Cindy Sheehan arrested for her t shirt

And I thought it was harsh when they sent you home from school for wearing a Metallica t shirt.Now you can get arrested for it.

Bush plays old computer games

The earliest PC games were text-based. And they sucked. When I was a kid, I played a Fantastic Four text game as the Thing. I fell into a tar pit and stayed stuck for two hours. I never turned it back on. Ah, Atari PC, how I don't miss you.

If you remember any text based games you'll find this as hilarious as I do. Once again, this comes from Dave W. who sends me all the funny stuff because his blog is full of pretty pictures.

All Hail Thad-Rock!

It's been a good week for good friends. One of my oldest and closest friends is Thaddeus Schneider, who's been working as an actor for years. I based a character on him for my first screenplay and once the script went to a film festival, we both used it on our resumes. Walker's talked about him on his blog before, too.

Thad-Rock has been working on an independent film for the last year or so and just sent me the dvd cover. Here it is (Thaddeus is the guy with the gun to his head):

All Hail Andrew Torres!

Last night we went to NY Comedy Club to see Andrew's debut as a stand-up comedian. Over the last two weeks, he and I started doing open mikes again. Neither of us had done stand-up on a stage in about five years but with Play Cole getting stronger, we wanted to do more comedy. While I started writing and rewriting, he immediately booked a showcase. Pretty ballsy and it paid off.

We spent all of MLK day working out our acts. And last night Andrew didn't do a single joke from it. Somehow, in one week, he managed to make the leap it takes most comedians years to approach. He was comfortable, autobiographical and KILLED. He says the key is to give the audience something that no one else can. And it's not jokes about Paris Hilton.

Congratulations, Andrew. You can officially be called a comedian. Now let's shoot some more films.

Jon writes the X-Men

If you're a die hard fan of mine (there might be one of you), you'll want to get all the rare variants of my writing. That's why you should know about Art Asylum's new X-Men Minimates box set currently displayed at UK ToyFair. I wrote the box copy as a favor (and cause it's fun) and action-figure.com was kind enough to post a really clear picture of it like so:


Once it's released I urge you all to buy three or four and read the stunning paragraph at the top that tells you what happens in the dvd. Read it aloud and over and over. I'm all choked up.

Joke of the Week

Last night's class was the best yet. Afterwards everyone went out for drinks. Everyone. We didn't lose a single person, which astounded me. Anyway, as promised, here's the joke of mine that worked the best:


Russia accused the British Embassy of using an "advanced electronic spy gadget" in a fake rock. In related news, President Bush announced his beloved pet rock has died.

The Richard Hatch that was NOT on "Battlestar Galactica"

It's character-defining moments like this which are precisely the reason I don't watch "Survivor".

Chris Penn

This is a shock. Chris Penn was found dead in his home yesterday. Anyone who's seen "Reservoir Dogs" knows he was able to step out from his brother's shadow and deliver a compelling performance on his own. He will be missed.

Blogs

Probably the most boring title I could have come up with.

I started this blog five months ago. My inspirations were Chris Diclerico where I used to post articles now and then and Mark Evanier who's the guy I want be when I grow up. This place has worked pretty well as a good amount of you stop by every day.

What's most inspiring is how many of you have started blogs on your own. Brian started the same day as me with a blog that's more conceptual than this one. A few months later Mark started his and revealed a stand-up comic yearning to break free. I check both of them every day.

That's why I'm proud to announce Bill Monroe's new blog. Keen observers will notice him as the straight man in the "Tension Envelopes" sketch. Bill's one of the funniest guys I've ever known and since we've been friends for twenty years, I've seen a lot of people to compare him. He's been living in Seattle for the last six years but thanks to email and long distance we keep up to date regularly. His new blog will make it even easier.

ABC finds Reasons Why Not

When I was a kid, the biggest t.v. failure ever was a show called "South of Sunset". It lasted three episodes and Letterman joked about it for six months.

Now ABC has outdone it by canceling "Emily's Reasons Why Not" after one episode. This is after promoting the hell out of it. There are giant billboards promoting the show in Times Square as we speak. In the spot where "Karen Sisco" used to be. Okay, bad example.

We're entering a scary age of tv. A year from now, new shows will be cancelled at the first commercial break and replaced with a half a "Seinfeld". No one will notice.

