The Comedy Life of Brian

It is tough to take all of those online campaign songs seriously but I've finally found two videos that accurately sum up today's political climate.





I think one of these is intentionally funny, and one is not. Readers - can you guess which one is which?

Labels: comedy, election

Wading through my Google alerts this morning I came across some mega-praise for 'The Raw Harold' a UCB NY class show featuring friend, associate, and regular Smash Brothers opponent Greg DeSantis. Wish I could have made it out to one of these shows, but alas - such activity is not in the cards for me right now.

Labels: comedy

Something unexpected came up recently, and it is time that I wrote about it. I'm intentionally leaving out some specifics below, as I don't want to step on anyone's toes.

So a few weeks ago I was in Las Vegas on my honeymoon. The trip was great, but I wasn't able to unplug from the real world as much as I should have. In the middle of that, I got word of people quite adamantly trying to track me and my friend Greg down. Eventually they got a hold of Greg's sister. They got to us through a domain registrar so my guess was that they wanted to buy the rights to a domain we held. I was in no rush to deal with that, especially on my honeymoon.

Turns out that wasn't exactly the case. The reason that they got to us through Greg's sister based on info from a domain registration was because they were having trouble tracking us down. No offense if any of the trackers are reading, but I find that to be a little baffling - as far as I am concerned there is quite a bit of information on me floating around the web. My personal web site comes up #3 if you Google my name for example. Anyway...

The reason they were really after us was a bit of a surprise. They represented a production company and they were interested in optioning the rights to an old project of ours. Turns out that they had stumbled upon the Home Depot challenge in college when it was a bit of a buzz on the web, and the idea stuck with them. One of them apparently even went as far as printing out my journal from the bet and kept it on their bookshelf to revisit at a later date. I found that both amazing and super flattering.

So after putting our heads together, Greg and I made a day trip to meet with them. They ended up being reasonable guys who we could relate to for a variety of reasons. Also in the good news category, their specific idea for the project was interesting and most importantly they seemed to genuinely be excited about the material.

So a bunch of boring business bullshit followed, and eventually Greg and I agreed to option the rights to the concept. Regardless of what comes out of this, that is a major milestone for both of us considering that we both have goals to continue to grow our creative careers. It is entirely possible that nothing more will come out of the project. At the same time, it isn't an impossibility that this could develop into something tangible - and that would be good times. Regardless of any 'final' outcome we support the people who are taking a shot at moving this project forward and wish them the best of luck.

If there are any future updates fit to print, I'm on it. At some point, I'm sure I will have an opportunity to flesh out some more details.

Labels: comedy

Hey, I've got a new headshot. Thanks goes out to Neil Reynolds for Neil Reynolds-ing the shit out of it.

In other news, Super Smash Brothers Brawl was released this week, and I have it in my possession. As a result, all plans for productivity are now a distant memory. See you guys in 13 months or so.

Labels: comedy, General

Thursday: IB Opening!



Friday: Harold Night with Rondo!

Labels: comedy, events

An episode of 'This American Life' has a great segment about headline pitch meetings for The Onion. It starts about 5 minutes in.

Labels: comedy

The bad news - I'm going to be spending the bulk of this weekend working on a couple of creative projects that I am embarrassingly behind on. The good news - the stars have aligned and I'm extra inspired today.

I'm not sure exactly what caused this spark. It is probably a bunch of things. Last night was my first night as an audience member and a performer at the new ImprovBoston. There were absolutely a few challenges and struggles (soundproofing anyone?) and overall I think that everyone is still trying to figure the new space out. But that same streak of chaos gives the exciting feeling that for a few weeks -anything- could happen at ImprovBoston. And the future of Harold night and the Harold program is an extremely exciting prospect.

A much simpler form of inspiration is this interview with Michael Showalter I read this morning.

Ok. Back to work.

Labels: comedy

Having a tough day? Listen to this MP3 of the isolated vocal track for Van Halen's 'Runnin' With The Devil'. That should cheer you up.

Labels: comedy, Music

Just stumbled upon the site for Boston News Net - a new weekly news show at the new ImprovBoston. The site and the show is still in the preview stages, but I've got to say I'm impressed with what they are working on. The technical elements are impressive, but what I'm most excited about is that it looks like they plan on streaming each weeks show online. I'm jealous that they are the first people out of IB to do that. I will be following the progress of this show for sure.

