Derren Brown's Infamous

I saw Derren Brown's newest show twice while I was on holiday in England (once in Hull and again in London) and it was wondrous both times!  Derren is an illusionist/hypnotist/magician/modern Sherlock Holmes (but not as antisocial!).  I find his work on television so fascinating, because they explore so many different things and highlight the power of the human mind.  And I am also fascinated by what seems to be Derren's dual personas - as a performer he is commanding and intense (sometimes even sinister) but his real personality seems much more self-effacing, a little shy and empathetic.  But his humor is evident all the time and his shows - with their combination of mind-boggling feats, quick wit and dry humor, and intelligent exploration of humanity's assumptions and beliefs are incredibly captivating and thought provoking.

In London at the Palace Theatre

Unfortunately this new live show "Infamous" will be touring for awhile and I mustn't reveal anything that happens in the show.  It's important to experience the show not knowing what happens.  But having seen Derren's previous live shows, which are always recorded and released after the end of the show's run, I can compare this show to his others.  The simplicity of the show's poster and the bareness of the stage highlights the stripped back nature of "Infamous".  Derren involves more stories and anecdotes from his life to shape what he does onstage.  There is also an inspirational side to the show that I love - I always love the shows Derren has done that try to inspire people.  Overall, "Infamous" is less "showy" than his previous shows, but no less dazzling because it is still impossible to figure out how he did the things he did.  Even after seeing the show twice!

In London, I did sit among what I think were a group of American students who were unfamiliar with Derren's work, and it was so fun to see their reactions in my periphery vision - reactions that mainly consisted of blatant denial and disbelief at what they were seeing.  I know something incredible is always around the corner in Derren's shows, but to see their reactions made the reveal so much more entertaining.  And interesting, because it seemed like their answer seemed to be that it was all a complete sham - the people from the audience were faking it or something like that.  And although it is a little bit of a sham - there is a trick somewhere, and not everything Derren says is to be believed, I believe Derren when he says there are no stooges in the audience because he has been doing this for many years, and surely someone would have come out with that story by now?  I think the real trick is how unaware we are of what the human mind is capable of.  And thanks to Derren, I think I am more aware.

I did wait stagedoor for Derren both times, and it was a crush of people, but even though both times Derren said he could only stay for "a few minutes" he stayed until everyone got an autograph which was so awesome of him!  I have to say, Derren Brown is sort of my idol so I was pretty starstruck, and I didn't say much, but at least I didn't faint!  Watch out for him on TV, because he has some sort of minor role (or major??) in Sherlock when it comes back!  And if you are in England and are in the mood to be amazed, puzzled, frustrated, creeped out, hypnotized, or rapturously delighted go see his show!

Derren Brown's website

Watch clips on youtube!

And my Vine video at the stagedoor from when I saw the show in Hull.  Good times.

Whose Line Is It Anyway? (My TV taping experience!)

Last Saturday I went to a taping of 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?'!  Remember the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter?  I used to watch a lot of Whose Line when I was younger and I was so happy to see they are bringing the show back (the series starts airing July 16th on the CW!)  It was a fantastic experience going to the taping even though it lasted about four hours.

But it's really longer than that.  First is the wait in line to check-in, and the line was outside in the hot unforgiving sun, on the sidewalk where we could breathe in great lungfuls of car exhaust fumes.  Okay, it wasn't that bad.  We were in the shade.  Then we were processed by the audience handlers - firmly told that cellphones, food, and water (water!!) were not allowed in the studio.  And we better use the restroom because we weren't going to be able to when filming began.  Geez.

So I love love love the show, but there was one thing I was concerned about - I didn't want to be picked to go onstage!!  And there was so much seating, that surely I wouldn't have to sit in the front!  What are the odds?  And when we did get to our seat, it was in the front but so far to the side of the stage, that our view was obstructed.  Yikes, not that great.  But I was going to go along with it, until a lady took me and my one friend (we were in a group of four) to different seats.  In the FRONT.  A little off to the CENTER of the stage.  Are you kidding me?  Merde.  But I will tell you now that I was not picked to go on stage, and of that I am eternally grateful.  There was a dicey moment when Colin Mochrie came towards us though, and my mind shut down.  But it all ended well.

