Next week you might be calling me Captain Braidbeard — or you might choose to be a dick and make fun of the braids in my beard. Either way there is a distinct possibility that I could be performing the role and a series of other roles for Theatreworks USA’s National Tour of “If You Give a Pig a Pancake”, a musical adaptation of Laura Numeroff’s book by the same name. This past week I was called in and called back to read for the role. Things went well but of course you never know until you know. Also, at the end of this month I will again be performing with the comedy group Chocolate Cake City, only this time I’ll be performing sketch comedy with the group in the absence of one of their group members. One performance will be on a rooftop in Queens (address to come) and the other will be at the Broadway Comedy Club (53rd between 8th and 9th) at 6pm, Aug 31st. Let’s keep this party going… Whew! (flashes car next to mine).

My hard work pays off and the cast of Rent helps me to celebrate the significance of my achievement.

For the past few weeks I’ve been going through the songs I know with a fine tooth and comb, selecting one for every occasions. I’ve had to find songs to sing when I’m asked to sing country music, when I’m asked for classical or contemporary music theater, up-tempo or ballad. On top of all of this I’ve had to steer clear of familiar favorites. Supposedly there is no worse crime in an audition than to sing a song from Rent or Wicked.

I can’t say that my process prepared me any for today — but I certainly felt more prepared to knock ‘em dead when I showed up to an audition for Theatreworks today. Theatreworks is a professional union theatre company that tours family oriented shows around the country. I’ve been wanting to do one of their shows since I arrived in New York. So when I showed up today and was informed that they were looking for a pop-rock song, I was a little nervous. I’d not yet found an appropriate pop-rock song to sing — and they’d asked for a contemporary musical theatre selection when they called my manager. Well, I had Beauty School Dropout from Grease and I’ve Got Life from Hair. Neither song seemed right. So, I didn’t do either. I stuck with my original choice. They seemed to like it and when I was done, they asked me to sing something that was a bit more pop-rockish. Read the rest of this entry »

Mayor Giuliani is often credited with cleaning up the street of New York City. But did that have anything to do with pigeons?

The Humane Society of The United States calls pigeons “both an endearing part of city life and an aggravation.” I guess that’s how I felt the other day when I was pooped on twice in one day by the quintessential city creatures. People laughed and told me that it was good luck. So if it happened twice, I’ll be booking a show any day now.

When I was young my mom and I used to go to the park in Morristown, NJ (read the bio) and feed little pieces of hot dog rolls to the pigeons. I loved it. But it didn’t take me too long to discover that most people found pigeons to be a nuisance. These odd looking birds have been called the rats of the sky. People install ugly wire contraptions and fake owls to keep them off of buildings and angry teenagers poison them and feed them alka seltzer. They never bothered me all that much until I moved to Los Angeles. Sometimes there are so many on the sidewalk flapping around that you feel claustrophobic, surrounded by the germy dust from their feathers. The same is true here in New York. Only here, there are lots of tall buildings where they poop from.

Claustrophobia and excrement aside, I was quite taken the other day by the sight of an old man feeding the pigeons from a bag. He was surrounded by birds and a few were even on his body. I thought it was a sweet thing and was immediately reminded of the bird women from Home Alone 2 or Mary Poppins. I snapped this picture so that I could remember the occasion. But it seems that this sweet old man was up to no good. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re going to be in New York this weekend (say Sunday, August 3rd at 7om at the Broadway Comedy Club) I’d like to invite you to check out a special benefit performance for a comedy group called Chocolate Cake City. It’s a little something funnyman Rob Asaro cooked up back in Boston. The orginal troupe is responsible for “Brokeback to the Future”, one of my favorite viral videos. Chocolate Cake City, New York is just about to begin a new performance season with a new show format (it sounds exciting and I think you get a free slice of chocholate cake). So, to kick it off they’re getting together a bunch of cool people to entertain the masses. I’ll be there and so will an old (not speaking about age) friend of mine, Danielle Fattelson. If you happened to catch Invasion! The Musical in Los Angeles, then you may remember her as Janelle, the somewhat manly… er… masculine… ok, she played a butch lesbian and was funny as hell. She wore this wig and overalls and I remember nobody ever knew who she was out of costume — yeah, she’s that awesome. We’re teaming up to bring you all something sexy, smart and uproarously funny. So uh… you’ll want to be there. Anyway, I think the tickets are $10. Why do you expect me to know these things? Don’t send me emails asking… mom! Ok, well I think that’s all. See you Sunday.

Love and life,

Matt