Instead of writing about my trip a day or several after it happens, I’m going to try something new and document it through pictures (via Flickr).
At some point I’ll fill in the gaping hole from my last post in January 2008, but for now, pretty pictures.
Update 1/28: I have been moved to “The Group”. This works out for me since they meet Wednesday mornings and perform Wednesday nights. I still have love for “The Former Soviet Union”, who I saw give their first performance last week. We’ll still be friends on Myspace…Starting February 6, I will be performing with the The Second City Graduate group “The Former Soviet Union” “The Group” every Wednesday night at 8:00 pm as part of “Your Wednesday Night 4Cast”.
In my Week 47 travelogue, I gave the graduate path at Second City and how someone advances to the invitation only groups. Yes, I knew when I wrote the entry that I was in the group. Actually, I knew back in September. Week 38 to be exact. That was the week Dave Razowsky watched our preview show and gave us notes afterward. I was lucky enough to get some pretty good reviews from him and I felt really good about where I was headed in the conservatory. Later that week, we spoke about the graduate program and my intentions by email and the invitation came during that discussion.
It’s a couple of minutes into Christmas and I wanted to say Merry Christmas and a belated Happy Hanukkah to everyone. With all that has happened this year, I figured I’d open the site up to your questions for a holiday Q&A and we’d all get caught up. It’s been a while since the first Q&A and the same rules apply as last time – there are none. You can ask me anything you want, just post it as a comment, email or text it to me, or fill out the contact form here on the site. Just after the first of the year, I’ll answer all of them with the same honesty and detail that I have put into all my other posts.I wish you all a very happy, healthy and safe holiday season. I hope 2007 was good to you and that 2008 is even better.
(1/20/08) Thank you to everyone that sent in questions and comments. Without further ado…
Q: So, now what?
A: LOL. Kudos to the handful of you that sent this one in almost immediately. It’s great question and deserves an entire post dedicated to it and that will come shortly.
Q: Where can I see some of your work? Is there any actual record of you doing all this or is it just a big charade?
A: As a matter of fact, I have posted 3 sketches and 2 improvised pieces from the level 5 show to the media section
Well, this was it. The final show. Another sell out. What a great crowd, too. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces on the crowd, too — Annie, Jeff, Jason, Paul, Todd, Bob, the Millers. Thank you all for coming and being such a great, supportive audience.
After the show, we hit Boardner’s right around the corner. It was the first time I’ve been out with a group after a show, and it was nice to get to talk to so many people for more than a passing “hey, how are you?” in the halls on Sundays. Funny thing is, I’ve been in class with Maria since level 4 and that was the longest and most in-depth conversation we’ve ever had. Looks like we’re going to be working on some outside projects together right after the first of the year. I also introduced the group to my very own mixed drink – pineapple juice and coke. Don’t knock it until you try it.
Have you ever watched a football movie like “Friday Night Lights”, “Sign of the Times” or “Semi Tough” (Google them) and seen a faceless, nameless player get leveled with a vicious hit/block and reacted as if you’d just seen it on SportsCenter? I know I have. I know I’ve said to myself many times, “Who would want to get paid to take that sort of abuse?”
Well, I got a phone call Monday afternoon around 4:45 just as Melinda and I are arriving with the twins for a doctor’s appointment. The voice on the other end of the line says “Are you available at 6:00 tonight to be a football player for the HBO show “12 Miles of Bad Road”? They need a replacement ASAP. You will be suiting up as a featured extra.”
I will now give you a minute to re-read the title of this entry, the first two paragraphs, and laugh knowing where this is going. I’ll wait, go ahead. Be my guest.
This week started with a call from my agent that I had to make the long drive to Shreveport Wednesday to audition for a movie called “The Comeback” starring gangster rapper turned actor Ice Cube and directed by Limp Bizkit frontman turned director Fred Durst. Oh yeah, it’s a family movie about the first female quarterback in Pop Warner football.