The show was hilar, and there were great moments throughout - and some great celebrity guest appearances - Kevin McHale from Glee and Lisa Leslie!  They were fantastic really - just went with the improvisers and were funny themselves!  I know this is the second time the cast has taped episodes, but it really felt like they never stopped- they still work so well together.  And the new host, Aisha Tyler, totally owned the post and was so wryly funny and quick-witted.  She didn't do a game with the cast at the end which disappointed me, but she was so funny throughout the taping, on and off camera that I think I got a good idea of her improv comedy.  And as an aside, I was completely obsessed with Wayne Brady's accurate Nicki Minaj impression!

At one point - about 2 hours into taping - while they were reseting things, Wayne Brady looks into the audience and saw a guy sleeping.  And my friend and I looked over, and saw it was OUR friend!  Wayne got up and went over to him; he couldn't believe he had fallen asleep.  In my friend's defense.... well there really is no defense. He thought it was funny so it's okay.  And they referenced 'sleepy guy' during the taping multiple times.  Now that is definitely the only thing I am going to call him now!  And he might make it into the episode, since they had him sign a release form.

The teddy I got after the Helping Hands game

Despite having a bunch of pick-ups filmed near the end of the four hours, which resulted in us having to clap and cheer numerous times while they filmed opening and ending sequences and connecting dialogue, the experience was totally worth it!  They even threw a prop into the audience and I got it!  So brilliant comedy, fantastic comedians, a great audience, and a teddy bear! = one of the best evenings I have ever spent!

And although this post is getting a little long, one more fun story I wanted to share - the audience asked about a Hoedown which they weren't filming that day, and Aisha told the audience that Ryan Stiles LOVES hoedowns (he absolutely hates them) and to ask him to do one when he got back to the stage.  And when he did, the audience chanted "Hoedown, Hoedown!" and Ryan looked at us in bewilderment.  Then he gave us the middle finger.  The best.  Watch "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" when it comes back on the air (July 16th, CW), because everyone needs new "Whose Line" in their life!

Twitter follow: @cwwhoseline @colinmochrie @waynebrady @aishatyler 

Community is back!

Just taking a moment to squee over the return of one of my favorite shows on TV tonight!  I started watching the first season of Community because I love The Soup and Joel McHale, and the pilot episode was okay, but then the show just transformed into something completely other.  It's hard to describe the awesome meta-ness and socially referential intelligence of the show!  It makes each episode a little present I can't wait to unwrap because each episode is such a surprise.

I was listening to the Nerdist podcast interview with Yvette Nicole Brown the other day (which just made me love her all the more, she just seems like such a kind person!) and Chris Hardwick mentioned how he thought Community was more nerdy than Big Bang Theory.  And I haven't watched BBT, but I do feel like Commnunity shows a different side to nerdiness -  the unconventional, more modern version that is in pretty much everyone to a certain extent.  Cause I don't know about you, but "I guess I just like liking things."  And liking things to an obsessive amount is nerdy.  Community celebrates so many different things and ideas that appeal to a wide variety of people and does it in a way that makes each episode fresh and interesting because it doesn't stick to one format or any set of rules.  It plays around with genres and themes, and shows how all these things can come together  through the idiosyncratic personalities of the characters. It's truly a community of these disparate people coming together and being bound in friendship and mutual respect, and isn't that all of us?  We are all a community of human beings.  The meta-ness of this show is kind of crazy.

