FuzzyCo

It’s National Handshake Day. Did you know that? I did not. Who makes up these things? But then, who cares because it’s an excuse for WGN Morning News, our old friends, to have NGPC on this morning to shake hands with Paul Konrad and plug Snorf. Wins all around.

Video

Fuzzy as Ron and Erica as Bessie

Me in my usual show shirt, looking extra hilarious in 2008.

About a hundred years ago (well, around ten) I was occasionally working with a corporate comedy group called Chicago Comedy Company founded by old friends Andy Eninger and Steve Matuszak and when they opened a theater in the suburbs, of the same name, I sometimes performed there as well. Five years ago, another good friend, Lillie Frances, bought the company and theater and I started performing more often. The name of the theater was changed to Laugh Out Loud (which frankly makes a little more sense for a place in the suburbs, though it is still true that most of the performers drive out from Chicago). I stopped performing at the theater back in 2010, but this weekend is the 5th Anniversary and the theater is celebrating with a weekend of Alumni shows. I’ll be performing in the Friday, 7:30 “family-friendly” show. Tickets are just $5.

Laugh Out Loud Theater
601 N. Martingale Road
Streets of Woodfield, Suite 171
Schaumburg, IL

So, we’d probably do it anyway, but one of the perks of the freelance life is that when a friend asks, “Are you busy Friday morning? Can you join us in Star Trek uniforms at the WGN Morning News to do a bit for William Shatner?” you can say “sure!” with zero hesitation. Chad and Jenny Byers of the World of the Weird Monster Show were kind enough to not only ask us to join them, but to loan Erica and I much better costumes than we could have put together.

WGN has posted clips of the several bits we did with and for Shatner: providing him with various Star Trek tableaux as he walked from his green room to the studio, making up the audience for his interview, and fielding a scifi trivia team to face off against Shatner. And Tom Abraham’s Gorn stuck around to help Smarty Pants and some kids build a balloon car.

This is not my first time hanging out with the man:

Photo by Lisa Hanna Akroush.

So our good friend Jose Gonzalez, who is, seriously, just one of the finest human beings on the planet, was out in Chicago for CIF and he stuck around in town a few extra days to see even more improv and got a slot in Kevin Mullaney’s Hump Night show and invited a number of people to play. It ended up being Jose, Shaun, Shaun Clayton, and I playing and I have to say that I had a ton of fun. With very little warmup or discussion, we all clicked and played a form called “going where the winds of improv carry us,” which is to say we dicked around. And yet we actually told a somewhat coherent story. Of sorts. Anyway, it was a bunch of fun. More photos from the evening are here.

So, I can now add “singing on live TV, as a puppet” to the ol’ actor resume. Here’s the Noah Ginex Puppet Company on WGN this morning, to promote our CIF shows this weekend. I’m Mike the Pie Man, the green guy on the right.

Update: sorry about the auto-play. Changed to link.

Photo by Greg Inda

I had decided to take pretty much the entire year of 2013 off from performing, to concentrate on the early-morning hours that training for the Iron Man will take up. But the Noah Ginex Puppet Company was once again accepted into the Chicago Improv Festival (they have a whole Puppet Improv category this year) and the rehearsals and performances fell nicely into the training dip after the marathon and before my hardqore IM training starts. And Erica is directing the group, so I’d just be sitting at home alone if I didn’t participate. And I love the group, both the humans and the puppets—we’re doing a thing where our puppets are established characters, in new situations from the improv suggestions. Above you can see Henrietta, who is a pretty, pretty princess and not afraid to let you know that.

So, next Friday and Saturday, April 5 and 6, you can can see NGPC performing at the CIC (1422 W Irving Park, Chicago). Tickets are $15.

We had the finale of Impress These Apes Season 7 last night. It's been a really great season of the show and the finale did not disappoint for spectacle, ninjas, and even some sincerity.

This was a milestone season for me. Like Erica, I've been on a journey with this show. The first season, I was just an encourager to Erica and the show's photographer. Season two, I was a contestant (and Erica, moving into a producer role with the show, did an amazing job of walking the tight-rope of being supportive and encouraging to me, while never ever giving me any sort of back channel information from the judges or about upcoming challenges. She's a cool customer, that one.) Seasons three, four, and five I too came into the production side and became more and more engaged with Blewt's other projects. Season six I became the co-host of the show, which is to say that I was basically an on-stage stagehand, with the opportunity to do some bits of lazzi whenever I thought it wouldn't be too distracting. I found it a really easy role to inhabit, because you really just spend 90% of the show standing around doing nothing. I had plenty of time to think up little bits of business and then discard them because the timing wasn't right. So when I would do something, it was usually something I'd had plenty of time to consider and polish in my head.

This season I became the host. I'm not going to say that the host has the hardest job on the show, since the contestants are the ones who have to actually, you know, perform. But as Nina Metz called out in her review this year, "the bigger issue is pacing, or the lack thereof. Host Fuzzy Gerdes is the one who determines just how fast or slow things will move, and let's hope he embraces the former." I don't even know if the show that she saw had any pacing problems, but I really took those words to heart and saw my role as mainly being a traffic cop. Hopefully a mildly amusing traffic cop, but mainly that. I think I did pretty OK this season, both at being mildly amusing., and at keeping this chaotic show from running too far off the rails. Mostly.

A fun little throw-away thing we do at the halfway point of each Impress These Apes show is that the co-host and I do a miniature version of whatever challenge the contestants are facing. We're not trying to out-do the contestants so we kinda half-ass it on purpose (at least that's the story I tell myself about why I don't really rehearse the bits). But this week the delightful Steven Lyons, who's being filling in as the co-host as Bobby Ball Boy, brought in the music to PSY’s Gangnam Style and we rehearsed (a little bit) and cranked out this classic:

Impress These Apes 7 - Week 4 - Sports Show Host from Blewt! Productions on Vimeo.

Impress These Apes is once again a Critics' Pick in this week's Time Out Chicago (and we remain "cheap"):

Impress These Apes is the #1 Critic's Pick for Comedy in Time Out Chicago this week (photo by moi, with credit in the gutter*, thanks):

The listing under the weekday says:

"Eight pitiful contestants compete each week to win accolades from futuristic (and snarky) simian judges in the seventh season of this long-running game show. Seeing is believing."

Indeed it is.

* That's the stripe at the middle of magazine, I'm not saying they threw my credit into the trash.

The RedEye has a big two-page spread on Impress These Apes today, with a snippet on each contestant's credentials, which are very impressive--we're quite proud of the contestants this season. The RedEye doesn't put every article online other than in a read-the-whole-paper-in-a-little-widget thing, so I've taken the liberty of scanning it in and posting it below. Click on the image to embiggen it and read the whole thing. Also, they don't credit her in the article, but both photos are by the talented Elizabeth McQuern.

Update: here's the article on their site. I should have had patience.

New City has a nice article on the newest season of Impress These Apes and our weird relationship with Mark Cuban (and a nice picture of Sports Show Host: Mark Cuban’s Monkey Business: Impress These Apes and Win a (Very Small) Piece of a Billionaire’s Fortune.

Sports Show Host, photo by Elizabeth McQuern

The seventh season of Impress These Apes started last night with the Live Callback Show and I debuted my newly shorn look as Sports Show Host. I was going to post a before and after, but Erica beat me to it. You've got 9 more weeks to come see SSH and my delicious mustache.

photo by Don Hall

Friday was my fifth appearance at WNEP's MAELSTROM improvised story-telling contest (part of their SKALD story-telling festival). There are three rounds to the contest, three-, two- and one-minute in length, and you have to tell stories based on a suggestion that you're told just as you hit the stage. Most people, and myself every previous year, tell made-up stories, usually in character. This year, I had some thoughts about the contest swirling in my brain that coalesced when I was sitting on stage, waiting for the show to begin, into a decision to either tell true stories, or at least to tell made-up stories that could be true, in my own voice. And as it happened, each of the suggestions sparked a memory of a true story. I didn't win the contest (congrats to Deanna Moffitt, who did) but I'm very happy with my stories. I mean, don't get me wrong, as soon as I sat down after each story I immediately knew how I should have told it, but thems the breaks with Lady Improv.

I'm proud to announce that I will once again be competing in WNEP Theater's MAELSTROM improvised story-telling competition. I'm up against five great other story-tellers: Jamie Buell, Deanna Moffitt, Tim Huerlin, Peter Athans, and Dorrie Ferguson. I'm a past champion of the contest (not to brag or nothin') and the winner is picked by audience vote, so maybe you should come to the show, since (as evidenced by your reading of this) you like me so.

Friday, June 15, 8 PM
Strawdog Theater
3829 N Broadway, Chicago

I'm sure you weren't driving up to Wilmette just to see me, but I since I plugged it I should point out that I won't be at the Don't Spit the Water show this Thursday. Chad Briggs will be appearing in my stead, which means the show will be 33% balder. I'm not sure what character he'll be doing, maybe he'll be doing me. Go, find out, and let me know. If he's funnier than I am, don't mention that, I'm not sure I can take it.

Hey, remember our crazy live game show that we did on TV? Well, we're doing it crazy and live again for one night only at the Wilmette Theater (1122 Central Ave, Wilmette, IL) on Thursday, January 19. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Big Dummy is back, so I won't be Mr. Pickles, I'll be one of the comics. Doctor Baron von Evilschlager? David from Sing-a-Ding-Ding? That weird bad juggler I did that one time? Who knows what character I'll do—you'll have to come and find out.

Update: the show is still on, but because of our travel to Memaw Bane's funeral, I won't be performing that evening.

Monday night (which was Movember Day 14, but I think this has basically evolved into "using the reminder of posting a Movember picture to do some regular blogging") I went to ComedySportz to film Dan Telfer doing a set at the 100 Proof stand-up show there and stuck around to do four minutes myself at The Chaser, the open mic that follows. Would you like to listen? A small note: don't you hate when comedians do physical comedy bits on audio-only recordings? Well, I started out my set by accidentally unplugging the microphone from its cord and fuddling it back in—that's what's going on at the start there.

As an mp3: Fuzzy Gerdes Stand-up at The Chaser, November 14, 2011

Noah posted this over on Facebook, so I thought I'd put it up here for those of you, like my dear wife, who do not Face. That's pretty much what I look like (I'm the one on the right).

Last night's Impress These Apes had the contestants performing standup in the style of famous comedians—not, they were cautioned, as imitations, but inspired by those performaners. Our dear friend Prehistoric Human was inspired by the early comedian Og the Jokesayer and presented his own tight 90-seconds.

One of the great things about Impress These Apes, to my mind, is how weird it must look from the outside. A prime example of that is that with the multiple hosts and the small spaces we've done the show, photos from the show often have a co-host caught lurking in the background, leading to the cognitive dissonance (or as the kids would say these days, the WTF) of, sure, there's a guy with a puppet…

Photo by Erica Gerdes

…but who is that guy in his underwear back there?

And I guess I understand an over-bronzed guy in a tuxedo, but…

Photo by Fuzzy Gerdes

…why is there a creepy guy in a robe behind him?

And now, there's still no answer to any "why?", but the answer to the question, "Who's that caveman behind the melancholy bluesman with the concertina?" is…

Photo by Elizabeth McQuern

… me!

Impress These Apes Season 6 starts tonight, and tweets are a fluttering from a number of the cast:

@BarryShirley

@AprilMayApes

@PrehistoricHman

We're starting off the sixth season of Impress These Apes tonight with a brand-new twist, borrowed from TV reality shows--we're doing a live casting show. We've narrowed down our auditionees to 18 talented Chicago performers, and now we're asking them to perform in front of a live audience and our secret celebrity judges. By the end of the evening we'll have our cast of eight for the next eight weeks.

I'll be appearing as your new favorite co-host of the show: Pre-historic Human.

Tickets $10
ComedySportz Theatre
929 W Belmont, Chicago

On Tuesday, I cohosted a special episode of Talking Seriously (the alter-ego of Sasha and the Noob's Talkin' Funny) on Chicago cable access channel CAN-21, with my buddy Paul Luikart and special guest Mo Welch. Enjoy:

Talkin' Funny - Season 7, Episode 10 from Blewt! Productions on Vimeo.

Short notice, and just for Chicago folks, but at 7:30 I'll be on (local)(cable access) TV, cohosting Talking Seriously with Paul and Fuzzy. That's CAN-21 on your tuner.

Last night Erica and I went to see the new Second City E.T.C. show, The Absolute Best Friggin' Time of Your Life. We'd heard that it was a good show and that our friend Beth Melewski was good in it. Happily, both things were true. The show is both one of the most personal Second City shows I've seen, and also one of the most starkly political. And it's funny. "Rubenesque!"

Our friend Becky Eldridge was sitting right behind us and after the second act we got to talking about the improv set (which those in the know just call "the set") and being invited up to play. The structure of a Second City show is that they do two acts of scripted comedy and then a third act of improv. A fair number of people leave after the "real" show, so they open up those seats and the set is free to watch if you just show up at the Second City theater at the right time (that's a little Chicago cheap-fun idea for you right there). The cast will also invite up friends and colleagues who happen to be in the audience. It can be something of a political thing, who is and isn't invited up, especially at the Mainstage with a bunch of improvisors in the audience. Becky had done the set a few times before, and I've done it once at the Toronto Second City. Just as we were discussing all of this, Mary Sohn came out and asked Becky, Erica, and I if we'd like to play. Erica declined, but Becky and I both were game.

It was fun playing with the cast—I know most of them but have really only performed with Becky and Beth. And I think it was ideal circumstances—when the cast is developing a show, the improv set is the incubator for new scene ideas and so there's a certain pressure. But with the show so new, it's set in stone for a several months at least and the set is just for fun. And I can't front—this was something of a check-list item for me. I just did two scenes, but I feel like I can check off the mental "perform on a Chicago Second City stage" (I've done a couple of rental and festival shows up in the Donny's Skybox stage, but somehow that doesn't count).

And that leads to the out-of-order-ness. Now that I've completed that goal, on Sunday I start taking my first ever Second City class. Oops. For years, doing comedy in Chicago whenever you talk to someone who's not in the scene they inevitably ask if you've taken classes at Second City. And I just never did. And I'm not even, still, doing the improv and sketch programs that Second City is known for. I'm taking the new stand-up comedy program.

I've been toying around with the notion of standup for a couple years now—doing a couple of open mics and slots kindly provided in friends' shows. After years of putting together or participating in big, complicated shows like the Neutrino Project and Don't Spit the Water, the idea of solo performance, just a performer and audience, is very attractive. So I'm taking this class to provide a little structure as I begin to really explore what kind of standup comedian I am. And, since I wouldn't actually put myself into a totally foreign situation, because I'm an old man, I'm taking a class taught by a friend and taking it with another friend.

