it's like that one song where the guy and the girl sing about having the time of their lives

So, I posted my last blog on the day before we departed for our tour.  Almost exactly two months have passed since.  I've been home for four days.  I've been back on my grind for one day.  And today I feel like I've got my shit together.  Somewhat.

I had the time of my life.  I really fucking did.  I saw things.  Things I haven't seen in my entire life.  My ENTIRE life.  I know this is a widely understood concept for most people but seeing something you haven't seen in your entire life is still, well, something you haven't seen in your entire life.  Like seeing a hand with two palms.  It's something that shouldn't be taken for granted because the next time you see it you'll never feel the same way for it again.  I felt things.  Felt things in my heart for people that I never have before.  I felt the love of strangers letting other strangers into their homes and being not only OK with it but also require it.  "You're staying here tonight," was something we heard often.  Sometimes it was because we were too drunk to make it anywhere on our own... but still!  These strangers made us feel like we were the only people in their lives at that moment.  Mi-gawd, how amazing!  What a feeling it is to be cared for!  No wonder women gripe about the absence of chivalry.  Chivalry's amazing!
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I'll eventually get around to recapping on all the cities but I'll just talk about Minny for now because it was cray...

Minnesota and the Minnesota Fringe Festival was, in a word, liberating.  And we made so many new friends!  And we played with them pretty much the entire time!  So fun to see groups of artists be a group with their group in the company of our group.  So beautiful to be with people who are all excited to be experiencing an experience together.  Manic first date energy bubbling.  The whole town buzzing.  I never wanted to sleep.  You should know though that none of the people we played with were actually from Minnesota.  We were all freaks from elsewhere, the "Out-of-Towners."  We Out-of-Towners stuck together and said, "To hell with everyone else, we're having our own fun."  And I guarantee no one had as much fun as we did.  We even had one of those, party-till-the-cops-show-up-while-we're-naked-in-the-creek, moments.  But what made Minnesota so amazing was how accommodating of us freaks they were.  Everything we did was OK with everyone.  We were allowed to post up our postcards in any establishment.  They would say things like, "Oh, I love clowns," instead of the usual "Ew."  They laughed at our antics.  Encouraged it even.  I guess basically, no one took themselves that seriously.  How incredibly liberating.  And for you Out-of-Towners, you guys will forever have a place in my heart.  Yes, YOU... Poetic Rebounders, Red Hamleters, Cedar Rapiders, and Core Projecters.  Shit was bananas.

My faith in humanity has not dwindled.  People can exist without the knowledge of other people not knowing that you exist.  Weird for someone who's lived here his whole life.  

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So a special THANK YOU to these people who opened up their homes to us along the way:

Dicky, Dicky's friend that wasn't home, Kevin's fam, Lisette, Johnny and Sam, MJ, The House of Broken Dreams guy, The Safers, The Jones', Duch-towny, and DJ Meowmix

And a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated to help us get our show in front of as many audiences as we did!  Your special gifts from Kickstarter are on their way!

And a monster THANK YOU to those who support us at our shows!  We are thrilled to have your support and we love representing Los Angeles as our home.  All I ask for is continued support in our pursuit to keep it going.  We can only get better and stronger with the help of you guys and your humor which helps us understand how we can find the funny for the rest of the world.  Thank you for allowing us to have the time of our lives.

P     I     E     C     E

Clown Car Chronicles

In one day and a half I will be embarking on a trip with the Clowns to half-way across America and back.  Fortunately, our show has been met with enough praise and attention for us to understand that this is something worth sharing and investing more time into.  And while traveling to Minnesota and back may not be news for the common traveler, it's something worth mentioning on my thingy because, well, even though my thingy is not as adventurous as your thingy it still wants to feel like it is.

FOUR CLOWNS has been a weird and fantastical journey that continues to get weirder, and as we grow to become whole on this trip we hope for greater chemistry and understanding of ourselves and of the show.  As we perform at different cities, my hope is be open and to absorb what every place has to give.  Everyday I am on this trip I vow to push my level of creativity to its wits end and exhaust myself physically in experiencing everything I possibly can.  Safely.  I've also decided to keep the usage of social media platforms down to a minimum with the exception of the Clown Car Chronicles which is a blog we all will be posting onto Bitter-Lemons while we're gone.  

