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<p>Entries from September 1, 2007 - September 30, 2007</p>
<p>Friday Sep 28 2007  THE PRIZE BUFFET | Season 1 of The Sarah Silverman Program, Michael Ian Black: I Am a Wonderful Man, Mike Birbiglia's latest CD, and the Gawker Guide to Conquering All Media</p>
<p>Friday, September 28, 2007 at 11:35AM Gourds and corn stalk bundles: these are two Autumn things that are delightful to decorate a porch with.. but they have no business being on THE PRIZE BUFFET! Did you know: you can log onto nearly ANY trusted website and with a few simple clicks buy all of today's offerings if you wanted to. Did you also know: IT'S EVEN EASIER TO WIN THEM! 1) Put the full name of the prize you want to win in the Subject Line of an email addressed to theapiary@gmail.com 2) Send that email before SUNDAY @ MIDNIGHT (9/30) and NEW RULE 3) If you win, tell one friend, "Yay, I just won this great thing at The Apiary.org" Winners will be selected at random and notified shortly thereafter. Some restrictions may apply. IF YOU'VE NEVER BEEN A WINNER BEFORE, NOW IS THE TIME.The Sarah Silverman Program: Season 1 on DVDFrom Amazon: "Sarah Silverman says what's on her mind. And no one else's. This is the first season of the critically acclaimed The Sarah Silverman Program. With her unique perspective on life and her ability to turn just about everything into a song, find out why Sarah Silverman is an American treasure. An offensive, filthy-mouthed treasure." The new season begins October 3rd. Check out the newish Sarah Silverman Insider for details on its production.</p>

<p>Michael Ian Black: I Am a Wonderful ManIs anyone proofreading what's on the Comedy Central shop website? This is the actual description being used to sell I Am a Wonderful Man: "Other members of the '90s comedy troupe featured on The State may be [ ] popular in their own field, but Black's popularity extends well beyond the loyal audiences of Comedy Central. This, of course, puts him on an even playing field with standup kingpin Dane Cook, whose sex-fueled zingers have already presented Comedy Central Records with two album entries in the Billboard Top Ten. Cook's standup routine translates well to CD, where his supercharged presence still shines, but Black makes a rougher transition on his debut. I Am a Wonderful Man boasts the usual brand of Black humor, including swipes at the Nazi party (who are likened to the B-52's' "Rock Lobster") and the wearisome institution of marriage ("married -- or, as I like to call it -- 'pre-divorced'"). There's plenty of hilarity here, to be sure, but Black's aloof delivery simply doesn't read as well as it does on TV." Way to sell it! We know not everything can be Dane Cook on a scale of 1 to Dane Cook... but it's funny in it's own way. :)Mike Birbiglia: My Secret Public Journal LIVEJust to compare, this is the blurb being used to sell Mike Birbiglia's latest on the CC site. "Mike Birbiglia, one of the nation's most beloved comedians, returns with his second album, this time a collection of his best "My Secret Public Journal" entries. With his unique, low-key nice guy style and self-effacing jokes, he has earned a rabid fan following and his Comedy Central debut. The CD collects the best entries from his ongoing "Secret Public Journal" series of true stories that has been a coast-to-coast radio sensation." That's better.</p>

<p>The Gawker Guide to Conquering All MediaThe teaser video:></p>
<p>Available in brick and mortar stores as well as Books 2.0 format next week! Published by Atria Books a division of Simon & Schuster.</p>

<p>Click to read more ...</p>

<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment in Prize Buffet Thursday Sep 27 2007  Ten Photos</p>
<p>Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 11:46AM Abbi Crutchfield at Chicks and Giggles @ Mo Pitkins - 9.25.7Backstage at the Variety SHAC DVD Release Party @ Knitting Factory - 9.21.7 - Photo: Chelsea PerettiBroin' Out @ The UCBT - 9.24.7Possible Side Effects @ The PIT - 9.18.7 - Photo: Keith HuangAfter a long day of slaughtering trees, lumberjacks gotta eat griddle cakes! Photo: Colleen AF</p>

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<p>The Apiary | 3 Comments | 1 Reference in General Interest Thursday Sep 27 2007  Mo Pitkin's to Close in October</p>
<p>Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 6:48AM After weeks of suspicion cast by the weight of a Page Six blurb, it's been announced that Mo Pitkin's will be closing after all:> Dear Friends, It is with much sadness and regret that Im sending this message. Mo Pitkins House of Satisfaction will be closing next month, on October 20th. Please find the below letter from Phil and Jesse Hartman, the co-owners of Mo's, who explain the unfortunate circumstances for the closing. It has been a true pleasure working with you all and I cant thank you enough for helping to make Mo's such a special place over the past two years. Thank you for your enthusiasm and support, and feel free to be in touch anytime. And we're open for the next three weeks, so please do come by to say your goodbyes! Very best, Brice</p>

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<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment in Venues Wednesday Sep 26 2007  PRIZE BUFFET | CD Blowout: Michael Ian Black, Mike Birbiglia, Steven Wright, & Bill Burr</p>
<p>Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 7:53PM Michael Ian Black Mike Birbiglia Steven Wright Bill Burr</p>

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<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment in Prize Buffet Wednesday Sep 26 2007  Maya Watch: The Post Was Right, Except When They Were Wrong</p>
<p>Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 7:50PM</p>

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<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment Wednesday Sep 26 2007  Epic Conversation | Jason Sudeikis</p>
<p>Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 7:29PM JasonSudeikis: I was born in Fairfax, Virginia. Before I turned one, we moved to Overland Park, Kansas. I lived my first two-three years in a duplex with my folks then we moved into the house they still live in to this day. It’s me, my two sisters and my folks. You know, still together, still alive. Everybody's good. My folks are from Chicago. South side, South shore. Although they met in Denver, at college. Overland Park, Kansas, which is a suburb of Kansas City, is definitely home, although my parents say otherwise. Fairfax, which I've never been to. I've never even been to D.C. BN: Really? JS: Yeah. BN: Well, you're not missing anything. JS: I just wanna see the stairs from The Exorcist. BN: Are they in D.C.? JS: Yep, Georgetown. BN: Just the stairs or is the house there too? JS: I'm sure the house is there too. It's just, those stairs. I want to take a gag picture flying down to the bottom of those stairs. BN: I know the Smithsonian is there, I'm not sure if they have any props from the movie. JS: They have her pee. BN: And her vagina? JS: They have her pee in her vagina. And the crucifix. The whole deal. BN: Uggggh. JS: That's a tough movie, man. BN: I can't even get past the opening scene. JS: The book's scary too. I don't know if you've read that, but the book’s even scarier in a way. BN: Isn't it based on a true story? JS: From what I remember, yes. Exorcisms, they're no joke. BN: I've seen one, I think it was on 20/20. Some guy was apparently simply feeling depressed so, his church decided to sit him down and bark at him, two members from his church. They'd gotten into his face and for three hours straight, yelled things like: "Get out!" "Leave this man!" "Leave this man's soul alone!" JS: And he was probably just tired. BN: Yeah, he became tired and eventually just started growling at them. Something happened and I guess it was notable enough for 20/20 to cover it. JS: Hmmm, when was that? It sounds familiar. BN: This was around 2003? JS: I'll YouTube it. BN: So, do you remember when you first became interested in comedy? JS: I don't have a defining moment, like thee moment, but I just remember growing up, I joked around a lot. I made some radio shows with friends. I had a karaoke machine called "The Star Studio" my dad bought on QVC. I had a tremendous amount of creative friends with all different kinds of senses of humor throughout my life. In grade school, Rich Ridlin was one of my most creative friends. He had a little brother Michael; we created a persona for him called “Murray” where, he was like our boss, our “Tony Soprano” and for no reason. I wasn’t into mafia movies, it was just this crazy shit we used to do. I used to make up stories all the time, you know, lie creatively. Then eventually in the sixth grade, we got a video camera. My friend Ryan Landry, who’s a political cartoonist now, super creative, we started making videos together at that point. It was always making