A quick heads-up if you weren't aware: tomorrow night is the last Don't Spit the Water of our 4-year open run. Erica will be onstage as Cutie Bumblesnatch and I'll be in the booth as Mr. Pickles. There might be a ticket or two still available if you hurry.
(There was to have been a Pastor of Muppets show at 8 pm, as well, but the show has been canceled due to Market Days.)
Last weekend we had a special guest for both Don't Spit the Water and Sickest Stories: Jay Maynard, the "Tron Guy". He was in town to sit in on Sickest, so we had him as an audience contestant for Don't Spit as well. David from Sing-a-Ding-Ding (my reader-chosen role) was unable to get him to spit. Oh well.
For Sickest, I was actually up in the booth. In honor of Jay's appearance at the table, Chris had assembled a cast that included The Flash, Darth Vader, Harry Potter, and Santa. And Superman was in the box office. Me, I had a robot t-shirt on. Oh well.
The pictures above (and many more) are by Erica, who really got some great shots.
Ninja III rehearsal
Tonight we're doing our one and only performance of Ninja III: The Domination as part of the Neo-Futurists' It Came From the Neo-Futurarium series of staged readings of terrible movies. I love bad movies and I've wanted to be a part of this annual series for some time now -- this year I happened to luck into a part in Camenae's production when someone dropped out of the cast. I'm the narrator, but in this show that's not a boring off-stage kind of thing; I'm a very active narrator. It's been a lot of fun just rehearsing this show (the cast also features Team Gerdes friends Caitlin Savage, Erik Schnitger, and Sherri Stouffer) and I can't wait to actually put it up in front of an audience tonight.
And since I'm mentioning one-off performances, I'll quickly note that Don't Spit the Water is closing its open run soon and so you have just a few chances left to see one or both halves of Team Gerdes in spit-inducing action. Erica will be performing as Cutie Bumblesnatch just one more time, on August 9. I'll be up in the booth as your favorite announcer, 100% Gerdes, on July 26 and August 9 and I'll be on stage as a comedian on August 2. As which one of the many I've played? I'll let you (help) decide. Take this poll! I've turned off the feature that blocks multiple votes, so feel free to stuff the ballot box, or suggest other characters you'd like to see.
Due to some Pastor of Muppets-related confusion and a lucky coincidence of Shaun's travel schedule, you have the rare chance to see Bare, our two-man improv group, tonight at 8 pm at the Playground (3209 N Halsted, Chicago).
Shaun has not performed any improv in a full calendar year (our last Bare show was in July of last year) while I've been performing more than ever. What kind of hideous train wreck might this evening be? What terrible things will said? Can our friendship stand the strain of this upcoming show? Or will we, as we have all-too-often in the past, pull brillance out of our desperate asses? Only one way to find out -- come see the show!
Homey Loves Chachi and Mort perform on the same bill and tickets are a measly (measly!) $10.
Next Thursday I'll be appearing as the Narrator in a staged reading of Ninja III: The Domination as part of the Neo-Futurists' It Came From the Neo-Futurarium. Get your tickets now!
But tonight I'll be at the Neo-Futurarium doing a trailer for our show next week in front of The Cross and the Switchblade, directed by Greg Allen. I've never seen the movie, but I had the comic book when I was young and it's sure to be a treat.
One good thing came out of seeing Night Watch -- I got curious what Ebert had said about the movie and his review mentioned the concept of a benshi. At the start of Japanese cinema, it seems, the infux of silent foreign films with untranslated title cards ran into the Japanese theatrical traditions of an active narrator from both Kabuki and Noh and produced the benshi -- a narrator who stood beside the projection screen and explained the movie. Well, explained or transformed the plot of the movie, as they saw fit, and also acted out different parts, recited poetry, etc.
How delightfully transformative! I'm a big fan of adaptive cinema (ala Mystery Science Theater 3000*) and hence my own productions of Cinema 2.0 and the Chicago Neutrino Project. Now this notion of a narrator standing beside the screen is sparking some little, tiny Chistmas-light sized bulbs in my head. I so, so wish I could have seen El Automovil Gris, the theater production that Ebert mentions.
