SPEW

I'm trying to stay positive, this being the last year of life on Earth and everything. But I just watched Melancholia, and the depressed, glum sister handles the Apocalypse so much better than the hopeful, proactive sister. Too bad I upped my Prozac dosage. I'm going out like an asshole.

2011 was very busy and I'm grateful. I was lucky enough to get to be in some pretty terrific TV, movies, as well as getting to release my first book and fourth album. But the last few months of this year have been spent promoting and reminding the public of things I'd already finished, months and years ago. I wasn't working on new things, living a normal life so that the transcendent moments that creep up on you when you're in line at Pinkberry or stuck in traffic on the 405 can be folded into what you create. I'm fighting to get back to that for awhile. To wit:

I'm going to start doing a lot more sets, especially around Los Angeles. Way more stand-up, but not anything that anyone has to pay too much money for. I won't start touring until the late summer, when I've got the new hour, and can justify making anyone pay money to see me perform. Until then, there'll be a lot of UCB drop-ins, Improv drop-ins, a semi-regular residency at The Palace on Hillhurst Thursday nights, as well as Fake Gallery appearances. I'll try to announce as many of these as I can, but a lot of them will be last minute – maybe I'll Tweet the last-minute ones. But I really want to work up a whole new hour, and soon. I'm itchy to turn signal to noise. So here we go.

I'm writing a regular column for Spin magazine. Starting in March. 6 installments this year, about pretty much anything I want. I write better with a deadline than without one. And, speaking of that...

I've set a deadline on finishing the manuscript for my next book. I will drop it on my agent's desk on Wednesday, August 1st. I will be light in August. This is an arbitrary deadline, and I've pulled it out of thin air (with William Faulkner in mind, of course) but that's the one I've set. Let's see if I can stick to it. This next one's going to be all memoir, and go a lot deeper than the first. I'm very proud of Zombie Spaceship Wasteland, but I was too tentative jumping into the memory pool. I kept one foot out, safe in abstract humor pieces. The chapters I like the best are "The Victory Tour", "Peter Runfola" and especially "Ticket Booth." The working title, right now, is Film Fiend, but that will definitely change. Anyone got a better idea for the title of a memoir about a comedian who, in the mid-90's, slipped dangerously close to never leaving The New Beverly Cinema, seeing as many as eight films a day? That's the cinephiliac darkness I brushed against.

I will be in more movies and TV shows. I can't say what, right now. Two projects I'm developing – I won't say if they're movie or TV. One of ‘em is pretty much a done deal at this point. And I've signed on to one film – I can't say which, or what my role in it will be. They've actually asked me to keep it quiet, and we're toying with the idea of not even crediting me, which would fit the story nicely. Also, there are three other films I completed last year which will come out in 2012 – one in which I'm the lead, one in which I have a co-starring role, and one in which I have a single scene.

Holy shit, this post is boring. And vague. Fuck it, I'll try to be funnier in Spin. And on here, in the future. Until then, I'm off to delete more Ugg Boot spam bot activity in the comment threads! Carpe diem!