Season Four starts tonight, and I wanted to help promote the heck out of it for new fans who have yet to see it, and for old fans who might not have realized it's back. (If your new, totally start with the first season though!)  Even with the creator and head writer of the show, Dan Harmon, let go (a shame!), I still hope this show will continue to grow and build on his previous work.  And having seen the trailer online for the season, I love some of the things they are doing.  Right directions are being headed towards.  And tonight is going to be an homage to the Hunger Games! (The Hunger Deans!)

And a question for any fans reading this post - what is your favorite episode?

Muse: The 2nd Law concert

On Thursday I went to the 2nd show of Muse's concert at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  Awesomeness squared.  Muse is one of my very few favorite current bands, but also fave all-time band.    This is my go-to music for writing.  I love their sound - such an interesting mixture of classical, theatrical, rock and alt-rock, and the lead singer Matt Bellamy has a stunningly gorgeous, fluid voice.

I bought a new camera with a better zoom, so the pictures in this post are my own, but I was pretty far away from the stage.  Even so, I must remember next time to take an aspirin before the concert, cause boy was that loud.  I should have expected it though because I know their music, and they pretty much rocked it the entire time!

Some of the things that were awesome about seeing Muse live (my first time!) was:

1. The energy of the crowd, especially when the really popular songs began.
2. Those very interesting musical intros to some songs, that I wish I could buy - they were gorgeous! 
3. The pyramid and multimedia graphics were really cool - great visuals for each song.
4. I also really liked their "roulette" to decide whether to play "Newborn" or "Stockholm Syndrome" (It landed on "Newborn" though I was hoping for the other song!)
5. And then there were the graphics for "Isolated System" near the end of the show, that seemed very Hunger Games-ish.  I think of the Hunger Games a lot when it comes to Muse though, I feel like their previous album "The Resistance" is pretty much a soundtrack for the whole series.

My favorite moment was "Knights of Cydonia" - one of my favorite songs anyways (it's a space opera western song - how can one not love it!).  They had the screens show key words, and then the moment in the middle when the music cuts, and everyone is singing:

No one's gonna take me alive

Time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for our rights

You and I must fight to survive

Just gave me chills!  Totally pumps you up! :D  And the eerie wailing harmonica intro they created for the song was totally beautiful! I was so confused when it began though, because a harmonica is not what I was expecting from Muse.  But I should have known better - they don't limit themselves.
(Edit: just found out the harmonica song is "Man With a Harmonica" from the film Once Upon A Time in the West and was composed by Ennio Morricone.  I am now in love!)

Other songs that are my general favorites and I really loved hearing live were:

"Madness"

"Uprising"

"Isolated System"

"Map of the Problematique"

"Undisclosed Desires"

"Starlight" (always makes me think of Doctor Who!)

From the latest album I was really hoping to also hear "Explorers" which is so pensive and lovely, but I think they played that the night before.  I also wished Matt interacted more with the audience, but they had moments where they wanted the audience to sing the lyrics, and he also went into the pit to touch hands with people so that was really cool.  I wish I could have been in the pit!  Totes awesome night, I hope to see Muse again in the future for the next album!

The Dead Authors Podcast

I love listening to podcasts, and I wanted to share the only literary related podcast that I listen to (though it is more comedic than enlightening, but they do sometimes read from the works of the featured author/s)  The podcast is hosted by comedian Paul F. Tompkins - oops!  I mean H.G. Wells, author of The Time Machine.  But in this world, H.G. Wells' time machine is real and he uses it to transport famous authors to present day Los Angelees and interview them in front of a live audience.  (You can get tickets to see the show in L.A.)