Photo by Jen Ellison. This was our 'goofy' one.
A little bit of self examination forces me to admit that had I won the MAELSTROM (I did not, obviously) I would have rushed to the computer to share the news. But, though late, I want to congratulate the new champion, Kate Freedman, and all the other competitors for putting on a great show. This improvised story-telling stuff is hard, I tell you. My first 3-minute story, inspired by the suggestion "the cola wars", was basically over at 2 minutes, 30 seconds, which I and the audience realized at about the same moment. We all had a little laugh about it and then I vamped for another 30 seconds.
My 2-minute story had the suggestion "Hawaii or Your Momma" and I did a little rant in a sort of a character about how fat Your Momma is. There wasn't much narrative to it, but there was some passion and it had some great lines that I need to write down for possible stand-up use. "Your momma is so fat, she has casual sex just to have children... so she can eat them."
My 1-minute story was "a revisonist telling of the story of Abraham and Isaac" and so I told the story backwards and with Abraham hallucinating. My first line was "The end of this story is: Abraham and Isaac have cake." I seemed to score some points with some of the audience for mentioning Ur. How can you talk about Abraham and not mention Ur? Maybe it's just me.
I was just there the one night I performed, but Don Hall has a great wrapup of the whole SKALD9 week.
Tonight I'm going to be telling some stories and you're welcome to stop by. I vacillate between being proud that I'm the defending champion and thinking that thinking about that is a bit radicchio -- we're all just there to entertain the audience, right? Worrying about winning is just going to introduce a level of tension I don't need in my work.
Comedy Central passed and we're on to Plan B.
Blewt! has decided to end Don't Spit the Water's long open run at the Playground as of Saturday, August 9. (Look for announcements of a blowout show, a big party, etc.) We've got plenty in the hopper, especially with Impress These Apes 3 starting up in September. But our decision prompted some DSTW nostalgia on our internal mailing list and I thought I'd share my list of characters I've played in the show over the last four years.
I haven't been out to LA in years, so going out to do a show and then just getting to goof around for a few days was a great treat.
Steve has done an excellent job of covering the business side of our LA trip, so I'll just point you at his series of posts on the topic:
But the trip wasn't all work. Tuesday night we got to see our friend Philip perform at iO West and then scoot over to the UCB to catch Ken and Blewt-friend Brady perform in the See You Next Tuesday standup showcase.
Wednesday was all show day. Jeremy drove up from San Diego to be a contestant (yes, we pre-picked the contestants. We figured that everybody other than The Price is Right pre-vets their contestants in some way.) I want to second what Steve about the staff at the Hudson -- everyone was delightful to work with and their help was an enormous part of making the show the success it was. And it was totally a success -- the place was packed, the comedians were hilarious, and the audience laughed as though there was a giant "Laughter and Applause" sign over the stage. (There wasn't.) And Jeremy won.
Thursday, after the show, while Steve was being meeting-guy, the rest of us got to go tourist it up and hang out at Venice Beach. That evening, we all met up again at the Dresden (best known to us for the scene from Swingers with the lounge singers) for a schmancy dinner. After dinner, we went over to the lounge side of the place where, in fact, those same lounge singers -- Marty and Elayne -- were plying their craft. Everyone had a martini to feel appropriately fancy.
Friday we had planned on being Hollywood-touristy, but ended up our hotel by the airport in the afternoon (we had to move out of our other hotel because of a convention) and just went out for great Mexican food and then saw Iron Man. We had a v.late night In-and-Out Burger and then got up way early Saturday to fly back so I could do two shows.
Tonight, Blewt! Sings! at Trader Todd's -- help send our rag-tag band of comedians to LA to make it big. Erica will be performing a song this evening as Cutie Bumblesnatch. I'll be handing out buttons and working on those unlimited drinks.
Friday, Pastor of Muppets at The Playground. Humbly, we continue to be delightful and I have every expectation we will be so that evening.
Saturday, you can see that aforementioned rag-tag band performing Don't Spit the Water at The Playground at 10. Erica will be returning to the stage as Cutie after a six-month hiatus. I'll be in the booth as Mr. Pickles, the announcer who loves pickles. At midnight, I'll be doing some standup at the Belmont Burlesque Revue. Might it naughty standup? It might, it might.
