Walking into the stage this morning felt very different than last time. I knew where to go, I knew who to look for, and my stomach butterflies were pure excitement, without the nerves I had during The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary.
From the moment I parked my car, I felt like I'd come back ... well, not home, exactly, but back to camp, or back to school, I guess. There's a story about that on today's Radio Free Burrito 23, which I just released; it's only 12 minutes long, and I think you should listen to it because I made it JUST FOR YOU.
All day long, the cast and crew made me feel like I was part of their family who they didn't get to see very often, even though I've only been there once before. It was really neat to feel like they were as excited to have me back on the show as I was to be there. I really am a lucky guy.
It was a relaxed day, which I bet is nice for the regulars because they taped a show last night. We started with a table read of the episode (which was hilarious) and then spent the rest of the day running the episode. Just like last time, this is the part of the process where we're making very rough pencil sketches on a sketchpad; we haven't even begun to think about picking out paint and brushes for the final canvas ... but that will happen very quickly, probably by the middle of the day tomorrow, because we only have seven working days to take this from a bunch of creative people sitting around a table reading it to an actual show that goes out to millions of people on the magic talking box thingy.
...Wow, I just freaked myself out. It's better not to think of it that way. Quick, get the Men in Black flashy gizmo!
Ahh, that's better. So, I was talking about Ping Pong, right? Well, I didn't get to play a full game of Ping Pong today, but I got to rally with Kunal for a little bit, and I didn't feel like I was playing with duck's feet for hands and a coke bottle for a paddle, so I'm looking forward to providing the sort of challenge a speedbump gives a monster truck when we play a real game tomorrow.
I want to be exactly the right kind of evil when we rehearse tomorrow, so I'm off to work on Evil Wil Wheaton's scenes. Seriously, go listen to the Burrito. You'll be glad you did.