There is so much stuff developing at IB right now its hard to even keep up. Adventure!

Labels: comedy

I would have without question flown out to LA to see The State reunite. All someone had to do was tell me before tickets sold out...

Seriously, how did I miss this?

Labels: comedy

I've said it before and I will say it again - I still like Tom Green. I thought this highlight reel from his short-lived late night talk show was pretty interesting.

Labels: comedy

With ImprovBoston moving out of their theater space in Inman Square I was really surprised that I never that emotional feeling that I expected at last shows and sendoffs. Well, I found the thing that did it for me.



This empty basement holds some memories for me. And it looks -strange- with nothing in it.

Photo ganked from Will Luera's facebook profile. Thanks Will.

Labels: comedy

Word is breaking that the idea of an Arrested Development movie is kicking around. Rumors have made the rounds before, but with the show having a solid second life on DVD and Michael Cera and Jason Bateman having some success on the big screen lately, it seems at least possible.

I'd love to see it happen, but I fear the unstoppable beast that is high expectations.

Labels: comedy

The Boston Globe covers IB's upcoming move. Is it February 15th yet?

Labels: comedy

ImprovBoston is moving and the move is generating quite a bit of excitement. Ray's blog post on the topic captures it pretty well.

I'm going to try to check in with some more thoughts of my own this weekend.

Labels: comedy

I suppose if I didn't write about this, I'd have no right to continue having a blog.

This past Sunday was the The 'Complete History of ImprovBoston, Abridged' show. It was a wonderful review of IB history from way back in IBs 25 year history all the way up to IB's most recent showcase show. By some stroke of luck (translation - Eric Mill) 'Uniprov' the Unicycle improv show I worked on this summer with Eric Mill, Manny Hernandez and Pete Fenzel was to have a 3 minute surprise slot.

So after a long day of workshops, rehearsals, and unicycle riding that started at noon, I slipped in the theater a little bit after the start of the 9 PM show. After watching some of the excellent show, the four of us caught up downstairs and thought through our appearance. It was kind of formal and conversational, but we came to the conclusion that we'd storm the stage during our slot as if we were literally taking over the show. We'd explain that we were going to perform for the rest of the night, get a suggestion from the audience, and start improvising. As the 3 minutes went on, the plan was that someone was going to fake an injury. That person would most likely be Pete Fenzel. Then some people would attend to his fake injury and others would instead try to keep the show going and play through it. This would reach the conclusion of either a uniprov 'breakup' or an awkward ending.

We all should have went out and bought lottery tickets.

So our time comes to enter the stage. We come out with huge energy (maybe too big) and the crowd is on our side faster than any of the past uniprov experiences. We did about a scene and a quarter and then shit got out of control.

From my perspective I turned around and saw that Eric had fallen off his unicycle and was on the ground along the back wall. The air was clearly taken out of the room. I assumed that Eric decided to be the one who faked the injury, so according to plan I awkwardly tried to power on with the show. While onstage I started to question things though. I saw Eric's girlfriend MB onstage which clearly wasn't part of the plan. But then Eric came to and was saying things that only the stereotype of a man who knocked him out would say - 'where am I', 'I don't remember anything'. Next MB said 'If this is a joke I'm going to fucking kill you guys' - that made me question reality again. Keep in mind that while all this is going on I'm still trying to improvise on a Unicycle.

Then I came to the realization that it was real. MB and someone else (Manny possibly) picked Eric up to take him offstage. Below Eric on the ground were sizable puddles of blood. At that point I basically went into shock. I think we 'finished' the slot. The show went on after us, and the audience was seriously spooked. I wandered downstairs absolutely shocked. All I could think of was the fact that while my friend Eric was pretty seriously hurt I was trying to keep a show going, improvising about cupcakes. Sure, it wasn't my fault that I was in that position, but I felt horrible.

Most of the time following I was just wandering around with no idea what was going on or what to do. I recall flashes of clarity though. I checked to see if they had called an ambulance for Eric. They did. I found out what was going on with the Neutrino set that was supposed to follow (who cares - is Eric OK?). As the ambulance pulled away I caught up with Manny outside. He said that he was heading over to the hospital. I was embarrassed, amongst the insanity I hadn't even thought of that. We let Pete know and we all headed over to the hospital.

