jake regal has self-confidence.

an actor. a comedian. the creator of the hit characters "tarp" and "tech boy"

[tarpandtechboy]

Jake Regal: Expert 4/6/17

Hello, friends! Here is another edition of my new advice blog. I’ve gotten a nice little backlog of questions. Some are quite serious, while others are lighter. It’s a good balance! Here comes a lighter query from Josiah in California.

“If I'm putting together a podcast, what is the etiquette for asking people to be guests? Is it annoying to be asked to be a guest on a podcast, or is it something that is fun? Is it okay to ask strangers? Relatedly, will you be a guest on my new podcast?”

There’s certainly something intimidating about asking someone “above your station” to appear on your podcast, or in your improv show, or in your webseries. There is a fear that you may be bothering someone who is perhaps much busier than you. My advice: just go for it!

It’s very easy to ignore an email. Very very easy. You won’t be harming anyone by sending one. Shoot an email/Facebook message/DM to anybody you want on your podcast. Be respectful, lay out your want clearly, and offer them a few options for times to record. In my experience, only offering one option makes it likely they will decline, and offering many options will make it likely that will be overwhelmed and ignore the ask. Don’t follow up if they don’t respond (unless they’re a friend) because that’s when it can get annoying!

If you’re both in the same field (comedy, for example) you might feel the want to strike a balance between reverence and fraternity in your ask. I don’t think this is essential, but it couldn’t hurt! I’ve emailed Nick Kroll on two occasions to try to book him for shows. The first time, we had never met, and I basically wrote like I was a total fanboy trying to get him to do my stupid Passover-themed bit show. No response. Years later, after my team Cardinal Redbird opened for his team Morzouksnick at SF Skecthfest, I again asked him to do a show. This time, I emailed him reminding him of how we were connected, while still communicating that he would be doing me a favor by performing. He responded within minutes, and played with Cardinal Redbird a few weeks later. It felt like a favorable tone to take with a successful comedian like him.

This is mostly advice geared towards asking a famous person you don’t really know to do your podcast. If we’re talking about a fellow UCB student, or a not-on-TV house team performer, just ask ‘em! I think most people in the community would be happy to do your podcast, myself included!

Agree with my answers? Disagree? Let me know with a comment, or shoot an email to [email protected]

If you want to submit your own question to be answered in a future entry, fill out this form!

https://goo.gl/forms/cbRWa30wpDIihOEu1

[tarpandtechboy]

Jake Regal: Expert 3/28/17

Welcome back to the internet’s most popular advice blog. Did you know that dictionaries used to, but no longer, consider “internet” a proper noun? Today’s question comes from Edgar from California. He asks:

“I'm really bad [with] my finances. Any tips on how to be more efficient with my money that [aren’t] cheesy as fuck?”

Excellent question! This is an issue I’ve dealt with routinely in my adult life. I haven’t had a 9-5 day job since college. While this sounds awesome, in reality it has led to some pretty lean times. Particularly, before I started generating reliable income coaching improv, I lived day-to-day hoping I would book a national commercial every six months. I was very, very broke. Here are some things I learned then:

1) Stop going out to eat so goddamn often. This is the big one. I genuinely love fast food garbage, but taste aside, dollar menus helped me stay alive. For years, I would routinely limit myself to spending three dollars or less on meals. This meant innumerable (delicious, delicious) trips to Taco Bell and McDonald’s. Cook more if you like to cook. My mentality in my poorest times was that it was okay to spend money on food for someone else (read: a date), but that I shouldn’t spend money on food for myself. You can save a truly shocking amount of money thinking that way.

2) Don’t drink at bars. Same deal. By all means, go to your friends’ parties, but become comfortable with hanging out while sober. This also saves you money on Ubers. This method also makes house parties feel that much more special, because you can get smashed for cheap if you want to.

3) Reward yourself periodically. When I was spending no money, I found myself occasionally building up an irresistible urge to buy something substantial. I actually felt this urge most strongly when I was most broke. Something to do with fear and desire, I’m sure. Rather than always deny myself that pleasure, I would periodically let myself make a purchase (usually a video game). By rationing out these transactions, either as a reward for an accomplishment or because it had been months since my last purchase, I was able to take control of my shopping habits. I feel like if I completely denied myself the ability to buy anything, my id would take over and I’d find myself being completely irresponsible. With a reward system, I gave myself the power to buy or not buy.

