Happy Holidays!
I spent the next two weeks back in good old Rockland, MA, sleeping until noon everyday, seeing friends and family, celebrating the holidays, and occasionally getting some writing done (clearly not quite enough to get up to date).
The biggest thing to note of relevance to this whole endeavor is that my brother's Christmas present to me was organizing a Big Dumb Comedy Show. He rented space at a cool, little blackbox theater in Boston called the Riot Theater. Three of my best friends from my college stand up club agreed to open for the show, my brother MC'd and did some stand up in between everyone, and I closed by doing a half hour of comedy. I had never done that much stand up all at once, and I don't think it would have been possible for me to have both the confidence and the material to do it before this trip. The whole performance was a blast. My friends and my brother crushed it on stage, so if you ever see the names Nina Sapers, Devon Guinn, Anthony Zonfrelli, or Donnor Chaplin (my brother's stagename) on any shows around Boston or New York, I suggest you do yourself a favor and check it out!
We had publicized the event as best we could, but I didn't really have any clue if people were going to come. As it turned out, we packed the small theater and eventually people had to stand to see the show. It was beyond surreal to see people from so many different points in my life converge at one silly event. Family, college friends, high school friends, childhood friends, friends of friends, former teachers, former co-workers all mingling and laughing together. I felt a little like I was having my own personal It's a Wonderful Life. I felt pretty damn lucky, and I felt pretty damn proud. I was proud of my friends and happy to share them with everyone. I was proud of my brother who only started doing stand up this September and is already growing by leaps and bounds. And I was proud of myself, because. while granted this probably could not have been a more supportive audience, my set went very well with just about every punch line that I've been working on for the past three months landing and thirty minutes going by with almost no dips in energy or laughter. It was an amazing feeling, and I think honestly the best compliment I heard a couple of time was "That didn't even feel like half an hour!"
Here are some silly pictures I took of the show and the little afterparty hijinks I had with my friends.
And here are some much much better pictures, my friend Jack, who came all the way from New York because he's amazing, took of the whole show. I think he made us all look pretty darn good.
Movies I Remember Watching Over the Break: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (a few moments I didn't love, but for the most part everything you want in a Star Wars movie); The Shape of Water (surprising sweet and lovely movie that does feature a woman having sex with a fishman); The Grand Illusion (old French masterpiece my cousin insisted I watch. He was right, it was funny, poignant, and beautiful); 20th Century Women (I showed this to my parents and I think it is possibly one of the most underrated movies of 2016); Scrooged (occasionally corny but still probably my favorite Christmas movie because who's better than Bill Murray)
New Albums I got That Won't Come Up Alphabetically When I'm Back on the Road: Clandestine Confidential by Vic Ruggiero (I saw him open for the Bosstones and I dared him to find me some CDs of his I didn't have, so he dug into his merch bag and found some rare bootlegs. I love this man); Classic Connolly by Billy Connolly (it's truly hard to believe sometimes that Scottish people are speaking the same language as us); The Executions of All Things by Rilo Kiley (heard this in Ally's car and got hooked); Her Autumn Sky by the Greg Silva Trio + 1 (my former bass teacher just made this really good jazz album) I Love You Like A Brother by Alex Lahey; Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent
Some Pictures From Throughout the Break: You'll notice that a lot of people I care very much about do not show at all, and one person I care very much about shows up probably too much. We just can't all be as photogenic as Jason!
Songs of the Day: A good day for punk rock ladies
this is pretty out there
And last but not least, a Happy Nephew's New Year to All in 2018!
