Friend a Day – Lauren Brabec
I don’t know how old Lauren was when she started coming to Dregs shows. I know she’s turning eighteen today and that freaks me out a little bit.
For along time, Lauren was just a kid who liked our music. Then she decided to try out for Vilification Tennis and I got to know her much better.
Think about this: she did an onstage tryout for an insult comedy show at the age of fourteen. And she won. That takes a tremendous amount of guts and no small amount of talent. She didn’t win because she was fourteen. She won because she did the best job on the stage that night.
Since then, she has continued to be a contributor to our cast. She doesn’t just contribute on stage. She helps come up with show ideas as well. I think it’s important that she’s become a part of our cast in every possible way.
She’s played the Chad/Lauren rocks more game with Chad for several years now and as an impartial observer, I have to say she has Chad beat. She regularly comes up with really original and clever ways to tell Chad he rocks more and all Chad can do is shake his head in defeat.
When someone is in a cast with a whole bunch of strong personalities who constantly give her crap for being the kid, it can be a challenge. That’s a tough position for anyone and weaker personalities would have given up. She doesn’t strike me as a quitter and that is a quality that will benefit her a great deal as she moves to the next part of her life.
Lauren is only eighteen. She has a lot more growing up to do but I’m impressed at how much growing up she has already done.
I’m glad that I’ve had the opportunity to watch Lauren grow into the young woman she is now. Lauren really does rock more.
Alphabetical Movie – Man on the Moon
I’ve been a fan of R.E.M. since college. They were a college band in the 80’s. I was a college student in the 80’s. It was a match that was simply meant to be.
They are one of the few bands I’ve seen in concert more than once.
What does this have to do with Man on the Moon, you ask?
Because R.E.M. should have an Oscar.
You see, the song “The Great Beyond,” which played over the closing credits of Man on the Moon, was written by the band specifically for the film and was not even nominated for an Oscar.
I bitch about the Oscars a lot but no more than the best song category because it is typically filled with the most idiotic music and at least four out of five years it will recognize a song that nobody will ever listen to again. The year “The Great Beyond” was ignored by the R.E.M. hating academy, they gave an Oscar to a song from “Prince of Persia.”
I presume the award was given because Disney hadn’t released a film with music that year. They had to give it to some animated movie so why not that one, right?
So a song by R.E.M. that was not only a great song but also a perfect song to punctuate the film that had just preceded it was ignored and a song from a crappy animated film got the award instead.
Friend a Day – Susanne Becker
Photo by Peter Verrant
I’ve known Suze since she was in Renaissance Festival academy and I was one of her instructors. For over ten years, the two of us have been in The Dregs together. We are the only two original members of the band left.
The first thing that anyone notices about her is her signing voice because it is amazing. She has a natural sense of pitch and tempo and nails every song the first time she sings it. It’s no wonder our audience requests her songs so frequently.
When Suze says she is going to do something for you, she will do it in a surprisingly creative way. Just recently I was looking for some feather fans to use in a performance bit. I wasn’t having any luck finding them so she just decided she was going to make them. And she did. And they were amazing.
I think that she’s at her finest when she is really excited about something. She brings all of her considerable energy to a project and makes it something special.
For someone who has a lot of fears, I give her a lot of credit for facing them. She hates puppets and still deals with a bunch of people waving them in her face. She allows those fears to be subservient to entertaining the audience and that takes a lot of courage.
When she is in top form, she is the best vilifier I’ve ever seen. She simply rules the stage. Nothing can stop her. At the top of her game, she has more stage presence than anyone I know.
She’s also been part of some other shows I’ve put together and she always shines when given the chance. She has a magnetism to her stage persona that makes her a worthwhile addition to anything I do. If I could use her in productions more often, I would.
As a friend, she is fiercely loyal and will stick up for a friend or a friendship with all of her considerable might.
I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know Suze over the years and I’m glad that she’s a part of The Dregs and of my life.
Friend a Day – Christopher Jones
Chris was one of those people who worked with me to start CONvergence. Before we began working on the convention, I don’t think we’d ever met. I think a lot of people assumed Chris and I had known each other for a long time because the two of us clicked from the very beginning.
