Me Groin!

I've injured myself again. I strained my adductor muscle, also known as my groin.

Apparently I over did it last week when working out. Mostly it just hurts when doing lateral movements, rolling over or crossing my leg. It's pretty uncomfortable when I sit for long periods of time since that muscle attaches to my knee as well as my butt. Sigh

Per the physical therapists orders, I'm on "active rest." Mostly I just have to take it easy and not do stuff that hurts it, such as running. I can use the stationary bike (like that's real exercise).

So tonight I am watching TV with a hot pad stuffed down my pants, heating my groin. Jealous?

- Mo

Forecast Calls For A Severe "Psych"

I feel like I've been punched in the gut.

It's my final week at this job. It's hard enough to be motivated to come into work. Add to that temperatures in the teens. Additionally, it's snowing. And has been snowing since last night. Here's how my morning went:

6:45 am - Walk out the door. It's cold, and still snowing. The walk to the train is a filthy trek through nasty slush. Lovely way to start the day.

7:00 am - Standing at the Western platform, thinking to self, "You can do it, only 4 more days."

7:45 am - Arrive at Davis stop in Evanston. Head down to the street. Am not hit by a bus...but only barely.

7:55 am - Walk into the lobby of the building where I work. Several co-workers are there, awaiting elevator. We're told there's a power outage in the building, and only one elevator is working.

8:15 am - One (of three) working elevators has not arrived. Decide to join two co-workers in walking up to our office. On the 9th floor.

8:17 am (approx.) - It's only the 5th floor? Regretting decision.

8:20 am (approx.) - Arrive at 9th floor. Hang up coat. Hear the "ding" sound of the elevator arriving at our floor.

8:25 am - Office manager explains to staff that we have only auxiliary power. Lights are on, but no computers, no phones, no restrooms, etc. He asks us to hang tight while they figure out what's going to happen.

8:35 am - Complete today's sudoku puzzle in the RedEye.

8:45 am - Office manager assembles everyone again. Explains that we have to wait until 9:30 to make a decision. If we still have no power at 9:30, they're shutting down and sending everyone home. If we get power before then, we can be operational by 10:00 and they feel that's worthwhile for a day's work. Reasonable, I guess. Annoying? Certainly.

9:15 am - The countdown has begun. Some around the office are whispering about plans for the day, some are openly humming "The Final Countdown". Ironically the title of the previous post here.

9:27 am - The power comes on. Let me pause now and let that sink in. NINE EFFING TWENTY-SEVEN.

Words cannot fully describe the feelings right now.

- Corey

It's The Final Countdown...

Good luck getting that tune out of your head. And you're welcome.

So the countdown is currently 7 days. Or 9 days, if you count the weekend. I don't. I'm saying 7. That's 7 working days until I'm done at my current day job. Cue the trumpets: I have officially given notice, and am out of here at the end of February. I'm taking the leap into self-employment. During a recession apparently. Oh well, I have optimism for the future.

While in this lame duck position at my current job, it definitely makes it that much harder to get up and out the door in the morning. However, I am enjoying a more casual approach to my daily grind. Don't worry, mom, I'm not totally slacking off, however I'd be lying if I said I didn't think to myself "What are they going to do, fire me?" at least a few times each day.

Things I won't miss about this place:

• the lack of temperature control
• micromanaging bosses (an actual email: "Try saying 'how MAY i help you, rather than how CAN i help you.")
• talking to idiots on the phone (a caller argued with me that I was cheating him by a day because his membership this year ends on 2/29 and next year it expires on 2/28. Really.)
• the herculean effort it takes just to take a damn day off
• having to sign out a key to use the restroom
• call monitoring

Things I will miss:

• health insurance

So that's that. February 29th is my last day working for the man. As of March 1, I am a freelance artist, for reals. Living solely upon the income from performing shows, tending bar, teaching improv classes, and odds and ends work for the Chicago Comedy Company (soon to be Laugh Out Loud) theater selling corporate shows and other various business-side of the theater work. I'm living the dream!

And just as soon as I started to get nervous about dropping the steady income, I get booked for a couple corporate gigs in March with one theater company and am about to book another for this summer with my own company. All before I actually leave the day job. Yeah, this is going to work out fine.

- Corey

The going ons...