something. But I played sports, so that was where my primary focus was. But I would just joke around a lot. I never did any plays or anything like that growing up. My sisters were into singing and dancing, so I was always around it, but I never really aspired to do it. I watched SNL like everybody else, because we were around on Saturdays. I remember early on my dad was pretty cool about taking me to movies I thought were funny. He took me to see Beverly Hills Cop when I was nine years old. I remember seeing it in the theater and loving Eddie Murphy. Three Amigos, all of that stuff everybody around our age loves. BN: Your dad was supportive of your sense of humor taking you to these films at your request, or was he a fan as well? JS: Yeah, he liked the films to begin with. Both of my folks have a really good sense of humor. You know, they’re both very funny, outgoing people. The major encouragement they’d given me was their laughter. They came to every show. When I did my first show in Second City they came to that, when I did my first show in Las Vegas they came to that, when I did my last show there, they came. My mom is a theatergoer, that’s why I love going out to the theater. My dad’s, you know, not a huge fan of musicals, but a huge fan of my mom. BN: Do they come to New York to see you perform now? JS: Yeah, they came to the Alec Baldwin show this last year. I didn’t have anything to do so I was in a little bit of a…not a bad mood but, you know, you just like to be busy. But my dad got to meet Alec Baldwin and Alec Baldwin was like “Your dad reminds me of the Marlboro Man”, which he used to more so when he had a mustache. He’s a big dude. That was the show where Paul McCartney showed up, Martin Short, Steve Martin. So, they enjoyed that. BN: Were your parents backstage? JS: No, I usually give them seats in the audience. My mom’s a travel agent so they move around quite a bit, travel-wise, at least. They just pop in if there’s some other event in New York. My sister Kristen lives here and my little sister Lindsey lives in Connecticut. So, we’re all East Coast now. BN: So, while in high school you toyed a bit with comedy, based on the influence of your friends, but you were really focused on sports? JS: Yeah, basketball. BN: So you graduated high school.. JS: Eventually, yeah. I didn’t do much homework. For my senior year I went to night school to pass English, then I had to go to summer school to pass English. It was around that time, I remember in night school - you know everything happens for a reason, right? In night school, our teacher, this guy Brett Singer, he was a young dude, you know, teaching “vagrants” - people who have failed English. He showed Citizen Cane during class and most kids fell asleep and I was kind of like “This movie is really cool”. I liked how it was structured; it was really interesting seeing that many sides of one guy. Black and white movies, you know, I liked them, but I’d never put one into a VCR. That sort of began a…there are people who truly, truly love film, I really appreciate it. Like, I can’t say it made me love film where I dove in completely, but I dove in for me, for my diving in capabilities. Then you cut to 1990, I went to college on a basketball scholarship and then, Pulp Fiction came out. I saw that and that was the first screenplay I’d bought and I was like, “well this is kind of interesting”. And so then I was playing basketball, not doing homework, and eventually I became ineligible. Well, I can go back actually to freshman year of high school, I sat next to this guy named Cam Lynch, who was from North Kansas City. I went to this all boys, Jesuit high school in Kansas City. And people on the North side of Kansas had this thing called “Comedysportz”; it’s like this “Who’s Line is it, Anyway?” kind of thing – competitive, quote unquote, improv. So, I’d heard he’d gotten into it. He auditioned freshman year of high school. He’d been going to the shows for a couple of years and he got in, actually hired to perform there. So, we went to go watch him and I was like “This is a blast! This is people doing everything I had done in my basement with a video camera and microphone.” BN: Did you think they had a certain formula or were actually making it up blindly on stage as they went along? Did you have a formula originally? JS: No, you’d just do it. I didn’t know what was going on. I have a two hour video of me and my friend Terry Maju, who’s now an emergency room doctor in Kansas City, dressed in our gym uniforms, holding a paddle, for paddle ball, and just talking about how we’re these paddle ball experts and the “big game of the scene” was how expensive everything was…”We’d tell you about this game, but you’re really not going to be able to afford it” (laughter)…it still makes me laugh, just the idea of it. It was probably us just goofing around for two hours, describing how the game’s played, how this wrist band cost $350,000 - the tape is just rolling, just set on a tripod. So then freshmen year, he (Cam Lynch) goes to do this thing (Comedysportz) and I see it thought it would be a blast, not thinking much of it, but I always would mention to Cam, “Hey, tell me if there’s ever an audition again, I’ll go down there” - because they were letting young dudes play. He was the youngest by far, at least by four years. They knew him from coming to the show. I think he may have done a workshop, but he was in. Then I’d transferred schools - for a multiple of reasons, you know, money, a girl, basketball. I transferred between sophomore and junior year, to this school Shawnee Mission West. The same high school Paul Rudd went to, John Leer. We’re a pretty cool group of alums. John Leer is one of the Geico Cavemen, plus he’s been on several shows himself. BN: The Geico Cavemen sitcom or commercials? JS: The Commercials. So, at Shawnee Mission West I take a radio and TV class, where they produce a weekly show and then a show they’d put on cable. It was just news about the school, but it looked like fun. It was something you could watch on public access at home. I knew I wanted to take this class just because I thought it would be neat - again, to have the video camera and maybe make some stuff. And it was really fun; I had one of those teachers, kind of like Mr. Holland’s Opus; a teacher that would sort of change your life, inspires you, makes you laugh and doesn’t talk down to you. Her name’s Sally Shipley, she’s great. Really self-deprecating, you know, just one of those teachers. BN: Did she allow you free reign over the public access show? JS: On the weekly show, she did. The weekly show you would just do for the school, they’d show it during homeroom. And early on, I remember – and I’ve told this to Paul, having met him a couple of times – Sally Shipley took a shine to me, once saying “You know, you should have fun with this class” and then popped in this tape. “Here’s a guy you should check out who really did some interesting stuff, you should do stuff like this.” And she played it, and I didn’t know it then but I know it now, it was Paul Rudd. He was running around school taking something that people were being very serious about, almost Evening News-style, and then just having fun with it, turning it on its ear. I can’t remember the exact bit, but I remember him doing genuinely funny stuff, you know, at 17-18 years old. So then, it was a combination of that Radio/TV class and having this teacher encouraging me. And then I go to hand in some late homework for Radio/TV class into her other class she was teaching, which was Forensics, which is like Speech and Debate. I walked in there and they were playing Comedysportz games, which I had yet to work with, I’d only seen it. I was like, “Well, I gotta take this class!” I didn’t even know what it was, all I knew was it was a regular-sized classroom and there were trophies everywhere on the walls. Apparently, which I didn’t know at the time, Shawnee Mission West was thee New York Yankees of Forensics, Speech and Debate. They’d won state the last 10 out of 11 years, Sally Shipley was like, this genius, and it was a badass group of high school actors and extemporaneous speakers - people I’d rarely talk to. You know, in a school of over 3000 kids, you mostly hang out with whoever you’re with after school, and for me that was the basketball guys. Not that we were jocky or dicky or anything, I mean, not intentionally. BN: That’s just how high school works JS: Right, that’s how it works. And so, I go into this class and I see them playing this improv game – I don’t know, like Word of the Time or Story, whatever the case may be - so I signed up for that class second semester of junior year, and just start going on these tournaments, you know, on Saturdays. You wake up at 9am, you go to school, you get on the buss and you go to some other school and you perform. I’d do IDA, which is Improvised Duet Acting and then DA, which is Duet Acting. It was heaven, man. You’d