Author Archives: Rob MacD

Go Fish

I’m putting up here, for a very limited time, the lates MacDonald Family Film Production.  It’s called Go Fish.  It’s a study of the corruptive power of greed and its consequences.

It’s a fair sized download, about 40MBs, but this film contains some of the best acting and dialogue I’ve ever seen.  The tension that builds throughout is palpable and by the end of the movie, I dare say everyone who watches it will be on the edge of their seat, wondering what will happen.  And then, when you see how it concludes, well, it will blow you away.

Seriously though, this is a fun film.  My favourite, of the 3 or 4 that I made with my son and his friend Keaton.

Click on this link to download, if you like.
It will only be around for a little while, because it eats away at my monthly bandwidth allotment.

(I have removed the link.  It was pushing me over my limit.)

Alone, At Last, You And I

Okay, I think it’s safe to return now.
Finally, Devoted Reader, you and I can be alone. All those fair-weather posters and hangers-on to this blog have by now departed for other blogs; tired of waiting for updates on the minutae of my life, desperate to comment on anything, anywhere, they have gone.
Now it can be just as it should be:  Me, posting my little moments of nothingness, and you, Devoted Reader, reading and occasionally responding.
This should show you, once and for all, Devoted Reader, just how committed I am to our relationship.  Do you have any idea how difficult it’s been, in the past ten days, to not post about the growth of my grass, or the status of my toilet bowl?  Yes, I know it’s been hard for you too, not having new updates about the Fist of Fingers, wondering how in the world you’ll get your updates on what I think of the final season of Six Feet Under.  I know it was hard for all of us.
But it had to be done.  I had to purge this site of its pending popularity.
Now it’s a wasteland, except for you, Devoted Reader, a desert of deserted thoughts and ideas.
Now that it’s just you and me, alone, well, now we can really get something going.

It’s the return of Daily Postings, here on The Annekenstein Monster.

I Saw Your Balls

Well, our first show of the summer is finished.  What a relief.
The house was pretty much full, the crowd was ready for a show, and they got one.  It felt really good to hear laughter at the places where we were hoping laughter would occur.  It felt really good to hear gasps  at the places we thought there might be gasps.  Overall, I was somewhat overwhelmed by the positive response from the audience, both during the show, and afterwards, talking with those who stuck around, and who showed up at the Opening Night party at St. James Gate.  I believe much of the positive commentary was honestly offered, too, which is nice.  But maybe I’m necessarily naive in that respect.

Comment of the night, as it related to me:  At The Gate, talking to a couple of people, and this pretty young lady that I didn’t recognise walks past me and whisper-speaks:  I saw your balls.  As for the context of how that might happen during the show, I’ll leave that to the imagination of those who haven’t seen the show yet.  I was left speechless when she said it.  I almost asked her if she liked what she saw, but I was afraid her reply might be in the negative and I’d be forever scarred emotionally by her potentially cutting remark.  So, I didn’t say anything.  I was kind of wishing she’d have said "nice balls" instead, though.

As for the rest of the show, I was very pleased with the way we performed it, and the way the audience reacted to it.  I was very nervous about performing my Debbie Gaudet monologue (especially with my in-laws in the audience), since she is, well, let’s say she’s [understatement} a bit potty-mouthed [/understatemnt].  I walked out and there was probably about 30 seconds of huge laughter just at the costume.  After that, my fears disappeared and I launched into a speech that I found very therapeutic.  That sketch was probably my personal highlight.
I am, of course, very fearful to perform it again tonight.

To those of you who came out to the show last night, thanks for laughing and being generous with that laughter.  You are all very kind.

Sketch22 or Sketch Two, Too

Well, our second season gets underway this Thursday evening, a mere 23 hours from now.
I’m pretty nervous, wondering how the audience will react.  I have a lot of confidence in most of the material, although there are a few sketches for which I wonder how an audience will react.  We are, of course, fearful that the audience won’t share our group’s sense of humour, yet we also know that much of the show makes us all laugh a lot.  And the few people who’ve seen snippets of the new material have been genuinely laughing at it, so that’s good.  Still, the "Will They Like Us" nerves are definitely there.
It’s going to be a long 23 hours.  We have a late night dress rehearsal tomorrow night which should wipe us out.
Gulp.  What have we gotten into?  Whose bright idea was it to come up with all new material for this summer?  It sure would have been safer to rely on the successful sketches from last year.  But then, I probably wouldn’t have this pit of worry and nerves in my stomach right now.
The payoff, assuming that audiences dig it, will be worth it.  And the excitement and anticipation of giving the audience all new material is pretty intense.

