Street comedy

This last week has been a real eye-opener; at Bay to Breakers, I was surrounded by thousands of people who'd really made an effort to dress up and were having a brilliant time. It just demonstrated how much putting on stupid costumes can add to an event. Bestival, is one of the best festivals in the UK, and I think the fancy dress element has a lot to do with that (it's also usually got a wicked line-up and great weather). So I've been thinking about how important fun and play are as part of our everyday lives. 

Stanford's a pretty serious place; a lot of the students here are so concerned with getting on the corporate ladder that anything but work just seems like a pointless distraction. The whole university is geared up to provide you with the best education for business or engineering, and you're expected to work bloody hard to prove your worth. 

So fun is distinctly secondary. But there are two notable exceptions; the design school and the drama department. They embrace fun, and encourage it as part of the creative process. I think that's why they're my favourite places on campus. I've loved improv this quarter, and learning design thinking has really changed my approach to problems. We've got accept fun as a positive element. It's OK to be childish and silly. In fact it's necessary.

I've posted some some pics below that have made me laugh recently, and totally demonstrate what I'm talking about. They aren't trying to make cash or any particular point. They're just having a laugh. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry summed it up in his dedication to Léon Werth in The Little Prince: "All grown ups were once children - although few of them remember it." Let's have some fun.

Scully when she smiles

I'd almost forgotten how much I love Gillian Anderson.

Sunshine in the City

I'm now up in SF. The sun is absolutely nailing us to the floor, so we've slowed life down appropriately. 

The last week was a good 'un: some interesting chats with NPR bods (Deborah Amos and Ellen Weiss - NPR's vice-head of news) and Neil Chase from Federated Media - and ex-New York Times editor. Usual stuff from both camps: news-production as we know it is dead, but there will always be a place for news-gathering. I'm not so sure, particularly when hearing it from people who've now left the journalism game. Isn't it a bit questionable to say you have faith, while at the same time clambering into a life-raft? Not sure.

I also managed to get quite a lot of work done this last week, which was pretty amazing, considering how much I'm focussed on the job-hunt and visa thingamy. The latest on that, by the way, is that despite getting the finances sorted, Stanford's health centre have now decided to make my life a misery. So I've got to so even more tests to prove I'm not a threat to the US (this is after the half-million forms and tests this time last year). Bureaucratic tossers.

On the good news front, I hit the town with my old mate, Jim Peck, last night. He joined me from Sydney, where it sounds like he's got a pretty sweet life. Maybe that should be the next destination for DWS.

It's also 'Bay to Breakers' tomorrow; SF's annual festival of dressing up like an idiot and running across the city. As it combines two of my favourite things, I'd be a fool not to get involved. So if I can muster the energy, I might head to a thrift store or two later to check out costumes. It is darn hot though; maybe I'll just sit in the park.  

Swift

Happy Cinco de M. everyone,

Just a very quick post to give you a fill in on the latest (in bullet format):

• US authorities are still happy to have me here, which is good news.

• Stanford draws slowly to a close (can't decide whether this is good news or bad).

• Few advances on the job front, but a few potential freelance gigs, which should be sweet.

• Improv is amazing; I thoroughly love it.
  

Other than that, more of the same: occasional excursions up to SF; the first of many wine trips; one proper mountaineering effort (Pyramid Peak - bloody incredible); and a lot of messing around on campus.

We've now got a pretty established supper club, meeting and cooking different shit every week (tonight, obviously, was Mexican). And I'm doing quite a lot of work with the Stanford stand-up society. 

But the main focus right now is improv. I just can't get enough of it. It's genuinely one of the most inspirational classes I've ever taken, and it's really challenging my way of thinking.

For example, one of the main tenets of improv is just putting yourself out there. Working with your partner, that is, to build a stronger narrative, and not just going for the punchline. This, I find, is pretty bloody hard. I'm always going for the punchline, even at the most inopportune moment. But this class allow you to not be the funny one, to just build on what your partner is suggesting, and allow them to be the one in control.

What's more, I'm less nervous about just putting myself out there. It's never really been a problem, but even outside of class, I now find myself volunteering for everything and stepping into the limelight much more than before, and I suspect the improv (or at least my desire to push myself as a result of the learning), is making all the difference.

Having said that, I'm a wee bit concerned about the next step after Stanford. Given the option, I'd be pretty keen to stay in the US. But I'm pretty certain once the year is out, that's my lot, Visa-wise. No word about jobs in the UK or Europe, but I'm sure something good will come up. I just hope I'm not being too optimistic. Fingers crossed, n'est-ce pas?

