a hold of us now or sign up for our mailing list.
This Tuesday we're going to have a round table writers meeting featuring the whole cast. This is an unusual approach for us but I think it will yield some very funny stuff.
I'll try writing from Burning Man, but that may or may not happen.

Yeah, if I'm gonna continue this steel drum schtick, I've gotta learn another song, I think.... hey, if I knew just two, that would double my repertoire of "funny" songs (the Velvets thing is funny, I guess, but it doesn't have a lot of name recognition, y'know?) Currently, I'm considering "Rock You Like a Hurricane," "Breakin' the Law," "Anarchy in the UK," and "the Immigrant Song," but I'm open to suggestions--any ideas about cheese-factor songs I can "steelify," ICBINCers?
Oh, and just to remind everyone, the steel drum is, in fact, a VERY serious instrument when used in my band, even if most of the originals we're working on now don't include it--but at future gigs (which we're already looking for--*hint, hint,* Amber and Xeno) you can look forward to SERIOUS steel drum covers of OMD and King Crimson.... Gee, those two go together like apples and cheese, don't ya think?

Miles (the birthday boy)