The Comedy Life of Brian

At a Providence Improv Fest show. Yeah!

Doesn't it? Church windows are interesting.

I'm totally getting married in here. Hard.

Peoples gonna be drinkin' here in October.

And on Howard Stern the other day Jimmy Fallon (meh) was talking about how someone with props and a wig auditioned before him for SNL. They started joking about it and someone asked 'did he have a unicycle?' implying that was the absolute lowest form of comedy. Yes my friends, yes it is.

I love how my blog (if you can call it that) has become almosot exclusively about unicycling...

Labels: unicycles

Back out there again today. It was my first session where I was free mounting (getting up on the unicycle without assistance like a pole or a wall) exclusively. Tons of false starts, but I'm starting to feel what a good mounting attempt is and a bad mounting attempt is. And the great thing is that once I'm up there and steady, I'm good to go - doing multiple laps around the lot.

So to close it all off, I gave myself a free mounting pop quiz. I went 6 for 15. 40% yall. I counted a mount as a success if I got up there and was able to pedal for three revolutions - although on all but one of those I was able to do multiple laps around the parking lot once I got up there.

All in all, it seems like some good progress. That's good news because a) - it was my fifth day of unicycle work in a row, and b.) - I'm taking the day off tomorrow (IB auditions), trying to squeeze some work in Wed., and then I'm taking four days of from unicycling while I'm in Chicago for wedding prep stuff. Getting back will be a true test - will I still be able to ride the thing?

Currently listening to - LCD Soundsystem - The Sound of Silver. Duh.

Labels: unicycles

This is where I am going to have one long ass post reviewing my experiences trying to learn how to unicycle over the past week and a half. I haven't written it yet, but when I do, sweet lord it will be awesome.

Labels: unicycles

The past two days have included some serious Unicycle time and some serious Unicycle progress. Still a ton of work to do, but I'm more hopeful now than ever. Tomorrow is a first meeting with out Unicycle guru. Yeah, you read that right...

Report Number: 5 (June 9th)
Days until DCM: 50
Progress: Starting to have some success with free mounting. Able to make extended runs without wall assistance. First two major falls.
Self Evaluation: A major milestone. I'm much farther along then I thought I ever would be.
Notes: What a day. Me, Pete and Eric were out there for 2 hours. Fell twice (to the ground) and have some serious cuts and bruises now. I'm at the point where I don't need a wall now - I mount from a wall or a pole and go off on my own. Had my longest runs thus far. I'm also close to cracking the code with free mounting I believe. Also, unicycling is far more addictive than I ever thought it would be.

Report Number: 4 (June 8th)
Days until DCM: 51
Progress: Able to traverse the length of a basketball court with a chain link fence nearby.
Self Evaluation: Dedicated to my craft, but not making a ton of forward progress.
Notes: This was my first time waking up before work to get some practice time in. Doing so really wiped me out later in the day. Very structured today. Did 50 wall assisted runs and attempted to free mount 20 times. Didn't notice major improvement over Tuesday.

Labels: unicycles

First Unicycle blood - not even sure how I did it.


Report Number: 3
Days until DCM: 53
Progress: Have my own unicycle and found a place to practice on my own.
Self Evaluation: Giving it my all, but it is slow going.
Notes: Found a good practice spot - an old abandoned tennis court. Happy to be working with my own unicycle. Working hard, but I don't fell like I've made a ton more progress from my first time on a unicycle.

Labels: unicycles

Snagged a cool pic of clouds and fog in the North End skyline.

I love the comedy group 'Olde English' and I love director Michel Gondry. Which makes this story really great.

Listening to: 'OK Computer' - Radiohead

Brace yourself for a Unicycle status update.

Report Number: 2
Days until DCM: 55
Progress: Able to practice by myself with an appropriate chain link fence handy.
Self Evaluation: Hopeful, but still have a long way to go.
Notes: Just happy to have gotten out there and popped my Unicycle cherry. Realy glad that Pete was around the first time I tried it out. It kept me from wasting time and prevented me from getting discouraged. Overall I would say that learning to ride a unicycle well is diffcult, but not impossible.

Odd Unicycle Fact - Patrick Dempsey of Grays Anatomy has Unicycle Experience.

Labels: unicycles

Remember how I bought a Unicycle? Well it was for this show that I was planning on doing with some friends from Neutrino called 'Uniprov'. It pretty much is what is sounds like - a long form improv show performed while riding unicycles. We don't talk about the unicycles, we just happen to be on them the whole time we are improvising. Crazy, huh?

Honestly, this whole thing has been like a joke taken way too far. First we started joking about it, then we gave it a name, then we all bought unicycles, and well, now there is no turning back. You see, in the process of real-life hightening we also decided to submit the show to this years Del Close Marathon - before we all knew how to ride unicycles. Last week we found out that we were accepted to the DCM - Saturday July 28th at 2:15 AM at the UCB theatre. Well, looks like I have some training to do.

With that in mind, here is my first Unicycle status update:

Report Number: 1
Days until DCM: 55
Progress: Never ridden a unicycle.
Self Evaluation: I'm not taking this seriously enough.
Notes: Still don't have my own working Unicycle. Expecting one Tuesday. Task seems daunting and nearly impossible.

Labels: unicycles

It sunk in today that I am going to be doing a whole lot of original comedy writing this summer. In fact, I think that to be able to get by I need to have the most prolific season of writing that I have had in my entire life. Kind of intimitading, but also kind of awesome. I'm really glad that I got back into the world of sketch writing thanks to Hot Dog quality last winter.

All of that, combined with the fact that I have to learn how to ride a Unicycle is going to result in one crazy ass summer. Bring it on!

I really want to update it. But I can't right now. That is all.