I often hear the words, "I need to video my set, so I can see all the things i screwed up." They're usually born of a genuine attempt at accountability -- a need to realize you're imperfect and be willing to improve, while studiously avoiding self-aggrandizement.

I'd like to suggest an alternative for watching your set: self-aggrandize. A lot.

Try to catch a good set. Play the best parts over and over. Relive the fun, the joy. Try to figure out all the things you did right, so you might have moments like those again.

Maybe it was a tag that should be a punchline, or new wording, or timing. Maybe it was an approach that allowed you the freedom and confidence to improvise.

Whatever it was, you have the Art Sturtevant Seal Of Approval® to relive it, learn from it, and enjoy it.

I'm not saying you shouldn't spot the occasional gaffe and file away a quick fix while you're watching your set. I'm just saying don't watch the set for the gaffes.

Watch it for the good stuff.

Alien: Choose Your Own Adventure

I woke up this morning from an incomplete dream in which I was alternately watching the new Alien movie at times and a character in it myself at others. Which happens to all of you at times. Admit it.
 
I haven't actually seen the new film, but my dream's version seemed to be focused on a couple who were being harassed by one of the films' eponymous xenomorphs. The woman was deliriously happy because she was now expecting their child, but I (as alternately viewer and potential father) was concerned that she might have been implanted with an alien instead.
 
...and I woke up.
 
I woke up groggy, and -- I swear -- reached for my phone to look up the film's plot in Wikipedia to see how things turned out for the two. Somewhere between hazy phone-grabbing and navigating searches, etc., i woke up enough to realize my dream plot wasn't going to be part of the online summary, but I read it anyway. No resolution for my couple.
 
I thought about it again, later, as I was cooking breakfast. I fretted for a moment over never knowing how it worked out for the pair. 

...but then I realized THIS WAS MY DREAM, and I get to decide how things worked out for the troubled potential parents.
 
So, if you're worried about them, let me ease your mind: the last I checked in with the two (now three), they stood among the corpses of many dispatched aliens, more than a few of them dispatched by a precocious newborn human baby, victory fanfare swelling in the background.
 
They're gonna be fine.