I am going to be really sore tomorrow. Not just from the good workout I did, but also from the fact that I bit it hard walking home from the gym. Our sidewalks are like an ice rink. They are solid ice and though I was careful, I fell right on my side.

Hotel Rwanda is a great movie. I've been meaning to sit down and watch it and finally had the chance tonight. It's very touching and sad. It's also very hard to work on comedy writing directly after watching it.

The past week was surprisingly busy. More shows, including a last minute booking with improv playhouse. We did a fun improv set for a bunch of boyscouts. They were so adorable, especially when a teeny tiny little guy lead and commanded the attention of all for the pledge of alligence and scout oath. Too cute.

Tomorrow we're doing two big shows for a highschool out in the suburbs. Ahh, to make money performing! It'll be a good opportunity to introduce the high school leagues that I'm putting together and running for Chicago Comedy Company.

Also last week I did the hair and makeup for the on-air talent of the Latin NBC channel for a photoshoot. It was an interesting experience to say the least. The first group on Friday were comprised of the head anchors, the 'bigger' talent (and boy did they know it). It was quite the character study.
The second group on Saturday was the weekend crew. They were super nice. It was a great resume builder and hopefully will lead to further work.

Male readers will be happy to hear that the photographer from that shoot talked about using me for makeup on a shoot with these twin 'girls.' He shot them a while back and their pictures made it in the Playboy college edition. They need new pictures for Valentines Day and I might get to do the styling. I'll keep you updated.

Hectic and Cold

As many of you know, it's freezing here. We got a huge snowfall that started last night and has continued into today. Depending upon where you are in the city, there's anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of snow on the groun. Also, the gas tank fiasco almost happened a second time this week. After the first experience of not being able to open the door, I paid close attention and figured out how to do it myself this time when I filled up on gas. At least I thought. Apparently there's a cable in the door that latches and unlatches. And apparently I broke that. Now the door is constantly ajar. At least I can put gas in the car.


We'll just get that fixed when we buy new tires this weekend. Yep, perfect timing, balding tires in this snow storm. I'm sure it's why I slid right through an intersection at a red light in yesterday's snowy downfall. Scary!


It's been another hectic week around here. We haven't had much of a chance to work on our show. Our first rehearsal was supposed to be yesterday, but because of the weather we rescheduled it. I've also been writing for Big News. Anyone can submit their sketches and two-liner jokes for the weekly news show. My goal is to submit at least something every each week. This past Monday, one of my sketches made it in!


Then on Wedesday, I got to play professor at Columbia College. My friend (and owner of CCC) was sick and asked me to take over her improv classes. It was a lot of fun. The main lesson I learned was that college students are sick little bastards. Next time I'll stress to the class to try being smarter than just dirty jokes. Otherwise, I really enjoyed teaching. I hope to have the opportunity again in the future.


- Mo

Corey and Monique: LIVE!

Last night we previewed parts of our sketch show. Though we were pretty confident in our material, it can be really vulnerable to put up work that you wrote, rewrote, rehearsed etc. It's not like an improv show where you are making it up as you go. You deemed this material to be good enough to put up in front of an audience and now it will be judged. The night before I dreamed that I couldn't remember a single line and had to keep reassuring myself that there had to be at least some laughs, it wouldn't an entire show of awkward silence. Needless to say, we were a bit nervous.

The Playground was packed. Besides other performers, few were there to see us. We had kept the invites pretty minimal. This was a true test of how an audience would react.

The show was GREAT! We had one sketch in particular that we weren't even sure if it was funny. We knew each of the others were pretty strong but this was was a test drive. It was funny the first time we improvised it, but then we deconstructed it, rewrote it, changed it, rehearsed and rehearsed it and by the end couldn't remember what had made us laugh about it in the first place. Corey flat out hated it. Still, we gave it a shot and it got a lot of laughs. Definitely a keeper. The only thing I would've changed last night were some minor tweaks here and there with our performance and that will only get stronger as we do it more.

Hopefully we'll have a run in the spring. Enjoy some pictures from the show...

Worst morning ever

This morning I headed out into the cold all bundled up. I didn't want to leave the house, but I had a doctor's appointment. It took me a month to get that appointment.

I knew the car was low on gas and was debating on whether to fill up before or after the appointment. Once I got in, the gas light came on, so I no choice but to gas up right away.

