Good Day Sacramento and Squibs

Flip on your TVs....on Sunday. It's important I add "Sunday." Flip on your TVs Sunday, because Blacktop Comedy will be on Good Day Sacramento, talking about Teen Slasher, and depraved things you can find in the show. Last time Good Day came to Blacktop we talked about fun and silly improv games you can play. Oh improv! So much happiness and joy. Well, usually. This time around it's about the blood.

We'll be teaching Good Day Sacramento how you make an affordable blood packet. Teen Slasher is a bloody show, but we realized very quickly and audience doesn't want us just running out and dumping a bucket of blood on them. We needed a more elegant blood adding solution, something that would get the audience excited.

Enter the Squib! It's capitalized because they're invaluable awesomeness. Squibs are packets of blood set to explode onstage and on camera when the audience is watching.

Most actors and actresses don't really want to be shot or bleed on camera, so squibs play the o' so important role of making that murder look real. They can become expensive though. When we first thought about using them in Teen Slasher we were priced out pretty quickly. They sure looked amazing, but we didn't have the money. Mix in technology, and squib triggers, and you can begin spending quite a bit on squibs.

Horror fans, and Halloween aficionados rejoice, because we figured out how to make squibs for cheap. Very cheap. Like 10 cents a squib cheap. We improvised a solution. Of course, you'll be setting them off manually in your hands, but our Rocklin audience at Blacktop doesn't mind. In fact, a blood squib works great for an improv show, because you're not really sure where they're going to "shoot" when you squeeze.

Over the past four years of performing Teen Slasher, the blood has gone everywhere. The record is 30 feet. Pretty impressive for a tiny little bag of blood. Just make sure and use blood that washes out. Very important.

Interested in learning how to create a squib? We have a tutorial on Youtube. And, be sure to turn on CW31 Sunday morning when Betsaida, Jordan, Cristian, Chris and Paul and the Good Day reporter will be making squibs and using them live at Blacktop Comedy. It's going to be fun.

Betsaida makes some Squibs!

Saddest Songs in the World. Stop It!

*I don't think I've posted about this topic. If I have, I hope I say something unique that makes you think, "this rant and tip sounds fresh and new!"*

Music is everywhere, and I can't control it. Lobbies, restaurants, waiting rooms....everywhere, and I can't turn down that bad song, or turn up that really great song. This might just be a hypersensitive guy talking, but sometimes it feels like there's a goal out there to play the 50 Saddest Songs of All Time. "Coming up next at Panera Bread, the top 40 sad songs that'll make you cry." Ahh, please. Is there a solution? Can I have a solution? (I actually have a solution...but I'm creating dramatic tension.)

(Hold it......)
(Hooooooooolldd it............)
(Now!)

Well, fortunately, I do have a solution, and I hope it helps you if you're finding yourself, "I get it One Republic. Life has challenges."

Create an audio cocoon. Fight back with your own bubble of awesome!. Whenever I'm at a restaurant, I place my phone down next to the free bread (you don't have free bread at your restaurant? Find a new restaurant! I won't pay for my carbs!). I'm not setting the phone there to prepare for the latest Facebook Snapchat Tweet. No! I'm setting the phone there to prepare for the inevitable Ed Sheeran and Adele. Steel yourself against the onslaught of woe! When you hear the first beats of Coldplay, grab that phone, open up Spotify, Songza, or Amazon Music, and start that emergency playlist of good music.

IN CASE OF DEPRESSING BEATS BREAK GLASS AND HIT PLAY

Break it! And crank up the volume. Crank it up loud enough to battle back the garbage. You've just created a dome of happy at your table. You're sitting, safe and sound....good sounds! Be careful not to turn the volume up too loud. You don't want to disturb the person sitting at the table beside you. They might be enjoying the music over the restaurant sound system (I don't know how they could either. But, it's possible.)

I do this all the time...much to the chagrin and eye roll of whomever I'm sitting with. Well, I might not have the respect of the person I'm sitting across from, but at least I have good music.

P.S. I actually had to listen to other music while linking these songs. I think I might be a little too sensitive

P.P.S. I know you could just buy a pair of headphones, and be less dramatic then my suggestions. But! Think of the person sitting at the table! You still want to have a conversation. 

P.P.P.S. They might not want to converse with you anymore though. It's the risk we sound-phobes face everyday!

Habits and Improv Autopilot

Comedy loves patterns. Rule of three. In improv we love patterns. In improv we're looking for the game....what can we heighten!

Outside of improv, however, how often are you looking for patterns? I'm trying to find them, because I have quite a few. I know I can disengage and slip into autopilot.  Patterns and habits can offer solutions, but it also feels like this personal fog. I'm pretty skilled at making it through a day, accomplishing a lot, but not being present. Autopiloting. That's not really an accomplishment. In fact, it's pretty terrifying I drift away like that. What patterns do you engage in every day? Why do you do that thing you do?

Habits are helpful, it would be a little daunting and overwhelming to think through everything completely before taking action. We'd probably never be able to get to work.

This morning, before heading to work in Sacramento I noticed I mindlessly locked the window....on the second floor. I agree, it's minor, but why do it? I do it everyday. I don't want someone to break into my house. That's why I do it. That's why I habitually lock doors (sometimes I check 3 times. I have some mild OCD. It used to be very un-mild and debilitating. Phew. Thankfully that's behind me). I'm really worried I'm going to lose something. I lock the doors and windows because I want to be secure.

Everything means something more. Everything we do in life means something more. I think the same can be true for onstage. In fact, if we pause to notice the things our characters do, we'll discover a lot of truth, without having to make up anything.

When you wash a cup onstage (because there seems to be an endless supply of dirty dishes), do you place the dish in the cupboard (there's a lot of storage space in improv houses too)? Wait! You didn't dry that dish!? Why didn't you dry that dish! That's interesting. Don't you think so? You could think so. What does that mean? Why do you do that? There's a lot there. I'm curious about it, you can be curious about it to. You're the one who made the choice. I want to respect your choice onstage. You should listen to your habits onstage too. We can turn off the autopilot.

I'm not lecturing.....I'm reminding myself to turn of the autopilot too. :)