Mission Accomplished: SuperPowerBottoms win gold, Rise of the Spartans V-ball Tourney
April 3, 2009 by vongsundara · 2 Comments
SuperPowerBottoms at Rise of the Spartans Volleyball Tournament
It’s been a week, and I’m still on a high after the SuperPowerBottoms won gold at TSVL’s Rise of the Spartans volleyball tournament. Winning gold in the lowest pool was definitely one of my big goals for the year after this team was put together last fall, but to actually accomplish the goal feels so much better than I could have imagined. The most amazing part is that no one on our entire team played competitive volleyball last year. We came in as rookie team, and I came on as a rookie captain, and somehow we came together in time to accomplish our goal.
We played the tournament in Mississauga, which was a nice change of pace. The great thing about the facility is that it had enough courts to accommodate the entire tournament, meaning we wouldn’t be spread out across the city of Toronto.
I’m really proud of how the entire team played on the last day. We ironed out a lot of the kinks in our game from the first day. We came into the second day as the top seed in the lowest pool of the tournament. It was a different feeling for us, and I had to make sure the team stopped thinking of ourselves as underdogs and start dealing with the pressure of being the favourite and living up to our seeding. We started out playing the lowest seed, a team that had given us all heaps of trouble the day before. It was great that we kept our intensity up and put the team away quickly and conserving our energy.
Our second match was against I’d Hit That Flamer, which was a combo team made up of members of I’d Hit That and Flamers, two teams that are ranked in higher pools than SuperPowerBottoms during TSVL (Toronto Spartan Volleyball League) weekly league play. The match was ridiculously close, and we were able to squeak out a hard-fought victory.
From the loser’s bracket, Boom (also ranked higher than us in weekly league play) escaped with a narrow victory over Botox, the team we beat at the start of the day. The scare seemed to kick Boom into gear as they also beat I’d Hit That Flamer in three close sets to face us in the finals. Since it was double elimination and we had yet to lose, Boom had to beat us twice to win. Unfortunately for us, they managed to beat us the first two sets, so it all came down to a final winner-take-all set to decide who would be going home with the gold medal.
I will remember this final set for a long time to come. The first major turning point was when our middle blocker, FarmerSutra, went up and won a two-on-one jump ball. That was the first sign to me that we wanted it more, and the play definitely helped to discourage our opponents. The final set ended up being extremely scrappy, as both teams played it safe and there were very few errors. We were having difficulty finishing points as our best hitter, WideReceiver, sat out the final set (due to set rotations), and I don’t think I had a solid hit the entire set, so it all came down to defence.
The moment I will remember forever is the 22-20 point (Boom was ahead and serving). We had taken our final timeout shortly before, and we came out of the timeout doing our pattented SuperPowerBottom circle jump as a final way to show unity and focus us for our final push. The point went back and forth for a while before Boom pushed the ball into the chest of our back middle player, Stretch.
The ball bounced about a foot from where it hit our player’s chest, and I was at least half the court away. Given the score, I just had it in my mind to not let anything drop to the ground. Once I saw the ball bounce on his chest, time almost stood still as I dashed across the court in three galloping strides. I dove and barely got my outstretched knuckle on the tip of the ball. Somehow, some way, the ball shot straight up and we went on to win the point and then the match.
Now, I’m not usually one to brag about my play, but that was the dive of my life. Even the linesman looked in shock at the play given the importance of the point.
I’m amazed at how much SuperPowerBottoms has matured in the last few months. Next week we have a tournament in Montreal, which is more of a fun excursion, and we end the year with a league-wide playoff. We have a lot of work to do, and we’ll have to play even better to have a shot at the playoffs, but I’m confident that SuperPowerBottoms will rise to the occasion.
I’m not sure if this comedy is allowed, but I’m going to try it anyway
March 24, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment
One more day before I film my first video production. On the great advice of a great friend, I have decided to film my comedy set about the SuperPowerBottoms, my gay volleyball team and not-so-subtle stab at promoting rights for bottoms everywhere. Haha, talk about the opposite of mainstream. The video will be targeted to a very specific demographic, but I’m hoping that that demographic will really appreciate it.
The big news of the week, though, is that I have found my own comedy muse: hot blonde actress and improv student Holly. While doing improv, I discovered how much I love collaboration which isn’t something I get to do at all in stand-up. While brainstorming with my muse, I’ve decided to try something off-the-wall and maybe even against the rules.
I’m going to write a stand-up for someone else. I will be the Tina Fey to her Amy Poehler (check Saturday Night Live). Writing stand-up for Holly is actually kind of exciting because of her great acting ability. She has a uniqueness to her look and great timing on her delivery, but at this point in time she is more of a performance artist than a writer. Writing for Holly will allow me to really push myself creatively. I’ve written for my own stand-up persona for so long, that I think writing from the perspective of a young, hot blonde will be very interesting.
The end goal for this writing project is to have Holly perform her material as an opening act when my one-man show debuts (now with a bonus woman!) at the end of this year or early next year. The fact that I’ll be writing both acts will lend itself to some great continuity and some comedy tricks that I’ve been meaning to try and which I don’t think have been done before, as a headliner generally doesn’t write material for their opening act.