Stay tuned…

OK Go

I like the band OK Go.
I like their bass-heavy upbeat pop rockiness.

After seeing this video (quicktime), I like them even more.  To take the time and bother to learn the choreography, they endear themselves to me.

Only, not ‘endear’ because, well, that word’s kinda pussy.

Happy Anniversary, Darling Wife

Today is my and my wife’s 18th wedding anniversary.  We got married on Canada Day in 1987.  We chose Canada Day because we thought that each year, we’d both have our anniversary off to do whatever we pleased.
I think in the past 18 years, we’ve maybe had one or two Canada Days only where we’ve both been off work.  Karyn is a summer tour guide and most Canada Days she works.  I’ve had probably a third of my Canada Days in the past where I’d have a show performance or rehearsal…
Oh well, so much for those "day off" plans.  We’ll have them in our retirements, perhaps.

So, on this day of anniversary, both personal and national, a day that was spent by me cutting the grass and helping my father with a couple of computer questions, I’d like to say to my wife, who has spent the day telling tourists the history of our Island, that I love her.
And so, I will.

I love you Karyn. 

You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me or my world.
Many more, okay?

Sketch22 Summer 2005


We are less than one week away from opening our second season of Sketch22. Last year was a pretty big success for us. We decided early on in writing for this new season that we wouldn’t rely on last year’s characters or sketches and that we’d come up with all new material. As daunting as it was, I am glad we made that decision. We have some great new sketches, plus a couple that I’m a bit nervous about, due to content, not necessarily quality.
Come and check us out!

A Burning Desire to Scream & Flash

I have a very strong desire to do the following:

Go to the beach late at night with a few people (probably my wife and son).  Requirement is that it is dark.
One at a time, someone will scream as loud and as intensely as is possible for them to do so.
While screaming in the dark, their picture will be taken.

I expect the results to look rather interesting.

When I succumb to this desire, I will post the results here.
Is your breath baited?

Grrrrr-ill

We have some nice looking pork to barbecue and cause salivation.  We have some "new potatoes" to boil and drool over their melted-buttery goodness.  Some potato salad, bread, various beverages cooled, etc.
I’ve been looking forward all day to making and enjoying this meal.  We get home, I open the barbecue lid to preheat the barbecue and discover the grill is gone. 
Someone stole our barbecue grill!
We could, I suppose, bake or fry the pork, but it’s not nearly the same and there really isn’t time to do so before I rush off to rehearsal.
So, Karyn, bless her, has offered to run off and get some substitute fast-food.
Pork, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow, when you’ll be grilled up nicely on a brand new grill.  Potatoes, be thee boiled on the morrow as well!
To the prick who stole our grill: May you sleep peacefully tonight and wake up dead tomorrow.

Yeah, Wapner’s On!!

I like movies, but I don’t go to a lot of movies (I also don’t go to a lot of anythings).  There are many reasons why I don’t go to more movies, none of them really very good reasons, but I suppose, taken as a whole, they add up to me not going to movies.
One reason I don’t like going to movies (and to theatre, too) is the potential (no matter how small) that it’ll be sold out, or I’ll be late, or some sort of minor inconvenince will occur before hand that will keep me from sitting in a seat in a smart, timely manner.  Yes, I realise I’m rather Rain Man in that regard.
So, last night, almost at the last minute, we (the family) decide to go see Batman Begins.  I check online to see when the movie starts and I see 6:45…  It’s 6:25 as I check, and we’re about a 5 minute drive away.  Good, let’s go.
We get to the theatre and the marquee says Batman Begins  6:30.  It’s 6:30 as we see this.  Stanidng outside in the rain (man) I have a small little breakdown and we (I) decide not to bother.  Yes, there are probably 15 minutes of previews, yes we’d likely get in before the actual movie started and really so what if we missed a few minutes… but… there was a heck of a long lineup for tickets (yes I could have used the robot-tellers in the foyer but there were lines for them too), we had to get some munchies because we were forgoing supper because of this last-minute decision to go and the lineups for food were likely long too.
So we didn’t go to the movie.  I am turning into an autistic.  But where is my savantism?