Hope these ideas are helpful! I apologize if they were cheesy as fuck. Remember, if you want to submit your own question to be answered in a future entry, fill out this form!

https://goo.gl/forms/cbRWa30wpDIihOEu1

Agree with my answers? Disagree? Let me know with a comment, or shoot an email to [email protected]

[tarpandtechboy]

Jake Regal: Expert 3/19/17

If you’re a regular reader of my Tumblr (statistics suggest that literally no one is), you know that I’ve decided to answer your life questions and dispense advice. To summarize: I am completely unqualified to answer any question in any field but I will attempt to respond with complete sincerity. Submit your own question here:

https://goo.gl/forms/cbRWa30wpDIihOEu1

This advice blog’s inaugural entry comes in response to a question from Will in California:

“What are every day habits you follow in order to be/stay/become happy?”

My answer to this question, I suspect, will only be helpful to people very similar to me. I am a very introverted person who is a self-employed freelancer. Left to my own devices, my instincts push me directly towards mild depression. I will, if I don’t stop myself, spend all day in my apartment playing video games and watching Part 16 of that endless OJ Simpson documentary. I love socializing, exploration, and adventure, but my brain never actually suggests attempting these things. Here are some things I do to fight my instincts:

1) Shower. An easy way for me to take a quick gauge of my happiness/depression level is to observe my willingness to shower. When I am content or motivated in life, taking a shower feels like an obvious and instinctual choice to start my day. When I’m depressed, I’m disinclined to shower, because it feels like unnecessary work. I try to fight this feeling by showering anyway.

2) Take a substantial walk while the sun is out. There’s nothing worse than the sun setting as you realize you haven’t been outside all day, except for the thirty steps between your car and the casting office where you auditioned for a regional commercial for Cheerwine. I make a point to walk somewhere, anywhere, every day. I live in Los Feliz, which is a very walkable neighborhood, so I have lots of options (Grocery store? Library? The weird park a block away from me with the Frank Lloyd Wright house?) for destinations. I also have a gym membership, and I try to go as often as I can, but honestly it’s tied with DirecTV Now for the thing I spend $35/month on that I use least often.

3) Perform as often as possible. Acting is the only effortful activity that I am psychologically inclined to do. It ticks every box for me. It’s fun. It’s social. It’s physical. It’s exhilarating. It’s challenging but rarely frustrating. It works the logical side of my brain (every character and every line is a puzzle to be solved as you create a coherent through-line) and the emotional side (I love delving deep enough into a character that I make choices in performance that genuinely surprise me). I’m fairly confident that I have the reputation as a “UCB nerd.” I’m one of those people who go to a million shows and try to get on all the teams. This is not necessarily because comedy is my life’s passion, but rather because it’s an aspect of my career as an actor that I have some control over. The life of a film and television actor is arbitrary and cruel, but UCB offers a fairly straightforward (if perilous) path to performing consistently.

4) Don’t sleep too much.

Well, I hope this was helpful. I’m one column in, and I’ve already gone on rambling tangents and made everything about myself. That’s the kind of response you can expect from future entries. 

Agree with my answers? Disagree? Let me know with a comment, or shoot an email to [email protected]

Have your own question for a future column? Fill out the submission form at https://goo.gl/forms/cbRWa30wpDIihOEu1

[tarpandtechboy]

Jake Regal: Expert

Like a year ago, I teased the idea of doing a sporadic advice blog. I’m currently in the middle of a brutal pilot season, I have all the free time in the world, and I’m ready to answer your questions. I have no qualifications, and no areas of expertise. I consider myself an above-average armchair therapist. I also know a lot about mixed martial arts, if that helps. Here are things you might ask me about:

Improv. I’m performing weekly at the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles, and all it took was years of my time and a needless obsession that thrust me into a mild depression for several years.

Acting. I’ve had one line on several television shows. I’ve had zero pilot auditions this year. Not even a pre-read.

Love. My experience with women is largely characterized by great anxiety and a focus on my own flaws. I became romantically happy for the first time at age 28.

Sex. My penis works most of the time.

Anything else.

