Ironman Improv [2/19/2005]
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: Impro Theatre LA - www.theatresports.com
Topic: Improv
What do you get when you take some of the top Improv educators in the nation, add 12 ready, willing and able impro students and put them together for 8 hours in a work studio? Nuclear Impro Fusion!

Stephen Kearin - Object and Space Work - it's all in the details.

Jennifer Eolin - Organic Improv - working with what you have and what's there.

Michele Spears - Improvisation from the Neck Down - a concentrated dose of F2.

Brian Lohmann - Improvised Shakespearean Villains and Tyrants - how to create the ultimate anti-improv characters.

Floyd Van Buskirk - Improvising from Absolutely Nothing - think 1 improvisor + and empty stage and no subject, theme, or objects. It can be done!

And finally, an all-out TheatreSports(tm) match conducted by Seth Brown with a round-robin mix-up of all 16 players. (one team 1 was in nailed 5 wins in a row!)

Other notables in attendance - Dan O'Conner (World Cup Comedy), Bob Kryczko and Bob Kryczko (courtesy of Ventura Area TS), and Jo McGinley herself.

More than anything could be imagined - absolutely over-the-top!

World Cup Comedy Live [2/12/2005]
Mood:  lucky
Now Playing: PAX TV and www.acmecomedy.com
Topic: Improv
A rock the house live recreation of PAX TV's hit show World Cup Comedy was brought to the live stage tonight at the ACME, thanks to Dan O?Connor and Mary Gallagher hosting, Stephen Kearin revisiting the Interviewer, and hosting 7 of the national finalists in the latest WCC Talent Search, with 9 of the returning players from the original Series 1 cast (including my prof Michele Spears, and Kari Coleman).

Totally Hot!

Silver Screen Unscripted - 2/11/2005
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: ACME Theatre - Fridays at 8 PM - www.acmecomedy.com
Topic: Improv
Fractured Flickers... Mystery Science Theatre 3000... The Narration Game...

Take 8 improv talents, sit them in front of video clips ranging from cartoons to spaghetti westerns and what do you get? Improv Comedy with a multi-media twist.

Needs some work at direction and staging so that the audience can see the talent performing (instead of the backs of their heads), but otherwise pretty good stuff. And give that poor foley artist more things to play with!

This was a Preview show - scheduled to launch early in March.

Eleemosynary at the McKinley Arts & Crafts Center [Reno, NV 2/10/2005]
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: http://www.theatercoalition.org/article_display.php?article_key=383
Topic: Drama
Happened to be in Reno - caught a wonderful local staging by Stephanie Richardson of Eleemosynary (by Lee Blessing) starring 3 great teenaged talents - Weston Spann (Echo), Kristan Brown (Artie) and Taylor Thomas (Dorothea).

Lead is was by Stefan Ballard-Reisch performing Stream of Conscience 1992 (by Brian Frishman). Very nice solo work.

Also playing (for the next 3 months) at the Bruka Theatre is a large production of Amadeus, which is gathering pretty high reviews for its fullness and complexity of production.

Review at: http://www.newsreview.com/issues/reno/2005-02-10/theater.asp

Liquid Radio Theatre - [2/3/2005]
Mood:  cool
Now Playing: ACME Theatre - http://www.acmecomedy.com
Tonight's cast - Travis Oates, Robert Covarrubias, Kristen Trucksess, Dave Cox, Jesse Mackey, Matt Olsen, Steve Benaquist (Foley). A not bad, could be improved act set, Steve's better as a player than foley (needed much more time to familiarize with the props).

Otherwise a solid performance of The Mystery Train of Rainbow Gulch (also known as Macchu Picchu).

http://www.liquidradioplayers.com

Fellowship extended *AGAIN* - New Venue - The MET
EXTENDED and MOVED to NEW VENUE after POPULAR DEMAND!

A hilarious musical parody of the movie "The Fellowship of the Ring". Featuring 12 original songs. You'll see barefooted tap dancing Hobbits, an elf and human singing an 80's power ballad, and a terrifying creature of shadow and flame performing his sequined studded cabaret number. If you are a fan of "The Lord of the Rings", a fan of musicals, or a fan of laughing till it hurts, Fellowship! is too much fun to miss.