(If you're in LA, there's a bonus 5th chance just for you on Wednesday.)
Hey, Elizabeth has posted my whole set from Blewtenanny. I just watched the whole thing and I'm amazed that a) I don't seem to be dancing around too much (Erica reminds at me to plant my feet whenever I practice with her) and b) that I didn't swear at all. (Other than the aforementioned "sodomy" mention. And the word "dump" to reference some poo. And "chagrined".) Because usually I'm like a sailor. "Darn that poop," I'm always saying.
I shouldn't even mention the weird way I hold the microphone, because then you might be as distracted by it as I am.
I'm also happy that I went 7 minutes. Bryan said I had ten, but as I may have mentioned this was my first non-open mic standup set so I pretty much did every bit I have right now. So now I guess I need to write 3 more minutes of jokes and get booked somewhere else. Yes?
Elizabeth has kindly put together a highlight reel from that Blewtenanny show last weekend. It's always interesting to see what of your material someone else thinks is a highlight. In this case, Elizabeth chose my odd Bible nerd bit. It's just a hair racy (though without any naughty words) and is in the middle of that clip (but watch the whole thing -- the other fellows are quite funny).
It was pointed out to me that some of my Chicago friends, who might even have a passing interest in seeing me perform every now and then, are reading my site in a feed-reader and so don't see the handy calendar that's right up at the top of the home page. I'll note that you can also subscribe to a feed of my performance listings, but I'll try to be better about noting upcoming shows every now and then. I've got three shows coming up this weekend, all at the Playground Theater (3209 N Halsted, Chicago) so it's a good weekend to promote.
Tonight (Friday, 3/28) at 8 pm, I'm performing with my improv group Pastor of Muppets. In all modesty, we've been on kind of a roll lately and, there, I've just jinxed that. The Senate and Feast of Pedro are performing in the show as well.
Tomorrow night (Saturday, 3/29) at 10 pm, I'll be the announcer and tech guy for Don't Spit the Water -- Chicago's crazy live game show. You won't see me much, but you'll hear me all through the show.
At midnight that same night I'll be doing standup in Blewt's newest show, the Blewtenanny, hosted by the handsome Bryan Bowden. This is my first non-open mic standup appearance. Nervous much?
On Thursday, Liz and I jumped in the purple demon and drove 22 hours to Denver.
As we were driving through Illinois, we realised that we would be passing through Champaign just at dinner time. So we called Mike and Camille Monahan and asked if they'd like to eat dinner with us. They cheerfully changed their dinner plans and we had some delightful pasta. For those of you who care, they're fine.
Kansas, by the way, is evil. There's just so much of it. And, perhaps because there is so little of real interest in Kansas, every little town has some manufactured attraction -- an oil drilling equipment museum or the five-legged cow at "Prairie Dog World". Kansas is home to the World's Largest Ball Of Twine. There are even towns that don't tell you why you should visit them, but still encourage you to do so. 30 or 40 miles in advance, a cheerful sign proclaims "Hannerville Welcomes You!" or "Come Visit Beautiful Gompton".
Friday afternoon we finally arrived in Broomfield, home to Shaun Himmerick. After a quick shower and playing with Shaun's mutant kittens (perhaps they could go on display in Kansas) we went out to dinner in Boulder and then headed down to Denver for some improv.
First, we went to Denver's Playback Theatre. Playback Theatre is a form of theatre where an audience member shares a story from their life and then the troupe reenacts that story on stage. It can be hilarious, sad, and often theraputic for the story-teller. We had picked a great night as it was their 9th birthday as a group and the place was packed with an enthusiastic audience. They warmed up with a few sound-and-motion-scapes of how people's day had been and then moved on to some stories. A woman's horrible and wonderful year was really touching. Then they did a man's dream. Moses and Georgia O'Keefe were preparing a stucco house becuase Jesus was coming. The dream ended with Meryl Streep singing the man a song. "An artist is a candle with it's one eye burning." It was both very funny and pretty deep.
We had to leave before the second act, because Shaun had a show to do across town with Comedy Helper.
