Griffin Writes

It didn’t take long for the crew to develop a nickname for me on tour. I am affectionately (at least that’s what I tell myself) referred to as “The Canadian.” Don’t bother feeling sorry for me, I brought his upon myself. As a bullet point in my application email to Tucker I wrote:

“You’ll have a token Canadian guy to harass, blame shit on, and explain to you why everyone in Toronto is so fucked up.”

to which Nils replied, “I look forward to working on my repertoire of Canadian jokes.”

He wasn’t kidding. During the setup stages, it’s not uncommon to hear Jeff saying “Come on Canadian, let’s pick up the pace.” Bill Dawes has referred to me as the Canadian Tucker Max on a few occasions. Hopefully he doesn’t say that within ear shot of Tucker, because Tucker once said “I’m going to kick the ass of anyone who says I look like that ugly dipshit.” » Read the rest of this entry «

Charlie’s alarm went off at 8:00 am. He showered, dressed and headed to the lobby for breakfast. The night before Corman had texted him before going to bed: “Meet you in the lobby at 8:15.”

Charlie texted back, “Are you serious?”

Corman’s response, “Yeah.”

I hopped in the shower when Charlie was done, and met him in the lobby around 8:45. He was sitting alone, watching TV. “I knew Ben wasn’t serious about 8:15,” he said. I laughed.

A minute later, Corman came down the hall. “Sorry dude, I woke up and thought, fuck this, and laid back down for a few more minutes.” We ate breakfast, and then packed the PA into the van. After that it was time to hit the road for the day. The first stop was the UPS store, which will be a regular occurrence for me on the tour. For every city we premiere in, there are boxes and boxes of swag bags and t-shirts that need to get to the theater.  I’m still shocked that we give it all away for only the $10 ticket price. It really is a great gesture to the fans. Thankfully, we weren’t selling the extra merchandise for the early dates, so there was a lot less to deal with.

Once we got the swag, we dropped them off at the theater, went back to the hotel, ate lunch, and returned to the theater to start prepping for the big show. While Corman and Charlie set up the PA, Jeff filled me in on my duties for the night. » Read the rest of this entry «

Once I finally let go of the airport clusterfuck, landing in Portland was a breeze. I walked through the airport and spotted Nils (not hard to do) Jeff, and Bill walking out of their gate. A few minutes of dicking around with luggage and the rental agency, and I was behind the wheel of a mini-van and heading toward the hotel with the whole crew, minus Tucker who was doing his JustinTV bit before flying in. I was told I’d be the trip’s designated driver, to which I responded “designated as in assigned to do the duty, and not designated as in remaining sober I hope.” During the main leg we will have a full-sized tour bus, which I will follow in a van from show to show. That way if we need to get around town, we don’t have to drive a tourbus through the In-and-Out drivethru. For the Portland and Seattle swing, we didn’t have the tour bus, so Jeff drove a second mini-van to make life easier.

The day had a constant pace to it, but the big first screening wasn’t until the next night so we were able to take our time and do things right. My day consisted of jumping into action when people needed things, but  staying the fuck out of the way otherwise. I picked up a few shipments and drove people around for most of the day. » Read the rest of this entry «

A tired cliche states that every journey begins with a single step. I guess that means that my journey officially began this morning at 5:15 am as I stepped out of my front door and headed to the airport. By that measure, it took me no less than 20 minutes to royally fuck up the trip.

I shuffled into the Calgary airport my mind racing with airport anxiety, yet still a little spaced from the lack of sleep. Whatever cobwebs remained in my head disappeared in an adrenaline tidal wave as I approached the Horizon check-in counter and was met with an empty desk and a screen that read FLIGHT CLOSED. For the first 90 seconds, I tried to convince myself that the flight had probably been canceled. Though, the stark reality was that at 5:35 am, it was passed the 1 hour minimum buffer zone for my 6:30am flight. » Read the rest of this entry «