Back to it

I should probably fire this up again after an extended break hitting the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver to San Fran) and then Hawaii. Both trips were incredible, and easing back into Stanford has been relatively painless. Partially, I think, because I've been getting off campus a lot since returning, and partially because the stack of birthday cards awaiting me was a comforting cushion to land on.

I'll let you know about the trips in another post, as there's a lot to cover. In the meantime, a quick mention of the last couple of days, which have been fantastic.

Yesterday we headed to Six Flags, a theme park an hour or so north of San Francisco. It was like being a kid again; there was little or no irony as we threw ourselves onto the rides, and an unnecessary amount of high-fiving throughout the day. Heading back to Stanford, I managed to arrive about three minutes before I was due to be onstage for a breakdancing show. And after that a big night out in Palo Alto.

Today was the absolute opposite; I slept for about 12 hours, cooked breakfast, sauntered around campus in the sun, and finally ended up at a potluck dinner hosted by a breakdancing mate. Very low key and very chilled. Plus we stepped out to a random open-air film sesh in East Palo Alto. So all in all a good weekend. It's now bloody late, though, so I hover to my bed.

Stand up Stanford

A very quick one here 'coz I'm dog tired and have a whole day of interviewing ahead of me.

I had another go at stand-up today. Partly successful, partly not. It was the Stanford try-outs for the Rooftop Comedy's College Stand-up competition, so I figured I'd throw my hat in the ring.

I was first on, with a three-minute bit about Vegas I'd cobbled together over the last day or so. It went down fair enough - there seemed to be plenty of laughs in the right places and I didn't clam up, as I feared. In fact I was surprisingly nonchalant. I really didn't feel that nervous at all, and if I'd had a bit more time I would have happily stayed on stage, maybe trying some riffing with the crowd (don't get ahead of yourself, boy).

Unfortunately I didn't make it through to the next round, but I'm not too fussed about it, for the following reasons:

a) I bloody well got up there and did it, and I'm pretty happy about that.

B) Without sounding too pleased with myself, I really do think I was funnier on the night than at least three of the eight acts that went through. I suspect they had a lot more friends than me in the audience, and so got more votes, but I did OK for myself on the night. (Obviously this might all be crap, but that's what I'm telling myself at the moment).

c) I didn't talk too quickly. Amazingly considering my predilection for rattling through sentences at a rate of knots, I was reasonably measured in my delivery. I also stayed in one place and didn't use my hands too much. So maybe I can do this kind of stuff without coming across like a cocaine fiend.

d) It went OK. Yep, not great, but not terrible, and I can hold my head up at the end of it. With a bit more polish I reckon I can get together a pretty good set, and I've proved to myself that I don't get too nervous in front of (admittedly pretty kind) crowds.

A KZSU stablemate did make it through to the Cal match, though, so it might be a good excuse next quarter to head up to SF and catch that show.

I definitely want to do more comedy performances now: It's the only way I'll learn, and I think it'll give me a bit more discipline about writing funny stuff. I just need a way to make sure I'm in SF at least one night of the week, and that I'm definitely going to be on stage with new material.

T-minus...

Just had a good brainstorming sesh on the whole creative games thing. It's actually going pretty well. We've now got a distinctly amateurish prototype to show what we're up to, complete with activity cards, a sample website, an explorer's log, and stick-in challenges.

We got a few local kids to play with it today, and it seemed to work well. The main kid, Weston, was particularly taken with the whole dragon-slaying, sword-wielding element (which is my favourite bit too). He also tried explaining Bakugan to me, but it was a bit of a lost cause. Cool figures, though; spring-loaded.

Man alive I'm tired. It's pretty much the final week of term, so all the projects are due in the next few days. Basically it means I'm going to be sitting in front of a computer until I can get out of here, with the occasional mad dash up to Menlo Park to do some filming. But I'm very happy to be flying up to Vancouver this time next week. Everything I've heard about the city is fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to discovering Seattle and Portland on my way back to SF.

Portland's been on my radar for a good few years now - it sounds farking brilliant: lots of creative types, scaffy bars and greenery, with loads of zines and local microbreweries fueling the creative sparks.

There's also a slightly deranged, twisted humour about the place, best exemplified by Portland natives Matt Groening, Chuck Palahnuik and Katherine Dunn. It sounds amazing.

Yup simply cannot wait. And then a week or so of bronzing in Hawaii before hopping back here for the final stretch. Come on break; just one week away.

Oh, and I'm loving Rex the Dog's Bubblicious, which is playing in my headphones as I type.