It was not the perfect night to see a Comedy Helper show. For the first half, there were four people in the audience: Liz, my brother Dave (he's going to school in Colorado Springs), one real paying customer, and me. They did a Harold (a long form structure) that didn't go very well. For the second half, they let me join them (oops, the audience is down to 3!) for a Drake (another long form structure). It was the first time I'd ever done a full long form improv, so it was actually kind of nice that the audience was so small--it was very low stress.
Saturday morning, we drove up to Boulder and climbed halfway up a mountain. The trails were all packed ice and snow, so we slid back down (not in a good way).
That afternoon, Matt Martin finally showed up and we had time for a very quick practice before we were all off to Bare Essentials practice.
After working with most of the improv groups in Denver (Shaun is still in 2 other groups) Matt and Shaun decided to form their own. They've assembled a great cast (purely as actors, they're all better than Shaun or Matt or I) and had a few months of intensive rehearsals before they started performing at all (this show was their first). And it's all paid off. We got to see them practice their new long-form structure, "Your Father's Advice" and they rocked.
Then it was off to the theatre. They had had pretty good publicity, and there was a crowd of 40 or so (and the space was intimate enough that it felt full). Bare Essentials did an hour inspired by "Don't color on your sister's socks". It wasn't quite as good as their practice had been, but still good. (I have a theory that you only have so much creativity and so many new ideas in one day. It then becomes dangerous to practice improv really close to the time you're going to perform as your mind naturally comes up with the things you thought of earlier in the day and then you waste time and energy censoring those thoughts to try and come up with something "new".)
Then it was time for Jose Hirohito and his All-Girl Orchestra.
Shaun and Matt and I got tired of going to improv festivals but not being able to perform because we couldn't get anyone from our own troupes to go. So we decided to form a group of convinence, JHahAGO. But most festivals require a videotape with performance applications. So we set up this show, mainly to videotape it.
Shaun, Matt, Liz, and I did 45 minutes of classic short-form improv (much like old National Velveeta stuff). I think we did remarkably well for having practiced together about 1/2 an hour.
A cast party, a few hours sleep, and it was back on the road. It only took 20 hours coming back (because it's downhill?). Back in time to waste time at work writing this.
Dan asked me to blog my Don't Spit the Water experience from this weekend and heck if I won't.
After Don't Spit went on hiatus over the holidays, Steve asked me to challenge myself and set aside my tried-and-reasonably-true character Dr. Baron Ludwig von Evilschlager and come up with some new characters. Now, I've written before about my temptations to just improvise everything. So I decided to really challenge myself and not just come up with a new character or two but to brainstorm at least three new characters* and at least outline all of the pieces they'd need to do a DSTW show**.
Erica and I have been watching a fair amount of Yo Gabba Gabba and I thought it might be fun, and rather in the DSTW sense of humor, to play a children's TV host who sings really repetitive songs. So I came up with David, the host of Sing-a-Ding-Ding***, "Minnesota Public Television's highest rated show for children between the ages of two and two-and-a-half".
Now, having said I prepared ahead of time doesn't mean I actually assembled my costume nor created backing tracks for the songs until Saturday afternoon. But I'm happy to report that Garage Band is as easy as people say and that a vest, a kickball t-shirt, and a stocking cap make a great children's show host outfit. (I also, ironically, prepped a new Dr. Baron bit that afternoon for a midnight show that same night.)
Andrew DeWitt and Jim Fath were also debuting new characters that night, so, let's be honest, the whole show could have tanked. But, in fact, it rocked. Interestingly, just a few weeks ago Erica and Steve did a workshop with some new DSTW comedians and she had been telling them that the spits don't really matter -- what matters is if the audience is entertained. This show was a perfect example of that. We got zero spits (Steve got two during hosting bits, but that doesn't count for us comedians). But the audience had a great time and really enjoyed the show.
(And Dr. Baron went really well with the later audience as well. All in all, a good night.)
* I ended up creating four.
** Three one-minute bits, a two-minute bit, and some 10-second bits for the finale.
*** Props to Erica for that name. And for taking photos all night.
Remember that crazy comedy competition that Erica and I were each in a season of? It's made two three different "best of 2007" lists.
