Year in Review (2010)

Posted: December 31, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: friends, humor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Another year has come and gone and before 2010 becomes as easily-forgotten as 1996, let’s look back and re-visit the highlights in The Year of Ed before we jump into 2011…

JANUARY

  • January 19 – I was hired to record the voiceover for a commercial at MAX Films here in the area. This is only notable because of how hilariously long it took me to get paid for it.
  • January 23 – Improv night at the Landis household! Our friends John and Lisa invited a bunch of people over for some fun parlor games, including some Whose Line-style improv games.

    In one of the games ("Party Quirks"), Sarah was a turtle. This is her doing her turtle thing.

FEBRUARY

  • February 2 – Our regular Tuesday night Lost viewing parties continue as the final season premieres. We celebrate with a pinata. Naturally.
  • February 5 – Our friend Alyssa debuts her month-long art show at our favorite coffee shop, Square One.
  • February 10 – A massive snowstorm hits Lancaster. As Sarah and I are walking down to warm ourselves at Square One, we have this conversation:
  • February 13 – Sarah and I traveled to Pittsburgh to catch our friend JT in a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
  • February 19 – Sarah and I head to Philadelphia so Sarah can attend a Zumba conference and I can hear weird noises coming out of the rooms of strangers staying down the hall.

MARCH

  • March 20 – I judge a local singing competition, LS Idol. William Hung does not make an appearance.
  • March 27 – Sarah and I catch the hilarious production of Noises Off at the Fulton Theatre.

APRIL

  • April 3 – Sarah gets to meet the Beals, Jeff and Nik, dear friends from my days in Nashville. A barbecue on a great spring day in York. Hard to beat it.
  • April 12 – Sarah and I travel to Destin, Florida to visit some of her family for a week.

    Just because we're visiting relatives doesn't mean we don't stop acting like this.

MAY

  • May 23 – The Lost season finale. We all freak out.
  • May 27 – Sarah and I go to a Lancaster Barnstormers game. It gets rained out.

JUNE

  • June 3 – Sarah is chosen to lead the crowd at a Barnstormers game in some Zumba during the 7th inning stretch. The game gets rained out in the 5th.
  • June 25 – Sarah and I go to the Lancaster Catholic Carnival and then walk over to our friends’ house to watch the fireworks.

    During the fireworks display, some fallout landed on the Ruoffs' roof and firemen had to climb on top to make sure it wouldn't burn down. Fortunately, it didn't.

JULY

  • July 31 – Sarah and I traveled to Gettysburg to do a little amateur ghost hunting.

AUGUST

  • August 15 – Hey, remember that voice over job I mentioned back in January? I finally got paid for it!
  • August 21 – Sarah and I enjoyed ghost hunting so much the first time around, we decided to head back to Gettysburg for our first ghost hunting session with actual ghost hunters. It kinda blew.

SEPTEMBER

  • September 9 – Sarah and I, along with the Breneman siblings Ryan, Alyssa, and Ashlea, head west for a California vacation.
  • September 18 – Our church, Willow Street Mennonite Church, celebrates 300 years!
  • September 19 – Sarah and I return to the Fulton Theatre for their performance of Spamalot!

OCTOBER

  • October 15 – My old college pal Ed comes into town for a few days. We spend some time at Inner Harbor in Baltimore and have a blast.

    At this point in our visit to Inner Harbor, we are totally clueless as to how amazing the tapas are going to be that we have just ordered.

NOVEMBER

  • November 4 – I debut my brand new comedy-album-review site, Comedy Reviews. Feel free to “Like” it.
  • November 6 – Sarah and I move into our new apartment!
  • November 14 – Sarah turns a year older.
  • November 17 – I do, too.