go on these high school things, you’d improvise and it’s competitive. The basic form was, you – and it was a little bit different from UCB and ImprovOlympic improv, as you’ll notice – you’d reach into a fish bowl with slips of paper, each piece would have three suggestions on it, you know “The last time you saw your dad”…the whatever or whatever. And then you get thirty minutes to prepare something and you have to come up with a five to seven minute sketch or scene to perform. IDA was the most popular one because improv is infectious so the room would always be filled - it would take place in a classroom and there would be judges there. BN: Who were the judges? JS: Just like, faculty, parents or just people from the community. BN: You would tour around the state? JS: It was just like basketball, you’d hop and a van and go. You could literally Letter in this, you could get a jacket, the whole deal. It was a sport. BN: And the scenes were mostly comedy? JS: It didn’t have to be. It was improv. At Shawnee Mission South, where Rob Riggle went, I didn’t know him then either, but they would do a lot of dramatic improvisation, you know, that involved moments. We were all giving it one hundred percent. Me and my friend Ryan Ellison – you’d sort of dance around with different partners and try different people out – but Ryan and I hit it off. He and I also did Duet Acting. We did the courtroom scene, you know the “You can’t handle the truth” scene from A Few Good Men, which was a blast. You’d go, “Alright, we have our IDA at 10:30am, let’s go do that, and at 11:30 we get to do this serious piece of drama.” We were two 18 year old kids trying to, you know, move every single word. My big thing was, my basketball coach was bummed I was doing speech, he was kind of jocky and was like (sarcastically) “Go do your theater-thing, Sudeikis” and then my speech teacher, Sally Shipley didn’t think I cared about it because I was an athlete. So, over the summer I’d seen A Few Good Men, and I loved that scene and thought it would be really fun to do, I thought Ryan and I could do that. So, I literally watched it - I didn’t know it was a play - I watched it and transcribed the whole thing. I brought in ten pages of my handwriting, in different color ink for Ryan and I to memorize. At that point she knew I really liked it. And we did the scene and, I think maybe we got third in state with that. And we weren’t the only ones doing that scene by the time we’d gotten to state. There were a couple of kids from Wichita doing the same scene, so it was on. So it was this nice combination of art and competitiveness that was in me from my basketball days that kind of drove me to want to do it. The classes were fun, you know, it was one hour a day when you got to play around like a kid. So it was from that, that then I eventually took workshops at Comedysportz. This is during my summer going into my senior year. BN: You were continuing to play basketball? JS: Still playing basketball, while going down every Sunday to take these workshops, where I met one of my best friends, Billy Grim, who’s getting married this weekend - I go to Kansas City tomorrow for the wedding. I met lifelong friends. I did Comedysportz for basically three years. Then when I left high school, I did Comedysportz and played a lot of basketball, then went to community college, which was an hour and a half away. Never having a car, always bumming rides from people and borrowing my parents car. Then got ineligible freshmen year, so second semester I ended up doing a play. I’d still have to practice with the basketball team but then every Wednesday, I would borrow my friend Brandon Barcell’s car and drive north for an hour and a half to go to rehearsal. And we wouldn’t go home every weekend, because being a sports guy in Kansas, there was nowhere else you wanted to be – that isn’t true, it was a nice place..compared to home. So we’d drive home and I’d continue to watch Comedysportz every single weekend. Watching my heroes at that point and eventually now friends, perform weekend after weekend after weekend. I still had a high school girlfriend and all of that stuff, we were breaking up, so Comedysportz was the one place that allowed me to forget about it, you know? I’ve made the joke, many years later, my transition from sports to comedy was called Comedysportz. It folded onto itself. BN: Did they ever study the Harold at Comedysportz? JS: No, not at all. It was like Whose Line is it Anyway? You were just playing games and, you know, I did my own research. You dive in where you can dive in. BN: This was before the internet? JS: Oh, absolutely. I mean, there was Prodigy (laughter). I even went into a Sam Frans book store in LA recently, you know, one of those theater/film school book stores - and there were probably four books on improvisation when I first had started. Keith Johnson's "Improv", a thing called "Impro" by Keith Johnson, "Improv Comedy" by this guy Andy Goldberg...maybe another one. BN: Did "Truth In Comedy" exist then? JS: Not yet, this was like 94-95. But now there's like, 20-30 books on improvisation. BN: Why do you think? JS: I just think people know about it a lot more now based on Whose Line is is Anyway? and the success of Christopher Guest movies. You just hear the term "improv" a lot more often now. (Back to Comedysportz) So, I'm taking those classes and eventually I get into the company. BN: How did they present that to you? JS: Through an audition, you know, you get called back and you do it again. BN: Were there different levels with Comedysportz? JS: Nothing that's spoken, do you mean in the training center? BN: Yeah. JS: You just do the eight weeks - it's every Sunday for three hours. BN: Once that's completed, what happens next? JS: Then I get to do shows and I'm going to rehersals with the pros. That's why I would drive up every Wednesday. After basketball practice I'd drive up there by myself, listening to my walkman because the car only had an AM radio - on a single lane highway. If I was ever going to die at a young age, it would've been during one of those trips. Luckily, I avoided that. BN: What would you listen to on your walkman? JS: Back then I was still playing sports, so I was in my rap/r&b phase. But I was also all over the place at that point, you know? Harry Connick Jr., Sinatra, Nirvana. If it was in Rolling Stone, I'd probably be listening to it. So, I'm doing Comedysportz, and in my sophomore year I'm playing the best basketball I've ever played in my life, and I was ineligible. I had to do a play to keep my scholarship money. BN: By "ineligible" what do you mean? JS: I didn't have the grades. I had 27 credit hours - an F, in community college. In fucking community college. I just would not go to class, I didn't do the homework, I failed English again...twice. I just didn't read the books. I'd stay up - the sleeping habits I now have - going to bed at four and waking up at noon, were well-established then. So then, I'm there and I do this play - there were moments when my teacher, Rod Peterson, who just recently retired form Fort Scott. He'd worked there around 30 years. I'd written a letter which was read at his thing, a bunch of his alumni got together, his old students. I didn't get to go, but he recently retired. Anyway.. BN: What did he teach? JS: He taught speech, and he was the theater-guy in Fort Scott. So, I'm playing awesome basketball, Sebtember 18th, my birthday, show up there, 20 years old. My coach brings me in and they red shirt me, meaning, he didn't want to kick me off the team - he liked me and I was a good player to have the other members practice with, I was playing really well And I was a good leader because I was the vocal-type, I was point guard. So then I quit and did a musical there called "The Fantasticks", just to sort of pay for the books because I didn't have a scholarship anymore. And then went home after first semester and lived in my parents basement, from January '96 to September '97. And then just sort of dove in, you know, I worked at Blockbuster to pay the bills - I didn't have many bills, so mostly it was to buy CD's, books and shit. And then I just started doing Comedysportz all the time. Me and my friends formed a long-form improv group, because we'd gotten "Truth In Comedy" by that point. And we just started reading it and were like "let's try this out" and we did it at a coffeehouse show, we had no idea but still had those shows where it all came together and we then were like "No way! No way!" We were rehearsing in like, dance studios on the KU campus. With our sketch group we did about six shows. And all throughout living in Fort Scott, I forgot to mention, I wrote this newsletter, probably about 10-12 issues, called "The Trout". And I'd change the title all the time. "The Lonely Trout" was the first one, "The Bald Trout" after I shaved my head, "Jagged Little Trout" you know, after Alanis Morissette. BN: After you had sex