From the 1/3/08 Newcity, "Top 5 of Everything":
Stage
Top 5 Shows
"A Steady Rain," Chicago Dramatists "Another Day in the Empire," Black Sheep
"Diversey Harbor," Theatre Seven
"Impress These Apes," Blewt
"Machos," Teatro Luna
—Nina Metz
Time Out Chicago's best of 2007 comedy list:
Impress These Apes Lordy lord, was this show funny during its two "seasons." The apes' banter delighted us every week, and the contestants sure knew how to bring it--Jim Fath's Darth Vader stand-up routine in the first season springs to mind, as does the freak-show challenge night in season two, for which Erin Pallesen covered his (not her) face with clothespins. Pinch us.
From the 1/4/08 Chicago Tribune, Best of '07: 10 reasons to take a chance:
Chicago theater wouldn't be half as interesting without all the storefront companies that prove you don't need big bucks or big names to stage a great show. Sometimes theater is just better when it's down-and-dirty.
Sure, tiny venues can be a little crude and funky, but where else can you get as close to the action? While the Equity houses in town rarely lack for press and patrons, the fringe companies keep plugging away in the face of hardship.
That's drive—the kind of scrappy, experimental sensibility that results in shows you won't see anywhere else.
Each week in "On the Fringe," Kerry Reid and I look to spotlight the scene's best—and warn you against the worst. Here are some favorites from 2007.
Nina's picks:
1. "Impress These Apes" (Blewt Productions): A talent contest like no other, this off-beat, semi-improvised show featured some of Chicago's funniest actors duking it out for the top prize. If you missed it, don't make the same mistake twice: Look for another installment to begin later this summer.
Up next: Blewt brings back its interactive game show "Don't Spit the Water" for a yearlong run at the Playground starting Jan. 12.
There's an article in the latest Columbia Chronicle about Sickest Stories. There are a few factual problems with the story (WNEP never became the Playground, for example -- the latter just moved into the former's space a few years back) but if nothing else, the article is accompanied by a picture of me wearing my snazzy Showmen's League of America t-shirt (why, yes, I am a member).
Finally, Blewt (which now includes me, so I guess I can't complain) has released the Impress These Apes finale videos. Mine includes footage from the video that I had playing on a screen to the left of the stage (you can briefly see it at about 0:57 into the video). I'm not sure what I can add at this point. Oh, other than to answer a real question I got: yes, bananas are very hard to juggle -- I'm not faking that part.
Everyone's finale videos:
Amanda - "Conversation with Chicago"
Brady - "Ventanas"
Erin - "14 Challenges"
Fuzzy - "Bananas"
Jarrad - "An Apes Review"
Jenny - "Finale! The Musical"
Kristen - "Desparate Houseflower"
Margaret - "The Beginning"
Well, the party went pretty late at the theater after the Apes finale, so I understand that the videos aren't going to be up until this weekend. In the mean time you can look at the photos Erica took of me juggling bananas whilst wearing a banana suit and watch the video below that was playing in the background while I did my act. The amazing Banana Mix is by Dogrocket (i.e. Phil Schuldt of Ruth Buzzy).
And my most hearty congratulations to the winner of the second season (cycle?) of Impress These Apes -- Kristen Studard. Everyone really pulled out all the stops for the show, but Kristen pulled them out even farther.
And so, we're at week 8 of this ridiculous show -- the finale! Is there any way I can claw my way out of 7th place and take the $250 prize? Well, even if not, I've had a great (if exhausting) 7 weeks so far -- I've written a song, re-enacted a movie scene, made a music video, made puppets, told a story, danced, and swallowed swords. And tonight I'll be... oh man. I just shake my head every time I think about my act tonight, it's so silly.
There's a wrap party in the space tonight, after the show. The bar at iO has sent along the drink specials they've put together for the show -- $4 Grape Apes (vodka, black raspberry liquor, sweet and sour mix, and Sprite), and $3.50 Berghoff Octoberfest. And, of course, if you're Greg, Ben, Noah, Bilal, Andrea, Michael, Phil, Erica, or anyone who helped me with any of the challenges, I owe you a beer or three, and this would be an excellent night to collect.
