I was searching through LJ entries today, as well as my personal bound journals, for entries on the last two times I opened a show here at Boom. Just to get some perspective, you know? I was disappointed and surprised to find that I hadn't written much during the writing of Boom Saves or Happy Yet. I'd love to write some thoughts down on this, final process ... as we are10 days away from opening Bite the Bullet. It's hard to find the energy to comment on these things while they're happening. 12-13 hour days, every day, for almost two months, renders me slightly speechless. Very soon, we'll be cutting sketches from the show, and I know that some of my work will be put on the chopping block. Which is going to be hard to swallow, since for the first time in a very long while, I'm proud of what I've written. I don't know if it will make it into the show, but Conservative-Off and Be Skeptical are things that I would be excited to include in a writing packet for any job.
The hardest part of the process has to be the insensitivity of our producer. Calling content "sophomoric" is not the best way to motivate your performers/writers/designers. (Especially when he was the very person who suggested said content to begin with.) When four of us leave the theater to write what we believe is the content he requests, and upon returning are chastised with, "you're terrible listeners!" it makes it difficult to write anything. I would go more into depth, but they're petty things that won't matter in a few months. The sum of it will leave a bad taste in my mouth, but that's it. I wish that our producer could be a hero, but instead he's just human.
Dan, Lauren -- you're in for an experience that no one will be able to describe to you before you arrive. And once you're here, you won't be able to convey it to anyone else, save those in your new Fraternity: Boom Chicago. I'm proud of you both, excited for you, envious, and a little bit ... anxious for you. There's a lot of shit that happens here, but also a ton of rewards. And Holland is like a weird uncle that you just have to get used to, but once you do, it's a great place to live.
It's wild to watch Matt suffer through all the growing pains of the process. I hear words come out of his mouth that I said two years ago. I know that for each person, it's a unique experience and that I don't know specifically what he's going through, but there are some universal things that both dull your individuality and also help one grow into a more mature comedian. At least, I think. Maybe. Who knows what the end result is; maybe we're worse off, maybe we're better. Maybe we're just different.
There are things about the show that I'm still disappointed with. The opening, for example, is not as theatrical as I want it to be; instead, it's simply two actors doing stand-up. And I still believe the content is too modular - our attempts at linking sketches are like elastic chords stretched taut. My vision of what an "Artistic Revolution" meant turned out to be more ambitious than what the director wanted. I don't ever want to alienate an audience - our job is comedy, and we are performing for them, not for ourselves. But as of now, I don't think that this is BC's Piñata Full of Bees. Boom has taught me that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too. Sometimes you just have to change the recipe a little first. Unfortunately, I think that we're just eating cake right now. Eck. Does that even make sense?
Well, I gotta go to rehearsal. Here we go! Toodle-Pip.