Friends and loved ones, thanks so freakin' much to you who have pledged to us fiscally and an equally big thank you to who support us with your lourve.  With the wind at our backs and beneath our wings, we set sail to conquer all cities and fringe festivals in our path!  ROOAR!

If you'd like to receive postcards from me at any of these places along the way please email me your address: Raymomomo@gmail.com or message me.

Bbaai

sweet baby sweet baby sweet

R&J!

FOUR CLOWNS: ROMEO & JULIET opens!!

We are emerging from our clowncoon to bring you our latest and greatest show!  We are overjoyed with the amounts of love and praise you’ve showered us with and we can only find it in ourselves to give you more in return.  So come one, come all to FOUR CLOWNS: Romeo & Juliet!

FOUR SHOWS ONLY @ Hollywood Fringe Festival

Thursday, June 16 @ 8pm

Saturday, June 18 @ 5:30pm

Friday, June 24 @ 10:30pm

Saturday, June 25 @ 7:30pm

Fringe Central: Art/Works Theatre Mainstage

6569 Santa Monica Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90038

(east of La Brea, west of Vine)

tickets $10 at www.fourclowns.org or 562.508.1788

Konstantine StanislavskiLove art in yourself and not yourself in art.

here we are!

4/2011 beings rehearsals for
FOUR CLOWNS: ROMEO & JULIET

It’s been a good process so far.  Actor/ Writer/Clown, Zach Steel has joined our troop to make us more funny.  We recognize this as a daunting task, even for someone of his caliber of funny, but he said yes because we offered to pay for his down-payment on a Kia Sedona.  Minivan, you know, because he’s married.  Nevermind.

FOUR CLOWNS @ Sacred Fools in Silverlake opens 5/13!! Help us sell out on opening night and support us if you like us!  And if you like us, like us on facebook! 

friday nights @ 11pm 

Sacred Fools Theater
660 N. Heliotrope Dr.
Los Angeles, CA  90004

http://www.sacredfools.org/misc/spotlight/

do it!

cocooning

What the heck am I?  I'm a Chinaman Clown who works for JCPenney?  I have never been so out of touch with myself.  Not like touching myself out of touch, I still do plenty of that.  No I don't.  I've been finding myself confused, overwhelmed and underwhelmed all at the same time, every time.  I think I've begun evolving into another form and I think I'm letting the things of my past stifle me from delving deeper into whatever is aiding in the delving process.  And I don't want to stop delving.  Not yet at least.

One thing I'm sort of understanding is that it seems I've been handed some unavoidable task of being a collector... of sorts.  Sorts, as in not just things but every thing because of the way they make me feel.  People, pictures, love letters, memories, text messages... et cetera.  Every person I've admired who's come into my life has changed me somehow and every item in my room had some sort of a journey to get to where it's resting currently.  Items such as my mom's pendant, has acquired history that predates my existence and yet it still manages to make me feel something.  Now what do I do with these?  These feelings.  All of these feelings.  Well, I guess I have three options.  Use it, lose it or abuse it.  Right?  I definitely don't want to lose it.  I don't think I'm nearly old enough to begin abusing it.  Provided this understanding, I think I am beginning to learn that my job or purpose should be to use my collection of sorts (and feelings) onto whichever platform is allowing me to do so at the time being.  With each experience I am taking away something valuable so, I guess in order to add more value to what life may bring me, it seems that I have no choice but to schedule regular visits to the old cocoon and continue to keep my brain malleable.

I'm not sure if I'm making any sense at all but hey, at least I'm making something.  I don't know.  At the end of the day, I know that it's a meandering road but it's beginning to be the only road meant for me.  For now at least.


My mish-mosh of me-mo-mi lately:

GOOD. NIGHT.

honey, are you failing better yet?