Recent episodes have seen H.G. interview the Grimm Brothers, the Gospel writers, Mary Shelley, J.R.R Tolkien, Arthur Conan Doyle and on and on.  Hopefully he'll have Charlotte Brontë on sometime soon!  The show/interview is mostly improvised as H.G. Wells and the actor/comedian representing the featured author have a conversation about their life and their work.  The first episode had Andy Richter as Emily Dickinson whose first reaction was outrage that anyone knew about her poetry.  Hilarious.  There are some anachronistic references but that is of course explained by the fact that there is TV and internet in the time machine for the guests to enjoy.  I love the irreverent, silly humor and the hilarious characterizations the comedians bring to the dead authors. H.G. seems to delight so when an unexpected and/or unlikely facets of the author's personality or obsessions are revealed. (P.G. Wodehouse and donkeys!)   H.G. Wells' antipathy towards Jules Verne's uncreative science fiction (as he sees it) always makes me laugh too - an episode with an H.G and Jules faceoff would be awesome!

It's for charity, it's completely free to listen to the podcast, and it's funny, silly, and entertaining.  Check out the links below!

Official Website  -   Itunes  -    Facebook

The new Kindle Paperwhite and Giveaway Winner

Thanks so much to everyone who entered the giveaway for The Casual Vacancy!  The contest has ended and the winner is:  Lacey @laceyblossom  Congrats!  And I hope you enjoy the book!

Friday I received my new Kindle (after much anticipation!).  I spent most of Friday evening playing around with it and organizing my library and I pretty much love it!  My first Kindle - the Kindle Touch which I bought only eight months ago had to be retired when I saw the new Paperwhite.  This is what I didn't like about the Touch:

• Response time of the screen (when you are used to capacitative touch, and especially the extremely responsive iPhone screen, the Kindle Touch is pretty slow.


• The interface - reading is a breeze, but navigating my books is not, because creating collections is a major pain if you have a lot of books and you didn't get them all from Amazon.


• How many times have I had to put my Touch sadly away when it became dark out and I could no longer read.  (Never did buy the book light I was always planning to get)

I named my Paperwhite "Idris"

So I was so thrilled when they announced the Paperwhite (+ miffed I was "forced" to get another Kindle) and after spending a day and a half with it, it's pretty much my new love.  The glow screen is great - even if I'm walking around the house reading and not all the lights are on, I don't have to stop reading in the dark patches.  The touch screen is better - still slow, but better.  The interface looks and flows nicer - though they have made it a little less easier to turn off your wifi access.   I like that they took off the home button and made the navigation buttons on the top (instead of top and bottom on the Touch when you are reading).  The new reading progress feature was the Thing I Didn't Know I Wanted because how awesome is it to have a guesstimate for how much longer it will take to finish a book?  And sometimes with a physical book I flip forward a few pages to see if I will finish the chapter soon, and with the new feature, the Paperwhite can tell me by giving me the time to the next chapter.

Creating collections is still a pain, but a little better with a marginally more responsive touch screen.  I also got the special case Amazon made for the Paperwhite - the one that puts it to sleep when it's closed and wakes it when it's open, and it makes the Paperwhite look and feel more like reading a physical book.  Perhaps the only thing I kind of miss is having speakers and an earphone jack, but I never listened to anything on my Kindle Touch anyways.  It's just sad to lose features. Overall though I am very happy with my purchase and I really hope this Kindle will be my one and only for years and years.

Podcast Primer

This isn't book related, but podcasts do compete for my audiobook listening time.  I so enjoy listening to podcasts because they are short, funny, usually light listening which keeps me entertained for that commute to and from work.  And many times during work as well.  There are so many podcasts out there for every topic that it can be overwhelming trying to find something you would like to listen to, but for the most part they are all free and how can anyone turn down free quality entertainment?  So many professional artists (comedians, magicians, writers, etc) are podcasting, and it is fun to hear about their lives from their viewpoints.  And it is great to be able to support a medium where any benefits the podcasts reap from their shows (from doing advertisements for products they believe in) goes directly to them, and not 'we-need-to-profit-from-everything' corporations.  And also the podcasters get to control all of their own content.  So, for this post, I just wanted to highlight my five favorite podcasts.

