Hi Gang,

2020 has already started off with a bang! I was cast as the lead in a webseries called Murder of the Weekend. It’s a murder-mystery comedy with a great script by Hayes Biche. The cast and crew was truly amazing and we shot it in seven days and it was nuts - real low budget indie filmmaking shenanigans. Also it was an ALL-FEMALE CAMERA TEAM, including our fabulous DP, Lauren Mendoza. She was kind enough to share some stills with me (see below). I’ll let you know when it’ll be released, since I don’t know how long post-production will take.

Additionally, I’m working on some writing projects this year, and have some sketches/character videos planned for you. I’ll keep a lid on those for now, but they’ll be fun.

Something I can share is my indie improv team, Loser Boy, now has a monthly residency at the Tank. The Tank is a non-profit theatre that gives emerging artists a place to produce their work at no-cost to them. They are a wonderful organization and truly unique in their mission in NYC. LB is grateful for their partnership and we can’t wait to present our show - Form-ication (gross). We want to give improvisers and audiences the opportunity to see new/rarely done forms. We’re the second Monday of the month starting in January and running through August. If you are here in town, get your tickets here.

On a personal note, my goal for 2020 is more empathy, more openness. That’s the whole update. Love you all.

Still from the talented Lauren Mendoza - featuring fellow actor and mensch, Brian Pollack.

End of a decade, gang. Wowowow.

I have no grand, final summation on that subject. Time is a construct. Personally, I’m just plugging away in NYC - my goal is to strengthen my empathy muscles in this next decade. I hope we all work on more empathy.

Ok! Enough philosophizing: On Monday December 2nd, at noon, Helena Farhi, and I dropped our mini-webseries on YouTube. It’s very exciting, because we set a goal and we met it, teaching ourselves producing and directing and sound and editing and color correcting and audio mixing and all that jazz. It’s not perfect but it’s very silly, and that’s exactly what we wanted.

Potato & Button Ride Again is about two idiots who firmly believe that “comedy is better than tragedy”. It’s about fragile egos and juice cleanses and the enduring power of friendship. Also, it’s very dumb. All three episodes are up, Netflix style, so it should take you about 15 minutes to watch the whole thing. Won’t you?

Once again, I’m reminded of how lucky I am to have a tribe of creative people in New York. Compulsively artistic people. People who say “yes”. Some of these friends were onscreen for literally seconds and some WERE NOT ONSCREEN AT ALL WHICH IS NUTZ CUZ THEY ARE TALENTED ACTORS. I’m truly grateful. Here are all the people who lent a hand on this project:

Grace Experience, Stephen Shore, Ariel Seidman-Wright, Dominique Allen Lawson, Kadeem Ali-Harris, Steven Czajkowski, Dana Harris, Kate Owens, Khalifa White, Nicholas Curley, Kalyn Altmeyer, Jamie Fultash, Arden Farhi, Joseph Manning (quick shout-out to our brothers), Jonathan Portee, and Paul Bernardo

And obviously thanks to Helena, who is both one of the best friends a girl could as for, and a killer writing partner. A hell of a combo.

So, here is the playlist of the whole thing. Watch the prequel, Potato & Button: A Journey Through Art, also on Hackstage, if you wish for more Geri and Megan content.

I hope you enjoy this “lil” project. If you do, please like, subscribe, share with all your friends.

I’ve got improv shows and stuff in December too, including at The Tank with Loser Boy next week: tickets here. I love this team and this show.

I announce all my shows on instagram too, sort of ad nauseam: @deirdmanning These days it’s an endless stream of self-promotion, occasionally interrupted by dog-content. I’ve been told it’s funny too though. So follow me :)

Thanks gang. Again, very grateful.

Hi gang,

I set a reminder in my phone that says “Write blog and send your newzletter gurl”. That’s fun, right? Shameless self-promotion is a full time job.

I do have some very fun updates! Helena and I are are madly editing our mini-webseries, Potato & Button Ride Again. Editing is very hard, guys! It’s fiddly work - but we are going to make our deadline on December 2.

Burying the lead a little but I’ve got some great shows coming up, if you are in NYC. I’m in a really cool show opening at Upright Citizen’s Brigade this month! It’s an improv show with a heavy-hitting cast called BEFORE/AFTER, and it’s directed by Johnna Scrabis. We have two Tuesday night shows in November, 19th and 26th at 10:30pm at UCB Hell’s Kitchen. Get tickets here

Maybe that’s too late for you. I get it, cuz it is a school night. In that case, maybe you can come see my indie team, Loser Boy, perform at the Tank on December 10th at 7pm. I adore this team (pictured below) and playing with them is always a highlight of my week. We created this show called Form-ication (gross) which features us and other cool indie teams performing new/rarely done improv forms. It’s a little nerdy/a little niche, but even if you aren’t a big ole improv dork, it’s still really funny! Inevitably, we end up punching someone and/or talking about farts. Truly, there is something for everyone. Get your tickets here

Ok, that’s it! That’s the update. Suddenly, it’s November and the days are painfully short and the seasonal depression starts to creep in. But November also makes me start thinking about things I’m thankful for - my cup truly runneth over. Thanks all :)

See? I promised I wouldn’t overwhelm you. I did two July posts and then zero posts for August and September. It’s called balance.

Wow! So much to talk about - I released all my original character videos over the course of September. Thank you all for watching and if you haven’t that’s cool. But you should watch them now. I created a little playlist with all of them right in a row, so do that here.

Part of why I didn’t write any updates in August and September is because my extremely talented friend and collaborator, Helena Farhi, and I wrote and produced and acted in a mini-webseries together, with the help of our amazing friends who volunteered their time and energy. It’s a real labor of love for us, and it’s very dumb. That’s pretty much my aesthetic. It’s a sequel to Potato & Button: A Journey Through Art, a little mockumentary we shot up in Maine while we worked on a show together. It’ll give you a flavor of what’s to come in Potato & Button Ride Again. We’ll give more details as we get closer to the release date, which is Monday, December 2nd.

So mark your calendars for 12/2/19, gang. We wrapped it and are in post production. We quite literally couldn’t have done it without our amazing friends, and now we need you to hold us accountable for releasing it on time.

We feel so loved and we are dropping this webseries on your ass - hold us to it and hold onto your butts