So, last night was definately a unique experience. My roomate Hassan and I are in line to get into the Hollywood Improv, since our friends Carlos and Sarah were in the club (along with two of their friends) and we happened across a celeb that I had spotted earlier, Eliza Dushku (first pic I found on google, shown below, nice little cheesecake pic):




















Now this is the second time I've talked to someone in "the business", the first being on the plane ride back from my first interview with the company that I work with now, where Bill Nye (the Science Guy) was sitting next to me. Please forgive the voyeurism shown below:














In that case, he happened to be an engineer who worked for the company I worked for now, so we had plenty to talk about. I tend to treat people of reknown like I'd enjoy being treated, so I just connect with them as people as opposed to personalities.

In the case of Eliza and her two friends (both cute, one a makeup artist, Eliza claimed to be her assistant) we ended our conversation after a few minutes, not having anything gripping to talk about. Hassan and one of the friends went to rival high schools in Fremont, and overall the conversation was pleasant between the two groups. Eliza's friend Zach Galifianakis (who was in Tru Calling with her) was headlining at the Improv, and eventually came out to greet the group. Here are a few semi dorky things that I talked about, that kind've killed momentum:

• Mentioned Carlos and Sarah in the context of coincedences (but it still felt out of place), and how it was a nice coincedence that we were living closer now than in St. Louis, where I cooked for them, as guinea pigs for recipes
• Interjected when Eliza mentioned a 750kVolt tazer she was getting, in saying that in electrostatic discharge training I learned that 2kVolts are the minimum amount required to physically shock someone
• Mentioned tango out of context

Overall, it was fun, but I think that my simply being my natural self would have allowed for us to make friends with them.

The improv in and of itself was worth the trip. Comedy must have moved up a notch in the last ten years, there's a lot less observational comedy, and more substantive commentary on life. I think the highlight was a guy who looked like the gentleman from Prarie Home Companion, played it really nervous and stright laced, and near the end exploded in this comedic fury. To paraphrase him: "What about Britney Spears? She's so hot but so annoying, one one hand, I want to &^*( her and on the other hand, I want to pound her face in. " He proceded to show what he would do if he had her in bed, alternatively doing one action, then the other.

There was a lot of audience interaction, and truly witty comedians. One woman swore that Zach was from Canada, and he bit into that one something fierce. Zach had a fun act with the piano, where he basically did a SNL style Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey schtick. Most of the comedians were pretty blue, excepting Gary Gulman, whose material was pretty random, but that was a good source of humor. I liked his extended talk about Jews, of course he (like me) is Jewish so he can get away with it.

I noticed that humor often has an aspect of being mean. Either directed outwardly or inwardly, things that make us uncomfortable tend to get laughs. The N word definately saw a lot of play. Paraphasing Zach, "Racism is funny because it's so stupid." Overall, the night was full of great, blue, witty material.

After the show, I talked to Gary Gulman, telling him I considered heckling him to do "the aristocrats" since he had been complaining about how nasty all the previous acts had been. When I exited the place, I saw Eliza again, and told her how I enjoyed Zach's act, and mentioned the SNL parallel. She basically gave a weak affirmation and we went on our respective ways.

One thing that I thought about mentioning afterwards was the symbolism behind the Japanese tea ceremony. Each meeting can be commemorated by tea. I feel that each time people come together, it effectively has its own life. Each meeting has a birth, life, and death. To try to make the most of the moments in life and be present, no matter where we are, is important to being human, because life is so finite, as are these moments. In Run Lola Run, small changes in Lola's routine affect the other character's lives in profound ways in the future. Likewise, we have no idea how even simply saying hello to someone could change the timing of their day, and all it takes is milliseconds to change the outcome of nearly anything.