Let me take this moment to remind you how cold it is in Chicago. According to http://www.weather.com/, it's 10 degrees here, but feels like - 5. According to me, it feels like a 40 below. It's so damn cold here. Still, I figured I'll just quickly get the gas and get back in my car and get the heat blasting. The car didn't have a chance to warm up on the way to the station.

And so begins the drama. The gas tank door wouldn't open! I tried everything! A couple of men even tried helping me. At one point we used a screw driver and a knife to jimmy open the door. Nothing. At this point, my toes were starting to hurt because it's so cold. I went inside to ask for some de-icer and of course they didn't have any.

At this point I'm almost in tears from the cold, I missed my doctor's appointment and now have to drive to another gas station in hopes that they'll be able to help me. That and hope not to run out of gas completely.

At the second gas station, I again got help, but this time I also got a lecture from the attendant. I think he was trying to be funny, but the more he said, "well this wouldn't have happened if you got your gas here instead of somewhere else" the more frustrated I became. Jackass! I don't care. Just help me here. I don't know if it was just the de-icer that helped because they also had me open the trunk so they could hook up a cable that had apparently frozen or come undone. Then as I filled up my take he started lecturing me on needing tires. Eff you dude. Leave me alone! I'm cold! And now I have a warped gas tank door!

I jump back in the car to get home as fast as I can to warm up. Then I got stuck behind a funeral procession, further delaying me getting home and warm. AHHH! I have the worst luck ever. Someone died?! Thanks a lot dude.

Finally I'm now safely in my home wearing double socks and a blanket and I'm filled with warm oatmeal and hot tea. Father Winter, you're a dick. A real cold dick.

- Mo

5 years!

This day in history, five years ago is the day that Corey and I went on our first date. A date that pretty much never ended. Best decision ever!

Time flies by when you're happy. Ok, stop gagging... sorry. Seriously though, I can't believe it's been five years. Through the ups and downs (mostly ups) we've done so much...

Moved to Chicago, took classes from some of the best improvisers in the country, gotten engaged, then married, performed together, traveled together, bought a condo, went on a cruise, paid off a crapload of debt (just this month!), flew in a hot air balloon, worked together so I could quit my job (hopefully Corey's next), went through more hair colors than I can remember, wrote our own show, constantly laughed together... and we have so much more planned.

I'm not usually one to celebrate every "anniversary" but this one seemed like it was worth mentioning.

Preview

We just found out that we'll be previewing our 2 person sketch show next Friday the 25th, 10pm at the Playground theater. This is part of their series called, "Grafitti." It gives performers a chance to work out their sketch show in front of an audience while it's a work in progress.


Yikes! This is really happening.


It won't be the whole show, just a 20-25min chunk. Come check it out if you're around. Help us figure out if this thing we wrote is funny.

New Serious Sports News Network Article Is Up

I've got a new article posted over at Serious Sports News Network. Since you never know when they'll update the site and my story gets buried, here's a link directly to it:

My Article

I'm letting you know about this article for several reasons. It's part shameless self-promotion, but more so it's my attempt to move Monique's last post, particularly the disgusting picture, out of my line of sight when viewing this here blog.

Enjoy.

- Corey

Boom

My head is going to explode! Ugghh. I hate being sick. It's either from the change in weather or the lack of sleep lately...lots of insomnia. Either way, the congestion is pretty miserable.
I would blog more, but I need to clean up the brain matter off my computer.

- Mo

Sketchfest

It's January in Chicago (and in other cities I suppose). That means it's time for The Chicago Sketchfest.

We got too late of a start on writing our own show, but we hope to be a part of the festival next year. If you can't make it out here, check out a video or two from Hey you Millionaires.
They are one of us the most talked about sketch groups out here right now. Unfortunately we missed their show last night.
Fortunately it was because we were watching KU win the Orange Bowl!
Enjoy!

Cute Puppy Helps with Laundry (And why won't Corey let me get my own puppy?)

The Support Group

Catching The Gay

Holiday Pictures

I finally downloaded my holiday pictures.
This year's Christnukka theme was "fancy."

Nothing says fancy like steak and shrimp!

And of course for any special occasion, you must have Guitar Hero.Pete and Kristine are very serious.

Put not as serious as Ali and Mo are about throwin' down tunes
Even first time player, Anne rocked out.

