The Best Year of My Life - An Epic Adventure in 12 Parts: November

For the final 12 days of the year, I thought I'd look back at my 2012 and determine why it was the best year of my life. Every month brought new adventures, achievements, bits of awesome that worked to make my world a happier, more fulfilling, more exciting place. Come along with me, won't you?

November

The culmination of everything I’d been doing at ImprovBoston all year finally came to fruition. From that very first time I stepped onstage way back in January, to my first shot at directing with Sketch Avengers in June, to my monologue in August … here was my big shot, my big deal, my big idea. World of Hurt, the show I’d poured my heart, soul, and life into for months, was on stage. And selling out.

Vaudeville Night put my actors in the opening slot, giving the big 45 minute slot to the first Vaudeville show I’d ever seen, Groaners & Boners Schtick It to Vaudeville. Variety Show night put us in Laugh-In territory, with random dance breaks and box jokes and drinking on stage. I got to play the Sasquatch, running on stage shirtless wearing a furry hat and mask and gloves and terrorizing the denizens of a North Dakota strip club while the Scooby-Doo theme played. And my Lincoln sketch played out to laughs galore. Shawn was in the audience and he laughed, too. I almost wept.

The theater was closed for Thanksgiving, so our third show – Saturday Night Live week – was pushed to the last week in November. Which kind of sucked, as I’d already made plans to go to Disney World for the annual Reunion event. I gave my actors instructions to record the whole thing; I hoped against hope that every night of my vision would be a sellout show.

I realized at the start of the month that I was addicted to directing sketch comedy, and I wondered if I could do it with a whole new (well, mostly new) group of people. I cast my nets out – to established sketch writers and actors, to students, to sketch veterans – and within weeks, I got enthusiastic responses. Soon enough, I’d formed Duct Tape Revolution, a brand-new sketch troupe at ImprovBoston. We’d have our first show – an opening act slot – in December. Once again, it didn’t hurt that I was the producer … but when you juggle these roles, you have to be careful not to give yourself too much rope. Go through the same steps that every troupe goes through. And then do your best. Always, always do my best.

Shawn and I traveled up to upstate New York to visit my family for Early Thanksgiving, then headed down to the City for a night of minor debauchery. Marty and his friend Brian and Duncan and I of course took in Rocky Horror in Chelsea – the first time we’d been that the place felt like a sellout crowd. The hot tubby emcee was back, sans bunny ears. We hung out with my friend Mark and watched Happy Endings and Archer and had the most relaxing day and a half. Ever since I learned how to enjoy New York, I have thoroughly enjoyed New York.

I wrote one article for FEARnet, on the Jack Ketchum/Lucky McKee novella, I'm Not Sam. Someone on Facebook shared the review with Jack Ketchum, who reportedly said, "Wow. What a good review. He really got it! Thanks!" Bliss.

My trip to Disney World almost didn’t happen. Money issues and other factors kept my traveling companions from joining me. Happily, my New York friend Jeff had

an extra place in his hotel and invited me to join him. We arrived separately … and then rarely spent a second apart. One of the best things about Disney is the stuff it does to friendships. It made Joe and me closer; ditto Paul and me. It sparked my friendships with Kristen and Doug and Kim and the rest of the Crew. And with Jeff: we’d met at Reunion the year before and hung out intermittently throughout this year, but we’d spent very little time alone together. This time, while we both had brilliants of friends to hang with and catch up with, we spent a lot of the time at Walt Disney World becoming each others’ friend. There was so much new stuff to experience – New Fantasyland, the updated Test Track, the wondrousness of LeFou’s Brew and the Pork Shank – and we experienced it together … not to mention the classic, understated thrill of Tom Sawyer’s Island. Over the course of five days, Jeff and I became the sort of friends I keep thinking I’m done making, and never am.

While I was there, I got word from home: a blackout on the last Thursday of the month meant that Saturday Night Live week of World of Hurt would be canceled. Using only the power of my phone, I simply rescheduled the night to January 10th. Now, not only would we get more than two weeks’ worth of rehearsal, I was actually going to see the show I was directing. Small miracles.

Late in the month, Cemetery Dance sent me comp copies of my new chapterbooks: Stephen King Limited, books 1 and 2. No matter how many times I see my books in print, it never, ever gets old. After the print versions were exhausted, the ebooks would come out and I’d start making royalties.

Cemetery Dance also wrote back to me regarding my short story, “I Am Become Poe.” They were accepting it for inclusion in Shivers VII … a collection that also included Ed Gorman, Clive Barker … and Stephen King. For the first time ever, I would be published alongside Stephen King, and not because I’d written something about him. It was because something that came out of me, something I’d invented, was deemed good enough to be in a collection with him.

On my way. On my way.

My temp boss came up to me near the end of the month and informed me that, due to the strictures of my temp agency, I wouldn't be able to temp there any longer starting in December. She then said to update my resume and that she'd submit it to the higher ups and see what she could do about getting me hired. I did, hoping against hope and remembering the lean, horrible days of last December. The next day, she came into my cubicle and told I'd been hired. For the first time since 2009, I had a full-time job.

I had a job.