I should say first that there are SO MANY that I haven't heard, and this is not a five of the bestest podcasts list, but just some that I really enjoy, and maybe for anyone who hasn't tried listening to podcasts, this would give some idea on which ones are really entertaining.  I think I enjoy podcasts by comedians the best, especially when they are just riffing and joking amongst each other, but they can also give some interesting insight into the human condition, because observing the world is something comedians are really good at doing.

Nerdist Podcast
With Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray, and Matt Mira

Itunes / Website

My first podcast, because they had an interview with current Doctor on Doctor Who, Matt Smith.  I enjoyed the joking and loose conversational style of the "interview" and continued downloading episodes where they talked to other actors I was interested in.  Eventually it starts to feel like you are listening to a conversation among your close friends, and really hilarious friends at that.  Chris, Jonah and Matt have a great group chemistry, and their "hostful" episodes with no guests, where they just talk about what is going on in their lives, are so entertainingly funny and silly, that I look forward to them more than the guest podcasts.  The podcast has such a positive energy that is fueled by their humor, and interest in people, and by their genuine wish to see that people live life to the fullest and to truly "enjoy their burrito."

You Made It Weird
With Pete Holmes

Itunes/ Website

Pete Holmes is my favorite comedian.  His material is silly and observational and served up with manic energy and charm.  His podcast lets him talk with his fellow comedians about three usual topics: comedy, relationships, and religion, while also trying to make it weird and awkward whenever possible.  In an hilarious way.  I think his enthusiasm and totally accepting attitude over different viewpoints on religion specifically is refreshing and makes for a great forum for sharing of interesting thoughts and ideas.  His conversations are always brimming over with joy - from his outbursts of laughter to the delight he takes in people making it weird (and keeping it crispy) - so that this podcast is always a pick-me-up at the end of a long day at work.

Doug Loves Movies
With Doug Benson

Itunes / Website

A movie game podcast with comedians, for the first 20 minutes or so the comedian guests usually sit around and talk and riff about themselves, about movies or anything that comes up.  Then they play Build-A-Title (linking names of movies together) and the Leonard Maltin Game (too complicated to explain- listen to the show).  All parts of the show are fun (did I mention how much I love listening to comedians banter?) with the bonus of trying to be able to play along with the game in the comfort of your car.  (I'm not very good at it)  You do wonder how people can remember so much about movies though!  Doug most always tapes with a live audience, so you can hear how fun it is to see the show live.  Going to one of the tapings is a goal of mine!

Fitzdog Radio
With Greg Fitzsimmons

Itunes / Website

One of the few podcasts I listen to where the host can spend most of the hour just talking by himself, and I am still riveted and entertained.  Greg does a few podcasts talking about what is going on with his life - but always with a humorous spin - but mostly he has interviews with guests in the business.  He can be snarky and insulting but you always feel that he is a nice guy and a great person to hang around with.  The little games he plays with his guests are highlights for me - especially 'Talk Your Way Out of It' (you can watch video versions of this game on his website) where you talk your way out of awkward situations, and the newest game 'This Is What Your Talking About' where you talk for a minute on a randomly given topic.

Brian Howard Show
With Brian Howard, Cowen Angus Bailey, Jenny Lynn, and Jack Dagger

Itunes / Website

Most of the podcasters are variety performers as well as comedians and between them they know juggling, fire eating, knife throwing and martial arts.  I've seen Brian Howard perform live as Broon at the Renaissance Faire and have thoroughly enjoyed his shows along with the ones he performs with "Moonie".  So that led me to listen to his podcasts where the format is more like a traditional radio talk show, but with no censorship (thank goodness).  The group talk about such a variety of topics, that you never know what is coming up, but that is the charm of the show.  Everyone seems to have an opinion on something so in depth discussions are the norm.  The show is often silly though, and Brian presides over his fellow hosts like an angry father, at times affectionate, understanding, or chastising.  The guests are usually of the variety performing crowd, which makes the podcast an interesting window into the realities of this kind of work.