Below is a Google Form you can fill out if you are seeking advice or the answer to a question. You could ask a very specific question about improv scenework, or a very general question, like “how do you budget your time?” You can ask a sincere question or submit a bit question. My promise: I will respond as openly and sincerely as I possibly can, regardless of the sincerity of your question.

https://goo.gl/forms/cbRWa30wpDIihOEu1

[tarpandtechboy]

A helpful guide.

[tarpandtechboy]

An Unnecessary List of the 25(?) Best Pavement Songs

Hello. I’m a comedian and not a journalist, music or otherwise. Pavement has been my favorite band since my freshman year of college, which I think was some time in the late 80s? A friend told me recently that he had a hard time getting into Pavement so I thought I’d list my 25 favorite songs of theirs. Pavement has at least one hundred good songs. My feelings on this topic change constantly and I’ll probably disagree with this list tomorrow. If you’ve never listened to Pavement, maybe you could start with these songs?

25. We Dance (from Wowee Zowee)

Wowee Zowee is backwards and all wrong and opens with a beautiful closing ballad. So does this list.

24. Space Ghost Theme II (from Space Ghost Coast 2 Coast, released on Brighten the Corners Nicene Creedence Edition)

In 1997 the coolest band of the 90′s was on the coolest TV show of the 90′s. They played The Beatles. The episode in full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azEy4OUeZs4

23. Strings of Nashville (from Gold Soundz single)

So pretty! Also try the instrumental version. Relaxing.

22. No Life Singed Her (from Slanted and Echanted)

This song is a little over two minutes long but it feels like 20 seconds. All energy.

21. Stop Breathin’ (from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)

I think halfway through this song Stephen Malkmus decides he wants to learn how to sing.

20. Home (from Perfect Sound Forever EP)

The oldest song on this list. Rumbling. Sorry, Box Elder and Debris Slide. They’re close runners up.

19. Coolin’ By Sound (from Range Life single)

The part where they go “doo doo doo doo doo” is probably the closest Pavement ever came to selling out, but it’s also perfect.

18. Texas Never Whispers (from Watery, Domestic EP)

A four-song EP places three songs on this list. Get past the noise part and enjoy.

17. Harness Your Hopes (from Spit on a Stranger single)

In terms of release chronology, the last great Pavement song. Shares the weird ability to have insane lyrics while being very emotionally evocative with the #1 song on this list.

16. Silence Kid (from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)

Catchy start to Pavement’s most conventionally poppy album. People still disagree about how to spell the title of this song.

Also 16. Speak, See, Remember (from Terror Twilight)

I fucked up when making this list and made two #16s. I should probably cut that Space Ghost song, but honestly, I’m not gonna spend all this time re-ordering everything. Speak, See, Remember sounds like Pavement saying goodbye. Last example of classic Malkmus noodling as the coda starts. 

15. Trigger Cut/Wounded-Kite at :17 (from Slanted and Enchanted)

I don’t know, man. This song is good. Do I have to write a blurb for all of these?

14. Elevate Me Later (from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)

I can almost play this song on guitar. Almost. Shares a chord structure and almost shared a name with an even better Pavement song.

13. Stereo (from Brighten the Corners)

Pavement’s least great album gets off to a hell of a one-two start. This one’s best known for its very weird Geddy Lee name check. 

12. Frontwards (from Watery, Domestic EP)

People have gotten tattoos of lyrics from this song. A great song that’s even better to mention in casual conversation if you want to sound like a smart Pavement fan.

11. Give it a Day (from Pacific Trim EP)

Pavement was supposed to be helping record a Silver Jews album but there was a falling-out (temporary, thank god) and this EP got recorded instead. A girl gets called a slut in this song but not by the narrator so maybe it’s okay?

10. Major Leagues (from Terror Twilight)

This was my favorite song for about a year of college. I spun it so much that it’s still my second most played song ever after Winter’s Love by Animal Collective. 

9. Zurich is Stained (from Slanted and Enchanted)

Short and very very sweet. 

8. The Sutcliffe Catering Song (from Feb 1994 John Peel Session, released on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: LA’s Desert Origins)

Better known as Easily Fooled, the best version of the song was released with this this much weirder title. The world feels cool when you listen to this.

7. Summer Babe (Winter Version) (from Slanted and Enchanted)

This is where ordering this list starts to feel useless. This song is perfect. The first song on their first album is noisy and beautiful.