So I've recently had multiple[1] requests to write up something about the history of the Crazy Monkeys improv group. And in the course of trying to pull something together I've realized that I'd also have to talk about the group National Velveeta, which Crazy Monkeys somewhat evolved from. And if I was talking about National Velveeta and Crazy Monkeys, then basically I was talking about my first ten years of improv -- and the history of improv in (Greater) Lafayette, Indiana -- and so I might as well talk about all of that, too.

Oh, and I should mention that I'm terrible about dates. I'm pretty firm about some things (like, I know when I started at Purdue) but I wouldn't try to win any bets with my dating of things. I did check in with some friends[2] and consulted all the newspaper clippings I've accumulated over the years (many of which I've scanned in and posted in a Flickr set).

Anyway, for me it all started in high school when I didn't get into improv. I went to high school in Adelaide, Australia, and down there Theatre Sports was the main flavor of improv around in the mid-80s. As part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival one year I went and saw several rounds of a Theatre Sports tournament and thought it was the coolest thing ever. They were just making that stuff up, and it was so funny! The next summer, my friend Cate Rogers was putting together a team for another tournament and she asked me if I'd like to join. Why she asked me, I have no idea—unlike her, I hadn't done any theater in high school. I was completely terrified and declined. I can't regret it, because things worked out just fine, but I do sometimes wonder what might have happened if I had started improvising three years sooner than I did.

In 1988 I moved back to the US and started at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue is a large state school with a tradition in Engineering, Agriculture, and Science. I came to the school to major in Computer Science. Purdue has a theater department, but thoughts of performing were far from my head. Shortly after I got to Purdue, West Lafayette's first improv group[3] was founded: National Velveeta.

National Velveeta was started around 1988[4] by Phil Granchi, a geology grad student, who had performed with improv groups before he came to Purdue. In September he started the group with five members: himself, Mark Kohlman, Hal Page, Chip Sandlan, and Jim Westrick. Soon they had added 8 more members which included April Holladay and Holly Wott. At some point I ran across a flyer or some such and saw National Velveeta perform at a small coffeeshop just off campus, the Blue Cafe. Names I know of who were in the group before I joined include: Robb Bruce, Mark French, Lawrence Lee, Kristin Lietch, Matt Martin, Dave Mitchell, Mike Monahan, Andy Shark, and Scott Starkey.

Phil Granchi was gone from the group by the time I joined (in the next paragraph) and he had moved (back?) to Chicago, where he began working with the Annoyance Theater. He created a show called "Modern Problems in Science" with Dick Costolo (now the C.O.O. of Twitter) and Rich Fulcher (Bob Fossil on The Mighty Boosh) which they ended up touring around the world in the late 90s. I saw it one evening at the Annoyance (with Noah Gregoropoulos subbing in for either Costolo or Fulcher), but was too shy to introduce myself to Phil after the show with "I'm in an improv group you started". I've just discovered from Facebook that Phil is now a doctor in California.

Anyway, my junior year, my friend Lawrence Lee, who was in the group and who I had met because I shopped at Von's Books so much, started bugging me to come and sit in on a rehearsal. Again, I have no idea what Lawrence saw in me that made me think I'd be good at improv, but I'm really glad he did. It took some bugging, as I remember, because I was still very shy and frightened of failure. The notion of putting myself into situation where it seemed you'd always be on the verge of disaster was very foreign to me. But eventually I gave in to Lawrence and started coming to rehearsals, then in the basement of the Wesley Foundation. And right away I was hooked. After a few rehearsals I was performing with the group.

A word about the training process in National Velveeta. When I joined the group, none of the members (as far as I know) had any improv training outside of the group. And there was never a director or any formal leadership of the group—there were simply people who had been there longer. The training I received, and would later pass on to others, was a 10 minute talk called "the three things you need to know to do improv". It was mostly about Yes And and a little bit of object work.

National Velveeta was not an official Purdue Student Organization, but being in a college town it functioned like most college improv groups. Most members were students at Purdue and every May we lost about a quarter of the group to graduation and then we brought in new folks either through invitation or through occasional auditions in the Fall. Putting this together, I realize that the group had been around for only about two years when I joined, but the number of people who had come and gone from the group in that time, and the size of the group (up to 13 members) really made it feel like it was an established institution.

Between National Velveeta, helping produce the Guru Java (a weekly musical venue), and getting involved in technical theater with the Wesley Players (all three of which Lawrence Lee got me involved in) by the time I graduated in 1992, I felt like my life was going in a different direction than the Computer Science degree I had managed to finish. That summer Lawrence and his then-wife Charlotte VanVactor put together the drama group for a Methodist Summer Camp for high schoolers and hired me and fellow National Velveeta members Robb Bruce and Liz Thelen, as well as our friend Lisa-Marie Centeno. We wrote an original piece—the Reduced Bible: the Bible in 60 Minutes or Your Money Back[5]—as well as performed the play A Peasant from El Salvador. There was drama about our drama, but that's another story. The point is that I was now a paid performer and writer and while I wasn't sure how to proceed with making that my full-time job, I didn't really want to pursue computer jobs and so after the summer I returned to West Lafayette. I definitely wanted to continue working with National Velveeta and I was glad that it wasn't a student organization, because I was no longer a student.

In the fall of 1993, Matt Martin came back from working from a summer camp and brought with him another camp counselor who he had taught some improv for a talent show—Shaun Himmerick. I don't actually recall saying the following, but it's been repeated so often it must be true, yes? Brian Terjung joined the group at the same time as Shaun and I guess I called Shaun "Brian" a lot in the first few months he was in the group. When Matt called me out on mis-remembering Shaun's name I'm told I said, "well, I haven't bothered learning his name, because he's not going to be around in the group for long." The joke was on me, because 17 years later and Shaun and I still perform together (though, really, I'm not sure if he's any good at this improv stuff).

Around this time we also added into the group Carrie Gatke, Gerry Gobel, a former roommate of mine in a terrible apartment called the Magic House (because of the magic shop located in the building that had a huge sign painted on the side), Matt Kaye, Supna Kumar, and Ben Taylor. Gerry and Matt brought more to the group than their comedic talents. They brought drama!

After being with the group for a few months, Matt and Gerry got up at a rehearsal and announced that they were forming a new group and had asked about half of National Velveeta to join them. They wanted take a group in a more focused direction, especially on doing paying gigs, and felt like they had to split off to do that.

At the time, it felt like an enormous betrayal. There was, of course, drama about who had and hadn't been asked to join this new group. But I think I understand better, now, the impulse to want to do something with a focus (and I certainly understand looking for paying gigs). And I think, looking back, given the very leaderless nature of National Velveeta, it would have been hard to try to steer that ship in a new direction. And as we'll see in a couple of paragraphs, I think I basically did the same thing to National Velveeta, albeit with far fewer people left on the other side. And the members of National Velveeta were the only improvisors in the Greater Lafayette Area, so Matt and Gerry's choices were slim when it came to recruiting for their new endeavor. But at the time, woo-boy was I mad.

By then, National Velveeta was a huge part of my life (and I wasn't invited to join the new group) so I was shocked and dismayed. And then after all that drama, the new group went off, rehearsed for a while, did one public show at the Wesley Foundation Great Hall (which, due to Guru Java, felt very much like our venue) and, I heard, did one private show for some sort of corporate party. And then broke up. Is it shallow if I say that the failure of the group made it easy to come back around to being friends with Gerry in a few months? And Matt Kaye moved to Chicago and did an incredible two-person improv show called "My Grandma's a Fat Whore in Jersey" with my now-good-friend Jen Ellison. So there's that.

Despite our rocky start with the name thing and all, Shaun soon proved to be as invested in improv as I was. In November 1994 some of us went down to Athens, GA for the first ImprovStock festival and found other groups of people—other adults, non-students!—who were similarly serious about improv. We also came to a crossroads and took, perhaps, the long way round.

The main workshop that year was by Charna Halpern of the ImprovOlympic. She and Del Close had just published Truth in Comedy and she was very much an evangelist for what was then still a fairly radical and unknown new art form, especially outside of Chicago: long form improvisation. Always a polarizing figure, Charna didn't just extol the virtues of long form, she disparaged short form and criticized some of the choices in the shows the night before. Our hearts hardened and I know we didn't get the most we could have from the workshop—if long form meant being rude to fellow performers we wanted none of it.

And then that night we saw the best short form we'd ever seen. It was some of the best improv I've ever seen, to this day. Three performers from the SAK Comedy Lab in Orlando, FL—Matt Young, Dave Russell, and Jonathan Mangum—performed short form improv games, but they didn't seem to approach the rules as a challenge to be overcome or a goal in itself. The games were just a loose framework, a structure to perform comedy within. They were just playing, with energy and enthusiasm, and it was amazing. We wanted to be them. I think that to this day my goal when I improvise is to achieve the effortless sense of play we saw in that show. I was sold—short form was where it was at for me.

As people drifted away from the group that year, we found that we had no desire to replace them—we were enjoying the tighter nature of a smaller group. By the fall of 1995, the group was down to five people: Scott Starkey, Ben Taylor, Liz, Shaun, and myself. Liz, Shaun, and I went down to ImprovStock again in November and had two crucial encounters.

First, we got to take workshops with Dennis Cahill from Loose Moose Theater. Keith Johnstone's Impro was pretty much the only serious book about improv that we were aware of and we were awed to be learning about improv from someone who had worked with him. And it was games, taken seriously, which validated our short form orientation.

And SAK's Matt Young was back with a new group, Dad's Garage Theater from Atlanta. And they played with the same loose, rockband energy we'd been so excited about the year before. If Dad's Garage was the best improv group in the world, and SAK the second best, maybe we could work hard and become the third best improv group in the world.

We came back from the festival energized and determined to become the best improvisors we could be. And where National Velveeta had been a loose affiliation that no one really owned and that we had inherited, we began to feel like we were doing something new and wanted to create the new thing. As we discussed it, Scott decided that the kind of commitment and direction we were talking about was not for him. So it was just to be the four of us—Fuzzy Gerdes, Shaun Himmerick, Ben Taylor, and Liz Thelen. All that was left was picking a name. (The ownership was the main reason we wanted a new name, but we had also heard that Kraft was aware of National Velveeta but had never pursued any action against us because we were so small. Part of our grandiose plan for the new group was world-famousness, so we wanted a name clear of any legal issues.)

By this time we were well aware of the many improv groups around the country and we knew how many of them were puns or variations on the word improv. We wanted to have a name more like a band -- something that would convey the energy and enthusiasm of our group, without directly saying "we do improv". After weeks of brainstorming and arguing, we got down to two names: Crazy Monkeys and Rocket Science. After hours of argument at a restaurant in the Village area just off campus, we were stalemated and finally wrote the two names on pieces of napkin, balled them up, and then asked our server to pick one. And so we were the Crazy Monkeys.

We sent National Velveeta off with a bang in December 1995—we invited all the alums we knew of back for a final show (something I recommend to all groups, have a 'final show' every now and then, it's easy to pack the house). And then in January 1996 we launched the Crazy Monkeys. For a time we avoided monkey imagery, with an atomic logo (a nod to the second place Rocket Science) and our motto "taking comedy seriously". Later, Shaun's friend Jude Oseto would draw us a sketch of monkey hand holding a banana that I see the group still uses on their website.

The Crazy Monkeys played everywhere that we could. We performed at the Vienna Espresso Bar (later the Village Coffee House, I believe) quite often and performed on campus whenever possible. We traveled to Texas for the first Big Stinkin' Improv Festival. We were doing the kind of work we had set ourselves the goal of doing.

A story from that first Big Stinkin' in the spring of 1996. We were the opening act in a set of shows at the Zachary Scott Theater and we were waiting offstage, very nervous for this big festival appearance, and the start of the show was delayed while some crazy hippy droned on and on about some sort of nonsense about improv and art and such. That crazy hippy was, of course, improv guru Del Close and I've heard other people reminisce fondly about that speech and how it inspired them. But those people weren't backstage getting sick to their stomach and second-guessing which short form game they should play. Perhaps I'll title my memoir "Missed Opportunities".

But even though the Crazy Monkeys was even less Purdue-tied than National Velveeta had been, it was still true that half the group were students. And in the spring of 1996 both Shaun and Ben graduated and left town. Shaun moved to Denver to live with our improv friend Matt Martin and form a group out there called Bare Essentials (and that too is a whole other story). Our tight-knit group was gone.

At this point I suppose I could have just let the group fade away, but I was now committed to living in West Lafayette—I had ended up working for the University in an IT position—and I wanted to keep improvising. I was performing some at the Lafayette Civic Theater and doing a radio show called The Outliers that Benjamin Wachs put together. But improv was still my first love and even if Crazy Monkeys wasn't going to be exactly the same as it had been, I wanted to keep it going as something.

I recruited Kelli Beery from The Outliers and she and Liz and I did a few shows. Then John Wolfe came to West Lafayette to attend Purdue and sought me out. John had been training and performing with Indianapolis ComedySportz and had the desire to keep performing while at school. John infused the group with new enthusiasm. I have a 'trip report' from March 1997 where I talk about driving down to Bloomington, Indiana and doing the "first real show by the new Crazy Monkeys"—that would have been the John, Kelli, Liz, and Fuzzy line-up.

When Kelli and Liz left the group in the fall of 1997 to focus on the post-grad programs they were both in, John and I decided to hold auditions and continue the group. We held auditions on September 15, 1997. We added Alex Aschinger, Leah Link, Chrissy Marth, and Brandon Thomas. Also in the group over the next year were Amy Piskorowski and Elliot Mumble-mumble[6].

With renewed vigor we began performing around Lafayette. We were performing on campus frequently, in the Union and at residence halls. We did a series of shows at the Greater Lafayette Museum of Art.

As an odd side-note, a rock producer in town decided that improv was the next big thing and that he should have a group to book out for shows. He held auditions and even though they were technically competition for Crazy Monkeys, I went out for the auditions and was cast in the group: Laugh-A-Minute[7]. After a couple of shows at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation the group didn't last very long, but by gum, if there was improv happening in town, I wanted to be a part of it.

Crazy Monkeys was now firmly student-filled again (except for me) and took a complete hiatus in the summer of 1998. I began driving down to Indianapolis to meet John at Indianapolis ComedySportz rehearsals and then began performing with their late-night show Odd Scrod, which was making the first tentative steps towards long form improv. I also did a few ComedySportz shows.