DECEMBER

  • December 5 – Sarah and I attend a performance of The Nutcracker. It’s the first time seeing it for both of us and we both agree once is enough.
  • December 16 – Sarah and I go to the Fulton to see The Sound of Music with our good friends Dustin and Janelle. We all enjoy the show and then wonder what they do with all of the huge Nazi flags. Ebay?
  • December 17 – Sarah and I head to New York to take in the city during Christmas, improv at National Comedy Theatre, stand up comedy from Jim Gaffigan and our pal Adi, and film our annual Christmas video.
  • December 23 – Farewell party for our friends Alyssa and Ashlea Breneman as they gear up for their trips to Arizona and Hawaii (respectively).
  • December 24 – We attend church for the Christmas Eve service and then spend the rest of the night at Dustin and Janelle’s playing games.
  • December 26 – Sarah’s sister and her family comes into town to stay with us for their annual Christmas holiday celebration of playing games all day long. For the first time, my brother and his family come out and join in on the celebrating. We play games, film the final (?) installment of Terocus, and drink lots of coffee.

Things I learned in 2010? I don’t know if I learned anything new, but I did re-affirm what I already knew. I love Sarah a lot, she’s my best friend in the world. We love to travel. And all of our other friends…we love them a lot too. And want them to travel with us.

So pack your bags everyone and make sure your travel documents are in order. 2011 is here and we want you to see it with us.

Happy New Year, everyone.

30 Day Photo Challenge – Day 22

Posted: December 23, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: humor | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment »

Day 22 – A picture of something you wish you were better at

Actually, I don't wish I was better at it per se, but I sometimes wish I'd had the motivation and drive to put in the years and years of work it takes to get a sort-of toe hold in the stand-up world and that just sounds like way too much work and way too much time on the road for someone who's probably funnier on a one-on-one basis with my friends than I ever have been on stage. But at least I recognize my limitations, right?

Can We Get A Volunteer From the Audience….

Posted: July 24, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: friends, humor | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

This is what I love about the internets. Sometimes you come across things you had no idea were there, and sometimes it’s actually something that you’re pleasantly surprised to stumble across (unlike the horrible midget dressed as Michael Jackson dancing in the subway fiasco).

This weekend I’m heading back up to New York to do some improv comedy at the National Comedy Theatre. I was there performing in May and in one of the games we asked for a volunteer from the audience. A bachelorette party had come to the show and the bride-to-be came up on stage to join in the fun. After we had thoroughly exhausted every hilarious opportunity, we thanked her, took a picture with her, and the show went on.

Today I was surfing NCT’s website and came across their show blog, where they have been posting pictures of the volunteers who come on stage during the shows.I started laughing as soon as I saw the picture from that show and memories of me playing her airplane-pilot fiance came flooding back.  So enjoy this little blast from the past I didn’t even know was out there.

What is Improv?

Posted: April 10, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: humor | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

What is comedy? What makes something funny? What the heck is the “rule of three?” These are just some of the topics scholars have discussed – and debated – since the dawn of time.

And when improv was discovered (right around the dusk of time) it spurred on deeper queries. My pals up in Manhattan at the National Comedy Theatre shed some light on the topic. Enjoy.

And discuss.

The Results Are In

Posted: January 7, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: humor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

I just got off the phone a few minutes ago with the director from the Ephrata Playhouse regarding “The Pillowman” callback I went to yesterday. It seems that he decided to go with The Other Guy for the role I was up for. It’s all good though (for real, and for honest) because The Other Guy (no disrespect…I just don’t remember his name) did a really good job at the callback and he made me laugh. He’s a funny guy.*

The director did ask if I would be interested in playing a much smaller role in the play and I said sure. He sounded surprised that I would accept. Maybe it was because I started off reading for the lead role and he didn’t think I’d take a smaller role? Or maybe it was because he was hoping I’d turn it down. Hm. Let me think on that one. :)

He also indicated he’d like me to come back to the season callbacks, which are callbacks for all of the shows the theater will be doing this season. He told me he’d like me to read for a role in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and also for an improv show revolving around fairy tales.

Now you’re talking my language. :)

*This is a quote from Three Amigos! by the bad guy Jefe, played by Alfonso Arau. I am unable to say the words “He’s a funny guy” without saying it in my bad Mexican accent. Just thought I’d let you know. Thank you, John Landis!