6. AT&T (from Wowee Zowee)

Pavement’s best single wasn’t released as a single. They’re better as America’s least underground underground band, anyway.

5. Here (from Slante

Just kidding. Fuck Here. It’s lifeless.

5. Grounded (from Wowee Zowee)

Now this is a Pavement ballad. Probably the song to send someone if they ask “what does Pavement sound like?”

4. Shady Lane (from Brighten the Corners)

This is the song that got me into Pavement. Somebody told Jake Regal the high school senior that Weezer stole their sound from Pavement and I KaZaA’d this song. That somebody was insane and wrong but I fell in love anyway.

3. Gold Soundz (from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain)

Pitchfork called this one the best song of the 1990′s. That feels a little dramatic to me but I guess it’s as good an answer as any. 

2. Loretta’s Scars (from Slanted and Enchanted)

SM’s “make my body shed for you-u” is the best moment in the Pavement catalog and maybe the zenith of music itself? Again, possibly a little dramatic.

1) Shoot the Singer (1 Sick Verse) (from Watery, Domestic EP)

This song starts with Malkmus singing about a pair of pants that were altered by a tailor. I think it’s implied that they were changed against his wishes? Against all odds, this goes on to become Pavement’s best song. 

Okay, that’s the list. Did you actually read it? If so, why?

[tarpandtechboy]

On Hair Loss

I do not want to talk to my barber. The idea of sitting, immobile, in a chair while a glorified stranger makes small talk with you as they take a sharp object to your brain area has always felt like torture to me. I've always struggled socially with surface-level conversations, and there's nothing more surface-level than a chat with a doctor, or dentist, or barber. My disdain for haircut chats dates back to my childhood. Stylists would ask me inane questions to pass the time, like “what did you think about Justin Timberlake's interview on TRL?” Sure, I did watch the interview, and sure, I did think that Justin had the charisma to potentially break off from N*SYNC and start a successful solo career, but who would want to talk about that?

That's why I surprised myself last week when my barber asked me if I wanted to talk about my thinning hair, and I immediately said yes. It had been on my mind. Intellectually, I had always known balding was a possibility. My father has a strong head of hair, but my mother's father was bald, and baldness is passed down genetically primarily from your mother's side of the family. Despite being aware of this, I've been living in a pretty hardcore denial zone for the last year. First, the hair around my crown started to thin, but I convinced myself that it was always that sparse and that I was worried about nothing. Then, throughout the year, the hair in the front of my head became increasingly thin and brittle. The unusually thick hair I was born with that water could barely penetrate (duck hair, my parents called it) was disappearing. Still, I decided I was just seeing things. Finally, last week, I looked in the mirror and realized I could see my scalp clearly through my hair. This was NEVER true in the duck hair days. I couldn't deny the situation any longer.

The next day, when the barber at my local boutique (Supercuts) asked if I wanted to talk about it, she could not have had better timing. It was the only thing I wanted to talk about. Maybe she had sage advice how I might be able to prevent the slow death of my hairline? Maybe this could all be prevented? She had no advice. She did have a forty dollar bottle of shampoo to sell me. I politely declined, and tipped a little bit less than usual as a silent protest of her hucksterism.

I started to freak out. This was big. Most obviously, it came with a lot of psychic damage. My hair was falling out right as I began to prepare for my upcoming 30th birthday. My youth could only feel more dead if a man from the government came into my apartment and took away my PS4. This is a problem millions of privileged Americans deal with. Boo hoo. That's not what got me. The thing that made me look in the mirror and openly weep at my own reflection like a character in a Noah Baumbach movie was my hair loss's potential effect on my career.

I make a living (barely) playing college kids. I'll even occasionally audition for high school-aged roles. This is my niche, and it has been since graduating college and getting into the industry. Losing my hair, I felt, would be apocalyptic to my career. Who hires an actor with a baby face and no hair? What kind of roles could they play? Would I be typecast as the friend who gets leukemia? I had previously considered the possibility of losing my hair later in life, and playing the “weird doctors” I have long felt destined to play. The look would work just fine at age 40, when I assumed I would seem like an adult man. This was too early. There are no doctors on television or film with a 21-year-old face and a 50-year-old scalp.