As Crazy Monkeys started up again in the fall, I decided to take classes in Chicago. I had had workshops with a variety of Chicago teachers at improv festivals I'd been attending, some with Shaun and Matt who were going gangbusters out in Denver, and I decided to go through the program at the Annoyance. I began driving up on Saturdays to take the classes. The Annoyance style—not long form as such, but certainly a complete rejection of the rules and structure of short form—excited me and I'd bring a fumbling version of the lessons I was learning back to the Crazy Monkeys. My doubtless-garbled version of the Annoyance style excited the group as well and we began to perform in the more loose, montage style of the Annoyance (and, as well, to push the boundaries of taste in the Annoyance fashion). Our finest moment, I think, was when we attended a college improv festival at Ball State University and performed a psychedelic, frenzied Screw Puppies-style show that, frankly, made us feel like the bad-asses of the festival.

And then in the summer of 1999 I finally got out of West Lafayette and moved to Chicago, there to dive head-first into the world of long form improv and experimental shows. I left Crazy Monkeys in the hands of the existing members and in those pre-social media days, didn't hear much from them until years later.

All this looking back comes at a very interesting time for me—for the last year or so my main performance outlet has been at the Laugh Out Loud Theater, where I'm once again performing short form games. And at this very moment, for the first time in years, my little "upcoming shows" calendar at the top of my website is blank. I have nothing scheduled, nothing upcoming. What's next for me? That's a whole other post, as well, I suppose.

The Crazy Monkeys, I understand, have become an organization with officers and so on. And I see from occasional glances at the Exponent that there are now also official Student Organization improv groups, and perhaps even groups over in Lafayette. Whatever part I had in nurturing improv in Lafayette over the years, I'm glad to see that it seems to be flourishing.

Criminey, this is over 4000 words. Um, improv is the winner!

Related: a mess of photos and news clips in a Flickr set

Notes
[1] Two.
[2] Many thanks to Shaun Himmerick, Lawrence Lee, and Matt Martin. Errors that remain are, of course, my fault. Corrections and additions welcomed.
[3] As far as I know.
[4] I will pay $10 to anyone who can give me a date for this article from the Lafayette Journal & Courier. The Tippecanoe County Library has all the back issues on microfilm.
[5] Which we wrote, I'll point out, before the Reduced Shakespeare Company wrote their The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged). But after they had already done their Reduced Shakespeare, which is where we got the title.
[6] The request from the current Crazy Monkeys that prompted this 4000 word screed was not "please ramble on about improv" but just "do you remember the names of the people who were in the Crazy Monkeys?". And sadly, I'm failing at that simple task. Oh well, back to the ramble.
[7] Remember what I said about not wanting our group name to scream "comedy"?

Erica and I got a sewing machine and what better for a first project than some hand puppets for a show? Pretty good for not having touched a sewing machine in 25 years or so, I'd say. What show?, I wish you'd ask.

Last year my friend Joe Janes wrote a comedy sketch a day. From June 3 to June 13 he's producing all 365 over 26 shows with 26 different directors. I'm in the first show, opening night, presenting 14 sketches written in the first two weeks of the project. So, you know, while he was still sane. Mary Jo Bolduc is directing the show and the ensemble consists of myself, Dennis Frymire, Gabe Garza, Andrew Jordan, Marsha Harman, Jill Fenstermaker, and Sara Gorsky. It's Thursday, June 3, 2010 at 8:00 PM at Strawdog Theatre, 3829 N Broadway (Chicago!).

Left to Right: Amanda Rountree, Michael Lehrer, Regan Davis, Fuzzy Gerdes, Scott Whitehair, Henri Dugas. (Photo by Erica Gerdes.)

You might be able to discern by that Chicago Public Radio totebag, filled with CPR and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me swag, that Michael Lehrer was this year's MAELSTROM winner. And it was well-deserved -- Michael is a kick-ass solo performer. Don Hall called me "incomparable", which either means I did well or that Don is just having trouble coming up with similies.

I told three stories based on the audience suggestions of "He's been in there for three days", "Kung-fu Master", and "Two nuns, three hobos, and nine squirrels". Before the show I had talked here about a certain kind of pre-show nervousness, but once I was in the space for the show I started remembering how electric the whole experience was. I do plenty of improv, but something about the competitive aspect of it, about being onstage with five other great performers, not knowing when Don is going to call your name, about the time limits -- it all adds up to a thrilling evening for, at least, me.

And, oh, the time limits. I'm writing this down for myself in case I do next year: don't forget about the time limits. The three rounds are three minutes, two minutes, and one minute and Don rings a bell when you've reached that time and you have 15 seconds to finish up. I think the thing to remember (and I forgot it onstage) is that in this context 15 seconds is actually pretty long -- for the one minute story it's another 25% of the length. I need to not panic when I hear that bell and instead give myself a few sentences to finish up. (I'm not sure what can be done about the opposite problem we all seem to have with the three minute story -- everyone seems to finish at about two-and-a-half minutes and then stretches to fill the time. Sometimes interesting discoveries come out of that; sometimes its just stretching.)

Holy cow you guys, I'm doing the MAELSTROM tonight, for the third straight year. If you don't remember from two years ago when I WON THE CONTEST, it's part of WNEP Theater's SKALD story-telling festival. The SKALD* (tomorrow night) and Kid's SKALD (last night) feature story-tellers telling prepared, rehearsed stories. The MAELSTROM is improvised story-telling. Six of us (which is mostly the NGPC) will tell stories based on audience suggestions in three rounds. The winner gets some sort of prize.

For years it was very important to me as an improvisor that the audience knew that I was improvising and that I knew for myself that I wasn't creating any of the scene until my foot hit the stage in that-exact-instant. But over time I got a lot more relaxed about it -- some audiences, I've learned, will, for whatever reason, assume that you're doing prepared material no matter how much "proof" you offer them. And for myself, I learned that it didn't matter how many ideas are floating around in my head as I approach the stage, as long as I react honestly and respectfully to what my scene partner(s) is bringing to the scene.

The one place I still have some it's-got-to-be-improv nervousness left is the MAELSTROM. Because there's no partner to keep me honest. So in the days leading up to the show, I'll have dozens of stories swirling in my head. I mean, I live surrounded by stories. I think, now, it's just better to let them come -- the more I try to push them away the more I remember them. But I just need to trust myself, and if you come see the show, you'll just have to trust me that it's all made up.

* They LOVE all-caps.

The Neo-Futurists perform pretty short plays -- TMLMTBGB features 30 plays in 60 minutes, which is an average of 2 minutes a play (obvs). But lately the NY Neos have been soliciting plays from their Twitter followers. You have to reply with "@nyneofuturists ", which only leaves 134 characters for the play. This weekend they'll be performing some of the resulting plays as part of PRIDE Meets the Street including one by, pretend-modest-cough, yours truly. (I'd just reproduce it here, but I've submitted several and I'm not sure which one they're using.)

Saturday night, you've got two chances to see me in a performancey way. Lola Balatro is having a CD release party for their new album at Goose Island Wrigleyville, 3535 N. Clark, at 10 PM. $10. They'll be playing that one video for the first single from the album, "Rock Star", which features me in a banana suit. They've asked me to show up in the banana suit. We'll see…

Just a few hours later I'll be just a stone's throw down the street at The Playground, 3341 N Halsted, telling some terrible stories at The Sickest F***ing Stories I Ever Heard. It's a midnight show and also just $10. Will I still be wearing the banana suit? You'll have to come and find out.

WNEP's annual storytelling festival is coming up and the lineup for the SKALD and MAELSTROM events have been announced. Let's take a look at the lineup for the MAELSTROM:

Regan Davis
Henri Dugas IV
Fuzzy Gerdes
Michael Lehrer
Amanda Rountree
Scott Whitehair

So, A) that's me! This will be my third appearance in the MAELSTROM and I'm hoping I can regain my crown. But B) do you notice what I did? That list includes everyone from the NGPC except Noah. Spoooky.

The show is Friday, June 26 at the DCA Studio Space downtown. Tickets are $15 and can ordered from the DCA site.

I'm sure there are better* photos, but here are a couple of shots of Bare during our festival-closing slot on Saturday night (via the GoPIF twitter stream):

* No offense, GoPIF.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2009 Chicago Improv Festival All-puppet Cage Match first runners-up*, the Noah Ginex Puppet Company.

Left to right: Amanda Rountree, Scott Whitehair, Regan Davis, Fuzzy Gerdes, and Noah Ginex. Not pictured, our director Erica Reid.

* Out of two competing teams.

Hey, I'm in Arizona for the Phoenix Improv Festival this weekend. You can see me tonight sitting in with the Phoenix Neutrino Project (in just a few hours) or tomorrow night with my improv duo Bare.

Cartoon fans (both of you) - I'm drawing my cartoons, but I'm going to wait until I get back to scan them in.

One Night Only! I'll be performing improvised puppetry with the Noah Ginex Puppet Company in a CIF Cage Match versus iO's improv puppet show Felt. Tonight, 8 pm. iO on Clark. Tickets are $10 but there are reports that if you buy them online they're only $5.

There's a nice plug for Sickest Stories on In Your Face Chicago. I'll be playing tomorrow night, if you're in the mood to hear me speak in a crude fashion about impolite topics.

Gerdes and Pig, live in action at the Belmont Burlesque Revue in a pair of great photos by K Leo.

Just found this picture Erica took and thought you might like to see the duo. The show went, I think, as about as well as can be expected. The ribald humor amused the audience. Many of them, Ryan speculates, didn't even notice the pig. Those that did were likely confused. Which is pretty much what I wanted. (Nobody tell Pig that his bowtie is Navy instead of black; he'd be mortified.)

I've done a comedy duo with my wife ("Gerdes and Reid") and I'm in a comedy duo with my best friend ("Bare"). Tonight I'll be performing in a comedy duo at the Belmont Burlesque Revue with a pig puppet as my partner. I have a feeling he's going to be my best partner ever. If not, there's always bacon.

The DADA show closed over a week ago now and I'm still processing. Processing my thoughts and feelings and also literally processing the mass of photos I generated in the course of the show.

Early in the summer, Don let us know that WNEP had been invited by the City's Department of Cultural Affairs to come back and do a Christmas DADA show in the Storefront Theater space. As a DADA from the previous Soireé, Blinde Essel Hopse, Erica was asked to come back as DADA Flutter. Don asked me if I might be interested in being a part of the writing process. I was flattered and instantly agreed.

In the early fall we began to have writing meetings to start to put together the show. There are (at least) two sides to the kind of DADA that WNEP puts up. There are pieces that come from a very urgent personal and/or political perspective. And then there are pieces that come from a place of nonsense and absurdism. I found that the latter sort of piece was much easier, and much more fun, for me to write, and I was happy that several of the pieces I wrote (for example, Santyclaws and Braided Circle) found a useful place within the show.

As the show began to take shape, Don developed the concept of "swing DADAs" -- the show would have a core cast of principal DADAs but there would be space carved out in the show for drop-in performers who could do a show here and there in the run. Don asked if I would like to be one of those performers. "Suuuuure," I said, or something much like that. The idea made me a little nervous -- WNEP DADA had always seemed so... intense, and I'm not sure I'm that intense as a performer. But I was having fun performing my pieces in front of the writing group and, to a degree, that nervousness propelled me. If I don't keep pushing into new areas of performance that make me nervous, I'll never grow as a performer. (I still use lessons from that Contact Improv workshop I took by accident.) Anyway, I figured, I'll do a show or three out of the 5 week/17 show run and then I can say I did it.

I did the required DADA workshop and assembled my outfit ($20, total, at Village Discount, including my awesome Christmas tie.) I went to several, but not all, of the final rehearsals and tech rehearsals, where the show seemed to change dramatically every time I returned. And then we had our opening night. And something happened that I had not expected: I loved doing the show. Absolutely loved it. I started out thinking I'd just do a few shows -- by the end of the run I had done almost every show.

I loved being on stage when my words were being read (or shouted or squeaked) by the other DADAs. I loved being there for all the weirdness (the walkouts, the 60 Detroit high schoolers, the sound system breaking down). I loved banging that gong. And it took me 5 weeks, but by closing night I think I even found some of my own intensity.

My one regret of being in the show was that I wouldn't be able to document the show. I really enjoy taking show pictures and I'd had great fun with the last DADA show taking pictures with increasing odd and failing cameras. I did end up taking a night off of performing and photographing the show with a nice camera -- that's the middle hundred or so pictures in this set. But the other thing I did, after some internal tussling about what a DADA thinks about documentation, was to take pictures from within the show with some aesthetically appropriate* cameras -- a Holga and a wonderful Nikormat 35mm camera my dad gave me years ago. The Holga -- a super-cheap plastic camera that shoots on medium-format film -- is a terrible camera, but I've gotten reasonable results from it in the past. Under the rough conditions on stage, however, it was a complete failure. The Nikormat, however, was a dream. Something about the smooth mechanical action of the camera really clicked (NPI) with me and it really felt right in my hands. The notions of aperture and focal distance made physical sense to me in a way that working with digital cameras hasn't as much. Anyway, I got some great pictures from inside the show (that's the photos at the beginning and end of that same set). There was a roll with an odd set of blue lines, that reminded me of all the camera failures I'd had with Blind Essel Hopse, but that was an exception. (You may note that some of the photos have a bunch of small dots on them -- that's because I'm lazy and just let Walgreens scan the negatives for most of the photos. I assure you the negatives are awesome :-)

Besides me running around with my camera, the show was documented several other ways. Sarah Jane Rhee came to the show two nights with her camera and took copious, and wonderful, photos. Don Hall wrote a bunch about the process and the show. And Noah created a wonderful sketch of everyone in the show.

* I almost want to say "period appropriate", but the WNEP DADA look is not really early tweentieth century as much as it is non-modern.

I also wanted to share this DADA poem with you. It was a concrete poem, of sorts, a deconstruction of the Christmas wreath. If you saw the show, it was the piece that became a huge cacophony and Dabo cut it off. So hardly anyone got to hear the words. My wonderful, wonderful words.

Braided Circle
by DADA little piece of string

A big part of the WNEP DADA process is the notion of interpretation -- you write something to express whatever you want (or be as absurd and nonsensical as you want) and then someone else reads it and they ignore your intentions and attempt to wrestle it into whatever meaning they want. Sometimes, you're even the other person.

Noah and I wrote the following piece during one of the writing meetings leading up to the show for an exercise and it ended up becoming one of the three randomly-triggered 'Christmas Stories' in the show. As such, it was cut for time and then wrestled to the ground by Segue and Brova as they interpreted the heck out of it. But here's the complete original piece:

Santyclaws
by DADA XenigN.Rén and DADA little piece of string

Wite Beard

I have a giant white beard, made of candy canes and lollipops and tree trunks and car tires and little children and their smiles and their frowns and a 1959 Ford Packard Bell Hummel figurine of a sandbox and an angel.