The hospital was really strange. I hate them to begin with. Thankfully Eric was OK. No concussion. All the doctors were confident that he didn't need a cat scan. After a couple of hours at the hospital we headed out and I took everyone home. We saw Jason Haas on the way home and were able to give him the scoop that Eric was OK. I got back around 3 AM Monday morning and sent some emails before going to bed to tie up some loose ends.

So I don't think we will ever improvise on Unicycles again, helmet or no. I'd like to keep riding for pleasure though - I realized at I'm still pretty good at it and I really enjoy it. It is really strange to thing that after hearing all through this project how dangerous what we were doing was (and ignoring it) that everyone was right . I wish it just didn't take a head trauma for us to realize that.

The other noteworthy thing was how much this reinforced how much I care about the uniprov guys and the IB community in general. The whole night was a really fucked up bonding experience for Me, Eric, Pete, Manny and MB. I was reminded of the fact that these guys are really great friends of mine who I care about a great deal. And IB in general was very supportive - amazing understanding when the incident happened, and extremely caring afterward.

I'm a lucky guy. I should be safer and protect my damn head so I can enjoy it.

Labels: comedy, head trauma

Rachel Rosenthal snapped a cool picture of me hanging out and watching the 'History of IB' show last night. It took place before things got a little crazy - I need to write about that...

Labels: comedy

Speaking of my birthday, this morning brought the following birthday greeting from the ever awesome Will Luera to one of the IB email lists:

"What doesn’t the man do? Seriously, he gets married while still committed to at least three shows. He does improv on unicycles. He records his farts at 3:30am for our amusement. The man is a monster.

Happy Birthday Brian Perry!"

Don't get me wrong, it was very nice, but it also made me think for a minute. From my eyes, the above statement gets me an odd mix of flattered and scared.

That's too much thinking for my birthday though. I got a lot of warm wishes from great people today and it makes me very very happy.

OK - Now I'm playing Mario Galaxy for real.

Labels: comedy, personal

Help me in raising $1000 to move ImprovBoston to a new home! Donate to the IB Capital Campaign.

My Mom already donated - shouldn't you?

Labels: comedy

Hey - this is my 100th Blog Post here!

Here's another one of the videos I directed for the Wasteland Comedy Hour. Yes, I really did wake myself up for 3 nights at 3 AM. Yes, I really did fall asleep while filming. Yes, I really did film this 2 weeks after getting married. And yes, I am an awful person.

Labels: comedy

Kevin Allison of the State impersonating the lead singer of the B-52s? Yes please.

Labels: comedy

The Wasteland Comedy Hour has come to a close. I'm totally going to write more about my awesome experience with this amazing show, but in the meantime I'm going to post a sketch I've been meaning to put up here. It's "Cat Password" and it features my real cat. Isn't he great?

Labels: comedy

Was led to New York Magazine's 20 Funniest Web Videos of 2007 since David Wain's web series was on there, but I'm going to check some of these other videos out at a later date. Some stuff is pretty common and boring, but looks like a good mix of quality stuff as well. And it also includes things that I have wanted to see but never got around to, like Wainy Days.

Labels: comedy

October 10th and 17th at ImprovBoston. Check out:

The Trailer:



Episode 1:



Sorry for the brevity. Kinda busy nowadays.

Labels: comedy, Doc Severinsen

Credit goes to Lynn Wilcott for the awesome pic.

Labels: comedy

So this morning I'm out at 10 AM to unicycle. I go to my favorite lot by my house (after a pretty decent spill on the way over) and even though it is 10 AM on a Sunday, there is still a decent amount of activity in the lot for some reason. It quickly becomes apparent that I should head over to my backup lot, so I hop on my unicycle and head in that direction. About halfway through a van parks and as I approach it, the doors open to expose an Asian family with young kids. At that moment I get to hear the following amazing quote:

Look daddy, it's a clown!

I thought about it for a while, and while I'm sure the kid meant something else he was surprisingly right on target.

I still wish I had even more time for it, but recently I've been doing a lot of writing and also learning how to write in a screenplay format. Through that I stumbled upon the concep of a 'Show Bible' - basically the rules for a television series. Interesting concept and it is not surprising that such a thing exists. Oddly enough the bible examples that are the easiest to find are the ones about 80s cartoons. Like these:

Masters of The Universe Bible

Transformers Bible

I'm tired with no end in sight. Where you at sleep?

Labels: comedy, unicycles, writing

Please consult the post title. Thank you.