I started doing research online. Herbal cures. Vitamins. I shopped around Amazon for special shampoos. Every hair loss shampoo on Amazon has fifty glowing reviews, and three reviews that say “DO NOT USE. THIS SHAMPOO BURNED MY SCALP AND MADE ALL MY HAIR FALL OUT.” I eventually settled on the same Bosley shampoo the woman at Supercuts was trying to sell me. On Amazon is cost ten dollars.

My girlfriend was extremely supportive throughout the weekend as I did my best impression of a big whiny baby. I was truly unbearable to be around. Some people would feel shamed and stay quiet about something like this. I was the opposite. Everyone I spoke to got to chat about my disintegrating hair. I would stare at every head I walked by, or spoke to, or saw on television. I have more hair than this guy. Less hair that that guy. Where am I sitting on the hair ladder?

A female friend mentioned that a mutual friend of ours had been dealing with hair loss for years and might be worth talking to. I was surprised to hear that—this friend was always someone I considered to have a full and thick head of hair. I texted the mutual friend for the first time in eight months. Hi, how's it going, I heard your hair was falling out can you help me? I felt very strange asking him about such a personal topic, but he was extremely kind and open about his regimen and his own struggles. He gave me medication suggestions. He told me that many people in the comedy community, and many many more in Hollywood struggle with hair loss on the DL. Most people wouldn't even know. I mean, I understood these things, but it felt good to hear it from someone else. He even volunteered to meet up and chat about it if I ever needed someone to talk to. What a good dude.

I'm calmer now. The situation isn't resolved. I'm seeing a dermatologist tomorrow, where I might be prescribed a drug I have to take for the rest of my life if I don't want all my hair to fall out at once. That special shampoo arrives tomorrow. Maybe I'll be able to keep my hair, keep my character type, and keep my fleeting sense of youth. Maybe I'll lose my hair, and have to find way to package myself. At least I wouldn't have to go to Supercuts any more.

[tarpandtechboy]

2016 UCB 3-on-3 Tournament Week Three Results!

The quarterfinals are complete! Eight more awesome teams fought, but only four advanced! They are:

4th place - Joshing Around with Jake Jabbour (Jake Jabbour, Josh Monk, Josh Simpson)

3rd place - Ronnie’s Heroes (Ronnie Adrian, Casey Feigh, Dave Theune)

2nd place - Hat! Hat! Hat! (WILD CARD TEAM) (Clara Baker, Andrew Hansen, Zeke Nicholson)

1st place - Clear Eyes (Ally Beardsley, David Harris, Rose O'Shea)

However, because of scheduling conflicts, Hat! Hat! Hat! will be replaced by the team that missed the semifinals by just one vote, Area 51 (Sarah Claspell, Dickie Copeland, Jessica Jardine)

The semifinals are on 6/11 and 6/13! 12 teams are left to compete for the title! Get your tickets now!

https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/47459

https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/47495

[tarpandtechboy]

2016 UCB 3-on-3 Tournament Week Two Results!

Last night was the second of three quarterfinal shows in this year’s UCB 3-on-3 Tournament. Eight more teams battled, but only four could advance. Those four are:

4th place - Exes & Joes (Ann Maddox, Nikki Taguilas, Joe Weber)

3rd place - Kitty Sister (Ian Hamilton, Katelyn Hempstead, Michael Dean)

2nd place - JAH (Alex Fernie, Hillary Matthews, Jacob Wysocki)

1st place - Fuckable (Mel Cowan, Will Hines, Jonny Svarzbein)

All eight teams were just great! One again we saw some student-based teams upset heavy hitters! Who knows what might happen at next week’s show. Here’s the lineup for 5/30:

Ronnie's Heroes (Ronnie Adrian, Casey Feigh, Dave Theune)

Uniqlo Models (Ruha Taslimi, Karel Ebergen, Zander Frost)

DaDayDay (Dick Beck, Jesse Esparza, Joan Ford)

Joshing around with Jake Jabbour (Jake Jabbour, Josh Monk, Josh Simpson)

Wild Card Team

Clear Eyes (Ally Beardsley, David Harris, Rose O'Shea)

Villains (Josh Brekhus, Colin McGurk, Gregory Adam Wallace)

Area 51 (Sarah Claspell, Dickie Copeland, Jessica Jardine)

Get your tickets here! https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/46980

[tarpandtechboy]