Phat gi

This is my belly, which is large and jolly and smelly and full of small children and their dreams and their lunch and a fridge and the teacher from down the hall asking "are you done with your test! pencils down!". And an angel.

Big blak buuts

Look at my boots! They are shiny and black and dark and made of the skin of tiny children, their skin blackened from the heat of the fires that cook the dinner of elves for making toys all new and happy and what would you like for Christmas why don't you sit on my lap and tell your innermost wants and desires. And a shiny gold buckle.

Ironfisted Fascism

My bag is so full of happiness and joy for all wee children everywhere and trick or treat smell my feet give me something for auld lang syne you bastard come on my train is coming if you don't let go we're all go to be late for work and then where will be? Fired, that's where. And a fat lot of god that will do. And a star on top.

Raindear

Hop to, my lovelies, and grab an antler of justice for you know that your mother is waiting and if she catches you up this late you're going to get a spanking like you so dearly deserve. And no presents for you! None! None! None! Not even that one that you picked out last week and I promised you I'd get you. Promises were made to be broken, why else would they call them tinsel? And then where will we be? Fired, that's where. Forced to feed on the flesh of tiny children everywhere. And a jingle bell.

o.

ho.

ho.

oh.

Noah did sketches of all the DADAs from Schmückt der Hallen -- I'd call them caricatures, but they're really almost like character designs as if we were all going to be a Saturday morning cartoon. And wouldn't that be awesome? Here's DADA little piece of string and DADA Alvi:

You can see the whole cast at Noah's sketch blog.

I've got so much to say about so much more, but focus has been eluding me lately. So I'll just let you know that tonight is your last chance to see me as a disheveled Santa onstage-stagehand in the "Jingle Belles" holiday edition of the Belmont Burlesque Revue (photo of same above by K Leo). There's one more holiday show next week, but I won't be there, because I'll be at the closing night of Soireé DADA: Schmückt dez Hallen. And speaking of that show, I'll be performing in four of the last five shows of the run, including this evening. Erica and I are both really proud of the show and we'd love to have you there. Chicago Public Radio's Eight Forty-Eight called us one of "Three to See" of holiday shows. We've also had some kind(?) words from Time Out Chicago, Centerstage Chicago, Edge Magazine, and a woman from Milwaukee .

Some of my friends have mentioned that when, in Soireé DADA: Schmückt der Hallen, a piece's author is mentioned, they'd like to know who that is. So, a cast list:

Director: Don Hall (DADA GonGONG)
Technical Director: Stephanie Hoerner (DADA Es Pee Dee)

Principal DADAs
DADA Dabo ... Jen Ellison
DADA Flutter ... Erica Reid
DADA Hoydl ... Jeff "Sharko" Shivar
DADA Domdeluise ... Patrick Brennan
DADA Segue ... Regan Davis
DADA Grizzle ... Dave Goss
DADA Nip ... Lori Goss
DADA Quiche ... Henri Dugas
DADA Brova ... Gabe Garza

Swing DADAs
DADA little piece of string ... Fuzzy Gerdes
DADA xenign.ren ... Noah Ginex
DADA Vichyssoise ... Bryan Bowden
DADA Alvi ... Amanda Rountree
DADA Cringe ... Cynthia Castiglione
DADA LeaP ... Mary Jo Bolduc
DADA TT1896 ... Nathan Robbel
DADA [g]nimbus ... Bries Vannon

Additional Writers
DADA Whimzee ... Maddie Goss

Time Out Chicago included Soireé DADA in their round-up of holiday shows that "won't make you want to bludgeon yourself with the nearest Yule log. Now that's a true Christmas miracle."

Soireé Dada: Schmück[sic] der Hallen

WNEP Theater's Dadaist revues consistently manage to amuse despite employing such surefire irritants as audience participation and performers in whiteface. This time, the group turns its derisive, destructive glee to the task of dismantling Christmas. Storefront Theater, 66 E Randolph St (312-742-8497). Through Dec 21. $20.

This Wednesday is the last show of our current run of Neutrino Project: the Instant Movie. I'm sorry that I was hectoring you to see the show. So I'll stop. The super-secret discount still stands, though. So, um, come see the show.

And just when we're done with that show, Friday night WNEP Theater opens Soiree DADA: Schmückt de Hallen. (In fact, we're losing Erica, Jen, Patrick and Noah all from Neutrino on Wednesday for their last tech rehearsal for DADA.)

Soiree DADA is WNEP's version of the early twentieth century anti-art movement, filtered through some late twentieth century anti-clowning and modern theatrical sensibilities. WNEP has been putting on Soirees for more than a dozen years, and Erica joined the cast last year for Blinde Essel Hopse as DADA Flutter. She's back this go-round as one of the principal DADAs who will be in every show. I'll be appearing in occasional shows as one of the "swing DADAs" (I'm DADA little piece of string if you can't identify me under the whiteface.)

The show, if the oblique German did not clue in, is a holiday show. Which is radicchio. Angry fake-European anti-art takes on American Christmas. But I do think there's some great stuff in the show; not the least the pieces Erica and I have written.)

And if you've made it this far, here's your treat -- I have comps for this Friday's opening night. There's even a reception afterwards with tasty foods (and wines?). Let me know if you'd like to claim a spot. If you can't make opening night, but still want to see the show, it runs through December 21.

So, Impress These Apes season 3 is finally over, with Seth Dodson the deserved winner. It was a really talented and enthusiastic bunch, but Seth really nailed it every week, bringing in odd, hilarious and oddly-honest performances every week.

I was happy that I was able to hop on stage for a moment in the show: in a bit that may have made more sense on paper than on stage, contestants from previous seasons played alternate-reality versions of the Apes. There was Placate These Pigs and Delight These Dogs, the latter hosted by myself as Spelling Bee Host.

But the real talk of the evening, even overshadowing Seth's win, was Alan Metoskie's tattoo. Alan showed a video chronicling his adventure getting a huge back tattoo, which was revealed at the end of the video, and then by Alan standing onstage shirtless, to be a large "Impressed?". There were some "hmmm" moments in the video, like the fact that you never actually saw skin being tattooed, but Alan was so convincing, and it was just plausable enough (I mean, if it had been the Apes logo, I would have been sure it wasn't real) that most people (myself included) were convinced. Even after the show, at Brendan's Pub‎ next door, Alan continued to talk about details of the tattooing process and the negotiation with the tattoo artist and so on.

It was, of course, a fake tattoo.

As someone who has actually gotten a tattoo for a show, I'm a little annoyed that the notion was co-opted by a faker. But I have to be honest with myself that really I'm chagrined that I was taken in by the prank. Which then means that I need to give credit to the prankster. So, yes, Alan Metoskie, I'm impressed.

Related:
Erica reminisces about her Apes Finale from season 1
My ridiculous act from the finale of season 2

Don explains why I was dressed like this.

Gerdes and Reid at the Belmont Burlesque Revue, October 25, 2008. Photo by K Leo.

If you didn't see The Sickest F***in' Stories I Ever Heard tonight, well, you missed Alan's great story about Iggy Pop. You didn't miss the story I had planned to tell, because it's not just storytelling, it's a conversation and the flow of that took us away from what I had planned to talk about. Which is one of the neat things about this show. Anyway, above is what the show looked like if happened to be sitting far house right (and happened to be Noah). From left to right, that's (The Amazing) Tomas Medina, J. Ben Parker, Harz Sondericker, Alan Hawking, and my giant melon.

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.

• Cutie Bumblesnatch (in a Halloween show)
• Sasho (with Erica as The Boon)
• Man with One Gorilla Hand (with Erica as Pretty Lady with a Mustache)
• Miguel (with Erica as Maya)
• Mr. Pickles (a community character)
• 100% Gerdes
• Dr. Technician
• Kevin Higgins
• Dr. Baron Ludwig von Evilschlager
• David from Sing-a-Ding-Ding
• Banana who dances during a Jumbles the Penguin bit
• Banana the Shock Comic
• Dancing Elephant
• Morty Applebaum, Ukeleleist

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:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Daily Grind
• So Close

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.

Photos from the trip.

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 R. 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

So our challenge for the first week was to write an autobiographical song and accompany ourselves on an instrument.

The song came pretty easy -- I knew I wanted to do a rocking song about how awesome I am. But I don't actually play the guitar. At first I thought I'd play some sort of toy guitar, much as Margaret did. Noah loaned me a very realistic looking Fender toy that supposedly makes neat guitar sounds. But he hasn't had batteries in it for years -- he uses it as a prop for puppets -- and it wouldn't make any noise for me. I flirted briefly with the idea of building a cigar box guitar, but Ben talked me down from that one (great idea, he said, but not when we're on a deadline). But then Greg came through like the champion friend he is and loaned me a real guitar. Ben came over before Uptown Sound* rehearsal one day and showed me how to tune the guitar to an open E-flat tuning so that I could make major chords by putting one finger all the way across a fret. He also gave me a 5 minute lesson on chord progressions and left me with his mantra: "Practice makes less terrible." Erica and Kate got to hear the song a couple dozen times over and made great suggestions.

So what I'm saying is that I have awesome friends.

The Apes gave me 22 points (out of a possible 30) which puts me in sixth place (out of eight). But that isn't as bad as it sounds, because the field is really tight -- the leader (Amanda) has 25 points and then there are two people tied at 24 and two at 23.

Of note, if you followed the first season, is that the bonus point system has been radically changed. The person in last place has the chance to perform a ridiculous challenge (tonight, to recite the alphabet backwards in less than 30 seconds) to either win or lose (if they fail) 5 points. They can also pass, which passes the challenge along to the next place holder.

Our challenge for next week is to recreate a scene from a movie, adapted for the stage (much like what Bob Ladewig did for the first season's free-for-all finale). We're allowed one friend to help us perform and one of the judging criteria will be recreation of details. Good thing I'm going out of town for the weekend, or I might be able to really get started!

* First gig, Tuesday, Aug 7 at the SubT.

My Impress These Apes audition

The second season of Impress These Apes -- the eight-week (non-elimination) comedy competition judged by three apes from the future -- opens tonight at 8 pm at the iO Theatre. I've had four weeks to write an original song to introduce myself to the audience and judges and tonight I'll be performing it whilst accompanying myself on a musical instrument. A musical instrument that I learned to play a week and a half ago, I might add (not to scare you off). After tonight I'll be getting a challenge at the end of each show that I'll have to perform the next week. This happy look? It's from realizing that I've signed up for eight weeks of deadlines. This actually happy look? It's because my song is pretty funny and I think you'll like it. So come to the show (or wait for the inevitable video) (but really, come to the show).

For the last couple of years, my two-man improv group Bare has been performing more outside of Chicago than at home. And now that Shaun's in the UK for six months, we likely won't even be doing many shows anywhere. Which makes it an extra-extra special treat for all three Bare fans that we're doing a show tomorrow night (Saturday, July 7, 8pm) at the Playground. We're talking about bringing back Pageant of History -- though we're willing to take requests (Hotel? Small town? Who would do that? Actual Theatre?).

Mustang Repair and Homey Loves Chachi are performing on the same bill and all three groups will joining together to perform a Dream for a silent auction winner from the Playground's recent 10th anniversary celebrations.

The Impress These Apes (2! Electric Boogaloo!) cast got together last week for an informational meeting and a little cast bonding. Bryan (aka Timekeeper Willis), who will be the "cast liason", ran us through some bonding exercises like "buying us beer" and "having us draw randomly-generated tattoos on each other with washable markers. Above is Studard with the "evil guitar" I drew on her.

We also got our first challenge -- write an autobiographical song that will introduce us to the judges and audience. We have to accompany ourselves by playing some sort of musical instrument. It's the same first challenge as last season, but they told us it'd be one of the few repeated challenges. For a trip down memory lane, here's Erica's entry for that same challenge. It's a lot to live up to.

The good news is that I don't have to be embarrassed that I let y'all know I was auditioning for Impress These Apes, because I was cast. The shows will be Thursdays from August 2 to September 20 at the iO Theater (3541 N Clark), at 8 pm.

If you aren't familiar with the show from when Erica was a contestant, the show consists of 8 weeks of comedy challenges. We get our first challenge later this week and we'll have a month to work on it before the show opens, but after that we'll get each challenge at the end of the show and have just a week to prepare.

It looks like it's going to be a great show, simply based on the cast. It's too bad I'm going to have to destroy them all.

If you'd like to see my audition in full, here it is.

Usually when I audition for a show, I don't mention it until (that is, if) I've been cast. Because, you know, it's hard to keep up this image of a stellar entertainment career if y'all know about all the shows I don't get into. But Impress These Apes have posted a teaser video for their second season that includes everyone who auditioned this last weekend. So there's no hiding now. I'm at 1:01 if you just want to catch my 4 seconds of glory.

Saturday morning all of us Don't Spit the Water comics hauled our costumes down to the Playground to record character introductions that Steve is going to be using for something... that... I didn't quite understand... Anyhoo, since all we were doing was saying our character name, more or less, it took about 10 seconds to record a 10-second bit. Right?

photo by Erica Gerdes

A couple of things happened tonight at the MAELSTROM. For one, for reasons no one is sure of yet, Mike Rosolio didn't show up to the show. Patrick Brennan had just come to run the lights for the show and he bravely stepped up and joined us on stage.

For another, I won.

Yippee! I'm still a little surprised -- everyone's stories were great. It was great to win, with the extra nice bonus that the prize gift certificates were all to places I already shop: Intelligentsia (I went there twice tonight), Chicago Comics, and Threadless.

I told a 3-minute story about murder by giant robot (since people asked, a mecha is a giant robot controlled by a person riding inside it, like in Robotech or Voltron), a 2-minute story about "cicadas and 4 am at Taco Bell", and a 1-minute story about the creation of the world, the founding of Chicago, and "truck stop love".

Everyone had awesome stories -- Jen told her 1-minute story about "a pet 3-legged mule" in a made-up language, but we all knew exactly what was going on. Bob launched into his 3-minute story tying together surfing, coffee, world hunger, and the Boy Scouts with nary a skipped beat. Mike fit the entire history of childbirth from ancient times to the present in a 2-minute story. Patrick had a hilarious 60 second introduction to his 3-minute story about how great it would be to win because it would surprise his wife. Mary Jo wove "Mongolian love with flute and fish" into a charming story of 3rd Grade love.

