In case you were not aware, some of the greatest comedians of our time were gathered in Chicago this weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Second City…
Second City is considered the Harvard of comedym and almost everyone involved in comedy for the past 35 years is an alum or is in some way related to the famous comedy school.
(For example, I studied improv in New York at Chicago City Limits, which is an offshoot of Second City.)
Anyway, it’s exciting and it must have been quite a fun party!
You can see pictures from the event if you become a fan of their Facebook Page…
An NPR article states:
“From the beginning, The Second City has always been an unparalleled incubator of talent, launching the careers of a who’s who of Hollywood, television and Saturday Night Live stars: Alan Arkin, Paul Sand, Barbara Harris, Fred Willard, Robert Klein, Peter Boyle, Joan Rivers, Harold Ramis, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Eugene Levy, Tim Kazurinsky, Mary Gross, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, Martin Short, George Wendt, Shelly Long, Bonnie Hunt, Mike Myers, Chris Farley, Tim Meadows, Steve Carell, Steven Colbert, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Horatio Sanz and many, many more.”
I posted an event in Los Angeles a couple days ago, so I figured I would pass on another event for those of you on the Right Coast (as opposed to the Left Coast)
I have been a fan of the Hillary Step for over 10 years and they are playing out this week! I regularly play them on my radio show on KJAK and am very excited because they will be releasing a new album soon! I will not be in town, but I highly recommend you check them out if you are in New York on the 15th!
When: Tuesday, December 15th @ 8:15 in the PM
Who: The Hillary Step – Rob Schiffmann & Jon Rothstein
Where: Caffé Vivaldi, 32 Jones St. (Bleecker, near 7th Av), New York City
How to get there: 1 to Christopher Street or A,B,C,D,E, F, V to West 4th Street
Here’s their message:
Ladies & Gentlemen, Friends and Family, Gig Card Holders and Future Gig Card Holders,
A chilly midweek greetings from The Hillary Step! Although the ‘cold’ tends to be an excellent (if somewhat overused) songwriting metaphor for emotional distance and inner angst, ultimately, it’s just a pain in the most annoying of places. We hope you are having good and warm days.
This coming Tuesday, December 15th @ 8:15 in the PM, The Hillary Step will be performing at Caffé Vivaldi…that’s an extra ‘F’ for extra “Funk” or ‘Fun’ or ‘Freshnocity” (depending on your personal taste). Caffé Vivaldi is located at 32 Jones St.. There ain’t no cover charge…just a tip jar. So bring your tippy-tips! Along for the ride on this gig will be Greg Hopkins jinglin’ the 6-string, Ale Devries poundin’ the skins and Rachel Dart singin’ the pretties and shakin’ the shakies. Special guest Annie Schiffmann will chime in on a ditty or two as well.
If you have your Gig Card, make sure to bring it to get your second hole punched. Did that sound weird? If you have not already been given a Gig Card, come to this show and you will get your own personal Gig Card with one of five holes punched in it! Once you get to five holes punched, you will get a free Hillary Step show in the location of your choosing for you and your friends / family / pets / neighbors / appliances.
LASTLY, to tease your Hillary Step desires, we have posted another preview of a song, from our upcoming CD, on our website / facebook / myspace. The song is called “Well Anyway” and features lyrics which include the above-mentioned songwriting metaphor. See if you can spot it. Check out the tune and email us with a comment!
See you all on Tuesday @ the slightly odd time of 8:15pm!
I received this invitation from my friend Ruby Lopez. She and I did several Flash Forwards (along with a number of other Suzanne Lyon’s workshops).
I will not be in Los Angeles on the 15th, so I will not be able to attend, but I figured I would pass it on to you, my readers.
I think a lot of Flash Forward alums are going to show up, and if so, this is definitely worth going to. All the people I met through FF are wonderful and very good at networking and being strategic about their careers.
If you go, have fun and post your experiences here in the comments section!
DATE: TUESDAY, DEC. 15, 2009
LOCATION: THE BUNGALOW CLUB — MELROSE
7174 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90046
Six Degrees is about networking with other professionals in the Film, TV, Music and New Media industries. Everything in entertainment is interrelated. You could be a director looking for an actor, agent or composer for your movie. Or a producer looking for a web marketing expert for a webisode. Or a screenwriter looking for an agent or manager. Come and join us in our monthly meetup events and meet other industry professionals in a fun, casual setting.
FYI: There’s street parking if you get there early. Otherwise, there’s valet.
Looking forward to seeing you there! Please rsvp and bring as many guests as you want.
Thank you! Happy Holidays!