2016 UCB 3-on-3 Tournament Week One Results!

24 teams have entered a tournament to determine UCB’s finest 3-person improv team! The full lineup can be seen in this post: http://tarpandtechboy.tumblr.com/post/143599068924/official-3v3-tournament-lineup

On Monday, the first eight teams competed in their quarterfinal show, but only four teams could move on! They are:

4th place - PALS (Justin Michael, Anthony Gioe, Mark David Christenson)

3rd place -  Bang Bus (Beth Appel, Dan Black, Paul Welsh)

2nd place -  Dope Town 3000 (Zora Bikangaga, Shaun Fisher, Greg Smith)

1st place -  Mid-Season Graduates (Devin Field, Ellie Kovara, Lou Wilson)

It was a tight race, and four great teams were sent home packing! The next show is on Monday, 5/23. It features eight more great teams, including the 2015 UCB 3-on-3 Tournament Champions, JAH! The whole lineup:

JAH (Alex Fernie, Hillary Matthews, Jacob Wysocki)

Exes & Joes (Ann Maddox, Nikki Taguilas, Joe Weber)

Zero Birthday (Jesse Glasgow, Mark Mitchell, Rachel Chapman)

Pam and the Boys (Pam Murphy, Zac Oyama, Drew Spears)

Wild Card Team

Kitty Sister (Ian Hamilton, Katelyn Hempstead, Michael Dean)

Funk Shuffle (Danny Curlett, Danny Cymbal, Michael Gardner)

Fuckable (Mel Cowan, Will Hines, Jonny Svarzbein) 

Get your tickets here! https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/46861

[tarpandtechboy]

Official 3v3 Tournament Lineup!

Here are the lineups for the quarterfinal round of the 2016 UCB 3-on-3 Tournament! Notice the three wild card teams. If your submission was not accepted into the tournament, you still have a chance to perform! Each night of the quarterfinals, three individuals will be plucked from the audience and placed onto a Wild Card team that performs later that night. Last year, two wild card teams made it into the semifinals!

5/16

Bang Bus (Beth Appel, Dan Black, Paul Welsh)

Arsenio Hall or Billingham (Winston Carter, Dominique Johnson, Alex Ungerman)

Dope Town 3000 (Hip Hop Improv) (Zora Bikangaga, Shaun Fisher, Greg Smith)

Destiny's Stepchild (Jamie Gaul, Beth Lepley, Nina Conception)

Wild Card Team

Mid-Season Graduates (Devin Field, Ellie Kovara, Lou Wilson) 

Poncho Villa! (George Barber, David Kerns, Jess Rona)

PALS (Nick Mandernach, Anthony Gioe, Mark David Christenson) 5/23

JAH (Alex Fernie, Hillary Matthews, Jacob Wysocki)

Exes & Joes (Ann Maddox, Nikki Taguilas, Joe Weber)

Zero Birthday (Jesse Glasgow, Mark Mitchell, Rachel Chapman)

Pam and the Boys (Pam Murphy, Zac Oyama, Drew Spears)

Wild Card Team

Kitty Sister (Ian Hamilton, Katelyn Hempstead, Michael Dean)

Funk Shuffle (Danny Curlett, Danny Cymbal, Michael Gardner)

Fuckable (Mel Cowan, Will Hines, Jonny Svarzbein) 5/30

Ronnie's Heroes (Ronnie Adrian, Casey Feigh, Dave Theune)

Uniqlo Models (Ruha Taslimi, Karel Ebergen, Zander Frost)

DaDayDay (Dick Beck, Jesse Esparza, Joan Ford)

Joshing around with Jake Jabbour (Jake Jabbour, Josh Monk, Josh Simpson)

Wild Card Team

Clear Eyes (Ally Beardsley, David Harris, Rose O'Shea)

Villains (Josh Brekhus, Colin McGurk, Gregory Adam Wallace)

Area 51 (Sarah Claspell, Dickie Copeland, Jessica Jardine)

[tarpandtechboy]

Advice to Jake, Aged 21

Dear Fresh-Out-Of-College Jake:

Let’s suppose a successful career in the arts is achieved through four means: A) Talent, B) Working Hard When Opportunities Arise, C) Persistence, and D) Luck. If I were to order them from most to least important, it would look like this:

C)

B)

D)

A)

I’m not discrediting talent. It’s important. If you don’t have any, working hard and persisting will be an exercise in frustration. An honest self-appraisal is useful every now and then. “Am I any good at the thing I’m attempting?” It might not be worth throwing your whole self into!

