I enjoy the comedic things in life. Some, in fact, might call me an aficionado of comedy. I wouldn’t necessarily encourage it, but if presented with free t-shirts and other swag, I think it’s fair to say that I might do a little research into legally adding a title to my name… Perhaps something to the effect of “Vickie, aficionado of comedy”- pretty sexy, eh?

So, you see, I’m a person. I have hopes… I have dreams… In the end, they’re not all that much different from Dr. Martin Luther King’s. I would like to entertain people. Regardless of their ethnic background and how they like to eat their hot dogs, I would like to help them laugh. It’s not just some sort of power- tripping, megalomaniac desire to derive pleasure from causing others to laugh. I would even go so far as to call it altruism. Comedy is the ultimate sacrifice.

At any rate, much as a young shepherdess is wont to spend uncountable hours laying in the hay of the barn, dreaming of becoming princess of the realm (this is, of course, before being accosted by Fernando the goat boy and ending up on MTV’s critically acclaimed show 16 and Preggers), I too once had dreams of becoming a comedienne in Korea: a gagwoman (개그우먼). Cradling such dreams close to my bosom, my sufficiently ample bosom, I auditioned for Gag King (개그킹), a special edition of Star King (스타킹) with my friend, Nevada, and was given the opportunity to join a ragtag group of gagmen hopefuls, performing short, individual acts.

Together, we were 딸랑개그팀. Swathed in aluminum foil, I was Lady Gaga ~ 레이디가가!

In the original audition, my friend was a translator, and I was Lady Gaga, who upon visiting Korea, found fashion inspiration at a galbi restaurant. After waxing poetic on the beauty to be found at the intersection of galbi and fashion, I proceeded to dump leaves, garlic and kimchi all over my aluminum-foiled self. Perhaps this was too daring – too avant-garde! Mayhaps the thought of a galbi dress was too scandalously risqué and  ahead of its time for present-day Korean tv. In any event, the writers deemed it best that for my impression on the show, I should restrict my performance to a couple of dance moves. Then, during rehearsal, the dance moves were downgraded to walking across the stage, which, I’m not gonna lie, ain’t my forte. I shall not be adding “walking across the stage” to the skills section of my acting resume next to the other skills I proudly lay claim to a godlike mastery of, such as “bear handed shark wrestling” and “flammable gymnastics”.

“Oh well”, I thought to myself after the downgrade of my performance, “At the very least, I can still be funny and witty within the parameters of the self introduction and interview! Life does not always take the course one expects, but in a very daoist fashion the water runs as the water runs and the man floats in a boat to the opposing shore”.

WRONG. It got cut, bitch! Just like in prison! I’ve never been to prison, but I know what it’s like now! It’s shank or be shanked out there! My glorious couple of minutes in the recording studio got sliced down to a mere couple of seconds. They didn’t even keep my intro and interview! I won’t compare it to the holocaust because that would be insensitive to the millions who suffered and died, but it would not be unwarranted to describe this as a catastrophe and a great loss.

I was more than usually excited for this trip as none other than Lee Seung Gi, my not-so-secret-”secret crush” was also in Jeju shooting for it! In my 13 year old schoolgirl daydreams, he would notice me as I was bumming around set, bored and stuffing my face with whatever snacks were available (look! I maintain some degree of reality in my daydreams!) and upon noticing me he would instantly be struck by my radiating, effervescent charm. We would lock eyes and beautiful, wondrous infatuation at first sight would occur!

In other scenerios there were fires and I was saved from a burning building, and I saved him from a burning building and we both were saved from giant tsunami waves and aliens abducted us and it turned out we were jedi knights, and we got sorted into the same house at hogwarts. I wouldn’t say that I waste a lot of brain power on such thoughts, but if I didn’t spend so much time daydreaming, I could probably have cured cancer, flown to mars, and brought about world peace by means of puppies already. Okay, maybe not with puppies. Keeping it real.

So, as I spent the night in a thin dress, with the frigid winter night jeju wind blowing off the beach and straight onto me, teeth chattering and knees shaking, with Lee Seung Gi nowhere in sight due to the fact that he wasn’t in the scene, I experienced a massive wave of “anticipointment”. You know that feeling of disappointment you get after your high hopes and anticipations are dashed against the cruel, pointy rocks of reality?