There's one more event in the SKALD festival -- the SKALD proper, where 10 storytellers each tell a prepared 7-minute story. I can't be there, but you can! (Maybe -- price and participation may vary. Check local listings.)

P.S. I won!

Update: Don has more pictures.

Tonight I'm in the MAELSTROM (yes, the all-caps are part of the show title) -- the impovised story-telling portion of WNEP Theater's SKALD (ditto) story-telling festival. Five other contestants and I will tell 3-, 2-, and 1-minute improvised story, about topics pulled out of a hat. I'm a little nervous, but I think it's just that normal pre-improv show nervousness of "I don't know what I'm going to say," which is, at some level, the point.

8:00pm at the Chicago Cultural Center - Studio Theater, 77 E Randolph, Chicago.
Tickets $15.

Sometimes you need to just tell people in the office why they might be interested in a show.

These two guys, Eric and Filup, are doing some sort of promo gig where they're driving across the country in a Chevy Aveo to go to LA and "make it big in comedy". They hooked up with the Phoenix Improv Festival and actually were the MCs who introduced Bare. Above is their video, with a 1-second glimpse of Shaun. I'm just off to Shaun's right, so just picture that in your mind and I'm sure you can imagine how the show went.

photo by Dan Telfer

So Dan decided he wanted to add "stand-up comedy" to his already-varied theatrical resume (playwright, actor, improvisor, solo performer, what else, Dan?) and in a "if we all look foolish, none of us look foolish" sort of mentality began bugging a bunch of the PoM/Blewt crew to come out and do some open mics with him. I started toying with the idea of jumping in and started a page in my little moleskine called "Comedy Ideas". Erica and I went out a few weeks ago just to cheer Dan on as he did his first stand-up performance. It went great and he was immediately invited to do some more gigs.

Thursday, the word came out from Dave Odd, the organizer of the open mic at Pressure that ABC7's 190 North was going to be going to be filming that night and that comedians should get there early to sign up. I had six bits, or ideas for bits, written down on that page so I decided it would be a great time to start.

Dan and I, with Vicky and Erica in tow for support, showed up pretty early and signed up for slots 7 and 8. The crowd was pretty large with a definite "we're gonna be on TV and get famous" feel. It turned out that they weren't doing a story on the open mic per se, but rather on Pressure as a whole, and so they didn't film that much comedy and didn't stay that long. (A note to my fellow performers: having been on both sides of this equation, yelling "thanks for not filming" at the camera crew as you finish your set really doesn't help anything.)

So by the time Dan and Rine-Stone and I got up, the crowd had thinned back out to it's usual couple-dozen and the mood was pretty chill. I'm happy to say that I got a few laughs -- not bad for my first time doing real standup¹. I did learn that I'm going to need to write better notes in my comedy notebook. Evidently there's something hilarious about "sleeping on the train", but damned if I can remember what it is.

¹ I've done stand-up as a character before, but I don't count that, especially since that character, by design, never finished any of his jokes.

So, the Playground Theater's 10th Anniversary is coming up and as part of the festivities the theater hired Johnny Knight to take photos of all the member ensembles. My ensemble, Pastor of Muppets, dressed up like a ska band, sorta, just because, and we took a bunch of our photos in front of a blue screen. We picked a more normal roof-top shot for the one that will be displayed in the theater, but those blue screen ones are letting us do things like the above (whipped up by Dan).

The Belmont Burlesque Revue was reviewed by CenterstageChicago and they liked it: "the troupe's charm and salacious enthusiasm make it well worth the price of admission."

Erica and I will be appearing in the April 28 show as Gerdes & Reid, our vaudville-esque comedy duo (at the Playground, 3209 N Halsted). They've also got a special show coming up on May 5 at Martyrs' (3855 N. Lincoln Ave) with the Steeltown Sirens of Ontario, Canada (Erica and I will not be in that show).

So Dr. Baron Ludwig von Evilschlager made his Chicago debut this weekend. I'm happy to say that I got a couple good spits, including a photo-finish double-spit on the final round that Sasha called on an audience judge (hi Tom!) to adjudicate. Erica came along and took a bunch of photos, so you can catch every odd grimace I made.

The good doctor will be making his next appearance at the May 5, 2007 Don't Spit the Water.

EvilLabs.info

Why .info? Because it's the most evil TLD, of course.

So since Dan (F) was stuck downstate this weekend, Dan (T) sat in on Rogue 8 as the Unfairy. He did quite a fine job, especially on such short notice.

It also brought me some surprising discoveries about my character. When I first started rehearsing this play after so many years of mainly improv performances I was a little uncertain about a) my ability to memorizing lines and b) how bored I might get doing the same show every night. But I've been pleased to discover that I'm having a lot of fun really trying to listen to my fellow actors each night and then have that provoke the lines (and actions) that I have to say (and do) anyway. So suddenly having Dan thrown into the mix really made me pay attention to him (especially since he didn't know any of the blocking that Dan and I have, so I actually had to watch out to make sure I wasn't running into him or anything) and that made me realize some things about my character -- nothing earth-shattering, but little things* that I think will let me make these last two weeks (well, one week, now) even just slightly better.

* The way I stand in one scene, for example. I'm sure you won't notice. I hope you won't notice. I hope you'll just think, "look out, a ninja!"

Sadly, Dan Foss is stuck downstate, and so can't be the Unfairy in this weekend's Rogue 8 shows. Happily, Dan Telfer, the author of the piece and the best penguin-performance-artist I know will be stepping into the role.

Erica came to the show on Saturday night and snapped a few photos.

I should mention that we've extended the show by a week, so it now closes Saturday, March 17. So you still have 4 more chances to see me ham it up as a ninja. On closing night we'll be doing all of the optional scenes, if you're a completist.

Four weeks left, 8 more chances to see me be a ninja and Chip be super-geeky in an already-geeky show.

The Bastion came out to see Rogue 8 and said we "moved fluidly in action and dialogue. Nary a beat was dropped in the 45 minute performance, and several hearty laughs were shared." Several, folks. Four weeks left, if you want to share several hearty laughs.

Hey, it's going to be a lot of Rogue 8 around here for a bit...

Dan also took some photos at rehearsal a few nights ago. Here you can see a awesome moment where Tilt (Amanda Lanier) is sticking her hand through my face*:

* Hand-through-face is not guaranteed to occur in show.

And if you're worried because this is the third installment of the series, here's all you need to know to catch up (click on this one for a printable copy):

All you really need to know about this show that opens tomorrow is that they let me be a ninja in it. A ninja with a sword. I mean, blahblahblah, there are other people in the show, Dan wrote it, Chris directed it, it's funny, whatever. I'm a NINJA!

I just wanted to note that we have a lovely poster for the show now, drawn by the playwright himself.

So I'm in rehearsals for this play. I haven't been in a for-reals play since, lordy, lemme think... Bare did Sketchfest two years ago with something I'd call a one-act play, but that was words we had written, so no one could yell at me if I got them wrong. Sketches here and there, but I'd have to go back to the Civic Theatre of Greater Lafayette (and thus, the Nineties) for some straight-up written-down play-action.

Which is to say that stretching the muscles of 'saying and doing the same thing every time' is a skill set I'm having to remember. I was going to post something yesterday about how easily it was all coming back to me, but I guess that was hubris because at last night's rehearsal I panicked on a line and blew that scene to hell and then I flubbed the order of the 'phrases' of my fight. Oops. But hey, I've got a whole week to get back on track.

And yeah, I have a fight -- with fight choreography and everything -- because I'm a ninja. Pretty cool. I don't have my costume all together yet, but as soon as I do I'll be sure to share how badass (or ridiculous) I look.

The play is the third 'episode' of a serial super-hero story, so most everyone else has been working together for half-a-year. For one, that means that they're all really comfortable in their characters, but fortunately I'm playing a ninja, which means that the cool comfort of cliche envelopes me like a second skin. For another, it could have meant that they'd be all cliquish, but fortunately, again, they are not and have been very nice to this bearded man in their midst.

Apropos of nothing, our director is also our sound designer and in a rehearsal the other day he tossed out the term 'Wilhelm Scream' which piqued everyone's interest. Chip managed to find this YouTube clip that traces this classic sound from the 50s to the 90s:

Come see Rogue 8, opening February 9, and see if you can spot the Wilhelm Scream in the show.

Allow me to introduce Dr. Baron Ludwig von Evilschlager. ("Get it right -- Doctor! Baron! I was born a Doctor, but I went to six years of Baron school and I will not have my hard work ignored!") He's got an IQ of 2000 and heads up Evil Labs. And, um, he juggles and wears Heelies:

Look for him at an upcoming Don't Spit the Water. When I'm done with this play.

So after a perfectly hideous time getting there, Erica and I got to Charleston, South Carolina on Friday afternoon and had a perfectly lovely time the rest of the weekend.

We were in town to be 2/3 of the comedians in Don't Spit the Water at the Charleston Comedy Festival (Mike Wiley was the third).

I was both excited and nervous because, while I've been a guest comic, and have even hosted the show, the only other time I've been a try-and-make-the-contestants-spit comic was for a Halloween show where I was playing Erica's character Cutie Bumblesnatch, so all my bits were written for me. This was going to be my first time using my own material to try and make an audience member laugh so hard that they embarrassed themselves in front of their friends by spitting out a mouthful of water.

And I'm happy to report it went very well -- I got a couple of spits the first night, even with the biggest jag-mo contestant the show has ever seen throwing off the stats. And the second night went well, as well, with lots of people telling us after the show how hilarious they thought the whole thing was.

After the show on Saturday, I led the whole crew on one of my infamous Fuzzy-is-fixated-on-the-perfect-meal journeys, with the added twist that the place was closed when we got there. Sorry, fellows. So we ended up eating at a chicken place and then barely escaping before the Jazz/Funk Fusion Band With Flute and Steel Drums started playing. And then Christopher drove Erica and I to Columbia, South Carolina.

Sunday we got to spend a lazy day in Columbia with Christopher and Katie, and we got to meet Mokey. In the afternoon, we had a delightful (for certain values of delight) waiting at the Columbia Metropolitan Airport for our much delayed flight. The delay did give us the opportunity to watch the entire Bears-Saints game.

It's a delightful time to be even peripherally involved with Blewt productions. In Chicago, Impress These Apes
has gotten a good review in the Reader and now an excellent write-up in Time Out, accompanied by two large photos taken by yours truly.

And in Charleston, SC, Don't Spit the Water made the cover* of the City Paper pull-out guide to the Charleston Comedy Festival and got a great write-up inside. If you're in the area, Erica will be playing Cutie Bumblesnatch and I'll be introducing Dr. Baron Ludvig von Evilschlager tonight and tomorrow night at Theater 99 (280 Meeting Street, Charleston, SC).

* Let's not tell them that Earl LaRue, as played by Robert Buscemi, won't actually be at the festival.

We had the first blocking and fight rehearsal for Rogue 8 last night -- and boy are my legs tired! (Except, seriously, they are -- I'm a Ninja in the show, and ninjas got to fight. It's their nature. I need to remember to stretch out a bit more before these rehearsals.)

I get all excited by the script or the show concept, I audition or lobby to be included in the show, I get cast, I'm thrilled! ... and then I realize all the rehearsals and memorization that's in front of me for the next, god, what is it? 4 weeks. And then actually doing the show over and over for 5 weeks. What have I gotten myself into?

Don't worry, in a few weeks I'll be excited again to be 'various male roles' in the third episode of Rogue 8 -- written by the lovely and talented Dan Telfer. But for now, let me just sit here and think about all the video games I won't be playing until late March.

Sometimes, it seems, I go to great lengths to take new technology and shoe-horn it into old frames. Like the time I tried to install a CD player into my lamented 1974 Datsun 260z. Or like how I'm taking the data from a completely separate blog and cramming it into a table* at the top of my front page to make a list of upcoming performances.

But that does mean that if you're one of those hyper-modern people who uses a Blog Reader (or technically, an RSS aggregator) you can now subscribe to a feed of my upcoming shows and performances. You can also subscribe to Erica's shows, if you're a fan (and who isn't).

* Modern web designers, feel free to gasp. And then give yourself a heart-attack by going to look at my CSS file for this site and discovering that it doesn't exist. I'm really looking at getting that taken care of by 2008.

There's something about the nature of improv groups that guarantees that as soon as you take a cast photo, it'll be out of date. But for the next ten minutes or so this (or this or this) is the official Pastor of Muppets ensemble photo. Now that Erica has joined the group as well, PoM shows are your one-stop Reid-Gerdes performance fix, so check us out. And hey, we've got one of those fancy Myspace pages the kids are all crazy for, so you can add as a pretend "friend" and then we can "bother" you about our "shows".

I've been sitting in with the Playground member ensemble Pastor of Muppets for their last few shows and now they've asked me to officially join the group. I was honored and I've accepted, so come see me in some shows.

I'm pretty excited, A) because I've had plenty of fun performing with this guys, and I see no reason for that to change. But also, B) I've been involved with the Playground since just after I moved to Chicago (I auditioned for the Incubator program like 3 weeks after I got to town) but I've never been on a member ensemble. And now I am. Whee.

Jin Kim wrote and stars in this commercial for a new reality TV show, What's My Name?. Megan Diemer co-stars. Shaun shot this one and edited it (his first time using Premiere, so give him some props).

You can also download this video as a MPEG4 video (6.5 MB).

Margarita Martinez (Erica Reid) presents an important PSA.

Bunny Busmeister (Andrea Swanson) investigates playground safety. Filmed and edited by Greg Inda.

If you'd like to keep these Local News bits, you can download them as MPEG4 videos:

Margarita Martinez PSA (750 KB)
Bunny Busmeister (12 MB)
Thor Skørvald PSA (800 KB)
Van DeCamp (16 MB)

I think I'm going to take Steve's advice from his comment and double-publish everything, but in the meantime I've set up a FuzzyCo YouTube channel and here's a The Local News clip of Van DeCamp (Josh Chamberlin) interviewing one of those kids (Greg Inda) who tries to sell you Peanut M&Ms to "buy uniforms for his basketball team".

Update: You can download this video as a 16 MB MPEG4 video.

So, we did the Local News show. The audience was very small. We had a few technical glitches, but no where near as many as I expected, thanks to the hard work of FuzzyCo's Greg Inda and the Improv Kitchen's Liviu Pasare. We got some great feedback from a few of our audience members, which mainly consisted of "everything needs to be half as long," which I think I agree with. So, what next? Good question. I'm checking with the cast to make sure it's OK with them, but if nothing else I'll probably be posting some of the pre-filmed bits here.

Tech went really well last night, which is always a relief. John from The Unfinishe... Project was kind enough to guide us through all the changes to the Improv Kitchen's tech set up since the last time we were there.

