English one man show - check!

Yes! Finally, I can proudly add to my list of comedy accomplishments: "English One Man Show"!

This time must have been one of the most chaotic days to have a one man show. I wasn't as nervous as I was when I was doing my Chinese one man show in 2008, but it was still madness in my mind before going on stage. My biggest fear did happen, and I did forget around 3 goo bits I had, but nonetheless, crowdwork saved the day. The comedy Gods blessed me with some great audience members who wanted to play and were basically feeding me material :P! To the point I even joked with the audience that there was no point in my material being on a cheat sheet on the stool (For these big shows, I always go on prepared with a water and cheat sheets but till today I have never actually peeked at my cheat sheet, and doubt I can even remember the last time I sipped water while performing on stage). It's one of those weird things where while I'm on stage I have this weird idea that people didn't pay for me to peek at my notes or stop and sip water.... heh.

On a side note, now that I've begun reading The Musician's Way, my drumming has improved in a different way. I no longer find myself sometimes practicing endlessly at an exercise, I have taken steps back to really focus on quality practice now. It's quite exciting because now whenever I practice, when I reach a point I feel confident in what I've practiced, I record it down, the play it back and pray that I got it right. It actually is good because it builds confidence when you hear yourself play the music. I can feel that problem I used to face where I found I could play a beat but I lacked that little groove to it is getting better.
The downside however is that I don't practice as many exercises at a time. I used to manage around 3 exercises per session. However now, I rarely get passed 1 :P But 3 days later I've not just passed, I've perfected the exercise. It's quite interesting to listen to myself playing and being a critic, I get really harsh to the point I don't want to stop till I've perfected it (ahahah that's an annoying thing, I don't like doing things half way....).

I've also switched up my work out routine, I've figured now that my free time is getting less, I'm not going to allow myself to have any workouts longer than 1 hour. In fact, my goal now is to be freaking done after 45 minutes. Freaking done you ask? I mean at 45 minutes it's not a matter of wanting to go on but I'm exhausted in a good way. So now I do nothing but full body circuit weight/cardio workouts. Basically those crazy workouts that force you to work for a certain time period rather than reps. Like instead of aiming to hit 10 reps, now I aim to repeat something for 30 seconds. It sounds easy, but trust me, when you're combining a plank with a dumb bell row, 30 seconds can tear you apart. I was dripping sweat by my 2nd cycle. I was aiming to do around 4 cycle.
Oddly, in just 2 days I already feel stronger, like my muscles are pumped and ready to rock!

On the downside, my comedy writing has suffered. I had a total brain shut down on Sunday after my one man show on Saturday and a week long of hosting/performing, etc. at the 4th Annual International Comedy Festival. But I just did one of my good ol' everything random, just follow your gut things and it was a great day. Just followed wherever I ended up, whichever bus appeared and ended up having a really refreshing day :) Plus the weather is getting nicer now without the intense heat burning through my back like before.

Well I'm still backlogged on emails and to do list items, but I guess it'll take me a few more days before I can get back on track fully... far too many things to tend to all at the same time... ahah that crazy feeling of me losing control of my life is slowly setting in, but then again, as I always remind myself been there done that so it's just a passing storm to me now. I deal with it as it comes.

Well so far so good, Sunday being a "you're allowed to slack off day" is quite good really :) Although out of no choice, I'm going to have to meet some people this Sunday for a future gig. Ahh well, guess nothing's perfect! :)