Ahhhhhh. The
decompression. Dad and I had a ball watchin' movies
and doin' some Rockband... and really just talking
about everything. He hit the clouds today, and I'm
finally starting to let everything hit me. And now...
the day that was:
Ahhhhhh.... what a
wonderful video. :-) And duh, of course I took
the TVs back. What possible need would I have for
them? I never made a dime in LA doing 4tvs... it was
all about getting me to this point. And if Comedy
Central picks up the show, there's a budget, etc. My
ass can't afford 4 HDTVs. But they were fun.
:-)
Everything started
in my living room with a runthrough, basically at
midnight. It was eerie how much it was like the actual
stage (except my screen was prettier - lol). We went
through it one time, and I was pretty certain it was
all gonna work out. This show is 95% technical
execution, so I was able to rest easy (well at least 4
hours) and was up bright and early the next morning to
redo another FX shot. (sigh). I thought I was
done until Sarah saw a mistake I hoped no one would
notice the moment she saw it. LMAO. God love her for
that. Made for a nice 2 hour FX session starting at
5:47 am.
When I
looked in the mirror the morning of, I was
taken aback. I really saw some years in that
face. I didn't look old necessarily, but I
did look... weathered. It just really made me
realize just what it took to to get to this
moment. And I grabbed my camera. I never
wanted to forget what this looked
like.
So
straight up at 1pm, It was time to set-up the
TVs. Flat-screen HDTVS. This was actually
what I envisioned in 1998 when I thought
of 4tvs, and it was just surreal to put this
together. Thank you Marty for making sure the
Comedy Central sign was in this shot. Ahh
yes, Mr. MOOSE!!
Mr. Marty
"Moose" Currens made the trip out and damnit,
since he was holding the camera, he's not in
any of the videos. Grrrr. He was totally part
of the set-up, teardown and a huge help. As
longtime readers know he was there for every
single Columbus 4tvs show (35) and made the
trek out to LA with Jess and I 10 years ago.
It was incredibly special to have him here.
Jess really wanted to come out too, but too
much goin' on for her at the moment. He was
jonesed like a mofo to watch everything go
down. :-)
In case
you were wondering. They're my bedsheets, and
the boxes the TVs came in. LMAO. I set it up
on a hunch, and holy shit - it worked fine.
Of course I wanted some kick-ass set-up,
but I couldn't find anything with a return
policy, that also wouldn't take a million
years to set-up as well. The boxes worked
perfect. And who knew those were bed sheets?
Now you do. :-)
Now how perfect
was this stage...
I adore this room.
It's such a nice wide space, and that projector screen
is just perfect. I couldn't have asked for
more.
Some of
you have asked how the 4tvs are run, and what
used to be a "splitter" is now a full-fledged
PC that I loaned from "Smart AVI" as
their HD splitter was on back-order by 3
weeks. They were incredibly gracious to allow
me to have this computer system for the night
and I'll do everythign in my power to use
them from this point on. 4 DVI outputs
converted to HDMI signals, and there you
are...
...exCEPT
for the sound. And welcome to what nearly
made me call the show. A hum out of this PC
that was so loud it drowned out the voices.
All they had for a soundcard for this thing
was a USB card for headphones and NOTHING
lessened the buzz. From 3:30 - 5pm it's all
the entire crew and I dealt with. It was so,
so, so disappointing. I was prepared to open
the show by going in front of the audience
and explaining the issue, and having them try
and bare with it...
And then
this man, Mr. Paul Stein seen here on the
right, had an idea that none of us thought
of: use computer speakers out of the PC and
actually mic the speakers. When we plugged
them in, the hum turned into this strange
whoop whoop whoop but it was just different
enough that when we mic'd it, it was barely
noticeable. He quite simply saved the show.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Paul.
:-)
And thank you to
the entire crew. There were 7 people on hand with one
goal: make the show run perfectly. I have never
known this in a live setting, ever. It was
unbelieveable. Whereas you're usually fighting with
everyone just to get the space to set-up, this was
just tailor-made for the talent. Can't say enough. :-)
It was onto the dress rehearsal...