So after a long night Tuesday (hey, did I mention I have twins?) I was up at 6:30 to drive to Shreveport for my 10:05 audition. I don’t recommend anyone do that because it’s a long boring drive. Thankfully, I have satellite radio so I wasn’t skipping channels the whole way. I arrived just in time to change into my reporter’s outfit (shirt and khakis). The audition itself went ok, and I got the call back for 4:05 that afternoon.
This week was the last scheduled show of the conservatory program. A very surreal feeling knowing it all started back in July of last year. Of the 17 of us that started the Conservatory program 45 weeks ago (Tyler and Ellen were in my Immersion workshop back in July), only 5 of us made it to level 5 and we were lucky enough to have Maria come over from another group at the beginning of Level 4 to make it a group.
We got home Saturday night around 5:45.
All the pictures are up (in a jumble) over at the Twinfo site.
The big news this week is that our show, “Premarital Sextet” has been extended for 2 more shows on November 15 and 29. We are the only show out of the Level 5 shows to extend so it’s a good thing for us.This week’s show was another sell-out and my friends Steve and Kristin were in attendence. Next week is graduation night and I have mixed feelings about the impending close of this experience.
Miles traveled: 2,470….
What else? I feel like I missed something. Oh yeah, Mason and Morgan are here. :)
Morgan spent the night in the NICU, she’s fine now and went to the nursery this morning. Mom, Mason and Morgan finally all got to meet around 11:00 this morning.
I promise I’m not going to flood everyone with pics. I’ll have a couple more for this week’s posting and will also have a new gallery up for the rest of them.
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and outpouring of love and support. We are so appreciative for all of it.
On 10/23/07
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| Mason Aaron Bentley (Codename Dirk) 6 pounds 4 ounces 19.5 inches long at 8:53 pm |
Morgan Grace Bentley (Codename LeBron) 5 pounds, 10 ounces 19 inches long at 8:54 pm |
More pictures soon…
This week was a quick trip as I would leave and return within 24 hors. On the flight out to Burbank, I watched the pilot for the NBC show “Journeyman” on advice from Melinda and slept. Upon arrival, I realized I forgot to book my rental car online, but luckily they had cars for Hertz Gold members so I got an Impala. From the airport, I picked Todd up and we went off to dinner and then to Old Navy because somebody forgot to take his dry cleaning in time this week.
We had an 8:30 call time this week to re-work the choreography for our final song, or so we thought we were. Our choreographer Kerri Ann’s new stuff was too much to learn for the show so we enhanced what we had. There was a very weird, negative energy in the room.
The week started with Melinda going to the doctor Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to have her blood pressure checked. It’s been running high and the doctor wanted to monitor her, but since Melinda is on bedrest her blood pressure goes through the roof when she’s up and around (or called into the doctor’s office). The doctor seems to think the twins could be here next week. We’ll see. Knowing it could be sooner than later, we decided on names for the dynamic duo Wednesday night.
Thursday, I took my car to shop before heading to the airport. The ABS light kept coming on randomly so I wanted to get that fixed ASAP. On the flight out, I slept and after landing I went to a quick dinner with Todd and Catherine. From there, I had to get to the theatre for our tech rehearsal and notes from 10:30 pm to 12:30 am.
Before I get started, I completely forgot to tell this story from 2 weeks ago. I got an email from my agent asking if I knew anybody that was 6-8 months 
pregnant that would be available for a quick shoot at their home. Funnily enough, I just happened to know someone that fit the bill. After talking to Melinda about it, I emailed my agent back and let her know Melinda was willing to do the shoot. So later that night a guy came over and we setup a makeshift green screen (or blue-sheet-on-the-fence-screen in this case) and he shot Melinda lying on a table, belly exposed, for the opening titles of a show he is pitching called “Labor of Love”. As you can see by the picture, it was very thrown together, but I think it’s going to be cool to have a copy of the show for Dirk and LeBron to see they were on tv before they got here. I thought it was a neat experience, but Melinda got mad because I snapped this crummy cameraphone pic. She’s since come around and understands I took it because this is my means of documenting it all.