Okay, enough with the sea imagery!

Besides the fact that not a single one of my daydreams actualized into reality, and I spent the night freezing, and I was stuck in bed with a cold for most of the next week, I did manage to have a lot of fun with the other extras in the scene as we huddled together for warmth between takes and stuffed ourselves with pastries throughout the night and took funny pictures with the security guards’ prop guns ^^

Truth: me or Angelina Jolie?

That said, I almost died with envy when my friend told me that he got to meet Lee Seung Gi during filming the following weekend! AIEEEE!

I’m gonna buck up, keep my head high and go on living courageously. It’s the only way to get past this sort of tragedy. A strong fighting spirit, copious amounts of soju, and maybe a couple more pastries. That’s the cure.

I’ve decided to start writing more about my recent, all consuming passion: acting. Yay! It’s kind of a way to keep track, review, and organize what I’m learning ^^

Recently I’ve been doing some acting on the Korean network MBC for the show Surprise. It’s a popular Sunday morning show, with over 500 episodes. In general, it usually has off the wall plots with ridiculous, unsuspected endings. Hence the title, Surprise! I hear originally it was one of those shows where you guessed which story was true and which was made up, but over time it has evolved into overdramatizations of wacky news pieces and urban legends. As you can imagine, a large portion of the acting consists of over the top, surprised reaction shots.

Although the script is ridiculous and the style of acting is also amusing to say the least, there’s still a lot to learn on set and I’m finding it a great place to get my bearings when it comes to film acting and acting in general.

In the most recent episode I filmed, I played the role of a daughter whose mother died of a heart attack while hoola hooping. During the funeral, when my mother unexpectedly resurrected herself and sat up in her open casket, I was so shocked that I had a heart attack and died. SURPRISE!

I think I had three major take away lessons from last Friday’s shoot.

1. Heart attacks don’t kill you instantly. (It took me quite a few “fall slower!”s from the director to figure that one out.)
2. For a death scene in a dress, it’s probably best to think more about limb positioning on that first take…
3. Coffins are actually extremely comfortable to lay down in! (For reals! I wouldn’t mind a coffin-based hotel!)

Oh! Plus next time if my character dies of a heart attack, I’m so gonna look up youtube videos to figure out what that’s like, and how quickly rigor mortis takes effect.

Lessons learned!

I’ve got improv fever ^^ Indeed, I’ve caught the bug! Since I arrived in Seoul this Spring, I’ve been practicing with the expat improv comedy troupe in Seoul: (SCI for short). While I did take basic improv classes at The Groundlings in LA, I’ve found SCI to be the perfect place to grow as a performer. At the moment we only perform short form, but we’re hard at work honing our skills so that someday in the future we will perform looooooooooooooongwise as well ^^

This Saturday, December 17th, we will be taking the stage at Moon Night in Itaewon together with the professional comedians from ImprovBoston! I can’t believe I’mg onna have the opportunity to perform onstage with professionals of such high caliber! I am beyond excited for this. Like, I get excited when someone hands me a bag of cheetos and says I can go to town. This is like if somebody handed me ten varieties of cheetos, a couple of key lime pies, and a never ending chocolate malt fountain and told me that for that one magical day calories would cease to exist. Oh, and throw some egg tarts in there too. I love me an egg tart.

Hmm, so coming back to reality from my beautiful daydreams, we’ve been practicing multiple times a week, and I’ve recently started reading and listening to the podcast too ~ great stuff ~ a veritable treasure trove of information. Sometimes my mind is blown away by all the cool, educational stuff on the internets!

So anyway, if you’re interested in coming to the show, e-mail seoulimprov@gmail.com. Tickets are ₩20,000 and include a free drink And come out to the after party at Bar Carmen after the show!

Last weekend, I rather suddenly found myself presented with the opportunity to go to the Busan International Film Festival. I hadn’t even been considering going, as I’ve been drowning in school work @ GSIS and I’ve got a presentation and midterms coming up soon (DOOM!), but when opportunity comes a knocking, you MAN UP and get your butt on the KTX high speed rail from Seoul to Busan – posthaste, right? Carpe diem!