'The State' was a sketch show on MTV in the 90's. Without it I wouldn't have gotten on stage, I wouldn't have started writing sketches, I wouldn't have started doing improv, and if you really want to go for a big chain of events type thing, I wouldn't have learned to Unicycle. Depending on your personal view, you may be thanking 'The State' or cursing them right now.

In any case, I find it interesting how much of an impact this inactive group and their very active members can still have on me today. Tonight I read an article on The State reflecting on The State (PDF) and I found the whole deal very inspiring. I encourage you to do the same thing. Things like that really help me understand why I spend so much (possibly too much) time and effort on this whole comedy thing. The State is a prime example of how talented people can find success on their own terms - and I just need to remind myself sometimes that I truly believe in that concept, no matter how painful it may be at times.

The State MTV Series is coming out on DVD in October. You bet I'm taking a day off when that hits stores.

Final note - I saw The Walsh Brothers for the first time last night. They were extremely funny, and seemed like really nice guys. I'm going to try to give them some Fringe festival tips. I wonder if they know what they are in for...

Labels: comedy

Over the past week or so got a mini site online for Dos Personas, the duo improv project that Sarah McLean and I have been working on. Going through some festival submission formalities with it. Not a ton there, but does have some promo pics and a three part video of one of our shows. Enjoy.

Labels: comedy, improv

Well, not really, but it seemed like a good title after the last post...

Tonight was the last night of the first run of Improv Asylum house team shows. Felt like a decent show for the team, but not our best (we kicked huge amounts of ass last week). Personally I felt a little stiff again. Just like where I was at the start of the run, I'm really hungry to get back out there again and keep going. I really want to be able to consistently play well and feel comfortable in the IA style of show. Don't feel like Im there yet, but it was a good experience in any case. Next run starts in May - bring it.

Maybe this was the end of an era after all. Sanjaya was voted off American Idol. Noooooooo!!!

Labels: comedy, Sanjaya

Guess who bought a Unicycle tonight? Hint - it was me. Feast your eyes on the glory.

I left the folllowing comment with the order:

"I am excited to enter the amazing world of unicycling. Thank you for helping with this major turning point in my life."

Comments from Kim - "Unicycles will crush yout balls." Amen.

Labels: comedy, unicycles

Greg pleasantly reminded me and the Scotland Six today of the hilarity that is just Joan. Just Joan is a Scottish advice column and you simply must read it - you can thank me later.

Labels: comedy

I'm digging in my heels to finish up a couple of show proposals tonight for the upcoming IB season. For those playing at home, the show concepts are:

'Talk Explosion with Travis McKnight' and 'Doc Sevrenson and the Short Range Time Machine'

Gonna be tight - we will see how it shakes out. Wish me luck.

Labels: comedy

So far this video has been cursed - played without sound, cut from a show due to time. Let me know what you think.

Labels: comedy, video

Damn! The SNL digital short during last Saturday's show with Rainn Wilson was an idea that I had a few weeks ago and wanted to shoot. Mine was going to be a bunch of quick cut shots of various different Brian personas around my house. They had various different personas around a board room table. If I did it now, it would look pretty cheesy. Maybe if I wait until this whole SNL thing blows over...

Labels: comedy

I had an audition today and I felt really good afterwards. Sometimes I'm second guessing things afterwards and replaying moments in my head, but today I just feel happy. It is nice. Boston be treating me well.

Jim Gaffigan tomorrow!

Listening to: Band of Horses

Labels: comedy

In general, tonight was a nice night (following a pretty nice day and a decent night last night). I was reminded at various times that I was glad to have moved to MA. Here are some of those reasons:

* After the completion of my Improv Asylum level 3 class, I went to grab a quick drink with everyone in class. We only had to walk a block.
* People were talking about going to a bar down the street to do an open mic.
* I ran into one of my Improv Asylum instructors on the T and had a decent conversation.
* All of the above was happening on a Monday night.
* It was nice taking the T in the snow (and not having to drive inro boston).
* I did a sketch show last night.

Well, I guess I didn't make a very good case there. I also got some proof headshots back - and I like how they turned out. Take my word for it, I'm enjoying MA (including work, not considering the fact that I have to wake up tomorrow morning).

I still owe some recap on few good shows I had recently - Miami and Hot Dog Quailty. Maybe tomorrow. No one is reading this anyway...

Listening to: my cat pur.

Labels: comedy, General