The Callback

Posted: January 7, 2008 | Author: | Filed under: friends, humor | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Yesterday I went to a callback for the play “The Pillowman.” (For those of you who don’t know what a callback is, it’s basically the second round of auditions. Kinda like when you watch “American Idol” and some kids get the yellow slip of paper to “go to Hollywood, dog” for a second look.)

I went to the audition last month and was given a copy of the script to peruse for yesterday. It’s an extremely dark comedy and although the things I were reading were horrible I was impressed with the writing that I still found myself laughing at what was going on. If it happens that I’m cast in the show, I’m in for a fun time.

So how did it go, yesterday? Eh. I don’t know. There were about 10 of us there and it started by each of us introducing ourselves, talking about which part(s) we liked, and our general over-all thoughts on the play. From there they had us read a few different scenes quite a few times and the director would mix it up a bit each time, having someone read a different part, so he could get a feel of who might fit where.

I felt I did OK. But of course, when I would finish each reading I didn’t sit down and think about how well I did but would find myself wondering what I should have done differently. Second-guessing yourself like that can really wreak havoc on your brain if you let it (and I sometimes do)so I decided to just let what happens happen and enjoy the other auditioners.

There’s a law in the stand-up world that the worst crowd to play to is a crowd of comedians. No one wants to laugh because by laughing you’re letting the audience, the club manager, the talent scout know that “Hey that guy on stage is funny! I may not be, but boy he sure is!!” Sometimes it’s the same thing at auditions. You don’t want to respond positively to other people auditioning because ultimately, you’re going against that person, and you don’t want to give them any extra leverage.

I say screw all that.

If there’s anything I learned doing improv at the National Comedy Theatre, it’s that it’s about teamwork; doing what you can to make the other guy look good. Life’s too short to worry about the whole competition part of it. It as nice to be able to sit back between readings and laugh and enjoy the other guys auditioning. They were really good, a really talented bunch of guys, and I’m always up for seeing talented people do what they do best.

So I don’t know if I’ll get the call today or not. If I do, that’ll be a lot of fun. If not, I can see why. Those guys yesterday were good.

Through “the Roof”

Posted: December 30, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: friends, romance | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

A couple of weeks ago I agreed to be the guest teacher at LBC and gave their theater class a crash course in the world of improv. As a way of saying thank you, the professor, Kristen, gave Sarah and I two tickets to see “Fiddler on the Roof” now playing at the historic Fulton Theatre in downtown Lancaster.

I’d been in the theater before but not to see a performance, so this was the first time for both of us. Our friends John and Lisa were telling us that the Fulton is the oldest continuously-running theater in the country and it is indeed a beautiful place. I knew nothing about the show going into it. I’d heard a couple of the songs (“Tradition,” “If I Were A Rich Man,” “Sunrise, Sunset”) but didn’t have any idea what to expect.

Sarah and I were both pleasantly surprised at the amount of humor in the show and the cast did a great job. The mostly silver-haired audience seemed a little cold at the onset but that didn’t deter the performers. They kept at it and turned out a first-rate performance and by the final bow the crowd was on their feet with cheers of “Bravo!” being shouted all around us.

Sarah and I are fortunate that we were able to walk the few short blocks down to the theater and despite the grand spectacle on the stage, the walk there and back was probably my favorite part of the evening. Hand in hand on a cool (not cold) December night, the streets to ourselves, and only the sound of Sarah’s heels and our conversation floating around us to fill the still night.

Year in Review (2007)

Posted: December 15, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: friends, humor, romance | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »


‘Tis the season for my annual look back at the previous year, a way for me to keep you informed on what I‘ve been doing and a way for me to spend a Saturday afternoon. A lot happened in ‘07 so let’s get right to it (in some cases I have written a blog about the events mentioned below and will direct you to the link rather than force you to re-live it all over again here. I‘m thoughtful like that).