My friend Stu Levy has been tirelessly working on a documentary about the Japanese Tsunami, “Pray for Japan”, ever since the disaster happened earlier this year and he’d been invited to speak on a panel at the Asian Film Policy Forum as a part of the festival. So, I affixed myself to his side and found myself introduced to all sorts of personas muy importantes. Lol, someone confessed to me later that when they first saw me at the opening ceremony, they thought I was a bigwig producer due to the table I was sitting at =p

Aside from the informative experience of panels and wandering the booths @ Bexco, every night was filled with parties thrown by all sorts of different film commissions! I think the coolest was definitely the one that the Australians threw at the Busan Aquarium. Not gonna lie, if I ever have bucket loads of disposable income, I’m so throwing an aquarium party.

Some of the other parties were pretty sweet too. They were good opportunities to both network and have fun ^^

I think my favorite part of the Busan trip though was being in Busan itself. It’s just such a wonderful change of pace from Seoul. It kind of reminds me of the difference between LA and San Diego. People are just more relaxed, chill, and friendly down in Busan! I’m so heading back ^^

A while back, when I was living in Taiwan, I serendipitously ran into the lovely, Sao Her, a (super-talented!) film student in Taipei. When she asked me to help her out with her experimental film project, I was like, “I get to wear your traditional Hmong outfit and walk around downtown Taipei barefoot in the rain? Hell yeah!” And such was the birth of her short film “Distance”.

Well, after numerous sleepless nights and weeks of work on Sao’s part, the film has gotten a great reception from within the Hmong community and recognition from without too! In fact, in May, the film took a best film prize at the Qhia Dab Neeg (Storytelling) Film Festival in St. Paul, Minnesota! (Congrats!)

Then, the other week Sao contacted me to tell me that she might be coming to Korea. Her film was accepted for a screening at The 11th Seoul International NewMedia Festival (제11회 서울국제뉴미디어페스티벌)! Rock on, right??

I’ve been buried to my neck in work for my Korean class, but last week I carved out some time and went to the screening of “Distance” with Sao at i-Gong in Hongdae ^^ It was amazing to see the film presented with other thought provoking works! I’m still mulling over some of them… At any rate, I’m incredibly proud of Sao.

We stayed for the Q&A after the screening and then we headed off for some celebratory chicken galbi! YUM! Hehehe

Here’s the latest edit of “Distance”:

Now that I’m stuck inside because it’s monsoon season (장마 as it’s known in Korean), it’s the perfect time to make an update. Over the past month or so, my life was utterly consumed by Korean class at Yonsei. Level 5 was ridiculously demanding, but I made some major improvements in my Korean. I started that beautiful transition in which the building blocks of the language have snapped into place in my mind and everything is becoming much more intuitive, from the roots of words to the grammar. All of a sudden, my listening comprehension skyrocketed (I’m not saying it’s very good, but at least it’s decent now), and I’m starting to feel really good about my skill level ^^

I remember when I reached this point while I was acquiring Mandarin, and I am excited for what I’m hoping will be a rapid upward trajectory in level 6. The coursework seems a little grueling though. We actually have to write a 논문/ short thesis in order to graduate + there’s all the usual homework, presentations, and a graduation debate. If you don’t see me for awhile, you know why =/ At least there’s a fun graduation trip to Mount Seoraksan and the East Sea ^^ I’m excited for that!

I also applied for Yonsei’s Graduate School of International Studies master’s degree program in Korean Studies ^^ I should find out next month if I’m in and the month after if I can afford to even go, lol. Then, it starts September 1st and I graduate from the Korean Language Institute on September 2nd. Gotta love how that works out!

Aside from academics, I’ve just been doing a little English tutoring to lessen the amount that ends fail to meet, and I’ve been doing a lot of IMPROV! On July 2nd, I’m performing with Seoul City Improv at Roofers in Itaewon! I’m super-excited! I was in their rookie show the other week and had a blast. I love everyone in the troop ^^

So, yeah, I’m gonna get back to hitting the books I promise to update with more exciting stuff later!

