HOLY FREAKING SHABALABA GUESS WHAT?

Guess who went to this last night?

Uh, yeah. Yours truly.

It was amazing and fantastic and incredible and pretty much every positive adjective you can think of. 

It was just epic and I almost cried and he was in the same room as me and he was just right there and probably not even twenty meters away from me and I was like "Oh my god" and I thought I was going to flail like I always do, but I think subconsciously I thought I was dreaming and I was practically frozen where I was so that I wouldn't wake up.

What hair he had left was white, and the light was making his bald head shine. He had a black suit jacket on with a black shirt and blue jeans, and converse-ish shoes. It was amazing, because he was there in person and he was real, and it was incredible.

His voice was real. I could actually hear him speaking, and it wasn't from the speakers in my computer. It wasn't the same videos I'd seen over and over again on Youtube, the jokes were new and the words were new. He was THERE.

And he was adorable.

And it was like.... all those facial expressions I'd seen him make all those times before, it was in person now. Like the pursed lips he has when he's uncertain about something. Like the little half-smile he gets when someone makes fun of him. The shameless grin he has when he knows he has no idea what he's doing in a scene. It was all there.

And that little giggle he does without opening his mouth when someone takes him off-guard with something. He did that too. And also the little comments he makes when someone says something kinda not-so-smart. The way he uses his hands when he talks. The little laugh he has while bantering with someone onstage, before/after the scene.

He was there in person and it was actually him and it was amazing.

Not to mention all the Colin Mochrie classics that were thrown in there. Everyone who hadn't seen as much Whose Line as I had wouldn't have really noticed, but there was leg-humping (which I clearly remember from British Whose Line) and crotch touching (American Whose Line) and his french accent certainly hasn't gotten any better. And, of course, every guy improviser got to kiss Colin. The only thing missing was "Och!" (his hilarious scottish accent for you non-Whosers).

Of course, it wasn't just him. There was a host - kind of a Drew guy, who took suggestions from the audience, etc. And then there were seven other improvisers from Granville Island theatre sports - at least one of whom had worked with Colin when he had started out in Vancouver. And of course they were all hilarious. But I was there for Colin.

And, since it was Colin's show - he was the title name - they gave it to him.

Whenever it was a game where they had to tag people out, they almost never tagged out Colin. And he was amazing. But the thing is, Colin was never a spotlight performer. He's always been happy to share the spotlight with others. There was one scene that he wasn't in that night. He could have jumped in at any time, but he chose not to. And the scene was great, and I could tell Colin was enjoying it (you can't blame me for having my eye wander back to him, alright?). And that's because he's the best kind of improviser - the generous kind. The kind that waits for his opening and doesn't make his own, the kind that is quite happy to sit back and watch the others do their thing. And even though I shamelessly admit that I was there for Colin - so was everyone else, probably - I appreciated the others improvisation, and admired Colin's style, as I always have.

Surprisingly, there were no bald jokes. They did get to ribbing Colin, though, when the emotion in the scene was "confused" and one of them looked at Colin and said "Are you Ryan Stiles?" The entire audience burst out laughing, along with a couple people onstage, while Colin looked at the guy with his "I am not amused" look. After all the laughter died down, Colin said "Ha ha". Not in a dripping in sarcasm kind of way, in a subtly sarcastic kind of way - Colin's style. And the next time the emotion was confused, well....

"Are you Greg Proops?"

"Are you Wayne Brady?"

"Are you Brad Sherwood?"

And then the emotion changed back to horny and they all went back to leg-humping and the like.

But it was really amazing to see Colin do his thing in person. You have no idea. It was so familiar, but it was in person this time. And I can say with confidence that it really does make a difference.

The only thing that would have made the night any better was an autograph from the man. And a hug. :)

I am signing out as a huge fan of this man and his work and everything about him and I love him and oh my god I saw him live.

EVERYTHING I EVER LOVED WAS ALSO LOVED BY A MAN I LOVE.

I can't even freaking explain it, so please, just........ look at this.

He watched Firefly. FIREFLY. AS IN JOSS WHEDON'S FIREFLY. AS IN THE SCI-FI-WESTERN SHOW THAT I WAS UNHEALTHILY OBSESSED WITH LAST YEAR.

And hold on..... it gets better. 

COMMUNITY. C-O-M-M-U-N-I-T-Y. He finished the second season in two days. Not even I beat that.

And not only that, but........ 

He loved it so much he started pitching it on Twitter. COLIN MOCHRIE IS AN HONEST TO GOD COMMUNIST/HUMAN BEING.

And finally........

I ADORE HIM SO MUCH AND I ADORE COMMUNITY SO MUCH AND I JUST LOVE THEM BOTH SO MUCH I'M GOING TO CRY.

