The Film World...

Just shot two commercials for Salinas Auto Row. Really fun scripts, great crew and the possibility of future castings is a wonderful thing!

I am gearing up to be in a feature film called, "The Beat Shop", which will begin filming in Sacramento during 2010.

I have finished filming on "The Waters" and the film is on it's way to the editing room!!!

Wii Commercial Update: The commercial for Samba De Amigo was already a national, but I just got a letter in the mail informing they want to upgrade it to internet release as well. WooHoo! o0h, and that's the good kind of WooHoo, and not the failed bank WooHoo.

In September I booked two nice projects. One was a JanSport Industrial which will be played on the internet and in their regional stores. The other was a Wii commercial for a game called, Samba De Amigo! Both projects were done by TEAK Motion Visuals, and directed by the wonderful Greg Rowan. As of now I still have not seen the commercial but many of my students continue to come up to me and say, "Mr. Sams, Mr. Sams, I saw your Wii commercial!". It's very cute.

I just finished a short film called, The Creep in the Creek, where I got to work with L.T. Taylor again. As a funny/interesting side note, the other two cast members who were in my scene were both represented by Marla Dell Talent. Both their talent shined.

Update: Unflinching Triumph has been re-cut, re-colored and re-mixed! It was shown at the
             Sacramento (International) Film Festival on April Fool's Day of 2008. It has also made it's Bay Area Debut at many of the Speakeasy's!

In November of 07 I finished my first Scary Cow Production. The short films title is, "The Artist". It's screening was in January of 2008.

Production just ended on a short film called, "Gangsters Guilt". The editing is complete and the film is being submitted to a few Film Festivals. There will also be an opening gala at a theatre in the Marin. More to come!

In May of 2006 I was in a feature film called, Unflinching Triumph. www.unflinchingtriumph.com
-The Wall Street Journal named "Unflinching Triumph" one of the top five "What to Watch" on the web.

Doin' It on Stage...

Shades of Grey has a show coming up May 22 at the Exit Cafe! Very exciting things are coming up. We also submitted to the Out of Bounds Improv Festival in Austin TX as well as the San Francisco Improv Festival. And now, we wait!

Shades of Grey had a show in February at Pan Theater. A great audience attended and we had a great show. From this show we have made quite a bit of marketing material and will be using this the grow our audience, submit to festivals across the country and show our families. =)

I have recently been brought on board to work with Tilted Frame. Tilted Frame is an improv company that uses a lot of technology in their improv. I am truly excited to be able to work with talented improvisers and mix all of my tech skills into the mix. I think that some really cool stuff is gonna be coming down the pipeline. Plus, I get to work in the old space, good old stage 250 at the off-market theater in San Francisco.

During the first week in February the newly reformed Shades of Gray had their first show at Uncle Bongs Pizzeria. We performed with Rats in the Alley and had a wonderfully well received show. The Shades of Grey website is also now up and running at http://www.sogimprov.com .

After 4 years in Oui Be Negroes it has become time for me to leave the company. The founding members are moving on to L.A. and I wish them all the luck in the world in their new home.

Oui Be Negroes had a weekend run in Sacramento on February 15th and 16th. This was the first show we had since November and despite the fact that I had nothing to eat all day but 1/2 a piece of alligator jerky from New Orleans, we had a wonderful opening and another great show on Saturday.

November marked the return of Oui Be Negroes on stage doing Improv. We performed in the Improv and Soul Review at the Dark Room for a two week run. Group energy and the funny were out to party. We had some great show.

In October of 07, I performed in CreepShow Live at the Dark Room in San Francisco. The plays title was "The Long Ride" written by Hans Summers.

In September of 07, I performed in the World Premier of Match Play at the Eureka Theatre which was produced by Theatre Out of Order in San Francisco.

Oui Be Negroes performed in the San Francisco Improv Festival 2007 along with Messing with Ike, which included, Susan Messing, a founding member of the Annoyance Theater in Chicago and Ike Barinholtz from MadTV.

Through the Lila Theatre, I was able to perform in a 3 week run of the Razowski Project. David Razowski from Second City, L.A. came and directed this show. This was a great experience.

In 2005 through the Improv Alliance, Oui Be Negroes was offered a show every Thursday night at Pyramid's Ale House in Berkeley. This show had a 4 month run.

Oui Be Negroes headlined at the San Francisco Improv Festival 2006 and the Santa Cruz Improv Festival 2006. Our best night was filmed with three cameras so very soon I will create a video and sound page which will house this full improv show along with other various clips. As a whole the festivals were fun and I got to meet L. A.'s "Nation of Improv.

Oui Be Negroes had an article written up by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Jennifer Chambers and I had an Improv Duo, "Shades of Gray". We performed many improv forms including one that I wrote entitled, "Where Will We Be?" The structure of "Where Will We Be?" is comprised of 3 ten minute long improvised scenes. The first ten minute scene takes place "Now", wherever the characters we develop are currently at in time and space. These characters are developed from two audience suggestions. The second scene takes place in the "Past", further exploring the relationship of these two characters and their history. The third scene explores where these two characters will be in the future based upon all of the discoveries found in the first two scenes.

The oL' Days of the Lila Theatre -

Through the Lila Theatre, Kenn Adams and I were heading Lila's Improv Jam. This jam was called "Temenos" and was performed at the Lila Theatre space at the Off-Market Theatre every third Sunday of every month for a full year. The structure of the show was performed with an opening Improv group, a one hour Improv Jam which was comprised of three original jam forms created by myself each month, and then a final performance by a closing Improv group. This was a jam that raised the bar as far as jams go. The structure of the show enabled high quality improv to take place for everyone involved. The Lila Theatre is currently on a hiatus.