Look to the LEFT side menu and under PICK A PLAY- Select Fellowship - The MET


https://www.plays411.com/website/htmlconsumer/play_info.asp

Opens
Thursday, February 3, 2005

Closes
Saturday, March 19, 2005

Runs
Thurs, Fri, Sat 8 pm


Reservations
(323) 960-7774

Tickets
$15 Thurs, Fri, $20 Sat

MET Theatre
Multiple Stages
1089 N. Oxford Ave
Hollywood, CA 90029

LV Summary [We Will Rock You / Mamma Mia / Society of Seven 1/24-26/05]
We Will Rock You - Paris Hilton (no relation...) Las Vegas - Queen tribute - strong voiced, though the male lead (playing Galileo Figaro) was straining his highs. Scaramouche was played by a clonette of Les Miz's Cosette - nice delicate touch. Story drives the musical - songs fit in where they can. Lots of set decor in a future-trash ghetto setting. Lots of US pop references. A little bit overly staged, but musically sound.

Mamma Mia - Mandalay Bay LV - ABBA tribute. Power voiced, female lead playing Donna performed her best during The Winner Takes it All. Light sets with great lighting and stage disco subflooring. Good reason for the continued success here. Strong comedic improv work by the cast.

Society of Seven with Lani Misalucha - the filipina has a strong voice, good air, and tends to over-belt (ala Whitney Houston) and delay her starts (Liza Minelli does this, whereas Melissa Manchester and Bette Midler do not) - strongest impressions she did were Celine Dion and Barbara Streisand. But this act is all about Tony, Bert, Gary, Wayne, Hoku, Roy and Randy - they've been at this for over 30 years and the talent shows. Along with the usual Vegas Rat Pack skits, the foreshortened Lion King and Phantom of the Opera acts made for another solid showing. Schedule updates on the SOS website - met with the fellows, who let me know that Bert's wife is doing the official website (which is 20MB worth of flash-enabled graphics.)

Acme Day Players at the ACME Comedy Theatre [1/22/05]
Interesting stuff - 4 acts of single act comedic plays written, rehearsed and staged within 24-hours of the performance. This evening: solid writing, some very talented comedic acting, and premise development that was quite daring and provocative. Cool stuff - currently scheduled to play for the next 5 Saturdays at 10 p.m. www.acmecomedy.com

Love Tapes at the Sacred Fools Theatre [1/21/05]
Nicely performed comedy penned by Steven Banks and Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller). Starring Julie Mullen and Dean Cameron. Interesting format - 2 audience-participation monologues followed by the team scenes. Lots of set intricacy and prop work. www.sacredfools.org

The Phantom of the Sunday Show - Acme Theatre 1/9/05
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: www.acmecomedy.com
Topic: Comedy
A sketch comedy in progress, opening end of January 2005.

Personally, I consider it misleading advertising because it has nothing whatsoever to do with "Phantom" - and probably is more appropriately entitled "Scary Sketch Comedy" since it begins with some parodies of horror movie scenes.

I guess I'm more into Groundling's sketch work than ACME's at the moment. These seem to be lacking conclusion - good opening and premise, but no ending. Kind of weird.

The Liquid Radio Theatre at the ACME Theatre
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: ACME Theatre - www.acmecomedy.com
Topic: Improv
Ep. 413: Barley From Beyond! (Sci-Fi) starred - Travis Oates, Dave Cox, Craig Tollifson, Jesse Mackey, Jeannie Roshar, Kimberly Lewis, Gary Rae (foley), and Jonathan Green (music)! A wonderfully improvised 40's radio show format performance. www.liquidradioplayers.com

Improvising Clown-style with Rob Rodgers
Mood:  on fire
Now Playing: Impro Theater - www.improtheatre.com
Courtesy of Impro Theatre (www.improtheatre.com) - we had a blast last night learning all about the ins- and outs- of the classic forms of Clown work.