 Never mind that these tweets were tweeted quite a while ago....... that doesn't actually matter. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT COLIN MOCHRIE IS A HUMAN BEING AND I'M A HUMAN BEING.

Also, did you know that Colin Mochrie was in the Film Club in high school? For reals.

I swear to god, if he were a teenager and living in British Columbia, me and him would be bros. We'd be best friends. We'd make movies together and watch Community together and Firefly and we'd be best friends.

I just love everything right now.

Communism is Beautiful

BEFORE you give me hate comments, I would just like to explain that I don't mean communism, as in, the political movement. I mean communism, as in, being a fan of the show Community. I realize how it sounds. That's the whole reason I say it. Shock value. xD

Well, Community has officially become a new obsession. I still adore absolutely ADORE Whose Line, and Colin Mochrie and everyone else (Colin will never stop being adorable. EVER.) so don't get me wrong on that. But Community is just..... really incredibly awesome.

Here's Community in a nutshell:

-Ridiculousness/hilarity
-Pop culture references
-More ridiculousness/hilarity
-Identity
-Friendship
-Did I mention ridiculousness and hilarity?

And I may or may not have already ranted about my love for Abed. He's to Community what Colin Mochrie is to Whose Line for me. I love everyone else, but Abed will always be my favourite..... of course that has NOTHING to do with the fact that he's a filmmaker, and that he's obsessed with movies and shows all too easily. Am I the only one seeing connections here?

And it's pop culture references - at times they just have me in stitches. Inspector Spacetime may be one of the greatest Doctor Who spoofs I've ever heard of. And the action movie homage (Modern Warfare)? Epic. Amazing. The western homage (A Fistfull of Paintballs)? Even better. And don't even get me started on the second part of that episode, the Star Wars homage (For a Few Paintballs More). The fact that they dedicated the pilot of the series to John Hughes, using Don't You Forget About Me, and actual lines from the Breakfast Club is a brilliant and amazing foreshadow of just what kind of show this was going to turn out to be. Ending the chicken fingers episode with them sitting on the counter, as a reference to Sixteen Candles. Freaking yeah. The Law and Order episode? Made. Of. EPIC. And the documentary episodes? Sure, maybe not as much a pop culture reference as an actual study on the storytelling used in documentaries, but it was still awesome as HECK and very much proves that some flies are too awesome for the wall.

Pillows and Blankets has got to be one of my ultimate favourite episodes though. It was an actual documentary, not a study of one. A documentary about the essence of war when a fight broke out between Troy and Abed about whether or not to use pillows or blankets for their fort. It was, of course, a pillow fight. But it was more than that. It was a pillow WAR.

And that episode was so goshdarn awesome because not only was it HILARIOUS. Not only was it RIDICULOUS. It was actually also looking at Troy and Abed's friendship/relationship, because let's face it - Troy and Abed are wired differently. And eventually, they had to disagree on something. The way Abed studies everyone and uses that against Troy - and the way Troy replies with hurt disguised as scorn, saying things to Abed that people had probably been saying to Abed his entire life - and a few that only Troy personally was in the position to say.

Not to mention talking about how the rest of the study group act in a war zone - Jeff takes advantage of it, Annie tries to help everyone, Shirley kicks some serious booty and Pierce does his best to always be on the winning side. Oh, and Britta tries to capture the horror of war - by apparently taking pictures. To spread awareness? I don't know. Britta's kinda weird.

But enough about that episode. Community is awesome all the way around.

ABED WILL MAKE YOU CRY I SWEAR TO GOD. He is such a tragic character. He's hilarious and awesome, but so MISUNDERSTOOD AND YOU WILL CRY AND ROLL ON THE GROUND FROM THE FEELS AND YELL "NO ABED IT'S OKAY I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!"

Troy and Abed's bromance will make you cry as well. BECAUSE THEY'RE AWESOME AND THEY'RE BROS AND THEN ABED DOESN'T DO THE HANDSHAKE AND WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?!?!?!?!

But the thing about Community is that, unlike a certain other sitcom claiming to be a nerd's show, Community celebrates nerd culture rather than making fun of it. I can't explain it very well, but it was very well explained in this post on Tumblr, so here you are:

And all that was said there is true, and that is why a show about such average and not-particularly geeky people is such a geek's show. It's a big fluffy hug saying "you're not alone". In fact.......

Virtual Systems Analysis - Annie: (to Abed) "You're afraid you don't fit in, you're afraid you'll be alone. Great news. You share that with all of us. So you'll never be alone, and you'll always fit in." 

Now, that's quite a forward way of putting the theme, but that was an absolutely heart-breaking episode. The Abed ones usually are. Abed had been convinced for the majority of the episode that, in order to put other people's needs before his own (Annie had been rather heatedly preaching "empathy") he needed to eradicate himself from other people's lives. So he had become every other member of the study group and told Annie that Abed didn't exist. Meanwhile, the Abed that is actually Abed is shackled in his middle school locker - where he apparently spent the most part of his middle school years. Because "this is where people put people like me when they finally get fed up with us."I nearly burst into tears the first time I saw that scene. 

