Second City’s Level A improv class, week one, packed with great info
January 13, 2009 by vongsundara · 1 Comment
My first-ever improv class at Second City’s training centre went extremely well. I had a lot of fun, and it’s gotten my creative juices flowing again, which is why I took this class in the first place.
You see, improv is quite the opposite of stand-up comedy. Improv is all about feeding off of an ensemble and going beyond yourself with multiple characters (think Mike Myers) while stand-up is about working on your own to be as believable as yourself as possible.
My class is made up of a dozen students. My teacher is quite hilarious and almost exactly like I’d imagine an improv teacher to be like. She’s very outgoing, talkative and agressive in the best ways possible. There are a couple of students who have already shown a lot of potential, and I’m looking forward to seeing how they develop.
Our first class was made up of a series of improv exercises. We kind of went through all the improv techniques in one day. Over the next six weeks, we’ll be going deeper into each of the techniques, and on our final day we’ll go through all of them again.
My favourite exercise consisted of having to answer questions in tune with a partner, speaking at the same time. My team decided to speak very slowly to try and figure out what the other person was saying. We ended up veering off in interesting directions, and some of our answers ended up being quite funny.
Supercute.ca finally back on first page of Google results for “Canadian comedian”
January 6, 2009 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Back when I relaunched this website a couple of months back, my web presence was in shambles. I used to be on the first page of Google results for “Canadian comedian” with my first website a couple of years ago. I then went through a phase of transitioning between several different websites. This knocked me off Google search results almost entirely.
A couple of months ago, I made the goal to get back on top and back on page one. This promise to myself was a part of a larger overall strategy to get back to my success in the comedy field that was great early on but has lately stagnated.
Well, today is a HUGE day for me, as I am finally back on page one of Google’s search results for both “Canadian comedian” and “Canadian stand-up.” Go to Google and try searching those keywords, and you’ll see me. Now, Google rankings are fluid, so I’ll have to work hard to keep my current position form now on.
I’m so happy that one of my main goals has come to fruition. I hope this is the beginning of my other comedy goals coming to life as well in 2009.
Transfer of knowledge can take longer than expected in comedy
December 27, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I’m learning to work in smaller chunks lately. I have a huge project right now in that I’m attempting to write a one-hour-long one-man show. The first step in doing this is to organize all of my notes, all 45 pages worth.
My writing style is to doodle down little notes whenever I feel inspired and then come back and collect those thoughts and flesh them out later. I think this method works in that I’m never having to sit down and try to come up with jokes from scratch. The unfortunate part is that I hae a huge backlog of material to go back and flesh out (or maybe that’s a good thing).
To write my one-hour show, I have to reorganize the material into different sections such as Work Life, Family Life, Gay Life and so on. This helps me write stories for each of the different parts of my life. The unfortunate part is that the job of transferring my random notes into an organized book has taken me almost half a year.
The task of organizing 45 pages of notes was so daunting that I spent much of that time procrastinating. Now, if I can’t even transfer notes, how am I supposed to actually write one hour’s worth of material? It finally came to me today: I have to write in smaller chunks.
Instead of looking at the full hour, I’ve got to write little five-minute chunks that can be later spliced together. I’ll have to then build some narrative structure in later. This will be somewhat difficult as it is reverse to how I normally write. I generally have a narrative skeleton that I then add the meat to as I go along.
I hope this works. I’m really excited today, though, because I am on page 35 of 45. I really, really hope I can finally get this huge monkey off my back so I can move forward with my writing.
Top nine random reflections of 2008, my first year in Toronto
December 11, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
My first year in Toronto has been a wild, wild ride for sure. There are a number of things that stand out, though most of all would be the sporty gay Asians who’ve welcomed me with open arms. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever found a city so initially welcoming in my entire life. Within my first two months of living in Toronto, I was off to Montreal to play volleyball with a great group of guys.
My dayjob has gone extremely well, having been promoted twice since working here. The only part of my life that hasn’t gone according to plan would be my comedy career, though most of that is my own doing by not focusing enough on it.
