Blog Archives

Cleveland’s Fun: Believe It or Not!

“The Win” is where Cleveland is at now, but “The Decision” is where the city was not too long ago.

How did Cleveland’s faithful make the transition?

Basketball aside, the healing peacemaker was surprisingly not an intermediary at all. Instead, the conciliatory trigger was a state of mind. Specifically, the Ohio state (small “s”) of mind. More specifically, the “OH-” state of mind. Outsiders may laugh and roll their eyes at the passionately proud nature of Ohioans, but there’s a lot to be happy about.

That list can wait for another day.

For instance, when The Ohio State Buckeyes play that team up north or in a national championship, a win is not the only thing on the line. The entire identity and emotional well-being of its citizens are at stake.

People from Cleveland and beyond read the LeBron James re-dedication letter from July of 2014 to his hometown in northeast Ohio, but movie watchers saw an entertaining abridged version of his sentiment in the movie Trainwreck. Granted, LeBron’s scenes are about the only appropriate moments in the film (true story) and are also the most clever and endearing.

Destination Cleveland: Why haven’t there been a collection of creative tourism videos in the following video clip’s spirit featuring northeast Ohio’s favorite son and a skeptical traveler?

A Ted Mosby cameo could be cool too…

Right. Right!

Swap & Pop, Said Fred

And you thought the only difference between East Egg and West Egg was money.

You can say “Gatsby,” where the vocal range is aimed up with a splash of authority or “Gatsbee,” where the vocal range goes exactly straight out with no hints of, well, anything.

SNL-alum and impersonating savant Fred Armisen has a special skill that involves detecting the molecular, distinguishing accents from country-country and city-city and, quite possibly, from neighborhood street-neighborhood street in the same community. If you listen carefully during the video clip (and in everyday life), we all speak with a unique dialect.

However subtle, it’s there.

We should all burnish our current skills at acute vocal observations of the human condition, especially the next time you travel throughout Germany.

Doug E. Doug is shaking his head in disappointment. Fred Armisen was clearly missing his lucky egg.

Happy Monday

First: Our thoughts and prayers to those involved in the horrific shooting in Orlando.

David Spade always has a good story to tell.

Along with fellow cast members Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and many others, David Spade’s time spent at Saturday Night Live was legendary, even by SNL standards. This group was lightning in a bottle.

We know the famous moments from those Saturday nights, but how about a great backstage story?

That story is comedic bliss.

Happy Monday!

Laughter is the best medicine…unless you have the world’s worst dentist.

However, if you’re at an improv comedy show, you actually want to hear about the “world’s worst dentist.” Plus, you want to see a driver pick-up the strangest hitchhikers and witness an interrogation for the most random murder you never thought was possible.

This is exactly what happened (and so much more) at the Improv Workshop Graduation at the Columbus Funny Bone club, which included yours truly within a very talented, hilarious group of improvisers. And everybody showed up yesterday under the bright lights and gave the audience entertaining performances with lots of laughs.

As I work on posting the video footage from this improvisational showcase (thanks Mom for recording!), let’s take a look at two improvising favorites. This is, according to the video, the first time Whose Line Is It Anyway? comedic giant Ryan Stiles did a skit with his hair-impaired friend Colin Mochrie. They do shake hands as if meeting for the first time.

In improv, you want to add a new twist that takes a common activity or profession to the next level. Evidenced by the clip below, Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie have been doing exactly that from the very beginning.

Big thanks again to my parents for coming to the show and a standing ovation for my incredible classmates and our great improv teacher, Jeff Gage.