Wednesday, January 29, 2014

JEOPARDY!!!

The Jeopardy watch party was awesome last night. More people than I knew I knew came to see me at our tiny house in Broadview Heights -- enough to overflow our living room -- and I'm still reeling from the deafening cheers at my come-from-behind victory to snap up $37,200 and come back to be tonight's returning champion!

And it's not just my friends: I've somehow been able to make a splash on the Twitterverse, thanks to my wife Eliza's obsessive retweeting of all the most... colorful of the reactions to my victory on Twitter and my self-conscious responses to them. I even got reblogged here:

http://nyc.barstoolsports.com/random-thoughts/meet-arthur-your-next-jeopardy-sensation/

Anyway, while there's no formal watch party tonight I hope you all get in front of your TV sets to see if I can continue the trend! If nothing else, hopefully this exposes more people to my dulcet vocal stylings (one Twitterer already expressed the opinion that I must be a closet phone sex operator, so I must be doing something right...)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

MORE BLASTS FROM THE PAST: Monologue battle!

The Cleveland Monologue Battle is one of my favorite events -- it's short, sweet and simple, and it's a great way to strut your stuff in front of an audience and get no-holds-barred critique on where your strengths and weaknesses are as an actor.

It's an opportunity more of us should take advantage of more often, considering how much time we as actors spend pointlessly analyzing why a casting director did or didn't cast us for a particular role and complaining about how we don't get feedback for our auditions.

And, of course, the cash prize if you succeed in bringing it is always nice.

You can sign up for the Battle yourself here:

http://clevelandmonologuebattle.com/

But of course you're not here for that, you're here to see the awesome videos of me taking second place (twice!) at recent battles.

Well, here's a video taken by my wife of my most recent one -- an EXTREMELY NSFW and extremely disturbing monologue first memorably delivered by Jason Patric in Neil LaBute's film Your Friends and Neighbors:


And here's a very different monologue from September, taken from Danny Pudi as Abed Nadir in the classic episode of Community, "Critical Film Studies":


Unfortunately the above is cut off at the beginning and end because the camera guy was just shooting footage for a promo video for the Monologue Battle, but as a tradeoff the picture quality is much higher.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions for monologues I can take into future battles!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Come see me in PHOTOGRAPH 51 at ACTORS' SUMMIT!

ATTENTION NORTHEAST OHIOANS!

See me in the role of brilliant scientist and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA, Francis Crick, of Watson and Crick, who for some reason always gets listed second, and learn the too-often untold story of Rosalind Franklin, the woman whose research was critical to their discovery and whose contribution was buried by history.

You'll come for the penetrating insights about sexism, science and human relationships. You'll stay to see what I look like with 1950s slicked-back hair.

Photograph 51, opening this Friday night at 8:00 pm and playing Thu/Fri/Sat for the next three weekends at 8:00 pm, and Sunday matinees at 2:00 pm.

All at Actors' Summit in beautiful downtown Akron. See link for details.

http://www.actorssummit.org/#!on-stage/c1mjw

P.S.: I have two extra COMP TICKETS that I need to give away for opening weekend. If you have ever wondered whether you were close enough friends with me that I'd give you a comp ticket, this is your opportunity to find out.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

JEOPARDY online test is today!

Hey friends! I've been so busy with all kinds of excitement in 2014 that I forgot to remind you all about the Jeopardy online test!

It's not too late, though -- today's the first day of the test, and you still have time to register today. The test will be at 7:00 PM Eastern time, or if you can't take it today you can do it tomorrow or Thursday.

I can say from experience that the test is a lot easier than I thought it'd be and nothing to stress out over. It only takes a few minutes -- what do you have to lose? Worst that happens, they don't call you and you take the test again in a couple years. Best that happens, you end up on NATIONAL TELEVISION like I did and have a story to tell for the rest of your life.

Trust me, the experience of being on Jeopardy is worth it, no matter what happens to you. I strongly encourage anyone out there who's as much of a smartass as I am (which honestly probably includes most of my friends) to give it a shot.

And remember, mark your calendars for January 28th to catch my own Jeopardy saga and see me embarrass myself in front of millions.

Register for the Jeopardy online test here:

http://www.jeopardy.com/onlinetests/adult/