3.  Speaking of birds, budding flowers and 60 degree temps, the BNW has entered into the world of recreational softball.  That's right, your favorite band of comedians, teachers, staffers and all around good guys and gals are oiling their mitts, taking the donuts off their bats and dusting off their favorite caps all in the name of sportsmanship… and maybe beer. By this time next week, The Skirt Turtles (has there ever been a tougher name? Nope.) will be nursing pulled groins, sprained ankles and possibly broken egos.  The broken ego, will surely belong to me.  In my dreams I'm still able to hit and field like I did when I was 16. But in reality, I haven't swung a bat since I went to a batting cage while in Tokyo nearly 3 years ago.  Lets just say that after a few hours in the cage, the Yomiuri Giants weren't exactly chasing me down with contract offers to play first base.   Anyhoo, this whole thing should be pretty fun.  I'll keep you updated. Or will I? Yes. I will.

Until Monday...I hope :)

Mike

Happy Thursday. Tomorrow will be the last Myspace blog. From there on out I can be found at mikefotis.com. I do hope you guys follow me to the new site.

1. I decided not to blog yesterday so that the rampant fervor caused by my blog from earlier in the week could have time to subside. Just kidding. Yesterday sucked for a myriad of reasons and writing about them seemed to be the least healthy thing I could do.  Let me reiterate. Yesterday sucked. 

2. So I’ve begun writing my Fringe show and I am not surprisingly, freaking out about the whole thing. It’s the same old crap from last year. Lots of ideas but none of them are taking shape. It’s my classic writing dilemma. I sit down to write one thing, decide that it’s awful and move onto something else only to decide that the new thing is also awful and soon enough I have about ten awful stories that are only awful because I can’t focus. It’s a frustrating thing. I know that once I get one story done, everything will fall into place, but it’s just a fucking pain in the ass getting there. I do know that the major story this year will be about Winnipeg.  The difficult thing about writing that story will be taming it into something that is somewhat manageable. Oh yeah,  I also have to try and remember the damn thing. I may have blocked that time in my life out more than I have been willing to admit.   I’m in the process of creating the time line of the experience, which were I to perform just that would be...bad.  From there, I not sure what to do. In a perfect world (which is what I want really, a perfect world with home cooked meals and gender neutral comedy*),my goal is to encompass several stories into the Winnipeg story.  In a sense, I’m trying to write a hurricane. Something that lashes out wildly but finds strength and stability in its center. What? I don’t know, but that’s the visual I’m using. So anyway, I’m writing that. Should be good. Could be bad. Probably will be just fine. 

 Mike

*Come on! That was pretty funny.  Or not. Whatev. 

Happy Tuesday!

 1. Well, my blog is finally controversial.  It only took 2.5 years and strangely wasn’t really about the subject matter I was dealing with, but hey, controversy comes in all forms I suppose.  In regards to my vagina joke from yesterday, it was certainly crass and it was certainly sexist. There’s no real denying that. On the sexism scale, with ten being the highest, I can’t see how I hit anything higher than a five but I’m not going to defend my joke and I’m not going to apologize for it.  I can certainly see why people could be offended by what I said, but please know this was not my intent.It was a throw away line that in the end, stole the show. Which as a writer, is a lesson learned.   In fact, because of where I received my writing training, my aim is never to be crass just for the sake of being crass.   But I’m a comedian. I make jokes. Sometimes those jokes will be crass. Sometimes people will be offended by them.  And while that really isn’t my goal when I write something, it does and (most likely) will continue to happen.  I guess this is a disclaimer.  Anyhoo...

The interesting thing about all of this to me, and this is a conversation that takes place between comedians a lot*, is the line between what makes something funny and edgy and what makes something offensive and how impossible that line is to locate and define. Couching offensive material in satire certainly helps in that it gives everything a purpose and an intent. I know how to make something satirical and I know the place that offensive humor has in satire. My real curiosity comes in trying to define what’s offensive. If you ask me,  defining what’s "offensive"  is an impossible dilemma to answer because everyone’s threshold or perception differs so very much.  Furthermore, what offends one person won’t offend another in the slightest, because in some ways we are defined by the people, causes and sensitivities that surround us. SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU DON’T WANT THIS SKETCH I’M ABOUT TO TALK ABOUT RUINED FOR YOU, STOP READING! I wrote a sketch a few years ago about a robot that is a miracle in terms of its benefits to humankind.  The robot was capable of doing so many wonderful things for the world. The only problem? It was fueled by rape. The satirical point of the sketch was that scientific progress has very real and serious implications and people are sometimes too quick to label something as "the next cure-all".  Most people get that, but some of those same people are very offended that I used rape as the robot’s flaw.  That’s totally understandable and totally fair. Rape is awful. But so is cancer, and arson and physical abuse.  No matter what I had used as the robot’s fatal flaw, somebody would have been offended.  YOU CAN START READING AGAIN! This comedy stuff is tough, huh? What are your thoughts? This is why I blog. To have discussions that I’m too socially awkward to have in person...

*I assume. It does with my friends.

Mike

Happy Monday! This might be my last week blogging on MySpace, FYI.

1. Let’s begin this blog by wishing the lovely Lauren Anderson a happy birthday! She’s a delightful woman and someone whom I’m honored to call a friend. Seriously, she’s the bees knees wrapped in honey. She knows everyone in the Twin Cities which is a feat in and of itself, but the fact that all of the people she knows love her unconditionally is even more impressive. Admit it, if you’re friends with Lauren, you’re a better person because of it. Happy B-day, young lady.