2007 – YEAR IN REVIEW

A Timeline by Ed Placencia

JANUARY
As the year began I was living in Auburn, Indiana. I was back in the area where I grew up and working with Dad as a painter/wallpaper/general decorator guy. I had set three goals for 2007: Return to NYC to perform again at the National Comedy Theatre, visit London, and kiss a girl. One of my goals I never came close to reaching (Sorry, UK), one of them I came close to (I visited the gang at the improv theater), and one of them I more than met (hello, Sarah).
January 1 I ring in the new year by spending time with the Merrells, my brother’s wife’s family. Everyone is split into teams and games commence. Bowling, ping pong, card games, and Guitar Hero. Of course, my team (I’m paired with Ben and Myka) emerges triumphant. At midnight, though, the victory turns out to be short-lived, as I have no one to kiss. So I drink Pellegrino instead.
January 6 I attend an IPFW men’s basketball game with my Dad, Uncle Rick, and cousin Ricky. The cheerleaders are especially captivating.
January 26 I find out the Sundance Film Festival will be posting all of the entries in the short film division online for the world to see. I watch them and am repulsed. Positive I can do better, I begin writing.

FEBRUARY
February 2 I begin filming my short film The Failures of Ed.
February 4 I stumble across a TV show on the SciFi Channel, Ghost Hunters. In 60 minutes I am hooked.
February 26 In response to a blog I posted online, my buddy John sends me a package of goodies to post on my bare refrigerator. It’s more than awesome. A few days letter, my friend Jen’s package of refrigerator art arrives. MARCH
March 1 I travel with Dad to the BelTerra Casino on the southern edge of Indiana. We have been hired to bring and set up our boxing ring for a fight that will be televised on Showtime. It’s a Don King production and my dreams of seeing a rigged fight in person are achieved.
March 17 Proving that racism, classism, and sexism are still alive and well, we travel to the Great Oaks Country Club in Rochester, Michigan (just outside Detroit). Their display of discrimination and segregation would make the old South proud.


March 28 I officially accept a job offer from Fred, the GM at WJTL, a radio station in Lancaster PA I worked at from 1999-2001. I am hired to do video and audio production. Not only is it a chance to work with people I miss and love, but is also conveniently close to New York City.

APRIL
April 15 Todd, Dad, Ray, and I go to Ft Wayne to watch the double-feature Grindhouse. Todd and I laugh our heads off at the insane fun unspooling on the screen, Dad doesn’t know what to think, and Ray vows never to see another movie with us again.

MAY
May 3 My short story “5 Minutes of Fame” debuts online.
May 18 Still on my short film kick, I film the first in a series of three short films I have written called The Guys. Shooting on the first installment, The Coffee Shop, goes well and features a cast of characters I have met at Brewdaily’s, my Indiana coffee shop of choice. Matt, David, and Sarah make their video debut and more than exceed expectations.
May 24 Sarah and I officially begin “hanging out.” The rest is history.

JUNE
June 2 Sarah and I share our first kiss, a so-romantic-it’s-almost-too-good-to-be-true smooch in a rain storm in the middle of the night. Jealous?
June 15 I introduce Sarah to my friends — and the world — via a short film simply called Meet Sarah.
June 16 I move to Lancaster PA to begin my new job at WJTL. Ann and Chuck are cool enough to open their house and let me stay with them as I search for an apartment and settle in.
June 22 My short film The Failures of Ed is complete and debuts online, complete with original music by Fred McNaughton. JULY
July 2

The Coffee Shop debuts online, featuring original music from musician Steve Bridgeman.July 21 Sarah comes to PA to visit and we take a trip to Nissley Vineyard where I propose to her. Luckily, she accepts. My friends Ethan and Aubrey are there to capture the moment through photographs. AUGUST
August 13 I find out a co-worker, Kate, is moving out of her downtown apartment and I am soon living in downtown Lancaster enjoying the city life once again.

