The Revelationary War

I'm back from Louisville, Kentucky, where my hotel was at the very corner where the Trappist monk and prolific writer Thomas Merton was seized by a spiritual revelation, filling him with a profound love for every human being, as well as a sense of the vital importance of love and care for all people. There was an angry homeless guy leaning against the sign for support, yelling unintelligible things unrelated to Thomas Merton, but probably concerning issues of social justice. I would have stayed longer, but there's no stopping.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom

No people like show people

I just filmed an episode of the HBO show "Big Love," and had fun with Bill Paxton, as he told me many stories of his past, including sneaking onto a set to watch me shoot a scene many years ago, and I drove from there to The Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, my favorite place on earth, filled with my favorite people. Larry Miller was working in the show with me, and Garry Shandling was getting a ream of new jokes ready for upcoming T.V appearances. My friends, the talented comedians Brian McKim and Traci Skene were there, as well as Brian Gillis, the world's greatest magician, and a young lady named Lindsay who did a silent and theatrical juggling act that brought the house down. It was a beehive of show biz activity with people going on and coming offstage, and Larry Miller, overtaken by the wonderful energy of it all, just leaned back in his chair, smiled and said "By God, this is cool."

I couldn't agree more, Larry.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom 

Dallas!

The Addison Improv was great last weekend, with fun shows as I did my part to welcome the new football stadium to the great Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, where crowds of zombies surrounded the white monolith, mumbling "Screens! Larger screens! Who needs to see live action when we have giant screens?!!" And, if the first game is any indication, the Cowboys are going to try to outlaw punting in the NFL, since it gets in the way of commercials. Thanks to the great people at the Improv there, and my friends out at St. Joe's, where we had a nice Sunday worshipping God. No, not the new stadium, I mean the other God.

Rock and Relient K

Back from Kansas City, where the shows were great, and the camera went missing, so I'm using Mac's photobooth for pics now. We heard, saw, hung with, and wonderfully experienced the band Relient K last night in a hot, thumping club in Pomona, California. The music was fantastic, the guys were superb as always, and we even had some good barbecue before the show. Yes, I had to come back from KC to Pomona for some barbecue. After some BBQ and rockin', I'm headed to Calgary, Canada, to perform for a large group of Canadians in the town where I once performed a rock version of "Home On The Range" for a giant crowd of cowboys at the Calgary Stampede rodeo.

No kidding, I have had quite an adventure.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom 

Comedians

Most comedy clubs across the country are lined with old headshots of comedians who've performed there over the years, an increasingly humiliating collection of youth and foolishness. There is a grinning, over-eager shot of me in the entryway of the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood that people still guffaw over, making sure to mention it the next time they see me. "What were you...thirteen years old?!" Yes, I was, thirteen. And a bad person with a gun forced me to wear that shirt, too.

I stopped in my tracks when I came upon the two guys above. Yes, that's Bill Hicks, and he's wearing a "Member's Only" jacket. Sorry, "trenchcoat mafia," Bill owned that jacket and wore it, before he took up chain smoking and speaking truth to power. In nightclubs where he got paid. Bill was a friend of mine a long time ago, and he's no longer here. Steve Oedekerk is here, though, and making many, many movies. I actually took that photograph of Steve, back when nobody had the money to pay photographers for pictures of themselves. We took it in my yard.

Just a little cloud of memories, as I stare at the wall between shows.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom

Arizona!

I went to Tempe, Arizona recently to perform for the Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University. We had a great time there, and it was interesting that a school of mass communications couldn't find a microphone stand for me to use! My friend "Jonny Cool Rag" and I hopped over to Scottsdale to check out what's happening in the art galleries there. We were speaking passionately about a large painting, when a woman walked up to us. "You don't like art!" she blurted, without ever having met us, "You look like two construction workers! Macho guys don't like art!"

Okay, lady. You know, we were treated more nicely in Quartzite, Arizona, in the middle of the desert, where we saw a shrunken head from 1906. Trust me, the shrunken head was a lot better than most of the paintings.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom

Blue Boy, Zuma Beach

This painting is 30 x 40, a big challenge. Oddly, a human being is the hardest subject for a painting, since a half inch mistake wrecks the whole thing. As the master painter John Singer Sargent said; "A portrait is a picture where there's something wrong with the mouth." Well, there is plenty about this painting that could be improved, but it's a boy with his boogieboard at the Pacific Ocean, and it doesn't get much better than that. Cowabunga, dude.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom

Sister Corita!

Sister Corita Kent was a Nun in California in the sixties, and I was a boy in Catholic school in Philadelphia in the sixties, so I experienced the passion, and vibrancy, and color, and innovation of that time while wearing a suit and tie, taught by young Nuns, many of whom were exploding with the thrill and wonder of the kind of work that Sister Corita was creating - color splashed posters with lots of poetry and flower power. I saw an exhibition of Sister Corita's work yesterday and was transported back to that time, when Op art and Pop art and poetry were presented to kids as a completely rational and beautiful reaction to a time of great upheaval and fear. I'm really glad that in the fourth grade Sister Ruth had us making colorful collages about war, and joy, and Warhol soup cans, and I'm proud of the day that my grandfather put Pop art daisy stickers on the back of his car.

Thanks, Sister Corita,

Love from Wilson World,

Tom

Pretty Good Morning, America

Just back from New York City, where I appeared on "averyspecial" Oscar weekend Good Morning America. When I'm on shows, I like them to be promoted as "averyspecial" whatever. (deep announcer voice) "Next...on averyspecial Blossom..." The crew on GMA were nice, and the view from the studio windows is incredible! Million square foot flashing billboards, and crazy people mumbling to themselves! Times Square has come so far from the pit of vice and degradation it was when I lived there. Okay, just kidding, it's the same. 

The same retail experience, too! The mumbling, apathetic girl at Modell's sporting goods made no eye contact and threw my bag of overpriced junk back at me without taking off the anti-theft device, so I had to damage the shirt back here in California. Thanks Radyka! Thanks Modell's!

I did take a walk up to the Upper West Side, and my old neighborhood. The pizza place is gone now, but they're still calling it 74th Street, so some things never change.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom

Notes on America

Good news, my friends! My daughter is taking AP U.S. history in an academically challenging high school, where the teacher allows ONE index card to be used for notes, and prohibits the use of a magnifying glass. This is the card that our in-house genius wrote for herself. It's even color coded with tiny highlights. She will certainly get an "A," but the really good news is...I don't have to take a history final and make notes like that! Isn't that great?! Never again in my life! For example - if a history teacher asked me what events precluded Washington's attack at Trenton, I could just say "Would you like a Popsicle?" Yeah! That's good news.

Love from Wilson World,

Tom