Luck is overrated. Yes, work will come and go based on the ephemeral whims of strangers, and sometimes a part will be won or lost depending on how hungry the people sitting across from you in the room are. So what. “Bad luck” is just as often an excuse for a lack of A) B) and C).

B) is your big problem, Jake! When you’re finally presented with an opportunity, you have a terrible habit of half-assing it. I don’t know if it’s a defense mechanism or what. Maybe you think someone else not liking your audition won’t hurt if you don’t like your audition. It takes you over half a decade to grow out of this, and it still pops up from time to time. Cut that shit out.

Good news, Jake. Edison was right. In Old Man Regal’s experience, success is determined by, more than anything else, perspiration. If you haven’t lost your passion for something (and for God’s sake, be honest with yourself if you have), keep going and good things will happen. They may take a decade or longer. You’re playing a long game here, and it sucks a lot of the time.

Oh, by the way, 21-year-old Jake, I hope I haven’t mislead you. I’m not famous or anything. I do improv weekly for fewer people than you did last year in college. I’m working as an actor like six days a year. I just have a little bit more perspective and a clearer view of the path ahead, so I thought I’d share. 

Also, Jake, you know those iPhones that just came out? You get one eventually and it’s awesome. 

[tarpandtechboy]

UCB 3-on-3 Tournament, Week Four Results

The final show of the UCB 3-on-3 Tournament Quarterfinals was last night, and what a show it was! Three more awesome teams move onto the semifinals.

3rd place - Westward Ho (Dan Amerman, Ryan Hitchcock, Cody Kopp)

2nd place - Illuminati (Jessica Allen Eason, Betsy Stover, Ari Voukydis)

1st place - Fuckable (Mel Cowan, Will Hines, Jonny Svarzbein)

They will compete in the June 15th semifinals. First, though, comes the June 8th semifinals! Six teams compete, and only two will move into the finals! Here is the lineup:

Natrone (James Mastrieni, Ryan Meharry, Dave Theune) [reserve team]

Made Up Musical (Alex Catalano, Stephanie Bentley, Sam Johnides [accompanist])

Jake Regal is a Horny Ghost (WILD CARD TEAM) (Ruha Taslimi, Mike Antebi, Han Tang)

Doxy (Amanda Sitko, Anne Lane, Mary Holland)

“Casey & Jo Jo minus Fran because Jake wouldn’t let her play with us. Do you think Jake Regal hates women?” was the original name of this team but then Casey told me Joe couldn’t do the show after all and Fran was taking his place which sort of makes Casey look like the idiot, don’t you think? (Casey Feigh, Fran Gillespie, Josh Simpson)

JAH (Alex Fernie, Hillary Anne Matthews, Jacob Wysocki)

Make your reservations here!

https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/39830

[tarpandtechboy]

UCB 3-on-3 Tournament, Week Three Results

Last night was another great one for the UCB 3-on-3 Tournament! For the second straight week, we saw the Wild Card Team power through to the semis! The audience is unstoppable.

3rd place - Bring Your Purse (WILD CARD TEAM) (July Diaz, Beth “Boom Boom” Appel, Tia Ginakakis)

2nd place - Drop Zone ( Suzi Barrett, Drew DiFonzo-Marks, Mike McLendon )

1st place - Ghost Rabbit of Connecticut (Nicole Byer, Marcy Jarreau, Paul Welsh)

These three teams will compete against the three winners of next week at the June 15th semifinal. Here’s the lineup for the final quarterfinal show, next Monday June 1:

Fuckable (

Mel Cowan, Will Hines, Jonny Svarzbein

)                                        

Urethra Franklin (Beth Alexandroff, Nina Concepcion, Lyndsey Frank)

House Meeting (Joe Wengert, Mary Sasson, Betsy Sodaro)

Meredith’s Facebook Photos (Laurie Magers, Matt Noonan, Jason M. Palmer)

Icky Pep (Matt Cordova, Chris Duce, Thomas Ouellette)

Wild Card Team

Westward Ho (Dan Amerman, Ryan Hitchcock, Cody Kopp)