with her. JS: Yeah, in a theater, in a theater. She wrote a song about it. BN: Dave Coulier was incredibly upset about that. JS: Haaa. So, I was toying a little bit with writing and I was doing improv. BN: Was "The Trout" some sort of fanzine? JS: It was just me writing about my life. I still have all of the copies. My friend Ed Goodman, who I'm still very good friends with, wrote a news letter called "The Gravy Train" which he had been writing forever, when he was living in Lawrence, Kansas. So I just sort of, took the idea. I thought it would be really fun to write a newsletter. BN: So this was a blog, basically. JS: More or less, absolutely. And I would tri-fold it, mail it out. People would send me stamps. BN: How did these people find out about it? JS: I sought them out. And them people started to read it on college campuses, like in their fraternities. By no means, was it "The Onion", but it was totally satirical. It was me making fun of living in this small town. My mom once sat me down and said "You should stop writing about how unhappy you are because you are going to continue to be unhappy" and I was all "Yeah, yeah. Whatever." BN: Who wants to read about people who are happy? That's the worst thing in the world. JS: Exactly, exactly. BN: So, do you remember any specific articles you'd written? JS: Yeah, one involved - I didn't drink then so one involved how I would have to be the designated driver for my friends. It would be recomendations too, if I saw a movie, you know, like "Clerks" I'd tell people to check it out. BN: Did you have an email address or a way readers could correspond with you? JS: No email address, they'd have to write letters back. I still have a box full of old letters people had written me. And then I would publish letters and answer questions. It was just two panals, front and back. Ocassionaly, I'd have an insert in there, you know, with my face and Anna Nicole Smith's body, for no reason. This was way before Photoshop too. I'd write it in my friend Chris Hines' dorm room because I didnt have a computer. I'd write it as we watched Melrose Place and Jerry Springer, you know, we would all be in this room and I would just be typing away - tck tck tck tck. I'd, you know, shit it out and then print it, get it photocopied then send it. My uncle is George Wendt and he was good friends with Robert Smigel. I remember when Smigel was writing for The Dana Carvey Show, he was the head writer, it just had started - and I remember George sending him The Trouts. From what I understand, Smigel really liked them. The writing was really young, but you know. BN: Do you think Smigel had seen anything like that before? JS: I'm sure he had. He's one of the greats, I'm sure he'd created something similiar himself. It was at that point that I'd realized George was encouraging me by just merely saying "Stick with this, stick with this. This is fun." He and his wife. BN: Was Smigel a huge figure in your eyes at that point? How familiar were you with his work? JS: Hmm, I didn't watch SNL then becuase my Saturdays were spent playing Comedysportz. But, I mean, had I been a super duper comedy aficianado, he definitely created enough material at that point for me to know him. I knew him as the guy that wrote "The Super Fans" You know, The Bulls, the Bears" because my Uncle George was in those sketches. I knew who he was but not to the degree that I should have. So, George was reading The Trouts and, not telling me so much, but telling my mom he enjoyed them. My mom was worried about what I was going to do. BN: Was she supportive? JS: She was supportive in the sense that, again, they'd always laugh, and they'd come to all of the shows. But she was just worried about what her son was going to do for a living, when he grew up. But then, I think, George kept her at bay, assuring her "He could do this, he's good. He's funny" Then, he'd come to see me do Comedysportz in LA - if you were from Kansas City, you could perform in LA if your Comedysportz manager called and requested it. So he'd seen me perform and was encouraging via my mother, you know? I would be out in LA just visiting my Uncle George and just hit up Comedysportz. I got to perform there, I got to perform at the Comedysportz in New Orleans. It just like how you play basket ball in one city. You get to a certain level in that city and then get to play somewhere else. You get to do the exact same thing, same rules, same hoops, same basket, same way, somewhere else. So, back to the sketch show, our skecth show was five guys who had done Comedysportz and were trying to fuck with our boss, who's a very nice guy, super proud of all of us - now. Back then were were the guys who were trying to fuck with his theater, you know, doing to much of this or doing too much of that - and he was trying to reign us in, you know, like a producer does. He was a producer as well as a player coach, so it gets messy when they're also performing with you and giving you notes. We weren't like "Shut up old man!" We weren't dickheads like that, we weren't punk rock. We'd just try to push him as far as we could. We eventually started a skecth group, he would let us perform in the theater, which we would pack 130-150, sometimes 170 people, and just jam them in. Just by papering, you know, having friends - again, this was before the internet. There was no real community for that in Kansas City. But it was a great ride, we probably did 5-6 shows. Jeremy Carter moved to Passadena, to go to AMDA, I think it was called. American Dramatic...something like that. He does a podcast now called "Super Ego" which is really, really funny. Everybody still works in some capacity with the arts. Ed Goodman moved to Chicago in July of '97. We all just sort of dibanded. Eirc Davis now works for Cirqu De Souil, he's one of their lead clowns and is on tour with them now in North Korea...or South Korea, I don't know, probably not North Korea. BN: You never know. JS: You never know, they get down with that over there. And Corey Ripmass is doing improv in Chicago. Around the time of May of '97, when everybody was talking about leaving, we were like "Let's take this show on the road! Let's move to Chicago!" Some people couldn't do it, some people didn't want to do it, some people didn't like being pressured into it. I went to Kirkenny, Ireland to stage manage the Second City show, through my aunt and uncle. George said to my mom "Hey Cath, have Jason come out, he can run lights." You know, for the Second City show. BN: Sounds great! And you got paid for it? JS: I didn't get paid, I just got a free trip, board and everything. You know, room and board. BN: It was an internship? JS: Yeah, definitely. And it was a week in Ireland, you know? It was great, I met Dan Castelnetta, Colin Mockary and most importanlt, Kevin Dorff who was on The Second City main stage, he who now writes for Conan. And Scott Allman, Ian Gomez. Now, it sort of happens really quickly here, but it's THEE moment when it all sort of changes. So I'm sort of messing around with this, knowing that going to Chicago is something that has to happen eventually, but I do everything very slowly in my life, you know? And once I make that turn, then we go. So, I'm in LA around May of '97, and I go to this show called "The Armando Diaz Show" and this was the show that they had created in Chicago and a bunch of IO alumni had moved to LA to continue to the show. BN: Was it sketch or improv? JS: It was improv. Just like Asssscat, a monologue and then scenes based on the monologue. BN: At that time, were there celebrities involved with the monologues? JS: There may have been. I can't remember who'd done them that night. The person I do remember, me and my friend Jeff Davis, who's on Whose Line is it Anyway? - we'd done Comedysportz together. So we went to go see this thing, this long-form show, based on the suggestion of George's friend Pat Finn, who's in every fifth commercial on TV. He's like "You guys should come see this show!" We go and this one dude, who plays one character the whole show, just blows me away. I was like "What is going on? How is he doing that? Where did he learn to do that?" and they're like "That's Dave, he's an IO guy." That dude was Dave Koechner. So then, that's in my brain "IO, Chicago, Dave Koechner." Jeff and I would always talk about improv incessantly, and we were just amazed. Then I go to Kilkenny, and this guy who was a stand-up didn't show, and he was supposed to do improv with these guys. So, there would be The Second City show, the main stage show, in this 300 seat place and I would run lights for that. They were doing old scenes and black outs, mostly games. Then, at various pubs about half the size of UCB here in town, they would do shows in the back of these pubs. That would be Dan Castelenta, Colin Mockary, Kevin Dorff, all of those guys. There were no huge celebrity draws. And this stand-up didn't show so they asked if I wanted to sit in and