Chris is a comic artist whose work has appeared in DC, Marvel, and a number of other imprints. His work as a visual storyteller is exceptional and he brought those skills to the convention as well. From the beginning, he was great at taking the disparate ideas the rest of us had and turning them into really great and iconic art for the convention.
He also created Connie, the convention mascot. That one small choice helped brand CONvergence in a way that I don’t think any other convention can match. That character has become the visual icon that ties the convention together.
In addition to his skills as an artist, he is a great public speaker and entertainer. He is personable and charming and never caught by surprise. I’ve asked him to guest at several Vilification tennis shows because he’s naturally comfortable on the stage and the audience loves him.
He’s been a frequent writing partner as well because the two of us really know how to get the best out of each other’s work. Our senses of humor complement each other well and I think some of my best work has come from him.
In the past few years, he has finally reached the point where he has been getting consistent work as a comic artist. It has been a long time coming for him and I am so pleased to see him enjoying more recognition for this talents.
I love to spend time with him when the time allows. Since we’ve stepped away from the CONvergence board, both of us have found ourselves far busier than we were before. Still, I never tire of the time I spend with him.
Chris is active on Twitter and Facebook and he has a website you can use to follow him everywhere. You really should!
Geeks Without God Talk about CONvergence
This year’s pre-CONvergence episode is a bit earlier than planned because of our 100th episode church extravaganza coming up in a couple weeks. Still, CONvergence represents our podcast’s second birthday and we can’t help but be a little bit excited to celebrate that blessed event once again.
Maybe I shouldn’t have used the word blessed.
The three of us spend this week’s episode talking about the panels we’re a part of and some of the other things about the con that have us excited.
We did three CONvergence episodes last year because we all really love the con. This year, we are holding ourselves to one. I hope you listen and enjoy!
Comedy Blog – Understanding Wyoming
I’m currently on vacation in Wyoming. We’ve been visiting Grand Teton National Park for the last few days and today we are traveling to Yellowstone.
If you are going to use this information to rob my house, please be aware that we have a house sitter, a burglar alarm, four attack cats, and a house full of shit you probably don’t want anyway.
Since we’ve arrived in Wyoming, we’ve found there are some things that are a little different out here in one of only two states that lacked the creativity to shape their state like something other than a rectangle.
The first thing I’ve noticed is that FOX News isn’t just a news station. It is the only TV news station there is. I looked up MSNBC on my hotel room directory it was listed. When I tried to punch in the numbers, however, the remote just laughed at me.
I don’t think everyone in Wyoming is a conservative. I just think everyone in Wyoming assumes that everyone else in Wyoming is a conservative.
Another concept that is different is the definition of “back yard.”
I have a back yard and it is quite small. Even when I’m using “back yard” to reference something close to my house, like say Cub Foods, I’m talking about someplace that is less than a mile from my home.
We ran into a family from Idaho having a picnic yesterday. They told us that the Grand Tetons were “in their back yard.”
The Grand Tetons are in a completely different state!
Friend a Day – Molly Glover
Photo by Peter Verrant
I’ve known Molly for just a few years and she’s already become one of my better friends. Sure, it helps we record a podcast together, perform together, and hang out with the same people.
Molly is one of the most open people I know. She doesn’t edit anything out of a conversation because it might make someone uncomfortable. I tend to be something of the opposite so I can’t help but appreciate the way she keeps everything on the surface.
She’s one of those people who is just naturally good at whatever she does. She’s a good performer, she’s a good writer, she’s a good improviser, she’s a good thinker. When I need to go to someone who I know can make something good happen, Molly is easily at the top of the list.
There is a meticulous nature to Molly that I wish I could copy. She keeps track of her life in a way that is amazing, especially given the packed calendar she has to manage. She always seems to know when there is a conflict.
That meticulous nature also explains her passion for proofreading. She gives me grief for typos, misspellings, and bad grammar because it is important to her. I accept it because I know she is giving me grief so I can do a better job.
When Molly tried out for Vilification Tennis, I was her coach. I already knew she was going to be a strong candidate but as I worked as her coach, I was impressed with how focused she was on doing well. Thing is, she could have done exceptionally well without the tremendous effort.
She doesn’t want to do “good enough,” though. She wants to do as well as she possibly can. She will always put in the greatest amount of effort possible to make sure a thing is done right.
