Orlando Improv has closed it's doors. I know it has something to do with the sale of the building after the Lou Pearlman debacle. Anyone know the details?

Absolute shame. I hope this place doesn't end up off I-drive like howl at the moon. Never fun seeing downtown lose some of it's more cherished venues.

UPDATE: According to Orlando Metromix, Improv has closed due to disagreements with Cameron Kuhn, the new owner of the building.

"[Bob] Joyce [tampa general manager] says they are seeking a lawsuit against Kuhn for breaches in contract, one of them being not renewing the club's liquor license. He wouldn't comment any further but to say an official press release will be sent out on Monday and the Orlando Improv is actively seeking a new location."

Etan Horowitz, technology reporter for the Sentinel, commented with a link to today's paper discussing a new restaurant that will be entering the space. Some sort of rustic steak house concept. At the end of the article though, it's suggested that Kuhn, who purchased the building from bankrupt mogul Lou Pearlman, may be facing his own financial difficulties: a legal battle with one of his lenders, tightening credit, and, well, evidently a new lawsuit with the Improv.

Great.

At this pace Church Street will end up with a "rustic" philly cheese steak hut and a big lots.

Best of luck to the Improv, and please, if at all possible, find a new place downtown!

UPDATE #2: Cory has a write up worth checking out with more detail on the Kuhn-Improv situation.

Great time at the Improv last night checking out Bert Kreischer, thanks to Cory and the NFI Studios team for the hookup.

We started the night off at a happy hour over at Lizzy's downtown. It's been fun watching NFI grow from a spare bedroom in Sterling's house to pimping a downtown Orlando office. I enjoyed hearing about some of the iMiS integrations and solutions they're doing now. Neat times ahead for them I'm sure.

UCF's own Daniel Tosh has a 1 hour special coming up on Comedy Central this Sunday.

Kat and I had the pleasure of seeing Dan up at the Improv in DC. His quick ranting/sarcastic style is one of my favorites. I got to talk to him briefly afterwards, kinda neat to talk UCF. He mentioned he used to live off of Dean road, which is where my brother and I lived, and later where Thomas, Drew and I lived..... It was like we were soul mates.

If you own a tivo, or even one of those blasted DVR's, set your sights on Comedy Central sunday night for "Completely Serious."

Holy crap.

J-Mac scored us tickets to see the premier of Borat yesterday. I really thought it'd be played out by the time it hit the theaters, but seriously.. it was fresh and entertaining. Easily one of the funniest flicks I've seen in years.

Offensive and inappropriate most of the time, but the true genius of the film is how it highlights hypocrisy in our own culture here in the states. On one extreme, we've become so p.c. and accepting of different diversities, that we fail to see how out of touch we are. On the other, we're filled with prejudice, ignorance, and hate. Borat illustrates both in a brilliant display of comedy.

If you're not open minded, or easily grossed out by obese naked people, you may want to pass. If you're up for laughing not just at others, but yourself, then I highly recommend this very nice movie film. Just be careful eating candy while laughing, I had a sour patch kid induced asthma attack during the "fight" scene at the hotel. ;)

Kathy Sierra is a great writer. I love her style and have been a fan of her Head First books since my java "greenhorn" days over at javaranch.com. By the way, I credit the cow game for my certification ;).

Her blog, Creating Passionate Users, is a great read. I tend to be really busy though and sometimes bloglines gets really backed up on me. Her posts are usually cut out of the "catch up" routine. Not because of quality, but because of size. They take a committed reader, a passionate reader if you will (hah), to make it through.

Anyway, my bloglines account was backed up again tonight, only this time I decided to read one of her entries. I'm really glad I did.

"Hooverin' and the space between notes" is about things not said. The pauses in a great debate or a speech, the space between notes in music, the empty spaces on a clean design, the timing of a comedian.

There's something special about being calm, cool and collected -- in design or in presentation. It's an easy going confidence that draws your audience in. You can usually tell when someone is full of bull by their insistent need to fill silence. You can see a comedians nerves shake if they're timing is wrong. To bring it back home, you can tell when web sites are overcompensating for their lack of defined mission or focus by their clutter. Same with their feature set. Don't try to "boil the ocean", as someone recently advised us.

It's not just about the notes, it's also the spaces between them. That's sound advice that I'll gladly listen to ;)
(my attempt at an Alveyism-tie-in)