I said "Yeah, sure!" they were playing Comedysportz games and I was like "Absolutely!" I'd been playing those hardcore for the last three years. I go in there, I was 21 at the time, and I was completey comfortable. Tim Krazkinski was there too. And people were like "wow" and it gives you a certain amount of confidence when people, who have been doing it for so long, are like "You should move to Chicago" Very efusive. And I probably did like, 5-6 shows with these guys and it was specificallt Ian Gomez and Nia Verdalos - Ian, who you'd recognize from a million things, and Nia, of course, from My Big Fat Greek Wedding - told me to move to Chicago. Basketball was completely out of my life by this point, I'm playing it maybe once a week or something like that. I moved to Chicago September 1st of '97. So, from then my own state of being, that was the decision to be like "Now I want to do this, this is what I'm doing." And then I enrolled at Second City, ImprovOlympic, The Annoyance Theater, went to shows every day. I lived on the Southside with my grandma, so it was an easy transition. I borrowed my Ungle George's car, which was this kind of beat up Montero that he would drive to Michigan to this lake house up there. I would, every single day, I would leave at around noon, drive down to work at my shitty job at Banana Republic for a couple of hours, and then every single night I'd be at ImprovOlympic, just absorbing it. Watching shows, picking out people I wanted to learn from and liked, taking classes. Every single night was dedicated to that, Second City, The Annoyance, and I just dove into the deep end, 100 percent. BN: While you were taking the classes, did you also network? JS: Unintentionally..not really at that point. You're sort of just this guy. I mean, I would pay for every show until October when the classes would start. Once you began the classes the show's were free as long as there was room. I was paying eight bucks a ticket, I had this "big" $900 check that I'd just gotten from comedy sports before I moved. And I was living at my Granma's so I didn't have to worry about rent, all I'd have to worry about was gasoline. BN: And you were also making money with your job at Banana Republic. JS: Yeah, like seven bucks an hour. But that was not my focus, that was just to placate my folks, you know? I would call in sick all the time. I remember calling in sick the day Farley died, just because, I don't want to go in to work, you know? Something more important happened, I don't want to sell fucking khakis to some asshole. So, class started, the first day of class - I mean, it was weird, surreal, because, the first day of class - I had a very, very fortunate Chicago-experience. I mean, I went up there to work at Second City. That's where I wanted to work, you know? We'd started going up there when I was a kid and watch the improv sets. BN: How old were you? JS: When I first began going up there, I was probably about thirteen or something like that. But my folks used to go up there all the time and watch my Uncle George and Aunt Bernedette. So, Second City was in their wheel-house. Again, my mom's a theatergoer and my dad, for what he doesn't like about musicals he loves about comedy. So, I knew about Second City and made that decision "This is what I want to do." I loved skecth comedy, I just wanted to work there. It's like playing basketball for KU or playing football for Notre Dame. My first class was with Charna Helphurn, and literally, the first class she has everyone do a scene. And I went 4th or 5th, me and my scene partner, and I remember she was like "I'm gonna give you scenes that are originally supposed to be conflict-driven, and I dont want it to be about the conflict, alright? You are two roommates and you're ordering a pizza, and I don't want you to argue about the toppings or what kind of pizza you want." So I remember the scene going, I was like "Hey, we should order from this new place Pizzas & Chicks, you get the pizza, that's not the big deal, but a girl comes with it." It's still conflict, but not conflict about the toppings. I was like "A girl comes with it" I just remember saying that a lot, "But dude, are you listening to what I'm saying? It doesn't matter what kind of pizza we get, a girl comes with it!", basically implying it was a hooker or something like that. So the scene ends, the class applauds, like they do at the end of every scene, and sure enough, Charna singles me out and says, "You're great, what's your deal? Who are you?" She wanted to know my story. For as wonderful as it was, to feel I'd made the right choice, it was a little alienating. From that point on I was on a team at level two. I auditioned for Second City in February of '98, and got in on my first audtion, which was not typical. BN: Is ImprovOlympic affiliated with Second City? JS: It's not at all other than the fact they're in the same place. The way I sort of break it down is, Second City is sort of the grand daddy and is the only one that pays. People were frustrated with the way Second City did things so they created the ImprovOlympic, then frustrated with the way ImprovOlympic was doing it, so they created The Annoyance Theater. People were then frustrated with the way all of those guys were doing things, so they created The Playground, and on and mother effing on. BN: And you were performing at every venue? JS: I did shows in every single place. I even performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. I loved performing, that was what it was all about. I loved feeling like you're becoming a better performer and getting to befriend people who made you laugh so hard. It's crazy for me to think that I was only there (Chicago) for three years. I was there from September of '97 to Semptember '00. I never got to do one of the main stages in either the EPC or the main stages at Second City, but I got to finally get that feeling once I got to Las Vegas, which I'll get to. So, I got into the touring company, and then the other thing that I'm pretty proud of, there was a show "The Armando Diaz", and it was as if we were freshman and sophmore, there were people who had been there for three years and longer who were doing the Armando show. On the pack of every single schedule were the list of teams and all the names, so early on I would circle people I'd seen perform and I really had enjoyed. I eventually had this list of like, fifty names, you know? There were so many great people. And slowly but surely, me and my friend Ike Berhandolz, who's now on Mad TV, we'd created this show called J.T.S. Brown, which was named after the bourbon Fast Eddie drinks in The Hustler. It was basically this new generation of people, about 14 or so of us. It was this formless improv show. We'd rehearsed three times a week for about a year before we did a show. It was like, this crazy experiment. We wanted the show to be - there were these shows like Jazz Freddie and Louis Kazz, all of these improv shows that were bench marks for the improv community in Chicago, Armando was along those lines too. So we wanted to do something we would take as seriously. It's so awful, with improv just as you create it, it's gone. Sort of like fireworks, you know? It's like "Wasn't that neat?" and then you move on. You drink a beer and maybe talk about it, that's it. But at that point we wanted to really create a good group. We had a draft commitee, there were six of us who came up with the exact cast - we had this great poster with all of us. With that show we created a form which they still teach. If you go see "2 Square" or "3 Square" with Pete Gross, Lutz and Dan Bakkadahl, they're doing J.T.S. Brown forms. BN: And you helped create this? JS: Yeah, there were twelve of us, plus our coach. We were directed by Mick Napier. We had to bring in a different coach every couple of weeks, just to sort of influence us in some way. BN: By "formless" what exactly do you mean? JS: You know how there's a monologuist in Asssscat? A guy does the monologue and then there are five scenes, then the guy comes back. That's the quote, unquote form. We had moves, little wrinkles, as we'd called them. Things we'd try to do. It was all truly - I mean all improv is basically formless. The fact that they teach J.T.S. Brown improv-style is funny to us because, literally there wasn't one. We were just people who came in with ideas, you know? There were never any tag outs, there were never any players entering a scene and changing it to reality. There were little rules here and there, but nothing you would have to adhere to. People still talk about that show to this day. I'm still reminded of it whenever I go back to Chicago, just talking to John Lutz and Pete Gross, who are more connected to the Chicago scene then I was. Man, I've been gone for seven years now. That was a really good time. We get asked to go back to the Chicago Improv Festival every year. The majority of people who were involved are