1. Toronto is the most welcoming city I’ve ever lived in
2. Changing cities means basically starting over in the comedy business
3. Montreal is a great city, but how long will I love it if I go there five times a year
4. Business people are much more in shape than in Calgary
5. Nintendo’s Wii Fit is the best game ever
6. Politicians are kind of hot lately
7. Toronto’s gay community is a lot like the cast of Gossip Girl (in a good way)
8. The more expensive the haircut, the less chance that they’ll shampoo your hair afterward
9. Baskin Robbins is dangerously close to my new house
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.
Why am I so boring at my dayjob when I’m paid to be funny at night?
November 24, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I went to a work outing tonight at a local pub, and I was incredibly boring. I mean, totally, completely no personality at all. It was almost exactly like I was at my dayjob. It’s strange, because I know that having personality can be quite helpful at work, and it’s not like I don’t have personality (otherwise, why would I be a stand-up comedian?).
I think my mindset comes from my inclination to compartmentalise different aspects of my life. The way I am at work is similar to how I am around my parents. The way I am on stage is similar to how I am with my friends. It would be helpful if I could find some middle ground between my ghetto personality and my boringness at work. In fact, more than a few people at work have said I need to come out of my shell (these people of course did not know much about my night life).
When I’m in a party situation, and also when I’m on stage, I have enough personality to take over an entire room. It’s basically my job to do so, and it comes rather naturally. My nickname in university was “The Vong Show,” because I basically brought the party with me wherever I went.
It’s a shame then that working in media where there are a ton of personalities, I can’t seem to express myself other than being 100 per cent business-like at all times. There’s no easy fix, as my behaviours are ingrained, but I do hope that someday I can come off as something in the middle: not boring and not the centre of attention but someone who’s interesting.
Eagle Eye a solid action vehicle for new star Shia Labeouf
November 13, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
I went to see Eagle Eye when I recently visited my family in Winnipeg, and I had a pretty good time. Eagle Eye stars Shia Labeouf from Transformers and Disturbia, and he is becoming quite the movie star. Unfortunately, it seems like every movie, he looks greasier and greasier, but I guess some people like him that way. It’s difficult for me to see, though, because I’m used to him from his clean days in Even Stevens.
Eagle Eye delivered on what it promised, hardcore action throughout. The majority of the movie involved running, running and more running, followed by explosions. Unfortunately, the plot didn’t work out quite as well.
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Multiple turning points as Barack Obama elected president
November 5, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Yesterday was a huge turning point for the United States, as Barack Obama was elected President. I’m also hoping for yesterday to be a turning point in my comedy career as well.
I went down to the Rivoli yesterday to congratulate Zoe Randall on her final show as producer after 12 years. It was the first comedy show I’ve been to in many, many months. I’m hoping that yesterday will be the catalyst for me to turn around my career with some much needed hard work and focus.
I am determined to make it out to at least one comedy show a week from now until the end of the year. This goal used to be fairly easy for me, as I was performing an average of three shows a week. Now it seems like making it out to one show a week is difficult. I definitely have to turn this ship around and quickly too.
I’m really happy about the launch of this website and the traffic it has been generating. My past motivations on stage were closely tied to my success in the online world, and I am hoping for history to repeat itself.
VS
Finding balance between dayjob, comedy career and gay life
October 19, 2008 by vongsundara · Leave a Comment
Striking the right balance between the different aspects of my life has always been difficult for me. I’m the type to concentrate solely on one project and sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture. For instance, it has been months since I have been on a comedy stage.
The four major aspects of my life are my dayjob, my comedy career, my gay life and my ghetto life (family and straight friends). At any one time, one of the four aspects of my life can fall off the radar. For instance, this summer I was concentrated so much on advancing my career at my dayjob that I kind of lost track of my friends. Most people wondered where I had disappeared to during the summer.
At different points in my life, I’ve tried to take a different approach and try to change the way I live my life, but it has never worked out too well. I work best when I just go with the flow of what interests me at the moment. This is how I work best creatively, and I only hope that my friends will get used to me disappearing at times while I concentrate on different aspects of my life.
Coming up shortly will be a much more prominent role for my comedy life, especially now that my website has launched. There is so much to do now for sure. The biggest project being my writing a one-hour show for next summer. I’ve basically got to sit down and devote the time necessary to getting it accomplished.
VS
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