Update: Everyone can relax, I bought the limes and so I have all the pieces and parts for tonight's show.
(You can't see it so good on the video, but there's fake blood coming out of my head and mouth after each knife trick.)
The challenge for week 7 of Impress These Apes was to create a circus sideshow act. My first thought was "finally, a reason to buy juggling torches!" But I was told we couldn't use fire at iO. My second thought was "finally, a reason to buy juggling knives!" But it was going to cost over $100 and it was unclear whether I could get some in time. So then I went through ideas three through fifteen. Somewhere in there I decided to do a sword swallowing act. Ta da!
My poster was a photoshopping of a sideshow banner by Johnny Meah, found on the website of the Carl Hammer Gallery, here in Chicago.
The scores were really high in general this week, especially from guest judge Robert Buscemi, and so I've fallen to seventh place -- 10 points behind the leader, Kristen Studard. So if everyone else breaks their legs between now and next week...
And next week is the finale. The end. The big show. We've got the open ended challenge to "impress these apes" and so knows what everyone will come up with? I know what I'll come up with, because I've already got the costume. Come to the show and find out! And stay for the party. And buy me a beer. And tell me you thought I was great.
Everyone's side show acts:
Amanda - "The Horned Woman"
Brady - "The Fattest Man in the World"
Erin - "Addicted to Pain"
Fuzzy - "King of Swords"
Jarrad - "Morbon"
Jenny - "Baby Maker 3001"
Kristen - "Creepy Lady"
Margaret - "The Big Show"
Our challenge for the seventh (and penultimate!) week of Impress These Apes is to perform a circus sideshow act. Will you be thrilled? Will you be amazed? Will you wonder if I've taken leave of my senses? The answer, of course, is of course.
So, Jarrad and I danced our little hearts out and I'm now in a very tight fourth place (three points behind first). Next week, circus side show acts. And the finale challenge is, as I expected, simply "Impress These Apes" (that is, whatever we want). Eek! Such freedom is frightening.
Amanda and Brady: Boot Scootin' Boogie by Brooks and Dunn
Erin and Kristen: Money, Money (from Cabaret)
Fuzzy and Jarrad: Jump, Jive an' Wail by Louis Prima
Jenny and Margaret: Stronger by Kanye West
Tonight... we dance.
During last week's show we all randomly pulled CDs out of a bucket. The CDs paired you up with another contestant -- I got paired with Jarrad -- and they contained a song we'd have to perform a dance to -- we got Jump, Jive an' Wail by Louis Prima. The dances have to be in the style of the song and tell a story -- which is interesting, since Jump, Jive an' Wail doesn't really make any sense.
Also, Jarrad moved this last weekend, so we didn't get together until Sunday night. But then we choreographed the whole song in a marathon 3 hours -- which is pretty good, since I know that Erica and Jeff will often get together two or three times to work through a 3 minute song. And we've rehearsed a whole two times since then! We're on fire! (Help, help, I'm on fire!) So come to the show tonight and watch us dance our awesome dance.
Before you watch my story, it might help to know that Jean Baptiste du Sable was the first non-native resident of what is now Chicago. I had thought that it was just one of those names that people would sort of recognize as a Chicago-y name. Like Anton Cermak or Italo Balbo -- you recognize the name, even if you don't know that they're an assassinated Chicago mayor and a Italian fascist who flew to Chicago once (respectively). In any case, some conversations after the show revealed that that had been an incorrect assumption.
Anyhoo, the judges (two apes and guest judge Jonathan Messinger of the Dollar Store) liked the story barely enough (21 out of 30 points) to let me slip just to second place despite Jarrad's 30 point surge.
Next week's challenge is to choreograph and perform a dance to a randomly assigned song, with a randomly assigned partner from one of the other contestants. I got Jarrad and we were assigned Jump, Jive an' Wail by Louis Prima. Now this is interesting because a) Swing is very much a leader/follower dance (at least the way I learned it) and we're two guys and b) the challenge instructions emphasized that we should "tell a story" and this is a song that doesn't have any sort of narrative built in. Now, we are fortunate that I happen to be related to a great swing dancer. That's gotta rub off somehow, right?