Boy, this acting thing is tough.  A man can only take so much rejection for so long.  You know what my favorite piece of literature has been recently?  A pocket-size 3"x 5" book of quotes all about dealing with failing.  And you know what about it?  It keeps me sane.  I know what my secret word of the year is already.  Yep, I believe I figured it out this early on.  It's usually around August or so where you begin to assess how your year has been and start to hash out where it should end up but, in early February... psh~ I'm beating me!  Yes, it is the word "Patience."  Patience is the word that will help me understand the reasons why I continually get close enough to smell it but not close enough to take a bite of it.  Man, sometimes a dude needs some sustenance.  I'll elaborate more on this one day.  A day when people will actually bother to read what I write.  I'll save the white noise for now.

I'm doing alright though.  It just gets frustrating sometimes.  But knowing that I'm in it for the long haul keeps me moving.  As long as I know that with each passing day I'm even one hair of a better person and a better performer than I was the day before, I know I'm en route.  Idle hands is something that's never plagued me in the past so I don't plan on it affecting me any time soon.

Right now I'm in training.  No, literally.  I've been boxing for the past month and I've come to learn that I've got a wicked right cross.  The old, little, wrinkled, Mexican/ Native American man who's training me told me so.  I can take his word because he is currently training two Olympic champions and was also Margarito's former trainer.  Being Margarito's former trainer might not say much after the face pounding, Chinaman face makeover he received from Pacquiao but seriously, Manny Pacquiao is a freak so...



Don't worry, I don't plan on getting in the ring with Pacquiao any time soon.  I'll just wait until he's like 60 and then I'll go punch him in the back of his head before he gets in his car or something and say I fought him.  But yea, boxing is making my body look and do things it hasn't been able to do before so, I'm pretty happy about that.  Aside from that, I've also been in rehearsals for an amazing show that's going up in March.  Stay tuned for more information.

For those of you who pray, I ask for you to pray so that I may have the patience of Job.  For those of you who don't, give me a call and make me feel loved.

Thanks you for all your continued support!  Yes, to all the two of you who read this!



current read:  Fail Better
current tunes:  Radiohead

only because it's on sale

My blogging has become less and less frequent because life is moving too fast for me to think.  I'm not writing now because I've gathered my thoughts rather, I'm writing to gather my thoughts.  Ohh yea, these are the best kinds of blogs.  The one's with no segues and are as random as the braids on a cheap prostitute's head.  Not that I know of any cheap prostitutes.  I only know the expensive ones.  No I don't.

What I took away from 2010 is the idea that hard work pays off.  Yes, this idea is something we all have heard at one time or another.  We can find examples of this all over the world in any gym.  Blah blah.  But that's not the kind of payoff I'm talking about.  Some things are clear cut.  You do barbell curls and your biceps get bigger.  Right?  A direct pay off.  Consequently, by doing these curls you end up working out everything else around your biceps like your forearms and triceps.  I consider this to be the golden nugget and the most important part of the hard work.  By unabashedly pursuing one goal you end up indirectly strengthening everything surrounding it.  Now, I'm just using exercise as an example because it's easy and everyone can understand it, but what I'm really talking about is everything else not related to working out.  Such as... pursuing dancing... directly you become a better dancer.  Indirectly you gain a better sense of rhythm, a stronger body, style & swagger, which eventually will lead to confidence which will then help you engage with people on another level to help you meet your future wife to live happily ever after with.  I don't know.  That's just what I learned this year.  And whatever you do, might as well do it hard.  As a result, you should see success in some form.  And you know what?  Relish in the unexpected.  When you're moving and shaking and making things happen, other things, unexpected things will happen which will be better than anything you've originally sought out to do.  By Portland drafting Sam Bowie, Chicago ended up with Michael Jordan as their new swing man and the rest is history.  I don't know... I think you just have to go with things some times.

2010, my time with you has been amazing but I'm over you.  I resolute to keep on moving to learn everything I can for as long as I will let me.  To keep my friends and family close because I am who they've been.  I will continue to be the messy canvas they can throw all their shit upon because that is who I enjoy being.  I will not stop my curiosity at knowing but be curious to know what I'm knowing about being curious.

2011, here's to you!  Do your worst!!