This one time I went to L.A. for 2 months and it was really fun.
I haven’t seen everyone yet so I thought I would write about my trip since all of you can barely wait (right?)
Chris and I almost died on the way down! We were driving up a terrifying hill at night trying to find a house. When you looked off the hill you couldn’t see the ground. We pulled up to a house that looked like something out of a horror movie. It was a huge mansion with Gates and a long drive way IN TO THE MOUNTAIN. We tried to back up and Chris almost destroyed Rihanna Magnolia (my car) by backing it up into a ditch. At least it wasn’t the other side of the cliff. Otherwise we would have been DUNZO.
The ride down was beautiful. The Red Woods were amazing and I definitely suggest going there if you ever drive down the coast to Cali. We drove through Eureka, CA on July 4th and it was FREEZING cold. There was a lot of smoke from all the fireworks and campfires.
We actually arrived in L.A. the same day the Michael Jackson memorial was being held. We watched it on TV in our hotel in a nearby town and waited for the traffic to subside.
We rented our rental from a middle aged Jewish woman. She seemed nice but gave off the vibe that she liked to gossip. The first day we were there she told us that the resident gay was in a fight with the girl we were living next to... All I cared about was the fact that there was a gay living in our hood. VIVA LA GAYS!!
L.A. was a lot calmer than I expected. I felt safe walking around Sunset at night with Andrew and Chris. I’m sure that might be a bit different if I were alone... but at no point did I feel like I was going to be randomly shot at. People were happy.
That being said, it was calmer, but there was always something to do. We went to TONS of shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Comedy Death Ray was a highlight for me. If you don’t know, Comedy Death Ray is a weekly stand-up show the theatre hosts. The best of the best perform there. Patton Oswalt, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Louis CK, Kevin Nealon, B.J. Novak were just some of the names that made an appearance on the stage. It was awesome.
The Comedy Store was depressing on Amateur night. The back rows were filled in by comics, who didn’t talk to you unless you were part of their cliques. If you seemed nervous, no one would laugh. First timers were not acknowledged. Unfunny, popular girls got a lot more attention than they should have been given.
As for the classes, they were all a lot of fun. The Groundlings class was the scariest for me. Kristen Wiig is one of my favourite comedic actresses ever... and she took classes there. There we sat in a room full of about 12 other students. I was so nervous. These people were from L.A., they knew secrets of the entertainment business that I couldn’t possibly know! THEY WERE SO L.A.! But then when we were introducing ourselves, and it was revealed that basically everyone in the class was from another part of the country. I was relieved.
I took 3 classes at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Two of them were improv intensive classes, which were two weeks long, and a sketch class that ran once every week for 8 weeks. I found sketch the most challenging. I’ve always been more of a performer than a writer, and I really wanted to push myself to see what I could come up with. It was really intimidating reading sketches in front of the other people in class. Especially when you weren’t too confident in the sketch you had written to begin with. I had an inside joke going with Chris every time someone would read their sketch and the teacher would say “Okay, _______, tell me what you like about this sketch.” It always meant he hated your sketch, or that he didn’t understand your sketch at all. I don’t think he ended up saying it to me ever, but my sketches were far from perfect. Rob “The Golden Child” Gertzschman however had an awesome sketch every class. So annoying... ha-ha but in actuality he was one of my favourite people I met this summer.
The people were probably the best thing about the summer. Everyone was so funny and so unique in their own ways. I liked that we had 4 completely different teachers. Different styles, different senses of humour, and different critique styles. I learned a lot from all of them.
This is getting long and tedious so it’s going to point form puta’s:
-Loved Chateau Marmont and Mr. Chow’s with Chris and Andrew
-Groundlings BBQ was a highlight
-UCB class performances were fun
-CDR = Amaze Face
-New Friends = CUTE FUN
-Shopping – so-so
-Beach time was beautiful
-Pizza parties with Andrew/ Simon & Vanessa = good times
-Heath Milo visit = hooray! (Also too short?)
-Meeting Fred Armisen and Garret Morris was super amaze balls, and I will never forget it.
-Must go back ASAP.
-Future = To Be Continued......
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