Not the Bozo, or Hobo Joe-type, this is more artistically the kind we knew Red Skelton and Carol Burnett for performing. Or historically, the objective of the clown was to exaggerate the poorer elements of the rich and powerful to socially shape bad behaviors into more desireable forms, as well as provide the emergency valve of support in case of crisis (e.g. in Cirque du Soleil, when an accident occurs, the clowns enter the performance, not only to rescue the downed performer, but to do so in a way that allows the audience to perceive the action as part of the whole show - and not become overly distracted by it.)

Pretty much the most physically-demanding workshop to-date combining yoga with performing dance and movement, with some acrobatic stunt work. Best part was doing specific exercises to reveal the "inner clown" in us all - and how that relates to building character and expressing emotions.

We're getting closer...
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: Gardner Stages #3 - The New School of Acting
Topic: Training
4 weeks into A Doll's House by Ibsen - now nailing conversational reality - sweet! One really has to witness what a 20th century translation of a 19th century classic looks like when done well.

Suzie's down to a short sniffle after class - we're slowly improving.

Clean House taping down the street...
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Style Network
Topic: Comments
Per her website: Linda Koopersmith along with two other experts, Michael Moloney, the designer and Alan Lee Haff, the yard sale guy, team up to make make-over magic. Niecy Nash, also the star of Reno 911, is the hysterically funny host of Clean House.

They're taping an episode down the street - odd thing, the stuff they have in their pre-show yard sale looks like 1/2 the stuff we have in our house!

I might be in a few background shots during the yard sale as I was fascinated at some of the finds (a complete 12-line PBX system? A full-size Sanyo business copier with 5000-sheet input system? An original LiteBrite(tm)!) It's weird how these reality shows work...

Acme Love Machine
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Acme Comedy Theatre - www.acmecomedy.com
Topic: Comedy
Saw Wil Wheaton (aka STNG Wesley Crusher) and company doing the Love Machine thing - it's Acme's traditional sketch comedy format. Sort of like seeing a live version of SNL or SCTV. Some blasted funny scenes, and some, well...

Fellowship - Impro Theatre
Mood:  special
Now Playing: El Portal Theatre - through Dec 18
Topic: Comedy
Lord of The Rings as a Musical Comedy!

Cory Rouse (as an excellent voiced Frodo), Lisa Fredrickson, Edi Patterson, Brian Bradley, Peter Allen Vogt, Kelly Holden, Ryan Smith, Matthew Young, Steve Purnick and Allen Simpson on Keyboards.

A 1 hr 45 min masterpiece! Choreography by Michele Spears (tap-dancing Hobbits and Orcs!) Some of the best set and design work this side of no-budget available productions - this one cries for not only an extension, but the secondary and tertiary sequels to be produced, as well.

Standup at My Company Xmas Party
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Glendale Hilton
Topic: Comedy
165 in attendance, 7 min. set - and it all worked quite nicely. [addendum] Someone complained about something - had to publish a division-wide letter of apology to "anyone offended." Just gotta love corporate environments!

The Improv Performance - 2004/11/14
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: On-line
Topic: Comedy
View the video (Windows Media Format - 12MB). Or if you're having difficulties, open up Windows Media Player (or whatever you have that plays WMV's and open the URL in that). https://www.angelfire.com/ca2/jlui/images/jhl_showcase_improv_high.wmv

Bobby Gould in Hell - Gardner Stages
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: Gardner Stages by The New School of Acting
Topic: Drama
Great work, especially with the understudy talent in-place! Jose Element stars as Satan the Inquisitioner, Hugh Fitzgerald as Bobby, George Brunk as the Court Reporter, and Kelly Thomas as the Girl. Directed by Dan Cotreau, this was a 100% NSA production.

Fakin' it - in the can.
Mood:  silly
Now Playing: tlc.com - The Discovery Channel
Topic: Comedy
http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/fakingit/fakingit.html - Season 3 episode is wrapped. Taping was great - celebrity judges included Mindy Sterling (Austin Powers), Bobby Lee (MadTV), and Paul Hughes. Our boy did good. I ended up sitting just to the side of Paul, so there might be camera time.