NaNoMusical

Be warned: things are about to get real mushy real fast.  Currently, it’s been a few hours since Episode 5 was released.  Errol is still madly editing Episode 6, which is turning out to be a massive episode.  The whole insane project is winding down to a close and soon we won’t have to think much about deadlines, ADR or too little film footage.  It’s hard to believe that just six months ago Errol came up to me and asked in his excited voice “Do you want to write a musical together?!”.  This is the first time I’ve tried anything on this scale and I get dizzy just thinking about it.

This post is difficult to begin…so I think I’ll talk a bit about failure. Continue reading →

I’m worried I’m that guy.

That guy that tells you his one fishing story about how he caught that fish. You don’t really know much about fishing, and you don’t even know how you got involved in the conversation, but here you are, listening to that story, about that same fish.

But I can’t help myself. As some of you know, I write the Nanotoons with Debbie Ohi, and last year, I drew a nanotoon and mentioned Neil Gaiman. He tweeted it and this threw me into such a fanboy frenzy that I needed to blog about it.

Ever since then, I wanted to write a song about this experience! I know some of you have had him tweet or retweet your tweets, and I know some of you have felt the same elation. It’s exciting! He spent time actually writing a four word sentence about me! This is utterly cool and no one in my family really understands it, but I knew Wrimos would.

So when I wrote this musical, I needed to write the song “Neil Gaiman Tweeted Me”. Why? Because I knew you could relate! I knew you would know the joy!

Yes, I have had some people ask me who Neil Gaiman was but  my spirit was not crushed. And it also helps that I know I have something in common with him: I know Jon Singer too. 😀

During shows, almost everyone gets sick.  It’s a fact of life.  You rehearse or perform for hours on end with the same group of people, experiencing high stress and little sleep, your immune system is going to suffer and then make everyone elses’ suffer in turn.  Being an unpaid actor who has no hope of ever getting an understudy makes this even more miserable to endure.  Most productions I’ve often had to fight off the show sickness, telling my body that it just has to hold out for two more weeks then it can be as sick as it wants.  And more often than not, it does, with a vengeance.  Continue reading →

During the filming of NanoWrimo the Musical I had a lot of fun. There was lots of laughing, silly times and line flubs. That you all expect. What they don’t tell you is that you get injured. In my case, 3 times! They didn’t tell me that might happen.

The first time was just before the shooting of the second day of ukulele shooting. I was at home in my bedroom and too lazy to get up and close the door, so I leveraged it shut from the inside…and crushed my index finger. It hurt – way too much! I screamed and cried like a baby for an hour, occasionally blubbering “but I have to play the ukulele tomorrow!!!” This is where the movie magic happens – I did wave my hand in front of the ukulele, but if you’re good you’ll notice that those are the close- up shots of Jill…

Injury number 2: Stubbing my toe on Manda’s bathroom tile and bleeding on her floor. Any episode set in Val’s apartment you can imagine my stoic acting.

Injury number 3: Well, this isn’t an injury really – but I also got sick. I sounded like Kathleen Turner and coughed after lots of takes. It was super glamorous. If you really pay attention, you’ll hear my voice change from episode to episode…. It was all Luke’s fault, as you’ll see in episode 4!

See? There’s things they don’t tell you when you sign up to shoot a musical! All that said – I would do it again. But I’d insist on an insurance plan!

Random note: After episode 2 aired, I had a lot of people asking me (with incredulous looks) “Do you really play ukulele?!”  

The answer to that question – if you were wondering – is “Oh God no! That was someone much more talented than I!”

Then I would tell them a little bit about the magic of movies….