2. Well, mikefotis.com is finally where I want it to be. You may not know this about me, but I can be a bit of a stubborn mule.  Because of this lovely/annoying trait of mine, I spent hours and hours and hours and hours learning about code and screaming and berating myself and threatening my cat* until I finally arrived at something I liked. No fooling, when images finally started appearing where I wanted them to appear, I nearly started to cry. Oh who am I trying to impress, I totally started sobbing. I blame the tears on it being 430 in the morning and on my being a vagina disguised as a man. Anyhoo, enjoy.

3. Last night, The Moustache Rangers performed the best improv set that I have seen anyone do this year. It wasn’t line for line the funniest set I’ve seen, but the sheer number of levels that they were playing on made the whole thing an absolute sight to see. In short, they managed to shit on improv, celebrate improv, shit on the teaching of improv, celebrate the teaching of improv, delight veteran cranky improvisers with their "meta-ness" and still wholly include the entire audience in their fun all while each only playing one character throughout. Seriously. It was fantastic. Check out their website if you so desire.

Well, that’s all for today.  Tomorrow we will discuss solo show stuff and maybe Dinner With Fotis. And probably the Cubs, but in a way that non sports fans will sort of (maybe) like. 

Mike 

2. There are a ton of shows to check out tonight including, The BNW mainstage show, The Rockstar Storyteller show, and Huge’s Improv Punchout. For more information on these shows, check out yesterday’s blog, "Improv Writing" as it has all the deets!

3.  Man, you know what’s stressful? Trying to do tweaks, no matter how minor, to a website when you know nothing of code, css, or common sense. This morning from the hours of 1am to 430am are hours I’m never getting back and to make matters even worse, I accomplished nothing during that time. The most humiliating thing in the world of website gobbly gook is to spend 30 minutes trying to make a minor change to your site, only to see that when you hit "refresh", nothing and I mean NOTHING has happened.  It is absolutely soul crushing. I went to bed last night knowing that the last thought my brain had was this, "Fotis, you’re a fucking moron with no redeeming qualities".

Have a good weekend!

Mike!

Happy Thursday!

In today’s blog and in keeping with the spirit of my improv training I am going to write the first thing that pops into my head. For the next five minutes, I’m just going to write. The subjects will seem random, but hopefully we will all get a nice glimpse into how my brain works.

1. I promise you this, kind readers. I will always, ALWAYS, have a boner for Norah Jones.
2. Sometimes when I do the dishes, I am blown away by the number of utensils I own. They are always either all dirty or all clean. It’s never half and half.
3. I’m not ashamed to admit that last night, I googled myself. I did it and so do you. Come to terms with your vanity.
4. I am starting to prefer Craig Ferguson to Conan. Conan will always have a place in my heart, but Craig is pretty darn good.
5. I still can’t believe I own a home. Going on three years now. You’d think it would have sunk in by now.
6. I’m going to buy and build a gazeebo. That shit is punk.
7. My roommate is stocking up on soup. He has a lot of it. Maybe he’s opening a soup restraunt.
8. I have spent way too much time doing computer-y things the past 3 days.
9. My nephew is RIDICULOUSLY cute*. COME ON! That’s just too much! Look at his hands!TOO MUCH! TOO MUCH!

10. After watching Craig’s monologue, it appears I may have jumped the gun a bit.
11. I am up to 150 jumping jacks a day. I’m a machine. A machine.
12. The Cubs are 0-2. I’m not panicking, but I’m not thrilled.
13. I need to play some GUitar Hero. I can make this happen. My playstation is less than 6 feet from me. All I have to do is stand, walk and hit power.

Ok, I’m done. This was fun, huh?

Mike

Plugs:

Vist my website mikefotis.com. Seriously people, the blog’s heading over there very soon.

After checking out the BNW’s latest offering, Old Enough To Know Better. Head over to the BLB to catch the Rockstar Storytellers** at 10pm. Then at 11pm, head back to the workshop to watch Fingergun whup ass at Improv Punchout!

That’s 3 things in one day. Yikes!

*

**At one point in time, I was scheduled to co-host this show. Due to scheduling conflicts, I am not going to be able to be there. But you should go. These guys are great.

2. I caught only the 2nd hour of The Biggest Loser last night, erm, 6 hours ago, but one thing is for sure. Mark, the older brother from Boston, can’t not cry. He essentially cried the entire episode. Someone sneezes and this guy cries. Someone mentions home or their family and this guy cries. Someone brings up the sky, grass, a car, a gas station, a quarter, wheat, the constitution, the internet, VH1, concepts, geometry, apples, applebutter, Joe Bozic or whatever and this guy cries. It got to the point that while crying on the phone to his wife, she told him to suck it up and get a hold of himself. If the rest of the viewing public is like me, they stood and slow clapped, which had Mark known what we were doing, would have made him cry.

Okay, time to stare at some wall.

Mike

2. Saw Gone Baby Gone last night. I liked it a lot. Although I agreed with other people who would have also preferred that the movie ended a half hour before it did. The idea that good people are forced to live in an evil world and have to cope with it as best they can really hit home with me. It’s not that the ending was bad. Not at all, it was really good. It just felt like a different movie in a weird way. Whatevs. FOTI.

3. The Cubs lost their opener. Sports Illustrated has them picked to win the NL Central. So does ESPN, which are both bad signs, if you ask me. Why? Because. That’s why. Fucking because. On top of that, my mlb.com radio package doesn’t work. It says it’s working, but trust me, it’s not. This season’s gonna suck. The tea poop at the bottom of my tea cup says so...

Mike