With this amazing display of star quality, Collin and Corey should start their own band.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your Chicago Comedy Company performers, back stage on New Years Eve.
Apparently Corey didn't realize we were going to take a picture.

I like to call this pictures, "Artistic Comedy"

Happy 2008!

Happy New Years!

We spent last night performing at Chicago Comedy Company. It was a blast, reminded me of the New Years shows as Comedy City. Except that this time Corey didn't take his pants off (long story).

We started the new year off right by sleeping on and off all day, watching football and being as lazy as humanly possible. In fact I can't believe I'm writing this blog. It's the most active I've been all day.

M
(too lazy to finish my name)

If only life were still this simple

This was forwarded to me today and made me giggle.

If only life were still this simple.

A week in the life of the Madrittmasters

This has been yet another busy week. It started off with The Procedure. Corey had to get some work done on his toe. I won't go into complete details, but it involved removing part of his toenail. Gross!

Grosser was the fact that I kept looking at it while the Doctor was working on it. AHHH! It was like a bad car accident. I couldn't help it.


So now he's hobbling around. It's not so much the pain that bothers him, but the bulkiness of the bandage makes it uncomfortable in his shoe. Oh yeah, wiping out on the slick sidewalk didn't help his toe either. That's the doctor's handiwork on the toe, by the way. Oh, Dr. Kim, you're such a kidder.



I dealt with my own frustrations, as well. We went to Rock Island for more ComedySportz shows. Never mind the bad weather driving down. My devastation was the midget Santa at the show location. Midget for most real life Santa's. He was huge for a stuffed Santa Claus. Perfect for my size, which would've been a nice holiday treat, but it was also perfect for looking down my shirt. Santa Claus? Try Santa Perve!

- Mo

Hope Hath No Halflife

My friends Nick, Chris, and Dan asked me to be in a short film they made for a "Hundred Hour Film Project" they participated in. They got a topic (the future) and a surprise element (turning off an alarm) and then had 100 hours to write, film, edit and submit a short film. Here's the final product. I think it's pretty funny.

- Corey

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Hanukkah Corey! And by default to me. :)

For those of you that don't know, tonight is the last night of the holiday. We're going to have a traditional Hanukkah evening. We'll start by going to Corey's Dr. appointment, stopping at some fast food joint... (Subway does kosher meals, right?) and shoving food down our mouth as quickly as we can so we can make it to our writing class at iO.

In fact, that's how the whole holiday has been. Classes, rehearsals, writing, rewriting, shows, workshops and heading out of town for more shows. Tis the season for craziness.

Thanksgiving pics

I don't have a lot of time to blog before we head out of town tomorrow. Here for your viewing pleasure are pictures from Thanksgiving.

These are from Dan's party which is turning into an annual event. We Rocked

Because it's Dan's house, we of course sang Karaoke OnDemand.

Show tunes... such nerds... such gay nerds

Man I miss Minksy's pizza.

There was even a Tom Farnan sighting. (Corey didn't want to let him go.)

Briette and her husband Michael were even there. He didn't quite know what to think of the show tunes marathon.

Yeah, yeah, it's been a while

Sorry for the lack of posts. I know. I'm the first to bitch about it when others don't update their blogs and here I am with my last posting from before Thanksgiving. I'm a jerkpod, I have no excuse. So much to talk about since the Thanksgiving trip back to KC. The vacation was nice, got to spend time with family and friends, attended the big KU-MU game at Arrowhead and even though the Jayhawks lost, we still get to go to a BCS Bowl, so it's all good. There are pictures galore from that weekend which I'm sure Mo will get around to posting eventually.


Since then, it's that busy holiday time. There are holiday improv bookings, both in town with Chicago Comedy Company and out of town with ComedySportz-Quad Cities. In addition, Mo and I have started rehearsing for a show that we'll be putting up in the spring, just the two of us. We're improvising with a coach right now, who is helping direct us in taking the funniest stuff from that process and scripting a show. We'll let you know all about it when the performances start to go down, don't worry. In fact, we don't even have a name yet. "The Corey and Mo Show" sounds too boring, so feel free to make suggestions in the comments section. That'd be great.

In the meantime, I'm very busy with this:











That's right. For the Wii. My band, Stinkfist, is making it's way up the charts. We rock.



- Corey