An awesome thing about the process of developing this show, for me at least, is that other people have gone out and prepared most of the pre-filmed video bits themselves and presented me with edited pieces. Wow! Usually, it's me staying up until 2 am putting all that sort of stuff together. Hoo-ray for the cast.

So, come see the show. Please. Pretty-please.

Tonight at 11 pm.
Improv Kitchen (3419 N Clark St). Tickets are $10.

Thanks to Kristen for whipping up this Local News flyer.

FuzzyCo is proud to present a single performance of our new show The Local News. The show will be performed this Friday evening at 11 pm at the Improv Kitchen (3419 N Clark St). Tickets are $10.

This is something of an experiment -- Shaun, Lillie Frances, and I have been developing the show largely by email over the last few weeks and now we've brought the cast in for an intensive week of rehearsals and outside assignments. The show is going to be a mix of live improvisation and pre-filmed pieces to create a complete local news broadcast.

As so often with FuzzyCo shows, I'm impressed and honored with the quality of folks who are willing to come and participate in our crazy ideas: Andrea Swanson, Josh Chamberlin, Sean Cusick, Chris McConnell, Jin Kim, Erica Reid, Kristen Freilich, and Greg Inda are all part of the cast.

Photo by Erica Gerdes

Me and Sean Ellis at the Chicago Comedy Company Theater at the Streets of Woodfield Mall over the weekend (Tami Torok was our third cast member). I've been out there two weekends in a row and it's been really refreshing to get back into the swing of pretty straight-forward short form.

Erica and I both took off from performing in the months leading up to our wedding and it was only just this weekend that we got back into the swing of things. Erica did Don't Spit the Water (which got a write-up in The Bastion) while I was out in the suburbs doing the shows at the CCC Theater. Then I raced back into town so we could do Gerdes & Reid at the Belmont Burlesque Revue. The short story is, "we still got it."

I'll be back out at CCC this weekend, and Erica will be doing DSTW again in a couple of weeks.

The Belmont Burlesque Revue (come see Gerdes & Reid this Saturday night!) is featured in a Chicago Tribune article today on burlesque shows: Beyond a nudge and wink

Shaun and Lillie Frances and I had a meeting late last night at Konak to see if we could pull together [A Show]. [A Venue] had contacted me because they had an upcoming gap in their schedule and they wanted to see if we'd bring the Neutrino Project to their space. In a few weeks. We definitely don't want to do Neutrino on short notice -- it's a complicated enough show as it is.

But it made Shaun think of an idea he's wanted to try since our last Neutrino Project run. When he explained his idea to me, I said, "that's funny -- that sounds a lot like [A Proposal] Lillie and I made to [A Different Venue] sometime ago. Maybe we should call Lillie and see if we can combine our ideas."

So, we had a great meeting and really hashed out a bunch of things. Most especially being our agreement that we'd be putting up [The Show] as a work-shoppy sort of thing, to just see what worked. I've been reflecting on that philosophy lately, especially after seeing Ze Frank's recent The Show about bad ideas and "brain crack".

And... this morning I got back in touch with [The Venue] and I may have completely misunderstood their schedule. So... we might not be doing anything. So between that and TheThingOutWestThatIsn'tConfirmedYet and writing Thank You notes for the wedding (and playing the Japanese import of LocoRoco on the train) is pretty much what I'm up to right now. Oh, and doing a photoshoot for some burlesque ladies. And doing a show out at the CCC Theater and one with the Belmont Burlesque the same night. I think I started this paragraph to try and say I wasn't doing that much, but I guess I am a little busy.

Two FuzzyCo-related shows this holiday weekend:

Tomorrow night (Saturday, July 1) is the one-year anniversary of Don't Spit the Water's open run at the Playground. As one of the original cast, Erica will be performing as Cutie Bumblesnatch and I'll be the guest comic... doing something... that I haven't quite worked out yet... I hope Steve doesn't read this.

Sunday night (July 2), we're finally going to get to see the movies we wrote and shot for Split Pillow's The Challenge. All of the films will be shown at 8 PM at the Lake Shore Theater.

After months and months of schedule conflicts, I finally got the chance to go out to the Chicago Comedy Company Theater in the Streets of Woodfield Mall and perform with them. I had a bit of a stomach thing on Saturday, so I didn't anything all day, so I may have been a bit loopy when I got out to the theater, but I had a great time. I know they've poured a ton of money into the place and they really have a nice space out there. I got to do the show with Steve and Mardy and it was fun to just hit a bunch of improv games.

My friend Matt, from the NY Neutrino, is touring the country with a hotel promo gig and he and the other improvisors on the same gig are trying to do improv shows in all their tour cities. I helped get them hooked up with a show at The Playground on Saturday night. They did a mini Armando and I did the monologue for them. Erica got some photos.

Pretty Lady with a Moustache and Man with One Gorilla Hand (and Timekeeper Willis) -- Photo by Noah Ginex

The show went pretty well. The house was a little light. At first I was a little nervous, and then I wasn't, and then I was, and then I wasn't and then the show was over. Erica commented afterwards that hosting you really notice all the moments when there's silence. I had noticed those moments, too, and really felt the need to fill them with chatter. Steve, Erica pointed out, seizes those moments and throws them back at the audience by just pausing and staring, which sounds weird, but if you've seen him, Sasha can really pull off. Next time (if there ever is a next time) I'd like to try playing with that kind of patience.

Anyway, lots and lots of spits, with more volume and spitting-on-other-people than I I've seen before. Especially good considering two of the comedians were trying out brand-new characters tonight.

Steve is going out of town for the weekend and has trusted us, us!, with the reins of Don't Spit the Water, the crazy live game show. It's quite an honor and we'll try not to destroy in one night (one Saturday night at 10:30 at the Playground) what it's taken 2 years to build.

The air-conditioning was ge-broke at the Playground on Saturday night, so it was mug-gy in there, but all of the performers at the Belmont Burlesque Revue stepped up to the plate and the whole show rocked.

And I include, immodestly, Gerdes and Reid in that assessment. We tried out our new characters (Pretty Lady with a Mustache and Gorilla in a Tux) and our new routine that we wrote at Midway Gate A-16 (Gorilla in a Tux setups up all the jokes in Gorilla-speak and Pretty Lady with a Mustache delivers the punch-lines). All covered up in my super-cheap/super-sweaty Gorilla mask, I could barely tell what was going on, but Erica guided the comedy-ship safely to shore.

You'll have a chance to see some similar characters when Gerdes and Reid host Don't Spit The Water in a few weeks (Saturday, June 10).

And as if this weekend weren't crazy enough with the whole making-a-movie thing, Erica has a KOKO show at the Playground tonight (Saturday) at 8 and then we're both comic guests at the Belmont Burlesque Revue at a quarter past midnight, doing a new bit that we wrote in the departure lounge at Midway, waiting to fly to Mississippi.

I mean, I really do see the value in preparing material and then honing and polishing it, like say through rehearsal. These are not radical statements for most theater artists, I know, but I've just done so much improv for so long. And, in all modesty, people seem to like the stuff I improvise. So, often, it seems easier to just improvise everything.

But sometimes I think I should work that whole "prepare and hone" muscle. And it's hard to acquire actual skills through improvisation. So when Erica gave me a ukulele for my birthday a couple months ago, I asked Steve to give me a guest slot for Don't Spit the Water with the working title "Ukulele guy". He did, and that gave me a deadline to learn to play at least one song on the ukulele and work up a character and routine to go along with it.

Well, I got busy, as always, and I learned a few chords and practiced them, but I kept dragging on learning an actual song. When I'd start looking at a song, I couldn't figure out the character and act that would frame signing the song. And when I'd think of what I wanted the character to be like, I couldn't figure out what song(s) to do.

And then two horrible things happened. The first was that I was looking for online ukulele lessons and I found this advice:

If you are still a poor player, you don't have to play. You are playing music not typwriting. Forget your fingering and song voice. The most important thing is to keep the rhythm and continue singing. This technique is very useful if you memorize only the first chords of some songs.

And then I was noodling around practicing the three chords I knew and I sang Erica a little song I made up, and she said, "that was lovely."

Well, damn, I might as well just improvise the damn thing, then.

So I did. I was kind of mortified to find out that the Humpnight Thumpers jug band would be playing before the show Saturday night, which meant that there would be actual musicians in the audience. And I planned out some little bits that I completely forgot as soon as I got on stage. So I talked a little, and made up three little songs, and people laughed, and I got off-stage.

Whew.

And hey, that picture way back up at the top: I dyed my hair black a few months ago to do a different character for Don't Spit the Water and it's grown out far enough that the roots are rather obvious, so it was definitely time for a hair cut. But since I was doing this show, I asked Erica to cut my hair "crazy" to make Morty that much more of an odd character, before we cut it for real on Sunday. She gave me this kind of wide mohawk and we both think it looks kinda cool, when it isn't spiked up to be all "kerazy," so I think I'm going to keep it for a few weeks (at least until I have to actually look professional for something).

I've been sitting in as "Comic #2" in Lavender Cabaret's Femme TV burlesque show for the past few months. I thought I was scheduled through the end of the month, but I guess I had missed a cast email, because the current run of the show is closing next week. Next week I'll be "Ukulele guy" (working title) in Don't Spit the Water, so I'll be missing the closing night.

As Comic #2, I really don't do that much in the show (shh... don't tell Franky) so I've had plenty of time to sit backstage and hang out with all the other performers, so I just wanted to give some shout-outs to all the cool cats: Tomas, Doug, Andrew and Erica, KC, Sean, Jared, Franky, Michelle, and all the dancers. Y'all rock.

Well, we're not really clowns. But we play them in one sketch. I just finished my 500 Clown workshop and, damn, that's some clowning.

Sean is Comic #1, which means, among other things, that he gets to dress up as a flight attendant. I'm Comic #2, which means that I get to sit backstage alot and watch Tomas practice magic tricks. I'm going to be in the show for the next few weeks (this week for sure, exact dates TDB) so come out to Lavender Cabaret's Femme TV to see me in a red nose. Among other things.

Photo by Erica Reid.

So on Saturday night I sat in on the Belmont Burlesque Revue as the on-stage stagehand, a role usually filled by Chris Biddle as Second Cousin Joe. I was Slick O'Donnell, Jack Midnight's bastard half-brother.

It's an odd job/role. I mean, it really is a job -- I was the house manager before the show, trying to get a sold-out crowd into the theater in an orderly and speedy fashion (and I realized as the show began that I hadn't been doing it in character -- which I don't think really mattered, and I don't think Chris does it either, but it suddenly seemed like a mistake.) -- and then I really was the stagehand, setting tables and chairs on stage and cleaning up after each act (and I was a human prop for one number). Other than that there's not much to do, but I was onstage the whole time. I tried to keep Slick engaged, without taking any focus. Noah told me that I was doing a "Billy Bob jaw thing" which I'm not even sure what it is, and I don't think I want to think about too much, lest I trigger the centipede's dilemma.

Tonight at the Belmont Burlesque Revue, I'll be filling in for "Second Cousin Joe" -- the on-stage stagehand -- as "Slick," Jack Midnight's nephew. Or something. Stop by the Playground at Midnight and see how much backstory we can fit in between sexy ladies dancing (Erica choreographed the new opening number), comedy, and magic.

Erica and I went to see Demetri Martin's sold out "These are Jokes" show at the Lakeshore Theater on Saturday night. The show was being recorded for a Comedy Central Records release, which continues to be one of my fascinations with standup recordings -- he was doing four shows and just, you know, trusting that out of those four shows he'd get a good album. Madness.

The aforementioned jokes were, indeed, funny. Demetri just tells jokes, none of which are longer than 3 or 4 sentences, so it was nice that he varied the evening up by setting some of the jokes to a drum-machine and glockenspiel backing, others to guitar noodlings, and yet another set to a waltz with Will Forte on backing vocals.

Leo Allen opened up for Demetri and I thought he looked familiar -- a quick Google this afternoon revealed that I'd seen the Comedy Central Presents of his comedy duo Slovin and Allen. Also funny stuff -- I'd like to see more of him.

And if you weren't sure we're in the 21st Century yet -- at the end of the show Demetri came back out onto stage and told us that his flight back to New York had been canceled and so he'd be in town on Sunday to do an in-store or signing somewhere -- and that to find out where, we should check his MySpace page.

...

Erica had to leave the show early to go do KOKO at The Playground. Unfortunately, when she got there she discovered that the heat was out and the show ended up being canceled. Double-boo. And that meant that the Don't Spit the Water show was canceled as well, which means the world missed the debut of Clockwatcher Samson. I even bought a new wrestling mask at Chicago Comics and everything. Triple-boo.

(New Chicago Metroblogger Nicolette was at the later Demetri Martin show -- I noticed the drunk guys she talks about when I was on my way out.)

Your FuzzyCo weekend:

The FuzzyCo short film Dog will be screened, along with other "Best of Split Pillow" selections, at the Around the Coyote Arts Festival at Rodan (1530 N Milwaukee) at 6pm on Friday, February 10, 2006 and Sunday, February 12, 2006.

(I think I've remarked before that for a producer of mostly live theater, films are this odd thing that they're still there months or years later, unlike a stage show. And they can go places without you. Dog was selected as a Best Of for this festival without me having to lift a finger. (Jason of Split Pillow is, I'm sure, working like a dog*. Which is one of the reasons he's great.))

Friday night at 11 pm FuzzyCo and Lavender Cabaret present SINema at the Improv Kitchen. People are making noises about extended runs already (the show has sold out both weeks, so reservations are recommended), but we're still only contracted through the end of February so I'm going to say Only Three Weeks Left!

Saturday night at 10:30 pm at the Playground it's your favorite crazy live game show, Don't Spit the Water. This week Erica will be performing as Cutie Bumblesnatch and I'll be filling in for Timekeeper Willis. As Clockwatcher Fuzzy or something.

* No pun intended.

So, this late night show is chewing up a bunch of my time (video-editing, as I've noted before, is just time-consuming) but it's not the only artistic outlet going on at FuzzyCo.

For one, I'm coaching a new improv ensemble called Sass Patrol. It's some old friends from Documentary South and some others -- just 5 of them altogether. Part of the reason they asked me to coach them was that I've got experience with small groups, and indeed we've already had rehearsals with just 4 and 2 of the group there. They're letting me go wild with an improv-math heavy form, so I'm happy as a clam. No shows planned or scheduled anywhere soon, but you can be sure I'd let you know.