I think Molly is naturally funny. She doesn’t have to try to be funny, she simply succeeds at being funny. If she actually tries to be funny, she is even better.
Molly is a great person who brings a lot of laughter to my life. I’m fortunate that she has become such a good friend.
Molly is involved in a lot of things. She is one of my co-hosts on Geeks Without God.
Putting it Together – What to Write?
I have a half-dozen writing projects going on right now when you consider blogging, Fringe shows, Big Fun Radio Funtime, Vermin, and random other sketches I said I would write.
I’m overwhelmed and at the same time, I’m pleased to have my life filled with what I want to be doing.
Sometimes, though, I have the hardest time figuring out what to put on the page. Take my comedy blogging, for instance.
Writing a comedy blog is, I think, very important for me. I’m a comedy writer and that means I need to write comedy. That makes sense.
Every week, though, I have the hardest time coming up with a topic for the comedy blog. I end up putting it off until the last minute because I don’t have any ideas. The term “comedy blog” is pretty broad. It means I can write about anything as long as I’m (trying to be) funny.
I’ve finally settled in to just asking myself what has happened over the last week and trying to come up with something funny to say about it. Have I been playing a video game a whole lot? Write a post about that!
Have I been thinking about my cats a lot? Write a post about that!
It never feels good enough to me, though. I fell like I’m crapping out on the whole idea because I’m not writing comedy about bigger and better things.
Friend a Day – George Herman
George had played King Henry for many years before I began working at the Renaissance festival. I’ve always played lower class characters so our opportunities to interact were limited.
With George, you needed to impress him and that wasn’t easy. He was a professional and he expected the people sharing the stage with him to be professionals as well. He raised the bar as far as what you as a performer were expected to do.
Years later, I became Assistant Artistic Director (AAD) at the Arizona Renaissance Festival, where George was also playing the king. He and his court had not had a pleasant relationship with their AAD from the previous year and when they heard another Minnesota person was coming to fill the job, they were concerned.
George, however, stepped in and said to them “don’t worry about it. I know this guy and he’ll do a good job for us.”
That statement made my job so much easier.
During my time in Arizona, I got to know George a lot better. When I was trying to take an unscheduled break, I’d drop by his trailer for a Coke.
George loves to tell stories. He has a lot of them and they are all interesting. When you are sitting in his trailer drinking a Coke, you get the chance to listen to a lot of them. It really helped me understand him a lot better. I don’t think I’d really understood him all that well prior to that winter.
He’s been retired for a while now and I don’t see him all that often. When I do, there’s always a smile and a handshake that reminds me I managed to impress him. That means something to me because he was never an easy man to impress.
One thing a lot of people don’t know about George is that he is a great painter as well as an actor. His portrait work is remarkable.
I think most people only knew George as the king and certainly that was a personality he cultivated. George is more than just King Henry, though, and I’m glad I got to know a little bit of the man beneath the crown.
Friend a Day – Emily Cook
Photo by Manna Jaeger
Sometimes you take a chance on someone and it pays off in a big way.
Emily tried out for Vilification tennis a few years ago and she got eliminated rather early. There was something about her, though, that made me decide to bring her into the cast anyway. She was a little raw but I saw a lot of potential.
Over the last few years, it has been good to say that my instinct was, in that situation, spot on. Emily has grown as a performer and it is good to see her moving in the direction of writing more both with Fearless and with some other projects.
Emily recently decided she was an atheist after a long time struggling with questions about her faith. I’m proud of her primarily because she chose to come out and talk about it publicly. Being an atheist wasn’t half so important as being willing to stand up and admit something that could have been painful.
In working with her on Vermin, I think her writing style is really starting to develop and she is very good at taking advice from the other writers on the team. That ability to swallow her ego to work as part of a group is essential to crafting the kind of show we are all working on together.
Socially, Emily is sassy and confident. She really manages to capture and hold your attention, which may have been one of the reasons I was willing to take that chance on her.
It is a treat to watch her grow into a better performer as she takes each step. She grows more confident in her abilities but she has never lost that desire to get good feedback on how to improve. She has just the right mix of cockiness and humility.
I’m glad I decided to give Emily a shot because the results have been great. She’s a terrific addition to our cast and to my life.
Grail Diary 