Oh, and the story I told was not the one I polished and practiced on Wednesday night. I scrapped that one Thursday morning and decided to go for a more "Paul Bunyan" feel than a Native American mythos style. But as part of polishiing, I typed the first story up and so, as a special bonus, I'll include it after the jump. But first, everyone's stories...
Amanda - "The Bunny"
Brady - "Nessie"
Erin - "My Mom Killed My Best Friend"
Fuzzy - "Jean Baptisite du Sable"
Jarrad - "Boondiggle the Peasant Boy"
Jenny - "The Ticket"
Kristen - "My Father"
Margaret - "Clare and Isabelle"
Well, we're more than half-way through this crazy show. Tonight's show's challenge is simply to "tell a story" and that's so wide-open that I guessing it's going to be an awesomely varied show.
I really owe Erica for being my sounding board last night -- I thought I had my story all set in my head, but I ran it for her just to check the timing (half of us went really long with the puppets and so the word came down this week that we really needed to keep it under four minutes) and I discovered that not only was it long, but it didn't make any sense. I had a lot of good parts, but they just weren't fitting together into a good story. So I did some re-thinking and, as so often happens, I had to kill a baby and chop out the part that had gotten me into the story in the first place. With a re-focus, and a cut-to-the-chase, I ended up with a much better story that clocked in at 3:50. So please, come to the show and laugh in the right places, but for a total of 10 seconds, please.
First off, thanks so much to all the audience members who braved the redonkulous storms to come and see some puppet shows.
Anyway, over seven minutes? Really? Dang, I thought I was running a tight four minutes there. Oops. Also an oops (and here's your little behind the scenes insight) -- Bindlestick Joe was supposed to have the high squeaky voice and Can O'Beans Joe the low voice. So when I made Can O'Beans Joe have the squeaky voice, I knew I was sunk. And, indeed, I messed them up all through the piece. And I really want to publicly apologize to Garrett for fussing at him at the end of the piece -- frankly I was panicking a little as I was out of material and I didn't want to drag it on any longer. Why I didn't just break character and say "that's my piece" I'm not sure.
This week's Apes challenge was to build a puppet and then do a comedy routine with it. (I think the challenge exactly said "a standup routine" which I kind of stretched.) I used to make a lot of puppets with my mom when I was a kid, but I haven't made any in years. But I've had hobos on the mind lately, because of John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise and then Apelad's Laugh Out Loud Cats (we own, by the way, the original of this one). And I've certainly played multiple characters plenty of times in both my Sybilization pieces and in Bare shows. So I decided to make the multiple puppets and have them do most of the talking and kinda leave the hobo out of it. You can watch the video above or check out photos Erica took.
In any case, despite all of my kvetching above, the judges were impressed and I came away with a score of 35 (out of 40) which has put me in first place. (And the 35 points tied with Amanda for the high score for the week.) It's still a tight competition, as only 8 points separate me at first from seventh place. (Or fourth, depending on how you look at it, as four people have the same score.)
Our challenge for next week is to simply tell a story. It should be an interesting week, as the contestants include the winner of WNEP's 2007 Acorn SKALD story-telling competition (Jarrad Apperson) and the winner of the 2007 MAELSTROM improvised story-telling competition (humble cough, me).
The other contestants and their puppets:
Amanda and Matilda
Brady and Bear Child
Erin and Marty the Dirty Sock
Jarrad and Anna
Jenny and Gorgamott
Kristen and Ralph
Margaret and Billy
Margaret Lyons, writing on the Time Out Chicago Blog was impressed by Impress These Apes:
Two weeks ago, I saw a woman growl a list of things she enjoys, such as “being on time.” Last week, I saw two guys re-enact a scene from Brokeback Mountain. Tonight…I have no idea. That’s sort of the beauty of the kinetic Impress These Apes. If you haven’t been yet, you’re missing out on one of my favorite activities, and one of the city’s more impressive–and unpredictable–comedy shows.