And I'm being taught a little, as I'm finally taking the 500 Clown workshop on "Risk, Play, and Relationship". I've wanted to take this class for a year or so, but I kept thinking "oh, I should see if signup for the next session is available" a week or two after that next session had already started. But Erica helped me keep on top of it this go-round and I had my first class on Monday. I came home sweaty and achy (in the good way) and full, already, of ideas about playfulness.

And I've got a bunch of comedy bits coming up -- I just realized I have a show 3 Saturdays this month -- two different burlesque shows and a Don't Spit the Water appearance (with Erica).

But I've been thinking it's time again to put out some feelers about performing improv (remember that stuff) with some group (of which this sentence is one of those feelers). Shaun's job kept Bare off everyone's radar last year and we haven't really gotten back on that horse. Neutrino Project is off until this summer (and I should be doing a bunch of producer-y stuff for that right now, but I'm not). It'd be nice to find some group I could just play with, and not have to arrange all the shows myself. Oh, how I'd love to be lazy.

Update: We've renamed the show SINema.

Dirty Movie Night is a MetroMix "Best Bet" in today's RedEye (or as Jared said last night, "we're number two on the PowerPick, with a Star"). I'm not sure I actually understand that first sentence of the blurb, but I do encourage you to come and "get your dose".

And again, criminey. We actually ran through the whole show last night, in Shaun's living room, and tonight we tech at the Improv Kitchen for the first (and last, pre-show) time. I'm going to be tweaking the video right up until opening night, which is, I guess, regular. I'm always doing everything at the last minute anyway, so all that this show schedule has done is let me skip the weeks where I feel the nagging sense of dread that I should be working on the show, but don't.

And I'll throw in here that Saturday night you can come and see Erica and I try out some new characters at Don't Spit the Water (check the front page to see our heads wiggle back and forth). We'll be (versions of) Maya and Miguel (and I'm suddenly thinking that if I'm going to do things like link to their site that maybe we should have called them Daya and Diguel or something).

Update: We've renamed the show SINema.

Well, Franky has put down the deposit, so I suppose I can start talking about the show. Lavender Cabaret and FuzzyCo are proud to bring you a new late night comedy-video-sexy extravaganza: Dirty Movie Night.

OK, first off, because this is you guys and not a press release, I've got to say that I'm trying to come up with a quick way to tell people that the dirty movies really aren't that dirty. We're going to be working with movies like 1977's Cheerleader Beach Party which has a lot of hare-brained cheerleader schemes and a bit of topless cheerleader showering. I don't want people scared off because they think the movies might be hard-core or anything.

And mostly it's going to be us (us being my talented cast, which includes Shaun Himmerick, Jared Logan, Erica Reid, and Andrea Swanson) making fun of those movies. We're going to be doing a whole grab bag of making-fun-of-movies styles, from commentary (ala Mystery Science Theater) to dubbing (ala Cinema 2.0) to short form improv and drinking games. Whee.

The show is going to run Friday nights at 11 pm at the Improv Kitchen (3419 N Clark), starting January 27.

Last weekend was the 1 year anniversary of Don't Spit the Water. The show was followed by a special performance by the Hump Night Thumpers. Which, as we all know, leads to one of two things:

Can you tell that Erica is excited to be playing with the jug band?

Sure he's Chicago Underground Comedy legend Tony Sam, but to me he's just a sucker who needs a smackdown.

Just another ol' Don't Spit the Water photo... Bwha? Yup, that's Erica as Sasha and Tyler ("Big Dummy") as the Noob. The Halloween surprise was us all playing each other's parts. I was Cutie Bumblesnatch (photos if Kate ever sends them to me).

We'll all be at tomorrow night's DSTW, but back in our regular places. Tomorrow is the one-year anniversary of the show and will feature the Hump Night Thumpers jug band and a parade of comedians from the last year.

And tonight I'll be at the Music Box Theater at midnight for a showing of Ted McGillicutty, Man of Action (and other films from Image Union's 28 year history). They've been including Ted as one of the "highlights" on the promo emails they're sending out and it's such an honor. We made a movie and people like it!

Tonight (Friday, October 28) is the closing night of the Neutrino Project. For reals this time -- no crazy last minute extensions. And, as I always say, we may never do this show again. Ever. Closing night festivities likely at The Spoke.

Tomorrow (Saturday, October 29) Erica and I are moving half a block. If you'd like to help out, we'd love to have you. I'll be getting started around 9 am, but it'll be lots of short trips with the pickup truck, so there's plenty of opportunity to stop by and help any time during the day. If you participated in the Great Moving Crisis of 2004, rest assured that nearly everything is already packed in boxes and assembled in a staging room. It's like we planned ahead or something.

Tomorrow night, exhausted from the move, Erica and I will be dragging our sorry asses to Don't Spit the Water at 10:30 pm to participate in a very special Halloween show. Can you guess what's so special about it? Hint...

Mainly, I just wanted to write that name down somewhere, and here is as good as anywhere else -- I can find my own website easier than I can find my moleskine.

The last time I was a guest comedian for Don't Spit the Water I was "Kevin Higgins", a shock comic who realizes in the course of his set that all of his material is completely inappropriate for this audience, but soldiers on nonetheless. I picked the name because I wanted him to sound completely ordinary. One of my coworkers informed me this week that he had been searching for a friend of his, named, of course, Kevin Higgins, and found me instead.

Today I was trying to describe a standup comedian whom I can no longer remember the name of, and I used the name Hempertable Mostelfactory. If you Google that, there are no results and Google asks if you meant "Importable Qstylefactory", which is equally euphonious. I think that may be the name of Hempertable's first album.

I'll be guest comedianing at DSTW again on Nov 12, and I just may be Hempertable Mostelfactory. Whatever he does.

If you go to the page for the very special Halloween Don't Spit the Water, you may notice some slight differences in your favorite Don't Spit the Water characters. Spooooky differences.

And then after the ACM show and a quick taco with Ben and Emily, we ran home to pack for our trip to New York. Don't Spit the Water had a show at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Friday night. Erica was performing as Cutie Bumblesnatch and I went along to help out. And hey, New York!

Well, hey, rainy-all-day-but-we-walked-around-all-day-anyway New York. Boo. And I forgot to bring an extra pair of pants, which was a problem when my only pair was soaking wet just before showtime. But I bought a new pair, that I kinda needed anyway. Yay!

After the show, we headed over to the Triple Crown and ran into a bunch of my Neutrino peeps and former Chicagoans. New York is such a small town.

Steev has pictures from the trip. I just sent him some shots from the actual show, hopefully he'll put those up. Oh, and I have a little Flickr set I just made.

Steve has posted video from the episode of Talkin' Funny I was on.

I had a good time on Talkin' Funny last night. I wasn't sure how serious to try and take it, but Erica did a great job of weaving between actually answering Sasha's questions and just inhabiting the world those guys live in -- their little dance break was hilarious. Though, by the time she was on, all 20 of our viewers had switched to the Sox game.

One of the first call-in questions I got was about my still cameras and it threw me a little and I started babbling about my love for crappy/odd cameras like my Lomo (which is broken) and my Holga. I'm sure what the caller really wanted to know was that I shoot most of my pictures with a Sony F707. It's a four-year old camera, but I looove it. I've even tried out its update, the F828, but I didn't like it as much. My next most-used camera is my weensey Sony U30 -- it's got no zoom, slow auto-focus and lousy low-light performance. But it's about the size of a pack (and a half) of Hubba Bubba so I carry it just about everywhere. I also have a Nikon D1 that I got on a bargain, but I rarely use it because it's heavy as a brick and it's got a really loud shutter, both of which are annoying for live performance photography. Then some scattered film Nikons and a nice Minolta. And a box of crappy sub-phonecam digital cameras.

So, out of all those cameras, the only one I had with me last night was... the poop-tactular camera built into my Treo 600. Didn't stop me from taking a bunch of pictures.

It's a week chock-full of Fuzzy, but in unusual ways...

Tonight (Tuesday, 10/11) I'm going to be on Talkin' Funny on Chicago Cable Access, CAN-21 at 7:30 pm. Talkin' Funny is hosted by Don't Spit the Water's Sasha and the Noob (in character). I'll be talking about producing non-mainstream improv shows like the Neutrino Project or Cinema 2.0 and the show takes audience calls (though, hopefully not as many as they took last week when Don Hall was on) so if you have a question, call on in.

Wednesday night (10/12), I'll be shooting a short movie around the intersection of Division, Milwaukee, and Ashland (doing Neutrino Project-style in-camera editing) and then taking it inside the Chopin Theatre (1543 W. Division) where it will be shown and improvisationally scored as part of Accessible Contemporary Music's Sound of Silent Film. I'm a little nervous because I've stuck to my improv guns and resisted every opportunity to prepare material ahead of time. Erica and I will be showing up at the Division Blue Line stop at 6:30 with a camera and a blank miniDV tape and minds open to the possibilities of the neighborhood. Eek.

Friday night (10/14) Don't Spit the Water will be performing in New York at the UCB Theatre (307 W 26th) at 8 pm. Erica (as Cutie Bumblesnatch) is one of the featured comedians. I'm tagging along to help out with gear and video cameras and such. And if you see someone in a gorilla costume...

Saturday night (10/15) we'll be back in Chicago to see Mike Doughty and his band at Park West. You'll be able to recognize me -- I'll be the one in the audience.

(Thanks to Noah for taking pictures of me.)

We start out gross in the next paragraph and talk about the funny stuff in the one after that, dear friends, so skip ahead if you're squeamish.

I'm typing a little slow tonight. In the photo above you can see the yellow band-aid on my left index finger -- after a long day with the Reids around Chicago, I chopped a healthy chunk out of my finger trying to cut up an apple for a pre-show snack. Boo. So my "show preparation" time became "apply direct pressure to stop the hideous flow of blood" time. I meant to take pictures before I put a bandage on to send to Show Me Your Wound, but I forgot in the heat of the moment. (Though really my little chunk doesn't hold a candle to the bloodfest on that site.)

So I was the "guest comedian" at Don't Spit the Water tonight and I tried out a new character -- stand-up comic Kevin Higgins (I'm fascinated lately with character names that sound absolutely ordinary.) I was a little nervous about the whole bit, because it was basically a one-note bit, repeated with variations, but it seemed to go well. And afterwards some people who are actual, successful stand-ups said they liked it. So, yay! And Cutie debuted a new bit called Jackets that went over really well, too. She wears, get this, jackets!

I just got back from Guest Coaching at Open Court. Calling it "coaching" is generous -- you have about 5 minutes to warm up your randomly selected team and introduce them to whatever "form" you've come up with, and then you play with the team. ("Giving pointers," Bob Ladewig says. "How, if I'm in the show?" I asked. "By doing good work," Bob says.)

Regardless, my team, "Dickless Dickprov," embraced my ridiculous rule and I had a blast and I think everyone else did, too. "Dickprov," because our team was 10 guys and one woman. "Dickless," because of my rule -- editing could only happen from within a scene -- no one could be a dick and edit a scene before the players in the scene felt they were done with it. And when a scene was edited, by one of the players breaking character and telling the audience, "well, that's enough of that," the rest of the team applauded from the sidelines and yell, "good scene!"

Thanks, Dickless Dickprov, you made me proud.

I've been told that that spider thing will be on the CBS 2 News tonight at 10 PM.

If you only go to one comedy show this weekend, it should probably be one of the Laughing Matters: Katrina Relief shows.

If you go to two shows, well then you should hit up the special Saturday midnight Don't Spit the Water show, which is a fund-raiser for their planned trip to New York to do a show at the UCB Theater. Rumor has it that a certain Ms. Cutie Bumblesnatch will be performing.

If you see three shows, my goodness that's a lot, and I'd be pleased as punch if the third show were the Neutrino Project tonight. We've only got four shows left. I think I'm going to wear a tux tonight. How could that not entice you?

It looks like I'll be "guest coaching" at Open Court at the Playground tonight next Thursday (September 15) at 10:30 pm. I'm not 100% sure what that means I'll be doing, but it's bound to be something.

I've got a half-written post trying to catch y'all up on our first four Neutrino Project shows, so I'll just add last Friday's to that list and make it five. (Which means we're officially more-than-halfway through the run. Four shows left in Chicago. A few weeks ago I'd tell people they had "plenty of chances to see the show". Now it's, "hurry, we close soon!")

Anyway, I really want to mention two other shows that took place this weekend: both in front of really light holiday-weekend audiences, but both really excellent. On Saturday night, KOKO did a show at the Playground. Normally a 5-lady ensemble, conflicts meant that they were down to 2: Erica and Andrea Swanson. They thought about bowing out, but went ahead and did the show and I'm glad they did. They did one long scene with two college roommates talking in a bathroom, with some hilarious delayed reactions. Really strong, patient, funny stuff.

And at midnight we did our penultimate Documentary South (also at the Playground, as part of DSI's Afterparty show). We were also light - down from 8 to 5, and we've previously had energy problems with that midnight slot and our rather thinky form, but Saturday we just brought it. We presented the ultimately-interlocking stories of an elderly couple and a ratings-hungry cooking show. I, personally, finally broke out of the weird shell that has kept me pretty light in these shows. Modesty aside, it was a really good show. There's only one show left (next Saturday, September 17), which will be your last chance to see this very strong cast do an innovative improvisational form.

Erica and I (that is -- "Gerdes and Reid") will be joining the lovely ladies of the Belmont Burlesque Revue this weekend to tell some drrrty jokes. (Jokes about Christina Aguilera? No. Except now that I've said that... maybe.)

Belmont Burlesque Revue
Saturday at a quarter past midnight
The Playground, 3209 N Halsted

Some weekend suggestions from FuzzyCo HQ:

The exhibit at the Lincoln Park Zoo that Kate did all the art for has opened. You can go visit anytime the zoo is open, but we're headed over tonight to gawk.

Tomorrow (Saturday) night at 10:30 is opening night for the new run of Don't Spit the Water. You'd be a fool not to go. Reason for non-foolishness Number One - the three comedians are all great - Erica as Cutie Bumblesnatch, Robert Buscemi as Earl LaRue, and Nick Vatterott as The Interragator. Reason of non-foolishness Number Two - Sasha and the Noob puppets. Most Important Reason Number Three - this show only is FREE.

And hey, if you've made it out to the Playground to see a FREE show, you might as well stick around and pay for Documentary South at midnight. Chris Biddle said, "The cast is confident and smart. ... The Documentary Style of play also works, really, really well. ... I really, really enjoyed myself at the show. I am recomending the show, without reservations. ... Do yourself a favor and check it out. ... Congrats cast and crew on a genuinely entertaining show. It's the good stuff." And he should know, because he's on the Internet.

