Right now: Python live with John Oliver

A great way to begin a NYC weekend–touring the new Marvel Comics offices! (Well, new to me at least.) Apparently , the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron was there just before I was, so my visit didn’t cause as much of a stir as it otherwise would have. Thank you Blake Garris and intern Alex, as well as the whole Bullpen Gang! (I always wanted to say that…)

@avengers

Del Close left us for Whatever Comes next on March 4, 1999, leaving behind a theatre (the iO), a partner (Charna), and countless friends and improvisers. He is no longer a living legend, but he’ll never be forgotten by those of us who were lucky enough to know him and study with him. His life and career are way too long to do them justice in this post, but it isn’t hard to discover him via Google (or even in my own book “The Funniest One in the Room: the Lives and Legends of Del Close”). There are few people who have improvised in the past few decades who don’t owe him a debt of gratitude. He was one of my best friends, and I was lucky enough to know him for 16 years. It’s now been 16 years since Del has been gone, but his legend hasn’t diminished one iota.

Best four words of the winter: pitchers and catchers report.

I’m starting to feel like the only one of my Facebook friends who hasn’t hung out with Paul McCartney…

I got to the iO early last Sunday, but didn’t have the key for my classroom. While I was waiting in the hallway, Jason Chin and a couple of other people suddenly burst past me, engrossed in conversation, and stepping into a classroom. A moment later, it struck me that Jason, who was Mr. iO, probably had a key that I could use. I stepped into the room, but Jason had already started working with his students, so I decided not to interrupt him and slipped back out quietly.

And today I’m kicking myself for not speaking to him, even just to say hello.

I always looked on Jason as one of the few links between the original generation of Improv Olympic students and the current iO generation. Before I became more involved with the iO in the past couple of years, Jason was always someone I could turn to whenever I dropped by,and find out what was going on. As all the posts will tell you, he was unrelentingly friendly, knowledgeable, and positive–his life was all about Yes and…

If there’s an Improv Heaven, Jason is having a great time…

#jasonchin

Je suis Charlie…