story
Celebrity Punishment
28 March 2015. Richmond, VA I stepped out into center stage, or as we call it, the middle of the playing field. The stage lights shined brightly in my face. The loyal fans eagerly awaited what I had to say. I was performing in a ComedySportz match, playing one of my favorite types of games, with some of my […]
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In Time (Life Imitates Art)
24 March 2015. Over New York, NY I sat anxiously in my seat. The plane I was on from Geneva was going to be landing at JFK in a short while. The pilot was making an announcement over the intercom about fastening your seat belts and the like as my anxiety increased. I wasn’t anxious […]
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Seattle to Turin in 5 Minutes, Part 2
21 March 2015. Turin, Italy. Read Seattle to Turin in 5 Minutes Part 1 It was one month and a day since I had met Paolo in that cafe in Seattle. I was now sitting in the front row of a packed theater with 500 enthusiastic Italians. The final round of an improv competition pitting two […]
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Your French is Very Good
19 March 2015. Dijon, France I was looking over a wide assortment of pastries behind curved glass when the barista said, “Bonjour.” I was in the train station in Dijon, about to take a train to Geneva, and was looking for a delicious way to start off my day. I had been practicing for this moment […]
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Midnight Train to Dijon
17 March 2015. Italy -> France I propped myself up against the train wall, crammed inside the aisle of the now moving train. My legs were straddling both of my bags as IÂ tried to make as much room as possible for yet another passenger to pass through. I was standing outside what was supposed to […]
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Alone in Venice
15 March 2015. Venice, Italy I looked out on the buildings of Venice. I was at the top of Campanile Di San Marco, a tower in the southern part of the town. In front of me lay the criss-crossed blueprint of the buildings of Venice, with their winding streets and very un-American-sized alleyways.  To my left […]
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Kidnapped in Italy? Part 2
14 March 2015. Monza, Italy Read Kidnapped in Italy? Part 1. Paola lived at an apartment complex off a side street in Monza. The door was inset 3 or 4 feet from the sidewalk, giant slabs of concrete the color of carbon copy paper holding the whole thing up. I walked to the front door of the complex and […]
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Kidnapped in Italy, Part 1
14 March 2015. Milan, Italy A few days after my getting murdered scare (and by “getting murdered scare” I mean “me being an idiot”), I found myself at Teatro EDI Barrio’s, south of the Milan capital. I had just finished watching an improv show which had been a lot of fun. It was entirely in Italian, which I know […]
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Afraid of the Italian Dark
13 March 2015. Monza, Italy The sun had finished it’s job for the day as the night sky overtook Monza. Paola and I were walking along the Royal Villa of Monza, an enormous building that once served as the home of the royal family of Savoia. That is until King Humbert I was murdered there. Paola had […]
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A Lion Whisperer, Political Royalty, and Olympian, Oh My
11 March 2015. Geneva, Switzerland I looked out over the empty row of seats. The lights were down, and the title of my presentation displayed on the screen in big, bold, blue letters, “The Humor Mindset.” I had just finished a technical run through for a talk I was giving tomorrow, as part of an internal TEDx event […]
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