I was going to be all "let's talk about reviews" but that should just tip you off right there that I (we) got a bad review because nobody talks about the general concept of reviews when they got a good one -- they just say "The Cincinnati Herald says we roxx0r!" So let's pull the band-aid off fast and note that Jack Helbig says we suxx0r in the Reader today.

Which is very confusing, because it was a good show, both in terms of what we trying to accomplish with our use of [doc/mock]umentary techniques and from a pure-entertainment-value perspective. Of course I'm biased, but I think I'm telling it straight. Between you and me and the other guy who reads this site (hi Don!) I'll tell you that the cast thinks that Nina Metz' review of the show last week in the Tribune was fair -- it was a lack-luster show. This week was, in our collective opinion, not lack-luster. In fact it was rather lustrous. Shiny, even.

So you've got one more chance to see us at the reasonable hour of 10:30 pm, before we start our odd little run of every-other-week-at-midnight as part of DSI's Afterparty slots at the Playground. Please do come.

If you've been waiting to see Documentary South, tomorrow night is the night to go, my pretties, you little flying-monkeys, you. Tomorrow night will be the first time we have the full cast doing the show, and with this cast that means you're in for 9 (nine) buckets-o'-fun.

Nina Metz reviewed the show for the Chicago Tribune and it came out in today's paper. I wasn't there, so I can't comment on anything in the show, but I do want to have a quick round of Fuzzy-Bites-the-Hand-and-Quibbles-With-Reviews. Nina says the show is performed by "the improv team known as Dirty South Improv, an offshoot of a team from Chapel Hill, NC". Dirty South Improv is a production company, based in both Chicago and Chapel Hill. DSI is producing a show called Documentary Show, which is performed by an ensemble that was cast specifically for the show. I just wanted to clear up those relationships.

And this is definitely an aside (because I know DSI uses the word "team," so I'm not blaming Nina for using it), and I know ImprovOlympic uses the word, but I'm beginning to feel about "team" the same way I do about "skit" -- it's an oddly demeaning little word and I think improv needs to outgrow it. Ensemble or company or group or, yes even troupe*, all are preferable to me.

Anyway, here's that review.

Update: After hearing Dan use the word "team" 600 times in rehearsal to describe the cast, I realized that really I should keep quiet about these things. Usually when I do one of my "quibbles" it's for a show I produced, so I know exactly what information the press has been given. This time, I've never even seen the press release.

This is the official Documentary South cast photo. Too bad I look like a goon. Our opening night went well... a sold-out house and people said nice things. And those parts of the show (the, you know, beginning and end) that we had tossed in at the last rehearsal, actually went pretty well.

So tomorrow night you have a choice (if you were thinking of seeing this show at all, of course). Erica and I will be out-of-town (a wedding in Southern Indiana) so you probably would want to wait until next week or the week after (I making a rash assumption that because you're reading my site, you have some interest in me) but there is a coupon that gets you a half-price ticket, but it's only good for tomorrow night. So which is more important to you -- seeing me, or being a cheapskate?

Here's the cast of Documentary South, documenting the heck out of Ryan Gilmour.

As I've mentioned, the opening of Doc South got moved up a few weeks because of a sudden space availability at the Playground. So we had an extra rehearsal last night to make sure we're all ready for our opening night this weekend. I think that, in fact, we are. If this cast improvises half as well as they dance, we're set.

We made the last big push and got Erica all moved out of her apartment this weekend. All moved out of there and all moved in here. Well, "all moved in" as in everything of hers is inside the building. Not all unpacked and sorted and filed. But then, I'm not all unpacked from moving in here a year ago.

But what I want to tell you about is a loose brick in the wall at ComedySportz.

Documentary South opens this week, a few weeks ahead of the original schedule, and so Dan was pushing us pretty hard at rehearsal tonight. When I'm standing "off-stage," which in the "Colonial Room" rehearsal space at ComedySportz means at the back of the room, I try so hard to listen to what my fellow improvisors are creating in scenes and absorb the feel of the piece and imagine how my characters could contribute, but without getting too much in my head and so on and so forth... but I'm a fiddler and there's this loose brick in the doorway of the room and I stand in the doorway and put my hand on the brick. And I move the brick out as far as it goes (which isn't very far -- it's completely loose, but it's trapped by the doorframe) and put it back in. And take it out and put it back in. And take it out and put it back in.

I think I had a good rehearsal tonight, but man that's a fidgetable brick.

Lookee! PR on this show just keeps happening without me! Whee! We've got posters and a Metromix listing and everything.

It's fun being in a show that I'm not producing... I just get to sit back and watch things like posters and publicity and venue rentals happen around me. DSI has leapt upon a sudden gap in the Playground's rental schedule and so Documentary South will be opening in a week and a half. We'll run every Saturday in June at 10:30 and then have an encore performance the next Saturday (July 2) at midnight.

Here's the cast of Documentary South - Chicago. Hmm... that sounds like it's a documentary about the south side. Here's the Chicago cast of DSI's Documentary South. This is not our press photo - I just asked Dan to snap a quick picture of us at rehearsal last night.

back row (l to r) Sammy Tamimi, Ryan Gilmour, Fuzzy Gerdes, Brad Dunn, Mike Higgins
front row (l to r) Christopher Alvarado, Kristen Studard, Erica Reid, Ryan Stone

OMG!

I found The Target Shoots First! All my various finding-rare-movies resources had failed me, but today I found it... on Erica's living room coffeetable! We were packing up her house today and she said held up a hand-labeled video and tape and asked, "hey, what was the name of that movie you were looking for?"

Her friend Rick had given her a copy for her birthday and it had gotten buried on the coffeetable. And then we got cast in Doc South and I started going documentary-crazy.

The coffeetable! Ridiculous.

As usual, I am posting this too late for any real PR benefit, but you're the sort of person who a) reads blogs on Friday night or Saturday afternoon and b) lives in Chicago and c) is a Fuzzy-fan, then you might be interested to know that tomorrow night is the last Chicago Comedy Company show at The Playground for the foreseeable future. The demands of CCC's corporate work, classes, and their new suburban theatre means that CCC will be stepping down from active membership in the Playground.

It's been fun playing with CCC for this last year (I'm in an odd little arrangement where I only perform with CCC at the Playground, not as a part of any of their other activities) so come watch us before we become "emeritus" members of the Playground. We probably won't be doing any big blow-out, just the kind of fun-messing-around we've been doing all along -- at our last show, while we were warming-up we decided to do a Half-Bat (alternating scenes in the dark, Bat-style, and in the light). Whee!

Nearly every statement in this sentence needs to have a parenthetical "I think" after it, but I'm looking for a documentary that was made in the mid-90s by a guy who was interning at a marketing firm and he brought his video camera with him to work every day and after awhile people started forgetting that he was filming and were just... honest. I've googled like crazy and I can't figure out the name of this film to even try and find a copy. Do you know?

Update: Nick graciously let me know that the name of the documentary is The Target Shoots First -- it was released in 2000 and seems to have had some success on the film festival circuit, and even had it's own website (now defunct), but I can't seem to find a copy anywhere (and I usually consider myself pretty good at looking for rare movies -- once I know their name). So now the question becomes, do you have a copy of The Target Shoots First that you'd sell or loan me?

Update 2: I found it.

Last night we had our second of two relatively-intense rehearsals for Documentary South. In the course of just 6 hours, we got all the way through the different parts of this fairly complex form and performed three sped-up iterations of the complete thing. And now Ross is on his way back to North Carolina and Dan takes over rehearsals for the next nine weeks, during which (I assume) we'll be tackling each segment of the form in more detail.

Documentary South, I learned, because this is an evolution of a UCB Theatre form called Documentary. My understanding of the genealogy is that Billy Merritt at the UCBT developed a Harold-based, Mockumentary-inspired form, called it Documentary, and taught it as a class that became a performance piece. Direction of the performance group was taken over by Porter Mason for awhile, and then Porter moved to Chapel Hill and began teaching, among other things, the Documentary for Dirty South Improv. Then Ross White of DSI was going to teach a class the Documentary, but the class schedule meant that he would only have 4 classes instead of 6 or 8, only 2 hours a class instead of 3, and the students taking the class were of a great variety of improv experience levels. So he made some changes to the form that, in his words, "were meant to simply the form, but probably made it a lot more complex." Over the course of working with that class and then some subsequent classes and performance groups, the form evolved far enough away from the original form that everyone thought it deserved its own name.

And the cast, oh the cast. What a fun group.

Christopher Alvarado
Brad Dunn
Fuzzy Gerdes
Ryan Gilmour
Mike Higgins
Erica Reid
Ryan Stone
Kristen Studard
Sammy Tamimi

Some of these folks I know and some are new to me, but the only one I've worked with much at all is Erica, and while we've been doing our pseudo-vaudeville stuff lately, we haven't improvised together since A Day in the Life, which was three years ago. So, new people to play with and being directed (which I haven't had in a while) -- it's a fun new world of play before me. About the only thing that feels old hat is "a complicated form centered on an event" -- because that's what A Day in the Life and Eventé were both all about.

When last I left you, I was on my way to record Superpunk's Phillip Mottaz say a grand total of 4 words to edit into my short intro film for the CIF mainstage. I got to Shiel Park just as Phillip was about to start teaching a sketch class for the festival, so I we gave those 12 young students a sneak peak at the super-professionalism of the Chicago comedy scene, as I pointed a video camera at Phillip's face and he tried to time his lines between the shouts of the warm-up taking place in the next classroom.

The editing went fine, though, and I got a couple of compliments on the film. Hopefully they were sincere.

Friday night I bounced back-and-forth between my DVD-player-button-pushing duties at the Athenaeum and shows at the Playground. Press play at 7:30, run to the Playground to perform with CCC at 8:00, run back to the Athenaeum to press play at 10:00, run back to the Playground for the closing night of Don't Spit the Water.

Saturday night I actually stuck around to see the Cast of Anchorman do an Armando with Bill Kurtis as the monologist before splitting for the Playground and the Belmont Burlesque Revue. Saturday afternoon, you will be as dismayed as I was to learn, the entire front lens assembly of my trusty Sony F707 just came off. Boo. So I took pictures, but it was with a Nikon D1 that I've had sitting around for awhile but hadn't really ever taken to, my F707 was so luverly. The two cameras feel very different to operate -- the F707 is light, and with the tiltable camera body, I tend to compose shots on the back screen; the D1 is heavy as all get out, and it's a true SLR, so every time you take a shot, you can hear and feel the mirror assembly getting out of the way of the lens. Very visceral.

Sunday night Erica and I went and auditioned for DSI's Documentary South. Despite (or because of?) my cold-ravaged voice, I was cast. Because of her talent and charm, Erica was, too. Yay, us. Much like FuzzyCo did when we produced Armando Diaz' Eventé, Ross White, the creator of the show, is in town for a few days and will be doing two intensive rehearsals with us tonight and tomorrow, after which the show will be in the hands of director Dan Telfer.

I want to give a shout out to all the folks who did our "Improv for Actors" workshop in Phoenix yesterday. I had a blast with you guys and that workshop really helped me solidify some ideas I have about my improv philosophies. And, since I'm never one to abandon an indescipherable catch phrase, you've likely given me the title of my next (first) book.

3:30 workshop folks, you rock, too. I'm still so JAZZED about everything in Phoenix.

Tonight, Chicago Comedy Company will be kicking it at the Playground, with special guest sit-in Erica Reid. (Jovial Hayes, Atticus Finch, and Inside Vladimir also perform.)

Tomorrow night at a quarter past midnight Ms. Reid and I will bring our urbane variety of vulgar comedy to the Belmont Burlesque Revue.

You should come see these shows.

I've been having one of my periodic "What, again, was the point of doing this theater stuff?" moods, combined with an (un)healthy dose of "people the same age as me are much more successful than I am". And if I don't know what my goals are, then how can I compare myself to anyone, even in an unhealthy fashion?

Of course, I have a lot of fun being on stage. And that's likely reason enough. But then I feel like if I planned out some of the ways and times I get on stage, I could increase that fun, but I'm a little bit of a loss about how exactly that will out pan out.

And then I have to wade through conversations like I had with one of my New York-based coworkers at lunch who can't seem to grasp that just doing it for fun might be enough and keeps giving me off-the-wall suggestions of the ways I could be making money with this comedy stuff. "There's a market for cheap sitcoms!" "Ummm... OK. I'll keep that in mind."

So let's just throw here some links to some stuff I've been thinking about in association with this stuff:

Danny O'Brien asks the musical question, How many people do you need to be famous for? looking at the notion of thinly distributed fame.

Ani DiFranco on success

Hugh MacLeod's How to Be creative

Dave Eggers on "Keeping it Real" (or here)

Jesus Jones' Mike Edwards on cashing in vs. selling out

This last weekend, the Belmont Burlesque Revue made the front page of section 2 of the Reader. They've had pretty good audiences, but this weekend's show was sold out and they had to turn a couple dozen people away (the Playground is all careful about fire codes and such, so we couldn't have people sitting in the aisles or anything).

Here's Gerdes and Reid from the Holiday Spectacular. How can two such nice looking people tell such dirty jokes? Practice, my friends, practice.

Your next chance to see the Belmont Burlesque is at the end of January. Don't risk another sellout! Camp out now!

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Philadelphia and I just emailed Shaun a complete script for our upcoming sketch show. Not necessarily done, but complete in the sense that there are no more places in the script where it says "insert brilliant sketch here" or "this is where the big speech happens" or such.

Shaun and I got accepted to Chicago Sketch Fest a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving on the basis of some old material, but we set out to write a whole new show just for Sketch Fest. It's been a time period marked by a week-long business trip for Shaun, a trip to Texas for me, and now this work trip to Philly. So we've been doing a lot of our collaboration over email. Which feels a little odd since we live in the same house. And have I mentioned the part about us usually doing improv?

Anyway, I'm very proud tonight at reaching this milestone. I think we've got a great concept for the show (it's a whole show rather than a series of unrelated sketches. Well, there are unrelated sketches, but they're framed in pretty tight.) and now we just have to execute. Which has to wait until I get back to Chicago. And until after I get some sleep tonight.

K. and I went out to Arlington Heights to see the Second City Tourco show at the Metropolis last night. From what I understand, it's the first time a Tourco show has done original material, so I was interested to see what they'd come up with. Many funny bits is the answer.

I was there with several Sirens, and Bob Kulhan, so Molly invited us to join the cast for their improv set. She introduced us as "an improv group all the way from Laurel Springs, New Jersey -- Quibbles and Bits!" Comedy gold. I did a prat fall off the audience suggestion of "Fall" and I think I bruised a rib. Must work on the physical comedy.