Nina Metz came to week 3 and reviewed the show for the Chicago Tribune. She seemed to like it:
The show is scripted and improvised. The talents are rehearsed (or with the videos, filmed in advance), and the host, scorekeeper, and judges offer their comments off-the-cuff. The final result is daffy and spot-on. Improvisers are notoriously lazy in preparation, but the participants here actually do the homework, tackling each challenge with a creative spirit and wicked glee.
In related news, my week 2 collaborator Bilal Dardai got a nice shoutout in Chris Jones' review of Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind in the same issue of the Tribune:
Bilal Dardai adds a lot of energy and charm.
He sure does, does he?
Our challenge for this week's Apes is to build a puppet and then perform a comedy routine with it. Above you can behold (as it beholds you) a teaser of what I just finished building. Kids, watch out, hot glue guns are hot, as is the glue that comes out of them. Hence the name.
It's true, Impress These Apes has joined the elites and has been declared a Must See show by Centerstage Chicago.
This week was a little different than the other weeks of Impress These Apes were (and are going to be) because by the time we got to the theater we were done. During last week's show we were randomly assigned a song and we had to shoot a music video for the song and bring it on DVD to the show. So it was very relaxed in the green room before the show. No last minute going over of lines or checking props -- all we had to do was sit back and watch.
I had the song Dirt Bike by They Might Be Giants. It was pretty much perfect for me -- in contrast to the more rock-out numbers most people got, it was an odd, dreamy little number whose lyrics don't really make sense. But one listen and I started to get a picture in my head of what it needed to look like.
I'm proud to note that this was a one-man production. I filmed, animated, and edited the whole thing myself (except for the footage at the end, which is from four different films at the Prelinger archive). Some of my friends offered to help, but I politely (I hope) turned them down. I do need to thank Jacque who made the finger-puppet of Jose. And the Knights for giving us the weird coconut-tiki-pirate-ukelele guy.
So, anyway, the judges liked it -- it got 39 out of 40 points (the extra 10 possible points this week were from the guest human judge - Miss Mia of Chic-a-go-go). I actually got a little light-headed when I got the 3rd "10". (And as impressive as that might be, I was out-scored by Brady, who got a perfect 40.)
For next week we have to make a puppet and then perform a 4 minute stand-up routine with it. S'awright.
All of the videos:
Amanda: Outkast - Hey Ya
Brady: Weezer - My Name is Jonas
Erin: Shania Twain - Man! I Feel Like a Woman!
Fuzzy: They Might Be Giants - Dirt Bike
Jarrad: Skid Row - Youth Gone Wild
Jenny: Stray Cats - Rock This Town Tonight
Kristen: Sex Pistols - Anarchy in the UK
Margaret: Amy Grant - Every Heartbeat
Warning: Video contains a bunch of swearing (well, one swear word over and over) and might be NSFW.
Our week 2 challenge for Impress These Apes was to recreate a scene from a movie, with accuracy and details being stressed. I decided to do the beating up the printer scene from Office Space and built a printer and recruited my friend Bilal to play Samir. I think we did a pretty bang-up job (pun intended) and the judges scored us all eights. I remain in sixth place.
The challenge for next week is create a music video for a song that we were randomly assigned. I got Dirt Bike by They Might Be Giants. I filmed all my footage over the weekend and now I've got 3 days to edit it together. I'm pretty excited about my concepts -- I think this might be an actually-good video for the song, not just a joke.
The challenge for tonight's Impress These Apes is to reenact a scene from a favorite movie as accurately as possible, with the help of one friend.
Right after last week's show, Erica and I left for Oregon for 4 days, during which time there was little opportunity to even think about what scene I was going to do, let alone actually research movies. So I really only got started on Monday night. Once I had picked a scene, I needed a collaborator who would be willing to jump in with both feet with minimal preparation. Like, say, a Neo-Futurist, used to preparing and performing 2-12 new pieces a week (depending on an audience's roll of a die) in their signature show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Fortunately, I got one. The versatile Bilal Dardai will be joining me in a scene from... come to the show and find out!
P.S. I made my main prop out of a cardboard box, two three-ring binders, and some spare computer parts. What could it possibly be??!?
Photos from Week 1 by Erica
An interview with Hollywood Ape at The Bastion
5 minutes with Capt. Apehab from Time Out Chicago