SEPTEMBER
September 2 I head up to John & Lisa’s lake house along with our other co-workers Stacey, Mindy, and Ann. Nice to be on a tube again!
September 18 During another trip to Pennsylvania, Sarah and I take the train up to New York City. We visit the National Comedy Theater and say hello to Kramer, JT, and Lepine. We meet Sarah’s friends Courtney, Will, Ryan, and Ferrin and get to take a tour of the Saturday Night Live Studios.

OCTOBER
October 5 I experience my first “First Friday,” a monthly celebration in downtown Lancaster of arts, music, and food, with Ethan and Aubrey.
October 19 I return home to Indiana to pick up Sarah and officially move her to Pennsylvania. In a grand gesture of kindness, her mom Suzy and step-dad Ken follow behind with Sarah’s furniture.
October 25 Sarah and I fly down to Daytona Beach to get married!
October 26 My good pal Brewster officiates our wedding on the beach. Video of the event is captured and posted to share with our friends and family. The next day we leave for West Palm Beach, where we will spend the rest of our honeymoon.

NOVEMBER
November 7 Cleverly disguised as a night of Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero, the gang at the station throws Sarah and I a surprise wedding shower.
November 17 Sarah and I return to Indiana for our Indiana reception. We reconnect with old friends and have an in-general great time.
November 18 Sarah and I visit with her sister Stacy and her husband Nathan. We are introduced to the world of Settlers of Catan.
November 20 Back in Pennsylvania, Sarah and I buy a sequel to the board game Settlers of Catan, Starfarers of Catan, and geek out for a few days.
November 21 The film August Rush is released in theaters. I did extra work on the film back in spring of ‘05. It wasn’t worth the wait.
November 25 Sarah and I visit New York City again with our friends Lisa and Linda. We spend most of the day in The Village and enjoy a relaxing post-Thanksgiving detour.

DECEMBER
December 1 Sarah and I travel to Reading PA to see The Katinas in concert with Michael W Smith and American Idol’s Mandisa. We get to go backstage and hang out with the guys and are treated to a private one-song concert.
December 6 My friend Mindy invites me to be the guest speaker at a theater class at LBC taught by her friend Kristen. For almost two hours I lead the class in a crash course in improv. Fun is had by all.
December 8 Our official Pennsylvania wedding shower is a blast. Good times with Ethan and Aubrey, Chris & Kathy, some of the Gross family, the Burkholders, the Blowereses, Stacey, Ashlea, and the Zucks!
December 13 I introduce Sarah to the game Perfection. And then show the world.And that’s about it. So far. I didn’t even come close to touching on everything that went down and our calendar is full of fun things coming up. It’s been a great year and I’ve been blessed way beyond what I deserve. As you can see, one of the best ways to keep track of what we’re up to is by stopping by my blog or even my YouTube page (and, if you haven’t already, sign up for Facebook and be the first to find out about when the two aforementioned sites are updated).

As far as goal for 2008…that’s a good question. I’ve been given so much in 2007 it almost feels greedy to ask for anything for 2008. Actually, you know what? My goal for 2008 is to take care of what I was given in 2007. To be the best employee, friend, and husband I can be. That’ll be more than cool.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to hearing from you to find out how you’re doing.

Keep in touch!

Ed

A Kick in the Pants

Posted: September 28, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: friends, humor | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment »

About a week and a half ago Sarah was in town and I have yet to blog about it. Why? To tell you the truth it seems a little intimidating. Mostly because there’s so much to write. We did so much, I experienced so much, I felt so much, I know that once I start writing it’s going to be quite the tome and I haven’t been able to bring myself to tackle the sequel to “War and Peace” (not that I see our relationship as “War and Peace”, quite the opposite, but that’s the longest book I could think of off-hand. Maybe I should have used “The Borthers Karamazov”).

But I digress. Big time.

While Sarah was here we went up to New York City for the day. Her friend Courtney was going to be in town visiting from Scotland and so we hopped on a train and made the journey. We got off the train at Penn Station in the middle of Manhattan. Because we were only a couple of blocks from the improv theater I was part of while I lived in the city we decided to stop by the National Comedy Theatre as we made our way to Central Park and see if anybody was home.

