Will Hines Dot Net

Was in Chicago with some UCBT folk for a theater conference. I did something so dumb that I weirdly proud of it. We were walking around the IO Theater (for our first of two nights seeing shows there, which was very cool) and ran across a bar called “Merkle’s” that had a picture of old timey baseball player that I recognized as Fred Merkle. Surprised at seeing such an obscure baseball reference I starting ranting in an impassioned tone “Fred Merkle? Why would anyone have a bar devoted to Fred Merkle? I know that he was famous for not touching second base in the 1908 World Series, which made the umps call the game invalid, which let the Chicago [...]

Dyna Moe will be making videos for Marvel Comics. That is cool. I got to be in the spec video that she pitched. I had linked it above but it is now private and un-viewable (note to corporations: why, when you get content do you go to such great lengths to prevent it from being seen, ever?)

Other nonsense:

Here’s a hilarious video of Andres du Buchet describing crazy actresses in general and his crazy actress roommate in particular. “That phrase ‘crazy actress’ — that’s like saying ‘this sphere is round’ or ‘i am talking with my voice!’”

Doing more stand-up recently, albeit mostly at open mikes. I have yet to take Kevin’s advice to end every joke with “Check, please!” though [...]

I always think “canceled” should be spelled “cancelled” — but that is not correct.

Edited (After tony’s comment) to add: Ah, it IS right! Either way! But my Firefox spellchecker says it’s wrong. And my OCD needs to get rid of the squiggly lines as much as possible.

I’ve been doing a bunch of stand-up this year. Guess what? Stand-up is hard. Sometimes after a bad night I will listen to stand-up that I love to remind me of why I ever liked it. Here’s the first 6 minutes and 23 seconds of from Woody Allen’s first stand-up album in 1964. I’m gonna say it: this Woody Allen is gonna go places in comedy.

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

I first heard Woody Allen’s stand-up when I was in ninth grade on Hartford, CT’s WHCN’s Sunday Night Comedy Hour. They played a full hour because Hannah and Her Sisters had just come out. For the first 15 minutes I hated it, and then something clicked and [...]

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Okay, now you go.

Another Sean Clemens/Will Hines/Todd Bieber UCBcomedy video. “Monkey King” Edited by Carmen Angelica. It is about a homeless man who is instantly talked out of being crazy. My main goal here was to keep the boom close enough to the actors so we wouldn’t get crazy subway echo. Thanks to crewmaster Ben Ragheb, we did it!

If you’re curious, see the stage version as performed by Stone Cold Fox on Maude Night.

And hey! Here’s “The Dealer“, a Charlie Sanders sketch featuring John Kingman and I. Filmed outside of my apartment by Ryan Gould some months ago. There was a guy to my right [...]

1. Should I be scared of the iMac remote control since it obviously has power but I can’t see where the batteries are?
2. Was whoever played the piano part in The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic?” happy about having to do that, or did he have to be tricked into it?
3. How much money has Steve Ditko made off of the Spider-Man movie?
4. What’s so great about Shakespeare?
5. If I don’t have any ideas for a scene in my improv group’s show, what is the funniest thing I could say?
6. How many feet SHOULD people have, if we were designed by geniuses?
7. What is the best number?
8. Tell me what [...]

I thought it was…. pretty good.

Maybe it’s because my expectations were so low. There’s lots of problems — some persistent throughout (all the dialogue sounds terrible!) but a lot of the cool ideas of the story are still cool in this film. It doesn’t cut corners on the harsh stuff. I’ve heard four different people harsh on the actresses though I’d like to point out that their characters are given nothing to do in the book, too. Be suspicious when comic book nerds say the girls are the problem. You tell them “Uh, the girls were the problem… in your life, when you read The Watchmen! Not in this movie!” I mean, is the problem that the girl [...]

Hey people. I’m guest-hosting Derrick’s weekly stand-up show tomorrow night at The Creek and the Cave. It’s 8pm, right off the Vernon/Jackson stop on the 7. Good people! Free! Packed! Fun! Come see if you’d like. Here’s the details:

THIS IS NEW YORK
8pm, free
The Creek and the Cave
10-93 Jackson Ave, LIC
7 to Vernon/Jackson or G to 21st St/ Van Alst

http://creeklic.com/directions/

To get to THE CREEK: Take the 7 train to the Jackson Ave stop (first stop in Queens) and it’s a block down on Jackson Ave.

Featuring:
Andrea Rosen
Ritch Duncan
Sean Patton
Megan Ganz
Kumail Nanjiani
Nick Ross
Eliza Skinner

And your guest host me.

The Stepfathers in The Onion’s A.V. Club, or The Decider, or something. Fun, right?