still working. BN: Was John Lutz a part of the original, twelve member line up? JS: Oddly enough, he wasn't a part of the initial twelve. TJ Jaganowski, who does "TJ and Dave", he was in the show and then got hired at the main stage. Lutz then came in. Then Jack McBrayer was in it too. He quit, for some reason. And then someone took his space. BN: How many years was this show a part of your life? JS: Probably around the last year and a half of my living in Chicago. It was like, in this three year span one thing happened after another, like every three months. That's the beauty of those kinds of communities, constant movement. There are always new things going on. I personally never felt as if I was doing my best work there, but you're around such good work, you couldn't help but be affected. BN: I've read that one of the basic ideas behind improv is to justify what the other person on stage is saying, and make them look good. Did you practice this? JS: I hope so. I can't really remember a specific time. BN: Was it ever your goal to "shine"? JS: No, the goal was just to do a really good show with really good people. That we accomplished and for me personally, I accomplished. The shows that influenced us, in both their stature and the quality, like Louis Cazz and Jazz Freddie - we accomlished that by, not exactly aiming for it, but commiting to it. I think if you aim for it sometimes, if you try to write the great American novel, it comes out a little forced. But this was a very stressful, artistic - it was something else. There were people involved who probably have a much better recollection then I because, at the same time I'd met my now wife Kay. We started dating and I was falling in love, so for the first time ever my focus was split. I met here in the Second City training center. Different classes but we were in the same level. BN: What first attracted you to her? Did you have similiar goals? JS: Well, she's really pretty (laughter) that was initially. But I thought she was really funny. And she just had a drive about her that wasn't off-putting. She was an all-American quarter miler and was coaching track at Louis University, where she ran. She was planning on becoming a teacher. Early on, yes I was crushing on her but I really thought she was good, early on I brought here name up for the initial cast for J.T.S. Brown. She ran box office for office, as my girlfriend. You know a stigma which, for better or worse, lasted for awhile. BN: Do you think it may have made things complicated if she actually became a member of J.T.S. Brown? JS: I don't know. The second we decided to fall in love with each other, it was October 26th... BN: You actually remember the day? JS: Yeah, because it was the same day of my first Second City show, it's a big day. It was the first time we said our "I love you's" and away we go. It was creative, artistic and romantic euphoria. BN: This was while Kay was still studying with Second City? JS: Yeah, and she eventually went to ImprovOlympic, then auditioned for Boom Chicago. This brings us up to 2000. She leaves in January of 2000 to go to Boom Chicago, and is hired as a corporate manager, like a business manager. She eventually gets to do shows but she running the corporate thing, running the group that's hired to perform corporate funtions. Seth Meyers was the corporate writer at that point, he was an illustrious Boom alum. He was writing all of the scripts, Kay was running all of the shows, I was in Chicago being miserable. BN: She was touring? JS: She was touring the continent more of less. But most of the shows were in Holland. Meanwhile, we're doing the long-distance thing. We have our ups and downs, a lot more downs then ups. We had just sort of moved in with each other six months earlier, so it was like one of those things. I ended up quitting Second City's touring company and go to visit Kay. BN: When you toured with Second City, where would you go? JS: I want to Vienna, Alaska, you know, Youngstown Ohio. Everywhere pretty much except for Michigan. Second City did that. It was really a neat opportunity. My only complaint was I didn't get to do more shows. It had that sort of "sports" feeling, when you're in the van doing bits with each other, getting to know people, getting to work with an ensemble. It was still hard, you know, all of this stuff was hard, I'm sort of glossing over that. That's because we're looking back on it. During it, it's the hardest damn thing you would ever do in your life. It's not dramatic, you just want to do good shows. You want to have a good show as a cast, you want to have a good show as an individual. Everybody's different, you know? Maybe it was hard for some people, and maybe it was the only good thing in their lives. For me, it was always great. BN: And you were juggling this with Kay being out of the country. What was the breaking point causing you to quit Second City? JS: Kay breaking up with me. I was miserable, you know? Just one of those things, grew an angry bread and shit. At the time I was sort of disenfranchised with Second City, just a tad. Not nearly as much as I eventually became. But I just wanted more out of the experience than I felt like I was getting. Truthfully, looking back, I probably wasn't giving it as much as I could've. And at the same time, the only time I could concentrate on anything besides the misery of not being with Kay, was on stage, in a scene. Improvised or scripted, I could seperate it from my mind. The second I stepped off stage, when the lights went black, that's exactly where my mind went. Heartbroken. BN: Would being in a touring company require a 24 hour commitment, not just mentally commiting yourself while only on stage? JS: No, I think I probably did that, which wasn't super healthy. Again, that's the way I personally work, I dive in and give it a damn. In a way that could become frustrating and become mentally damaging to a degree. But you know, that's a part of being bad at it and then becoming good. It's wisdom. So, luckily people at Boom Chicago knew my work - they had offered me a job in late '97, I auditioned just to audition and they offered me a job. I said no because I didn't want to move to Amsterdam right after moving to Chicago. But I really enjoy those guys, what they've done is really remarkable. If you ever read that story, these three guys from North Western go to Amsterdam on a class trip, and they create this comedy empire, it just fantastic. They went form doing shows in the backs of bars, like the ones I'd mentioned in Ireland. And now they have this 200 seat dinner theater. Right in the middle of the Times Square of Amsterdam. They're giving all of these young people a lot of times right out of college, an oppertunity to perform professionally. So, I move out there October 1st. I do what I didn't know was going to be my last Second City show in Chicago, thinking I was going to come back four months later. We were supposed to come back January the following year, it was a year-long contract. So, I just go out there and finish the run. We (Kay and I) prepare our shit and get back on the same page as we were, and sort of fall in love again, for real this time, more than ever. We start doing shows and it goes alright, it was good to go somewhere where I was on the outside looking in, so I could be a little bit more mature about it. Again, everything happens for a reason - it was good to be that guy. To come in and, not necessarily be a scab, but a hired gun in a way. At that point, they offered four month contracts. It was just good timing, and I was easily convinced. BN: Did you replace someone at Boom Chicago? JS: No, they just added me to the group. BN: This was a nightly show? JS: It was. It was a five person show and they'd also rotate the cast. You'd also do some of the business gigs here and there, so we were getting paid well. We didn't have to have any other kind of job. BN: Did you ever begin to feel nostalgic about your days with Second City? JS: Not nostalgic so much as looking back on it, taking in time to process the things I was doing that were personally, creatively and professionally self destructive. Not necessairly getting over all of them, but being able to tag them and say "Ok, here's something you have to watch out for." So, while in Amsterdam, I get a call from Kelly Leonard, the producer of Second City. He said he was bummed that I had quit. Again, I wouldn't say "quit" I'd just "left" for the time being. I was always planning on coming back and picking up where I'd left off. Kelly said "Hey, we're opening this theater in Las Vegas" I was interested. He said "we're going to have nine, eleven people out there. It's going to be a rotating cast, an hour and ten minute show, Mick Napier..." who was a genuis director and improv guru, directing guru. Not to throw that word around, but he was just one of those guys who was remarkably creative. One of those guys, whenever I do something, Mick is