But enough about that. Every episode of Community is brilliant in its own way and amazing and fantastic. Let's establish that and move on. 

So, for my birthday, I got these things:

First season DVD box set of Community. It literally reads like a yearbook, with notes from all the characters all over it. It's really awesome. 

Greendale Community College T-shirt. Go Human Beings!!!!

Troy and Abed in the Morning mug. 'Nuff freaking said.

Aaaaaaand a whole bunch of figurines from the claymation episode of season 2 (Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas). For thos who care, the figurines were Troy Soldier, Ballerannie, The Christmas Wizard, Snowman Chang, Britta-bot, Jeff-in-the-box, and Teddy Pierce. 

I love being a communist, hah. 

Because I Commit to Appreciation.

So, today way Colin Mochrie's birthday. He turned fifty-five. Yep, he's an entire decade older than my dad. I still very much appreciate this man.

Let me please take a moment to appreciate him:

This man never fails to make me laugh. Even in the most boring parts in shows (I'm thinking of She's the Mayor - Scott the by-the-book clean-freak) he finds a way to make me laugh. This is because he is not only hilarious, he's intelligent. And the fact that he is so shy and quiet in real life, and that he goes on stage and doesn't care is inspirational to me (especially since I'm in an improv class and am the misfit of the group).

He (and Whose Line) helped me realize that a, though temporary, no less effective cure for my problems was just to be able to laugh. And since that is a major part of my entire life philosophy right now, I'd say that qualifies as actually changing my life.

I never even thought of it that way, but it makes sense, right? Yes. And this is why I love Colin Mochrie, and this is why I am taking time out of my day to wish him a happy fifty-fifth birthday.

Now that would be alright, okay, but as usual, I just don't know when to stop.

Today, since it was a pro-D day and I had nothing better to do (what a joke! I conveniently forget about that english project due on Monday, and that I'm way behind on my English assignments, and to work on my paper for French......) I made a cake.

Yep.

I'm looking dramatically into the distance. "I... I hear the sounds of baking in need!"

Yeah, once in a blue moon, I can take a sincere picture. Usually I try to look like a demonic Doc Brown.

And after hours of slaving over a hot oven, and a chocolate bowl and the mixer-thingy, I managed to make a chocolate layer cake, made from scratch, with frosting, made from scratch.

I'm pretty darn proud of myself.

This was the result of my hours of toil:

Okay, it's not the prettiest cake you will ever see, but it's darn tasty, alright?

My original plan was to make the cake recipe from Colin Mochrie's website, but that would have taken far too much work (irony). So, I made this. And there were complications. For instance, the original icing recipe I was using wouldn't thicken - in hindsight, it was probably because it was missing a vital ingredient, like icing sugar. Also, the first layer of the cake was very indecisive - it was feeling pretty fifty/fifty about leaving the pan and moving on to the plate. That is to say, half of it stuck the pan and the other half jumped to the plate. But, it resolved its issues, faced its fears, pulled itself together (that is to say, I put the pieces together) and you wouldn't even be able to tell anymore.

So, in conclusion, it's Colin Mochrie's birthday, and I made a cake. As you can probably guess (though I conveniently forget to mention this to my parents) it's dedicated to him. For his birthday.

Obsessive? Me? Naw.......

P.S Let's all appreciate Colin Mochrie, okay! I don't care if you've never even heard of the man (though if you're reading this blog, you probably have at least an idea of who he is) we should all just spend time appreciating him! (I swear to god, it'll also be therapeutic for you - I told you, he's hilarious, and laughing makes everything better for the time being).

Do you have any idea how many "Best Of" videos of him there are?! I'm being fairly gentle here!

Also, did you notice how it's also a "Colin Through the Ages" tribute, the way I set the post up? Yeah. It's pretty awesome.

P.S.S

Approval

Annnnnnd, he's asleep. 

Evil grin. Silent "Mwahahahs".

Four out of six of these pictures are so adorable that my adorableness capacity is going to just downright freaking explode. The other two are epic in their own ways. 

Happy Birthday, Colin Mochrie. 

This is your birthday song,
It isn't very long.

I wish him a long and fruitful life, full of love and laughter and happiness.

I Want This To Be Real So Gosh Darn Badly

Everyone remembers that show The Magic School Bus, right?

Someone made this fan made trailer type thing for a sequel sort of thing.

It looks pretty awesome and I would watch the hell out of it.

You'll get that joke once you see it. :)

It's just incredibly awesome just that someone made this. I want to see this movie. Really really badly.