Illuminati (Jessica Allen Eason, Betsy Stover, Ari Voukydis)

Make your reservations here! 

https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/39667

[tarpandtechboy]

UCB 3-on-3 Tournament, Week Two Results

The quarterfinals are halfway over! Week Two saw a whole lot of fun and a couple spooky surprises! Here are the teams that moved on to the semifinals:

3rd place - Sharp Rose Wall (Ryan Rosenberg, Timm Sharp, Gregory Wallace)

2nd place - Jake Regal is a Horny Ghost (WILD CARD TEAM) (Ruha Taslimi, Mike Antebi, Han Tang)

1st place - “Casey & Jo Jo minus Fran because Jake wouldn’t let her play with us. Do you think Jake Regal hates women?” was the original name of this team but then Casey told me Joe couldn’t do the show after all and Fran was taking his place which sort of makes Casey look like the idiot, don’t you think? (Casey Feigh, Fran Gillespie, Josh Simpson)

These three teams will compete against the three winners of last week at the June 8th semifinal. Here’s the lineup for next week’s (May 25th) quarterfinals show:

Drop Zone (Suzi Barrett, Drew DiFonzo-Marks, Mike McLendon)                     

Saving Throw (Patrick Ehlers, Charles Maa, Mark Mitchell)

Jem and the Rockers (Crystal Franceschini, Aliza Pearl Kennedy, Nicole Stone)

Master Splinter (Andrew Hansen, Zeke Nicholson, Carl Tart)

3 Solid Improvisers (Amos Vernon, Matthew Brian Cohen, Ryan Williams)

Wild Card Team

Dog Boys of Norfolk County (Mikey Dean, Nick Luciano, Colton Stickney)

Ghost Rabbit of Connecticut (Nicole Byer, Marcy Jarreau, Paul Welsh)

Make your reservations here! https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/39358

[tarpandtechboy]

UCB 3-on-3 Tournament, Week One Results

Thanks for coming out to the sold out first night of the UCB 3-on-3 Tournament last night. All eight teams did an incredible job, but only three could move on to the semifinal round. 

3rd place - Made Up Musical (Alex Catalano, Stephanie Bentley, Sam Johnides [accompanist])

2nd place - Doxy (Amanda Sitko, Anne Lane, Mary Holland)

1st place - JAH (Alex Fernie, Hillary Anne Matthews, Jacob Wysocki)

They will be performing again in the first semifinal on June 8th. Before that, there’s still three more quarterfinal shows! Here’s the lineup for next week (May 18th):

“Casey & Jo Jo minus Fran because Jake wouldn't let her play with us. Do you think Jake Regal hates women?” was the original name of this team but then Casey told me Joe couldn't do the show after all and Fran was taking his place which sort of makes Casey look like the idiot, don’t you think? (Casey Feigh, Fran Gillespie, Josh Simpson)

Vacation Bible School (Jen D'Angelo, Jeff Kaplan, Maggie Monahan)

Sharp Rose Wall (Ryan Rosenberg, Timm Sharp, Gregory Wallace)

Owls (Rachael Mason, Kerry McGuire, Veronica Osorio)

Break Check (Dick Beck, Dina Taylor, Jesse Esparza)

Wild Card Team

JessJessJosh (Jessica Haymond, Jessica Ross, Josh Kaplan)

Natrone (James Mastrieni, Ryan Meharry, Dave Theune)

Make your reservations here! https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/38820

[tarpandtechboy]

The UCB 3-on-3 Tournament Begins TONIGHT

The UCB 3-on-3 Tournament was an annual tradition in the earlier years of the the UCB Theatre in Los Angeles. 12 improv teams competed in front of a rabid, oversold house for money, bragging rights, and the title of 3-on-3 champion. The last tournament was held in 2010.

Now, it’s back, it’s bigger, and it starts tonight. 32 teams are duking it out for the right to be called one of UCB’s finest 3-person improv teams. $420 dollars (lol) is at stake. Some of UCB’s funniest teachers and performers mix it up with up-and-comers looking to knock off the top dogs.

The best part? You could play in the tournament. A Wild Card Team will be drawn from members of the audience tonight (volunteers only, you won’t be drafted against your will) to compete with the other groups. 

10:30PM. UCB Sunset. Tickets available at https://sunset.ucbtheatre.com/performance/38298