#141 A win for us
Slide. Bread. Hats. Delay.
20 NOVEMBER 2024
Greetings from Graz where the mighty Schlossberg rises 473m above sea level in the middle of town and has a slide that took me 34.2 seconds to ride down.
I’m having an amazing time with Theater im Bahnhof - their company has been going since 1989 and still with most of the original members. There are THREE generations of artists running around the theatre. I love love love it. What an inspirational way to spend your life - creating art with a trusted team that become family.
There’s something special in the air here, you feel it immediately.
I’ll be taking a huge amount of inspiration home with me as I continue to think about how I want to build the ethos of the Pretend Company.
Rule of three
[Slide] The Schlossberg slide
Didn’t you read what I said above? It’s a SLIDE through the middle of a freaking mountain. And it’s really long. At first you think it’s going to be very tame and then it goes basically vertical as you plunge through subterranean caverns towards your inevitable doom. But then it levels out at the last moment. PHEW! Thank you to improv powerhouse Ursula Baumgartner for introducing me to this monster (and to the equally-talented Billy Kissa & Jacob Banigan for following me down a second time).
[Tech] Apple Intelligence
The new Apple iOS beta just dropped and with it the ability to create your own custom emojis with Ai. Apple calls these Genmojis (generative Ai emojis). I have used the functionality to create the above art series which I like to call Baked Goods in Hats.
[Sketch] A bit of a delay
The ever-reliable Tom Mathias recommended this brilliant Seth Myers sketch with John Lutz that requires some fairly phenomenal comedy timing. Both performers have abundant improv training so I’m calling this a win for us.
Longform thoughts
It’s pretty scary to have someone suddenly windmilling their fists towards you in a bid to get laughs. It derails the whole scene - and an audience that is worried is not an audience that will be laughing anyway.
Read about the choices that make me uncomfortable in When improv crosses the line.
Radio contact
Sitting pretty.