always in the back of my head. I'm always saying "I hope Mick would find this funny." BN: Was he hard to impress? JS: He was just someone you wanted to impress. Was he hard to impress? Not in a bullying way, was he hard to impress. He'd seen a lot.. BN: Was he funny? JS: Oh, he's hilariously funny. He's incredible. He's one of those guys who would fuckin' just do any which way. He's the guy who created that show "Paradigm Lost" with Scott Adsit, Tina Fey, Dratch, Dorff, Jim Zuldick and Jenna Dulovis. A Chicago show that was the artistic pinnacle for my tastes. BN: Did "Pardigm Lost" exist before you'd gotten involved with performing in Chicago? JS: This was before I'd gotten involved, yeah. I'd been watching the show. So, I found out he (Mick Napier) was directing Second City in Las Vegas. I was like "Yeah, I'll go do that. How long's the contract? Six months? That's not problem. I just did four months here and that goes by fast." We (Kay and Jason) had done the long-distance thing over the inter-continental, a six hour time difference over the Atlantic. This? This will be nothing. This is a two hour difference. She'd be able to come out to Vegas and she's play. It was a good oppertunity. I said absolutely. BN: I actually visited that theater while I was in Vegas. It was during the day so it was empty but the place was nice, seemed very comforable. JS: Yeah, I mean, it has its moments. You could sometime hear the slot machines a little too much. So, January, Kay and I move back (to Chicago). We're there for a month, always knowing I'm going out to Vegas. They offered us to stay another year in Amsterdam, we declined after thinking about it. It was nice of them to offer but it was time to go home. We had stuff to do. BN: You had to leave, you smoked all the weed you could. JS: No, I did not (laughter) Las Vegas really took that over. I mean, I did it here and there. I did a lot of mushrooms, that's more my thing. It has a little bit more soul. BN: It makes you much happier. JS: Yeah, yeah. It was also legal there and you could get really good ones. I don't know if you've been there, but it's unbelievable. You could walk into like, Duane Reade, go to the counter and buy for different types of mushrooms. BN: That sounds amazing. JS: It really is. One of the most profound experiences mushroom-wise was (laughter) I love this, it was me, Brendon Hunt, who wrote this great show "Five Years in Amsterdam" that kicked ass at Aspen this last year. BN: I'm pretty sure I've heard of that. JS: Yeah, yeah! If he comes back through hear, you should keep your ears to the ground. It maybe at UCB, maybe at The Pit. It's fantastic, a god damned super hero, creationists story. It is everything that is wonderful about him as a person and a performer. BN: Is he from Chicago as well? JS: Yeah, he's one of the biggies. One of the best. (back to the story) ...and Jordan Peel, who's one of the guys on Mad TV, one of the funniest, collest dudes ever. Him and Becky Drysdale used to do a show called "Two White Guys" in Chicago, that was a hilarious, two-person comedy show. So, the three of us go see...ok, there was a guy there, Stephen Semberski, who ran this kick-ass comic book store and was super tatt-ed up. He ran lights and everything, he was with Boom Chicago for maybe three years, or something like that. And for every year for the last fifteen years, every Easter he gets super stoned and listens to Jesus Christ Superstar. He had listened to it so much as a kid, that he can only listen to it only once a year now. So, he only listens to it on Easter, either Easter or Easter weekend. So, (at that time) I'm not there around Easter, I'm there around Christmas. I'd heard that he does this, he does it at the theater now, for the past three years because he worked there, He puts the original soundtrack with Murray Head and Ian Gill, from Deep Purple. My favorite musical of all time. It's just unbelievable and has a great story. It's really fantastic. So, for the last three years he plays "Superstar" in the theater, and Boom Chicago has all of the beels and whistles, lazers, lights, smoke and everything. It's really "Euro". So, he plays the lightboard and knew it like that back of his hand. He creates a light show for himself listening to this thing, this two disc CD compilation. I hear that he does this, I'm like "That's awesome, I love that thing, blah blah blah" We hit it off well enough. They called him "The Wizard", that was his nickname. He's like, "My gift to you before you leave, this Christmas Eve I'm going to do it for you." I said, "Are you kidding me? That's fantastic!" So me and Brendon go get mushrooms. Some badass, Hawaiian mushrooms, these little thin, heavy duty ones. And I get a chicken sandwich from the Burger King. Jordan gets super stoned out -all legal, mind you. And Stephen goes on to do it, and it's literally one of the most profound experience ever. Each light is a character, like you're seeing things in the smoke. We're just sitting there, and it feels like I'm watching it in the third person. Like, I'm sitting here, but I'm behind myself watching. Jordan and I would look at each other after a moment if silence, and I'd say, "There's a lot of stuff going on up there." and he goes, "Are you kidding me? I just quit smoking." He may not smoke cigarettes still! It was incredible. We were captivated. You know, everything that was within me during this transitional point in tmy life was being displayed on this stage. I remember seeing in the smoke, script pages in a screenplay format. I remember seeing Kay's face being emoted in different ways. BN: Those were some strong mushrooms. JS: They were the strongest ones. They were on the far right of the mushroom selection. BN: Was this Jesus Christ Superstar-listening set in front of an entire audience? JS: No, it was just the three of us, the four of us with Steven. We had the whole theater to ourselves, Christmas Eve, two in the afternoon. So, we leave in January. Come home a month, Kay stays there is doing stuff and moves in with her friend Mike Bertrando. We get rid of our aparment. I'm in Las Vegas, and you know, the show is tough. We're trying to do an original show and some archival material, which they do at Second City. You're doing scenes that Steve Carrell, Tina or Adsit used to do. Which I love doing because it's like getting to play your favorite parts in a Neil Simon play. How often do you get to be in the Karate Kid? Never. But with Second City you get to be in something that moved you. BN: Unless you're Ralph Machio, then it's twice. JS: Or three times. Then Hilary Swank came in the fourth one. BN: Right, jumping on cars. JS: Mmmhmm. Oscar winner, two time oscar winner. BN: You're talking about Pat Morita, right. JS: Rest in peace. He lived in Vegas when he died. BN: Hmmm, around the same time you were there. JS: I'm not saying anything. So, we're struggling to get this show cooking and stuff. But again, we're (Kay and I) long distance but, we're in it. Now we're commited to each other. Luckily, six months in - I was supposed to be there six months - she gets hired six months in. Next thing you know, 9/11 happened. So then, they narrowed the cast down from eleven/nine to five, and we got to stay. I lived there two years and five months. BN: So 9/11 actually had a direct on the Las Vegas cast? JS: It had an effect on the world, if you remember. But yes, definitely Second City, Las Vegas. Without sounding gross, it really helped the show because it become more consistant with having five people doing it over and over. We really had to buckle down and focus. We, my wife, three others and I, did a show the night of 9/11 because the airport shut down. So there were all of these people in the hotel who couldnt fly anywhere, people were just stranded there. It was one of our biggest shows at that point. It was 200 people. BN: What was the audience like? JS: The audience was subdued and ready to laugh. We took out anything related to guns, we had to change the show around. Again, I've used this word four-five times, (the audience was) joyful. We couldn't believe we were doing it. It's a little surreal to be watching CNN all day, crying your eyes out then walking into this thing and seeing some asshole mad about losing on a slot machine. It was a weird thing, walking through the bells and seeing all of these people in line to come see your comedy show, and then go up there to do it and they love you for it. BN: That's the first time I'd heard about anyone performing comedy the day of the attacks. I mean, Letterman even waited a week. That was the only day in my entire life I had not laughed once. JS: Yeah, it was profound. BN: And it seems like you had a job. All of these people were depending on you to make them laugh. JS: People needed it. I think we sold out two shows in a row. I don't think we'd ever sold out a show at all (before then). I don't know if they even charged, to be honest with you. It