The other month my friend got the opportunity to direct F.T. Island’s music video for their comeback hit “Hello Hello” and she asked me to help her out with finding some foreigners in Korea for the shoot! I practice with Seoul City Improv and my roommate was in Vagina Monologues, so I thought it would be relatively easy to find a decent amount of foreigners who would love to give up a day to shoot a vid. The concept was something along the lines a firey disaster scene + the boys being adorable, and I got to be the reporter at the scene

However, despite my enthusiasm, following numerous time and date changes, I discovered I never in my life ever want to be a casting director ever again. I have a new found respect for the people that call me, text me, e-mail me, and message me to remember shoot times and dates. It’s a tough job. Thank goodness it all worked out.

So, the day of filming a couple of friends stayed over at our apartment and we all headed off to Itaewon at 5:30 am so we could get bused out to the filming location in Paju! It’s a beautiful area of Korea that I definitely need to head back to and explore ^^ We got all dressed up and commenced with the usual “hurry up and wait”.  I.e. fool around and don’t bother the crew, hehe.

In addition, it was my friend’s birthday, so I bought her a mocha cake from Paris Baguette!

It was delicious and even Hongki had a small piece. He’s adorable. I think I’m officially a fan-girl <3

By 3ish we were all exhausted, especially the crew and the boys because they and been filming all night and hadn’t gotten any sleep. Pooooooor FT Island ~ 수고 수고 ~ It was luxurious to go to bed that night ^^

Today I received an e-mail from a Taiwanese company for an interview, which reminded me that I had a couple months worth of receipts in my bag from my time spent in Taiwan! At this point, you’re probably thinking, “What’s wrong with this girl, carrying around a bucket-load of receipts when she had to throw out prized possessions, like sweaters and pants, in order to meet weight limits for international flights?” I’ll tell you quite simply, it’s because I’m a gambler! Mwahahaha.

In order to get businesses to pay up all their taxes back in the day, the Taiwanese government established a unified receipt system, with lotto numbers at the top of each receipt. Every two months, the numbers are published and everyone goes through the piles of receipts in their purses, drawers, sofa cushions and, well, I’m sure receipts end up in more places than the human imagination can even postulate.

As a result, I spent a nice chunk of time this evening chomping on nachos and checking my receipt numbers against the winning lotto numbers for the past two months.

Alas! Woe! Tragedy! Injustice! I lost thousands of dollars that I’d already mentally won. My sand castles were washed out to sea!

Though, I’ve still got two receipts for next month’s lottery, which means I could win big…

At long last spring has arrived in all it’s glory! The birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming, and despite the lingering winter chill in the air, the girls are wearing their short skirts out to party! That’s right, kids, it’s cherry blossom viewing time!

Since time immemorial, it’s been tradition to take full advantage of the short period of time in which these lovely Cherry Blossoms appear by holding flower blooming parties! My friend who studied abroad in Japan originally introduced me to this glorious custom of “hanami” (花見), and we’ve done our best to uphold the sanctity of the tradition by taking our own trip to the Han River, to picnic, view flowers, sip wine, and compose poetry!

Apparently everyone else in Seoul had the same idea! I took the subway to 여의나루역 and I was simply amazed at the crowd that was inching its way towards the exit! I hadn’t seen so many people at a standstill since New Year’s Eve in Taiwan.

The vendors were out to capitalize on the crowds, and there were corn dogs, kim bap, and beer aplenty! They oh-so-conveniently positioned themselves between the station, blooming trees, and the river, such that you couldn’t help but start to ponder what might be good to purchase on your way to the river, hehe.

Having avoided the vendors, we set about having a picnic ^^

The setting was beautiful, the company was grand, the wine was tasty and my roommate brought Cheetos! Simply put, our flower viewing party was so bomb, you’re probably weeping because you missed out.

I know you’re especially sad you missed my friend running around the river bank with our blanket in some sort of postmodern gesture.

After our picnic we took pictures with the blooming flowers and then I ran off to improv!

I call that a Sunday well spent ^^