April 14, 2004

The Naked Critic: Live and Unhinged

This could be the stupidest thing I've ever done.

Here's the deal: As many of you know, I'm also a comic. I started 8 years ago with standup, and graduated to sketch and later Character pieces (Basically, telling a story in character.)

I even had a modicum of success with it, managing at one point to mount a one-man show at Second City's Tim Sims Playhouse here in Toronto. (The show is called "The Spadina Monologues", and I hope to be putting some video or text of it up soon.)

I don't do it much any more, but every once in a while, I'll go to a show and do one of my characters. But it was always an OLD character.

Until last week. That's when I did my first new piece in about 3 years.

The other thing is, I suffer from INTENSE stage fright. I mean, it's BAD. Good ol' Buceta thinks that's hysterical, so he had an idea. He could follow me around before the show and document my fear.

And, like an idiot, I said yes. But hey! The good news is that YOU reap the rewards! Who wants to see Naked suffer??? Come on, you know you do...

Just click on any of the pictures of me here to watch "The Naked Critic: Live and Unhinged". It's about 12 minutes long, and the file is about 24 megs, so it may take some time. Oh, and I swear even more in person than in my reviews, so it may not be safe for work.

A note here: I owe a special debt of gratitude to Paul Buceta here. Despite the fact that I called him every name in the book on the video, he worked his bronzed, smooth, supple ass off putting this together. He shot it, hired the other cameraman, edited it...the whole enchilada. He put a hell of a lot more work into it than I did. So Paul, sincerely...thank you. If you like it, feel free to visit his site. It's an enjoyable read.

And enjoy...I'm looking forward to your comments.