Anyhow, with my two current projects progressing well, I’m getting excited and more inspired than ever. It feels great to be pushing the boundaries of an art form that I love so dearly.
Deciding which set will work best on video is more difficult than I thought
March 22, 2009 by vongsundara · 2 Comments
My spring and summer comedy schedule is starting to get really full, which is a great thing and not something I could have said about my comedy life last year. I end each of April, May and June off with a relatively big show and I have a bunch of off-stage projects on the go, the biggest of which is my comedy video production starting this week.
I have studio time booked with my video producer for this Thursday. The final video will consist of me performing one of my stand-up sets that will then be enhanced with animation and sound effects. It’s difficult to describe, but I’m excited that the project is moving forward.
The biggest difficulty for me is deciding which set will work best in a video format accompanied by graphics and sound effects. Some of my sets definitely lend themselves more to a visual format but may not be the best for a debut video, as I’d like the first video to skew more mainstream (otherwise I’d start the first video off on a skit about the SuperPowerBottoms volleyball team).
I think I’m down to two choices: the set about my sister Anne, which has never yet been performed, and the set about my time as an obituary writer, which has never been filmed or uploaded online. Both sets of their merit for sure.
The set about my sister Anne would probably be the clear choice in terms of what would work for this project, but it is in an unfinished state and hasn’t really been tested for kinks. The obituary skit works well too but isn’t as representative of my comedy style as a whole.
I’ll think about it some more tonight, and I’ll have to make up my mind by Tuesday, as I’ll need all of Wednesday to rehearse and memorise.
SuperPowerBottoms up to G Pool in Toronto Spartan Volleyball League (TSVL)
February 10, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
The SuperPowerBottoms volleyball team, which I happen to captain, has made its way out of the H Pool in our weekly league play. I’m super excited, as it’s the absolute best we’ve played as a team. Everyone on the team truly deserves the victory. Hopefully we can maintain the stellar quality of play next week when we face the tougher competition of the G Pool.
This week’s move came on the heels of last week’s amazing play. We actually scored enough points to move up to G Pool last week, but we were deducted six points for various infractions. We weren’t too happy about it last week, but it kind of makes this week’s victory all the more sweeter.
I think the one missing ingredient from our great early success in the Montreal Big Jump tournament last autumn was our athleticism. We’re all fairly new players to volleyball, the majority of the team having never played competitive volleyball before, so we can’t match other teams on mechanics and experience. The one bonus we have over all other teams in our league is pure youth and athleticism. We’re the youngest team in the league by quite a bit. We’re also all good athletes, especially considering the height of half of our team.
Last week, one of the other teams’ captains mentioned that we made them feel old because of our hustle and effort. It’s something I had forgotten about for sure. This week, I think we did a great job of continuing to hustle to every ball.
I think our biggest hurdle to athleticism was our hesitation in not completely knowing where we should be on the court. You can be the quickest person in history, but if you don’t know where you should be, then it’s all for naught. I’m really excited that everyone has come together so well the past couple of weeks.
Being a leader is more difficult than I imagined, I have lots to learn
December 4, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
The recent leadership struggle in Canada’s Parliament between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives and the coalition of Stephane Dion, Liberals, Jack Layton, NDP, and Gilles Duceppe, Bloc Quebecois, has come to a standstill and won’t be resolved for another seven weeks. All this talk of leadership has gotten me thinking about my own leadership abilities.
I’ve always personally thought that I was a natural-born leader, though recent developments have led me to question my abilities. Both at work and in my personal life, I’ve always been thrust into positions of leadership. From a young age, I have always led or been very near the leadership position in every group I have been a part of. At times, the leadership has been thrust upon me and at other times I have sought leadership.
In some ways, I am not a very natural leader at all, but I am often placed in positions of leadership because of my ability to gain trust and belief from others. The trust is often gained through observations of my ability to inspire others through my actions and initiatives and my ability to work well on my own and overcome obstacles. Unfortunately, it is this very nature that makes it difficult for me to lead in the traditional sense.
In the volunteer world, I have found that I am better served as a secondary leader or co-leader whose purpose is to inspire through action, leaving the world of traditional leadership to those more capable. I have recently found the same at work, where I didn’t fare so well at directly managing and supervising staff but have fared much better when managing people as resources, meaning those I am in charge of have separate supervisors to deal with everyday managing while I deal with the bigger picture.
Unfortunately for me, there are times where I have to step up and lead in both ways, as the option to co-lead is not always there. With the SuperPowerBottoms, I am fortunate enough to have a great group of players to lead: They are hard working, show up early and are motivated to practice. In fact, they are so great a team that I have to question my leadership as the main reason to why we haven’t improved sooner. I suppose I can only do my best, and perhaps things will turn around soon enough.
Super Power Tuesday, the new TSVL season begins
October 7, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Tonight I’m playing volleyball with my team, SuperPowerBottoms. We are a part of TSVL (Toronto Spartan Volleyball League), and tonight is our forth week of league play. We started out ranked 32 out of 32 teams. We’re currently ranked 31!
We actually have a lot of potential as a team. I genuinely believe that we can be a Top 20 team by year’s end.
We have a big tourney in Montreal this weekend. I’ll blog and send photos while I’m there.
Bye for now.
VS
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