FYI: I’ve extended the invitation to two additional industry related meetup groups. So, it’s sure to be a great turnout!
I mentioned earlier this week that I shot a series for Halloween on NAZ Today about The Ghosts of Flagstaff.
I have the clips but I have not able to upload them so I’m just going to send you to the site for now. I will probably upload them to YouTube soon so that you don’t have to sit through the whole show (fascinating as it may be).
The most interesting story for me was the Weatherford Hotel, not because of the stories as much as because something very weird came up in the footage.
There are these two black misty clouds that move through a wall from background to foreground and then out of frame.
At first I thought that it was my camera technique, but when I looked at it a few times and showed other people, I was left wondering it perhaps we did see SOMETHING paranormal (and so were they…)
If you watch, please leave your comments and let me know what you think. (about the black mist, the stories, the shooting, etc…)
Just letting you know I shot a got to shoot a series of packages for NAZ Today on the Ghosts of Flagstaff to celebrate Halloween…
I don’t have the links yet… I will post them soon…
Might be able to post the clips here. Had a lot of fun shooting this one! Though those pesky ghosts gave me a bit of technical trouble on the editing end (which is apparently what ghosts do and one of the ways they impact the physical world.)
I have been going through a number of director reels right now and I have a sample of three reels that I would like your feedback on…
The first belongs Jake Barsha of Right Hook Films. I have worked with Jake and I really love his reel… especially the visual quality of it… It’s sexy and has great visual quality (reminds me of a music video). The thing is that we never hear the actors interacting (except for the very end), which is a big part of directing.
The second reel belongs to my friend Jeremy Feig. His reel mostly contains clips with dialogue. I like this because you get a sense of the story and the transactions between the actors.
Third, is my reel. It’s been a “rough cut” for the last year, but now that I have a bit more access to better editing programs (and have become a better editor myself) I’m feeling compelled to redo this…
I would love feedback on how to make my director reel better… (and I’m sure my readers would like that, too!)
Do I add more music? Keep it with dialogue only? Make it more flashy? Playful?
I’ve been tempted to “front” the reel myself… shoot a “hello” intro… What do you think of that idea?
A lot of actor reels do this, and I like it because it puts a face to the material (something that most director reels don’t have).
But is that unnecessary?
Dunno.
I also didn’t add the “Grey Street” music video. I feel it is actually one of my best productions, but it is also a bit violent and I don’t want to repel anyone (Jake’s video is awesome but it’s also a bit violent for me at the end).
Additionally, do I jump genres too much? I know I go from commercial to comedy to drama. I’m really most interested in comedy, so I don’t want to give the impression that I’m aiming for horror or drama (not that I can’t do that, but I have a luke warm feeling toward drama and horror down-right repels me now. I won’t take jobs that are for horror movies.)
Soooo………..that’s why I’m asking you for feedback.
I encourage you to leave comments below. And please add links to YOUR film website, blog and especially to your own director or acting reel.
If I get one or several cool reels, I will maybe do an entire post to highlight them.
I’m not sure this is really an appropriate place to post this, given that it has little to do with filmmaking, but I figured I would do so anyway.
It might help some of you out because, like myself, I know that a lot of my readers are artists in many different regards… filmmakers, writers, painters, musicians… and I want to get the word out.
I am a DJ at KJAK 1680am that broadcast (live streaming) around the globe on the Internet at www.kjack.org.
We also have a video feed there where you can watch me in the booth.
Anyhoo, my current shift is on Fridays, 5pm-6:30pm ARIZONA TIME!!!!
ARIZONA is the rebel state (along with Hawaii) when it comes to Daylight Savings time. We don’t change our clocks… which means we are the same time as California in the summertime (Pacific Time) and the same time as Colorado in the winter time (Mountain Time).
So right now my show starts at 8pm for those of you on the East Coast, but it will be 7pm between November 1, 2009 and March 14, 2010.
The other reason I am posting is because I am requesting that musicians and comedians send CDs of their material. We are interested in recent material… The Copyright date should be 2009 or we probably won’t put it in our rotation.
Comedy is less likely to make it into the rotation, but I have a special affection for it, so I can play it on my shift.
All material should be clean… no swear words or anything that the FCC would raise an eyebrow about. (The general rule at the station is “when in doubt, don’t play it”, so keep it as clean as possible.)
Here is the address:
KJack Radio
Leslie Lello
Northern Arizona University
School of Communication
PO BOX 5619
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
This one is just Matt Stone and Lloyd Kaufman, taped in April 2006.
I love this one because he gets more into the business of it. Still funny, too.
“Just keep going. Forget about that. Just do something and keep doing something new…”