4tvs makes the
jump to high def. Love it. The TVs were so friggin
bright that they had to redo the lighting on me, to
make up for it. The cameras (as you can see
here) blew out the TVs, but by the actual show,
they had lit me correctly and hopefully that footage
turns out. I'll see it next week.
Before you
knew it, it was time... I sat in the dressing
room waiting and enjoyed that anxious feeling
that only a live performance can give you. It
was more like being a director, and pacing
the theater than a striaght-up play, but the
feeling is the same. You just want it to
work. Let it work. Let them
laugh...
And laugh they
did.
Hell, they were
laughing at the commercials. It just worked. The
biggest issue was the laughing was so long it erased
so many great lines. And, that's of course why it
should be a TV show. You can mix the sound. :-) But
yeah, just perfectly received. It's always fun to see
which lines work best. I paced backstage like an
expectant father and shook my fist as they laughed at
the good stuff. Of course Ted Lange's bit was just
wonderful. In fact, let me take a moment for those
thank yous...
I was just
frazzled during my curtain call and wanted to just say
thank you and runaway because that meant -
ITS OVER!!!! YAHOOOOO!!! And I forgot to
mention the people in the bits. DAMNIT. So thank you
so much Tim Camarillo and Marshall Givens for being
the funny-ass gangstas you were. Thank you Sarah
Johnson for having the balls.... ovum to do the
"birther" bit as your first foray into acting.
Hopefully it doesn't scar you for life. You were
beautiful and funny, and no one could've pulled it off
so believeably. And finally, thank you Ted. You saw
that birther bit, and just instantly said yes to the
GRAM bit although not a word of it was written,
and we just both had a ball and happened to record it.
You're a class act - and I hope you're as proud of
your work as I am. You really added credibility
to my show, and again - thank you thank you thank
you.
And of
course you all know from the last entry what
Jim said. He was clearly happy. We'll know
just how happy in the next few days, but
I gotta take it that from this frame
from the camera we had set-up for the show,
that it's good news. :-)
And
really, everyone seemed genuinely shocked at
the show. Especially considering there were
so many people that had no idea what the hell
4tvs was. My cell phone was goin' CRAZY all
night with texts and voicemails. I was able
to put a FB status update up: "i did it. i
did it. jim totally loved it, said he saw it
as a tv show and to call him next week. i
fuckin did it. my first "crying" text.
:)" and was inundated with comments. It
was wonderful. Exhausted, my father and Marty
and I crawled to the NoHo Diner and tried to
process everything. It was too much. In all
honesty, I can barely take it all in three
days later. It's just so unreal. HA! That's a
chorus from a song I wrote in '94. LOL.
So of course, pops
and I played Beatles Rockband:
Dad was
desperately annoyed with Ringo's drumming style. Most
real drummers will attest that he just doesn't play
drums... well, right. He's literally all over the
place, and to anyone who actually knows how to
drum, you just have to throw everything you know out
the window. It's somewhat easy for me, 'cause I don't
have any of the appropriate habits in drumming, so I
just read the notes... and I don't think twice. It was
cool, I watched my dad actually play the drums on
Oh Darling the way Ringo probably should've and
I understood his frustration. So suffice to say, we
didn't play The Beatles as much as Boston.
I however, loved singing the hell out of that
song. I love pushing myself vocally in ways
I never really show onstage or on the site. It's
like another character to me.
So of course, the
following morning... the trips to Best Buy for the big
return:
Did anyone
really think I was going to do this? Not to
be a mooch, but I just don't have an extra
$2500 to buy these... nor any use for them!
As I said before, there's just no reason to
do the 4tvs show again unless I have my
own show, at which point - it'll all be done
over with a budget. My budget is $0. Thus, I
took full advantage of a 30-day return policy
and no restocking fee.
So tomorrow I make
a call to one Jim Sharp and figure out just exactly
what I'm in for. And the foundation of The Journey
continues. I've always said I'll keep doing this as
long as I always wonder after each entry "What's gonna
happen next?". Not sure it's every been more true than
what I feel as I finish this entry and look forward to
the phone call tomorrow.