Raging Fred

Here's a video I didn't create but it is damn funny. Walker just sent me this version of Martin Scorcese's Flintstones.

More Play Cole on youtube

Hosting "Tension Envelopes" on youtube has gone so well we've updated the other films to their server. Which means you can watch them all without leaving this blog. And why would you want to leave this blog anyway?


The First Commandment 3 minutes



The Job Interview 5 minutes



Blind Travelogue- Yellowstone 30 seconds

Comedy Writing Class

If you read Brian's blog, you already know that we're taking Mediabistro's Writing Comedy for TV class. It's been a dream come true. So far our homework has been to write topical monologue jokes. I never thought I could write a joke based on a headline before but I'm fairly pleased with the result. We write 20 for each class but I thought I'd share my favorite with you. I'll post these every week until we move into sketches and sitcoms.

Axl Rose is suing a Beverly Hills car dealer, claiming the dealership failed to deliver two luxury cars after receiving $20,000 dollars in deposits. In related news, Axl Rose wants the world to know he still has $20,000 dollars.

A Play Cole Premiere!

I'm really excited about this. Andrew just posted our latest film "Tension Envelopes" at the Play Cole website. We shot this a month ago so YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS. That means if you came to our screening last March YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS. If you own our first dvd YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS. If you downloaded all our other films YOU HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS.

But there's hope. You can see it right over here. It's 3 and a half minutes so the standard rules of watching it at work apply. Enjoy, then come back and leave a review.

UPDATE: Apple hates Play Cole! Looks like the traffic blew out Andrew's Apple site. I guess we need Playcole.com pronto. Thanks for showing Apple you love us!

UPDATED UPDATE: We've moved it to youtube.com which also lets us host it right here. That's the coolest damn thing I've ever seen. "Tension Envelopes" lives!

New Rubik's Cube record set

Someone solved a Rubik's cube in 11.3 seconds. Amazing how someone can be so fast and yet 25 years too late.

Ricky Gervais

If you haven't heard of Ricky Gervais by now, soon you'll have no way to avoid him. He created the original version of "the Office" then imported it here (the US version just picked up a few Golden Globes). His next show "Extras" featured Kate Winslet, Ben Stiller, Patrick Stewart, Samuel L. Jackson and more in just six episodes.

Recently, he's written an episode of "the Simpsons", appeared in Christopher Guest's upcoming film and started these podcasts. I'm addicted to these things, mostly because they're complete nonsense. It's literally thirty minutes of Ricky and his writing partner Stephen Merchant torturing a third guy, Karl Pilkington. And obsessing about monkeys. That's the only way I can describe it so I'll just let you listen for yourself.

Jared from Subway

I've had it with this guy.

Look Jared, we're all real proud you lost the weight. But that doesn't make you a spokesman. It's been five years. Take some public speaking courses. Improv. Toastmasters, for crissake. I can't take it anymore. How you can sound like your mouth is full and yet you're out of breath at the same time is beyond me. Hearing you talk is like being stuck in a conversation that never ends. I know you're only on the air for four seconds. That's my point.

And what did you do with Clay Henry?

Art Classics

My Uncle Peter just sent me these. Nearly every one is an improvement.

Mitch Hedberg

To the surprise of no one, Mitch Hedberg's death early last year has been proven to be caused by a drug overdose. Mitch was always pretty open about his drug use in his stand-up. One of his oldest jokes was "I used to do drugs. I still do but I used to do them too."

I'm not going to launch into an anti-drug rant. I have too many fond memories of college for that. What really matters is what a brilliant comedian he was. He never really broke through into television or movies (aside for a few bit parts) but his observational laid back style made him my generation's Steven Wright, if not as well known. At least he made two albums before he left. I just picked up the second.

One of the biggest regrets of my life was not seeing this guy perform. Caroline's is directly between the office and the subway so I pass the display where comics have posted dates. It's worked out well since that's how we saw Gilbert Gottfried last month. Last year I saw Mitch's name up there and thought it would be great to see him 'next time'. There was no next time. I'm gonna have to learn to stop saying that.

Happy birthday Walker!

I'm not good with birthdays but for some reason I remember Walker's. He must have drilled it into my head through post hypnotic suggestion. But it's today and this is my gift to him:

Please leave your crazy ramblings wherever you want in my comment threads. Threaten the other posters, make no sense, write in all caps. It's your day.