was just people in that theater, wanting for sixty-five minutes, to forget about it. Just for a little bit, you know? So, we did our thing and it was great. It was one of those nights I'll never forget. So, that goes on for awhile and we're always doing this archive show. Then at one point they asked us if we wanted to do an original show. We had a good cast, it was me, Joe Kelly, Seamus McCarthy, Kay Cannon, Holly Walker and the people who produced the show in Chicago asked us if we wanted to produce an original show. I was a little hesitant at first becuase the last time we did an original thing it didn't go so great. I admit to that, but they pushed for it, I was like, "Okay." They bring in a director, Mark Porsecca. We create this show called "Not Yet Ready For $3.99 Prime Rib Players" or something like that, some riff on the $3.99 rib deals. Opening night, my Uncle George comes with Larry Cambell, who is from According To Jim, he's a Second City alum from Detroit. BN: He's the best part of According To Jim. JS: Yep, terrific dude. Neil Flynn from Scrubs comes, also a Second City alum. I believe Nicole Sullivan from Mad TV was there. This was probably May of 2003. So they come then after that, Larry Cambell, who has the same manager as George at Brillstein and Grey, this guy Jeff Chetty. I don't think George was saying: "Hey, you should check out this show" it was the combination of the two of them. I think Larry was really more insistant than George at that time. But, however it went down, Jeff chetty comes to see the show. You know, a manager coming out, which wasn't unheard of, you know? Cause it's Vegas and a lot of industry people would come to see our show. Bob Odenkirk came to our show when he was casting for his sketch show "Next". So, people would come out there. William Morris was representing Second City at that point. BN: Why do you think it was such a big deal on opening night? Was there a huge buzz on the cast? JS: No, not at all. Larry knew Porsecca, George knew Kay and I, obviously, Neil knew may have just come out for a Vegas weekend. It was one of those, just for the hell of it. I will say this about the Vegas thing, I went crazy there. I wanted to be a Blue Man. I was so frustrated with Second City, for no good reason. Maybe a good reason but nothing I could really...it was a I was mad at the world-type of thing. Shaved my head, started drumming every night. Now, I am not a drummer whatsoever. We became friends with a lot of the Blue Man Group guys that were performing at the Luxor. I went so for as, I went to the audition in Vegas, Got through the look thing, got to the drumming thing and I couldn't even do the..(plays an impressive drum beat on the restaurant's table)...accented triplets. Spent a month busting my ass in front of a mirror with drum pads and Blue Man drum sticks. Rehearsing everyday, to the point when I could fuckin do it. Then Sara Gee, who was in the original cast of J.T.S. Brown and was in Vegas at the time, drove me out to L.A. and I auditioned there, got called back and did the acting audition, which was easier for me. Then was flown to New York. This was all before 9/11. I became obsessed with it. BN: Do you consider that "going mad"? JS: A little bit, because I wanted to be annonymous and I wanted to be silent. And a bunch of people telling me "Why are you doing this?!" Even my own wife. "Talking is your thing." People in Blue Man were like "If you stop talking, then that's a bummer to me" Cause we were doing this improv show, I mean, Vegas was this amazing...we created this improv show at this coffee house. This long-form thing. We created almost this little improv community, between the teaching, the shows. While we were still doing Second City, we'd take Wednesdays off and do the "Absolutely Not The Second City". BN: So you were basically creating a scene. JS: To a degree, yeah. I mean, not just me, our group. The way we found this, Blue Man Group were doing the same thing. You have a bunch of Berkeley trained musicians, badasses, and they play the same notes every single night. That show is by the book. They keep track of how many marshmellows you drop, they're militant. Just to keep the quality of the show up, there's a reason for it. But I was attracted to it at that point because their show was so tight and so well-focused and I felt ours was too loosey-goosey, so that was my judgement. So they created, all of those musicans had this group created by this guy, Elvis Letter, this German guy who (does a German accent) wouls ask you what is an going? With the long hair and a Vegas personality now, he created a show called Uubershaw, which is German for Super Sound. Where it four drummers, a bassist and two guitarist. And they would improvise, they would riff. It was incredible, they were making movie soundtracks every single night. We'd go see them at this coffee shop and it would blow us away. So, then Sara Gee and Gene Billoughpy were very intrumental in getting that space, seeing if we could use it for our little improv thing. The manager asked "What is it? Sure" The next thing you know, fifty people, sixty people, a hundred kids. It because this cool thing to come see. "Absolutely Not The Second City" we had to call ourselves because of contracts. BN: Did you ever advertise? JS: Never advertised, all word of mouth. BN: And by this time the internet was available so obviously discussing the show? JS: Maybe, I wasn't aware of it. I don't think we ever put it on the internet. I mean, where do you put it, Vegas.com? Where you can only find Wayne Newton. So, that's all going on at that time. The Blue Man Group was this laser-focus again. So, I eventually get flown out here (New York) August of 2001. BN: Did Second City know this? JS: Second City knew it. I had built up two weeks of vacation time, I was ready to spend the whole two weeks here, get the job and leave Second City, and become a Blue Man. It didn't work out, my drumming skills weren't up to stuff. But I got to live out my dream of being bald and blue, just like Tobias. So, I come back from that whole experience. And after the show sort of shifted, we became five people in the show, we got better and better, and the crowds got better and better. I became sane again to a certain degree. And also Kay moving out to Vegas. BN: Was she in Vegas during your Blue Man interest? JS: She was for a part of it. A lot of times, it was me going back to Chicago with this damn drum pad, drumming for an hour while she was wanting to kiss or go see a movie, I was annoying. In the dressing room I would practice in between shows, bless the guy's hearts that I shared the dressing room with. I would've wanted to have killed me. I talked about it incessantly. So, cut to Chetty coming out to see the show. He took a real shine to Kay and I and Seamus. He asked if I had ever thought about audtioning for SNL, I said "No, it didn't even cross my mind" BN: Did you think of that at all while coming through the improv scene? JS: Only in the obnoxious way where I would never want to be on that show. I had never even thought about it. Maybe as a kid, but that's not why I moved to Chicago, that's not why I did anything. I had never aimed for that show, I can honest to god say that to you. I loved that show during the ages when most people loved that show. I loved Adam Sandler and Chris Farley during those years. Will Farrell? I'd never watched. I knew about the cheerleaders, I knew about the Roxbury guys. I mean, I still watch Farrell scenes that I had never seen before. The majority of his work on Saturday Night Live I know based on his "Best of" DVDs. I was just working on Saturdays, it was off my radar. And to quote Lorne, when I eventually had an interview with him, he asked me what era I grew up with. I knew the answer but I just froze for a sec, I sort of got quiet. He looked at me and said "Oh don't worry. I didn't watch the show when I didn't work here either" You know, he really let me off the hook. BN: By not watching the show, what did he mean? JS: There are probably two different types of people he meets with: people who've always loved SNL and feel like they have know everyt</p>

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<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment in EXCLUSIVELY at The Apiary Wednesday Sep 26 2007  You Ladies Likin' the Curves Cereal?</p>
<p>Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 5:42PM In national taste tests, 8 out of 10 ladies prefer Curves Cereal to Lucille Roberts Flakes.This cereal really excites this woman! Even though it tastes like Chex.RELATEDBe on a Box of Curves Cereal!What Does it Mean if Everything I Eat Tastes Like Salt?</p>

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<p>The Apiary | 3 Comments in The World Around You Wednesday Sep 26 2007  Awareness - Andrea Rosen</p>
<p>Wednesday, September 26, 2007 at 5:36PM</p>

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