Thanksgiving

Sorry for the lack of updates, to all two of you who read this blog. I've been waiting vainly for life to "calm down" as people keep assuring me it eventually will -- maybe 2015 will be a better year for finding moments for calm reflection amid the chaos, assuming I can use the rest of 2014 to get a head start on said chaos by pulling one long continuous all-nighter from now until December 31.

But it's good to remember that there's a ton to be thankful for, most of all that my sister is in town and about to join my wife and my in-laws and me for an incredible meal of way too much food. Also that none of us is in prison or homeless and that we're privileged enough to join in the big victory party of white Europeans vs. everyone they stole their land from without having to be white Europeans ourselves. (Huzzah!)

As far as the Arthur's Awesome Attempt to Kickstart His Media Career side goes, there's plenty to be thankful for there too. First there's the awesome indie film Cleanland that I was honored enough to have a small part in, for which there's a new trailer:

I have always wanted to be in a movie trailer where one of the beats is my horrified face staring directly into the camera, and now I can die happy.

We're also close to wrapping up the Erfworld.com epilogue videos that I've been voicing the narration for, and despite the many late nights I can't be happier with the experience it's been narrating such a weird, offbeat, creative Web series. I know it's almost impossible to follow if you haven't been reading it from the beginning -- but that's just a reason to go back to the beginning and binge-read it now, before things get Really Serious in the climactic chapter to come.

Here's me channeling two of Erfworld's most badassly eloquent characters in the second-to-last of these Erfworld videos:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/11/epilogue-24-tramennis-and-charlie/

And finally, any Clevelanders who aren't still in a food coma or trampled to death in a Wal-Mart should make Black Friday plans to see me once again go for the gold at the Cleveland Monologue Battle. It's their one-year anniversary, it's an awesome event and I hope to still be performing there at their two-year anniversary. Happy Turkey Day, and see you at Epic Lounge tomorrow!

https://www.facebook.com/events/1418731305011304/

No stand-up from Arthur tomorrow night; Erfworld update, though

Life's been crazy lately, but I've still been remiss in not posting this latest Erfworld update with my vocal stylings as warlord Parson Gotti and his not-so-loyal-recently minion Sizemore:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/11/epilogue-23-parson-and-sizemore/

Sadly, part of the craziness means that I won't be able to attend the Slim & Jumbo's event tomorrow that I recently advertised here. Apologies to all... one of you that read this and were planning to go. I'll keep you all posted on what's going on in Arthurworld.

Ahoy Clevelanders who will be here in November to welcome me back from my Jeopardy adventure...

So, for everyone who enjoys seeing me be hilarious onstage (hopefully intentionally, sometimes tragically unintentionally) here's another opportunity for you: I'm going to be in the bustling metropolis of Garrettsville, OH at a benefit comedy competition.

The competition is partially based on audience response, so I need all the friendly faces I can get. Pencil it in for 7:00 pm Nov. 16th at Slim &Jumbo's, 8101 Main St. in Garrettsville if you can!

Note: This will be directly after the emotional whirlwind I'm sure my Jeopardy experience will be, so I will either be incredibly elated or deeply dejected and either way have to deliberately suppress all outward signs of that emotion to avoid breaking my Jeopardy NDA. Which will be interesting.

Before I completely disappear down the Jeopardy! preparation rabbit hole, here's another recent Erfworld ep I voiced that gets a little darker and more emotional than most:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/10/epilogue-20-jillian-and-ansom/

And here's one that just posted, containing a major dun-dun-DUNNH! moment:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/11/epilogue-21-vinny/

A future in Jeopardy

So, as I may have told some or all of you, I've been called to be a contestant on an upcoming episode of Jeopardy!, and my brainpower and time since then has been pretty much all taken up with trying to fill every spare nook and cranny of my brain's synapses with quiz show trivia.

(If you knew how much of it was already composed purely of quiz show trivia beforehand, this should impress and disturb you.)

Apologies to everyone to whom I promised regular updates about the voiceover and performance world, but it's rare that you get the chance to do a half-hour performance that might net you well over $10,000. (Well, rare for me. I'm sure Jennifer Hale is used to it.)

A quick update on what my life has been like: I have obsessively scoured Wikipedia and created complete sets of flashcards on the following topics:

US Presidents, Vice Presidents, losers in presidential elections
The 50 US states, their capitals, their borders and their nicknames
Canada -- provinces, capitals and recent PMs
A list of significant Popes
The British monarchy
Major American wars -- leaders and battles
Seas of the world

Things I have not yet covered but intend to:

Classical musicians of the past 300 years
Popular musicians of the past 70 years (Billboard's #1 hits)
Oscar winners, Best Actor and Best Picture
English-language poets and novelists of the past 300 years
The dreaded opera category
Potent Potables (cocktail recipes)
Mountain ranges and tallest mountains of the world
Rivers and lakes of the world
Archipelagoes and islands of the world
Waterfalls
Nobel Prize winners and their biographies
The periodic table of elements
Major Linnaean categories of living organisms

This is based on research of what categories come up more often in Jeopardy than others, as well as some self-analysis of what I could stand to know more about. I've also been practicing the game theory of Final Jeopardy wagering and standing in front of a monitor playing YouTube videos of Jeopardy games clicking a pen like it's a buzzer.

This has not been good for my health or my relationships, but hopefully it will be all worth it to come within a hairsbreadth of winning, blow the Final Jeopardy question and come home humiliated with $1,000 and a renewed incentive to stop wasting time on Wikipedia and watching game shows and focus on my voiceover career instead.

In the meantime, here's a video from 2012 of me voicing a promo for sous-vide cooking:

Erfworld updates

Listen to me wax poetic in Erfworld update #18:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/10/4786/

And hear me do my best impression of beloved character actor Ted Levine in Erfworld update #19:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/10/epilogue-19-caesar-and-bill/

More Erfworld: The plot thickens

I am just as curious to find out who the lady with the hair curlers is as everyone else:

http://www.erfworld.com/2013/10/epilogue-15-%E2%80%93-parson-and-the-great-minds-2/