I had so much fun performing at NCT and the people there are like family to me and, in many ways, they’re like home. If you’ve read any of my old blogs you’re used to me gushing about them. When I found I would be returning to Pennsylvania I was excited because I had visions in my head of returning to NYC on the weekends to perform.

It hasn’t happened yet.

I’ll try to explain why, but I’m not a Master Wordsmith so bear with me.

To be honest, I hadn’t felt that tug, that pull, to  get back to the city. I just didn’t have the motivation. And I think it’s because of my job.

Nothing against my job and nothing against NCT, but I’m doing what I love to do at WJTL. I’m making movies. I’m filming, editing, tweaking, writing, storyboarding…I love it. And I think because I have that creative outlet I was missing that hunger to perform I might have if I had a run-of-the-mill 9 to 5 office job. Does that make sense? Because my creativity had an outlet, I never had a chance, I never built up that yearning, to perform.

Not that I didn’t want to. I just didn’t have that drive. I don’t know if I’m correctly explaining myself or not, but I don’t have the energy to go back and do it better.

But all that changed last week.

As soon as Sarah and I stepped in front of the theatre, it was back. I could feel the energy and the excitement,  and when I saw my friend JT inside it was a little overwhelming. I knew I had been away too long.

Kramer and Jeff were also there and the three of them were downstairs in the green room putting down new flooring. It immediately took me back to my time there, painting the green room, putting all this work into the theatre we loved so much and I missed it.

It was so good seeing those guys again, I wished I would have seen some of the rest of the gang too, and that fire is back. I can’t wait to get back there.

And you know the best part of it? Sarah was happy to be there, too. After we left she was so excited for me. It was encouraging and such a great feeling (and quite frankly, a new feeling for me) to be with someone who was genuinely supportive and eager for me to get back there. Sarah told me she wants to go back soon, and often, so she can watch me in the shows.

I didn’t have that support and encouragement in my last relationship. And now that I do, I can’t believe I lasted as long as I did without it.

The Big News

Posted: March 28, 2007 | Author: | Filed under: friends, humor | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

It’s very rare you find a job you not only love doing, but also love the people you work with. It’s also pretty rare to get a chance to do what you’ve always dreamed of and, again, love the people you get to do chase that dream with.

Even rarer than both of those situations, though, is getting the chance to do it again. Both of them.

I worked at WJTL in Lancaster PA for about three years and have stayed in touch with just about everyone there since I left back in ’92. A lot of places claim to promote a family environment but very few deliver. JTL is one of those places and when I got a call from Fred, the station manager at WJTL a few weeks ago, I was more than a little excited. Fred told me about a position he felt would be right up my alley. In a nutshell, they are looking for someone to do audio production, video production, and helping with their website. Of course I was excited because all of those are things I love doing. I mean come on! Web, audio, and video? Count me in!! It wasn’t 100% certain but Fred assured me it was 99% sure and would let me know as soon as everything was finalized.

Today Fred let me know. It’s official and I’m officially stoked. I have been offered the job and I have accepted. I promised a friend of mine I would DJ her wedding here in Indiana so I will be leaving for Pennsylvania immediately afterward, putting me back in Amish paradise in mid-June.

I’m really excited not only to be doing what I love to do but also to be near some very dear friends whom I consider my family.

But wait! There’s more!

If you’ve read my blogs you know I can’t shut up about how much I loved being in New York City and performing at the National Comedy Theatre, an improv theater in Manhattan. It’s a passion of mine I’ve chased for quite some time and the people there are very talented and dear to my heart. Well…Lancaster is only a 3-hour train ride away from New York City. Three hours!!! I have an iPod, so that’s nothing..that’s like 2 episodes of Saturday Night Live and a Ricky Gervais podcast!

That’s right, baby! Not only will I be able to work at a place and with people I already know I love, but I’ll be able to go up to New York on weekends and perform at a place and with people I already know I love.

Oh yea…and I’ll only be about 45 minutes away from an IKEA.

Sometimes God is much better to me than I deserve.

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