From One Pacific Coast to Another

Well, I’m back from my adventures in Australia and Japan and have been thoroughly filled with new and enlightening experiences. Some highlights include photobooth-hunting in Sydney and San Francisco, improvising with my friend Cale in our duo “Hands are for Friends... Werewolves are for Night time,” spending hours in stationary stores in Tokyo and getting to spend quality time with my sister and her family in the lush wilderness of Northern Honshu. I had many thrilling experiences though I am, without a doubt, pooped. I’ve had a few days in Edmonton to shake off the jetlag, only to leave in another few days for Victoria, Vancouver and then Hope, British Columbia.

I’m partially going on this trip to do some research for an art project and for some tattoos I’ll be getting in October (stay tuned). Though the primary reason for the trip is to go teach at the Improv Camp! This will be the ninth camp I’ve attended (including last year’s one in Australia) and the sixth one I’ve instructed at. This year I’m working on bringing a few new features to the camp such as a library!

I’m also juggling a few other projects; a handful of illustration commissions, continuing the Anonymous Pen Pal Matchmaking Service, helping with the Art of Waiting's Photobooth Contest (which you can still submit to!), putting together applications for Toronto’s City of Craft and a Prism Comics grant and getting ready to launch my new production name & line of craft products, which should be ready in three weeks! I’m reminding myself that I can sleep when I’m dead, or more realistically, during the winter holidays.

The photo was taken underneath an art installation on the east side of the Imperial Gardens in Tokyo.

Adventures over the Pacific!

I’m stationed beside the only free electrical socket amongst the hustle and bustle at the San Francisco airport, not because I prefer the city’s airport to the city itself but for the practical reason that I’ve got a layover before I fly off to Sydney, Australia. I’ll be teaching improv at the Australian Institute of Performing Arts at their Winter Improv Intensive. I’m going with three other representatives of the Canadian Improv Games to help bring the format we teach in Canada to the Australian school systems. With just a little bit of down time after the Intensive, I’ll be flying back into the Northern hemisphere to Tokyo! I’m going mostly to visit my sister and her family but I’ll also be teaching a little bit of improv (to English speakers). I’m excited and nervous for the cultural differences and the language barrier (I plan on using my six year old niece as a translator.) I’m particularly excited for all the paper and stationary stores. I love handmade paper and thematic stationary kits. (Speaking of which, I’m still taking folks for the Anonymous Pen Pal Matchmaking Service.) After Japan, I’ll fly back to Sydney to visit with some friends and then fly to Edmonton from there. I’m really excited for the trip, I’ve got loads summer reads packed, a few illustration gigs to work on, some Beast and Creep drawings to keep up with and some final details to work out with the storyboard for Arc in the Sky. I’m also putting the final touches on a blog entry I’m writing for Art of Waiting. Their Summer Photobooth Contest is on now until September 1st , this is a super fun way to win some swell prizes. I took the photos above (collaged together for from different strips, click to enlarge) to help inspire some creativity.

Improv Camp, Down Under!

I went to Sydney Australia for two weeks this July. For five days of those two weeks myself and a team of Canadian improvisers were teaching at the first ever Improv Camp Australia. In the eight years that Improv Camp has existed we had become very comfortable with the dusty landscapes and endless horizons of southern Saskatchewan. Our cabins could best be described as well loved, or decrepit. Point Wolstoncroft, the retreat location where the Australian camp was held was nothing short of paradise, complete with exotic plants & animals and pretty much, all you could eat food. Despite the fact that it was their winter, the weather was very agreeable, in fact, it was nicer there than back home in Edmonton.

In so far as teaching goes, it was very different from our Canadian camp. Most campers didn’t have previous improv experience and few of them knew each other. Over the years in Canada, camp has become an annual reunion of sorts, for campers and staff alike. There were some growing pains, as to be expected with anything in its infancy. But through and through the campers were interested and for the most part really keen on this improv thing we were talking about. We received favourable reviews and have been invited back for next July for a bigger and better camp.

I had some time in Sydney to myself after the camp, it seemed to be a cross between Miami and London, and I say that never having visited either of those cities. I was surprised at the architecture and how old the city is. Perhaps it’s because I’m from another one of the Queen’s colonies, but I thought that the city seemed very liveable. Aside from specific areas, such as Manly Beach (see photo) the city wasn’t all that touristy either.

And after much hard work, I did also manage to find both a colour and black & white photobooth in Glebe. I promptly sent in photos of the booths and sample strips to Brian at photobooth.net. He replied with the most grateful email I've ever received.