Some names are obvious (McNichol and May) others a bit more obscure.
Tonight I started wondering about the origins of some of the various troupe names.
The first two troupe names of mine that actually got used were The PITS (Premier Improvisational Theatre Society)...and Comedic Amoeba. Both of those names just popped into my head one day and I liked them, so they got used.
After Comedic Amoeba performed their final show at the Hideout (because 4 of 7 members were moving away for college) we all went out to Spiderhouse for coffee. I walked up to Doug and said basically "Doug, we need to come up with a new troupe name for you me and Greg." Doug's response was "There's our name right there." How hideously simple it was, and thus was the birth of You Me & Greg. Also, because when it was first stated the You in the sentence was Doug and the Me was me...we've retained those names, and of course, Greg will always be Greg.
I'll leave the origin of the name of Parallelogramophonograph for someone else explain.
So there's that, reply to this with the story of the origin of your troupes name, I'd really like to know where some of the awesome names came from, and whose idea they were in the first place.
Yay!
thanks,
-Phil
Origins of your troupe name?
Everything else, basically.
Moderators: arclight, happywaffle
-
- phlounderphil Offline
- Posts: 621
- Joined: August 15th, 2005, 3:07 am
- Location: Austin
- Contact:
-
- HerrHerr Offline
- Posts: 2600
- Joined: August 10th, 2005, 12:14 pm
- Location: Istanbul, not Constantinople
- Contact:
If you don't know what a Hoover Blanket is then google it. I like the name because HB actually means something else, something very simple that spoke volumes about a bad time in our nation. Plus, it sounds like some made-up troupe name.
Foolish Mortals=a Ted Rutherford inspiration.
Wooden Nickel came from a former troupe member named Kevin Huskey. He had just won a round at the air guitar contest and told someone interviewing him that he was in (a yet unamed) improv troupe. She asked him the name, and in an improv-inspired moment, simply said, "Wooden Nickel."
Well Hung Jury came from me. I visited Jeremy Lamb in a dream and gave him a list. He turned down the following: Lipstick, A Czar is Born, and You, Me, Greg and a Short and Sweet Tight Gigglepants who lives at 1812 Drake.
Foolish Mortals=a Ted Rutherford inspiration.
Wooden Nickel came from a former troupe member named Kevin Huskey. He had just won a round at the air guitar contest and told someone interviewing him that he was in (a yet unamed) improv troupe. She asked him the name, and in an improv-inspired moment, simply said, "Wooden Nickel."
Well Hung Jury came from me. I visited Jeremy Lamb in a dream and gave him a list. He turned down the following: Lipstick, A Czar is Born, and You, Me, Greg and a Short and Sweet Tight Gigglepants who lives at 1812 Drake.
Sometimes it's a form of love just to talk to somebody that you have nothing in common with and still be fascinated by their presence.
--David Byrne
--David Byrne
Parallelogramophonograph was carefully culled from a list of over 300 names-
Here's 50 of them:
Here's 50 of them:
- (Until) Someone Loses an Eye
1st Round KO
All the King's Beggars
All You Can Eat Poi
Blatant Propaganda
Browncoats
Bugger All
Busted!
Cocktails for Two
Drab Queens
Drunkard's Prayer
Dull the Pain
Ergosphere
Field Day Popsicles
Fully Scripted
Furious Luddites
Go Ghoti
Grown Up Band Fags
Guests of Honor
Hell's Snowball
Hipster's VW
Honorable Discharge (or Honorably Discharged)
I Regret Nothing
improv~1.bat
Kittens in a Shotglass
Men in Drab
My Amazing Dream
My Five Mothers
My Other Improv Troupe Has a Funny Name
Neutered
Painted Rock Cliff
Pensive
Phineas's Wife
Piss and Vinegar
Pose Knows
Precious Fluids
Religiously Cold
Seven Inch Floppy
Shit Sandwich
Silly String Theory
Sitting Still Born
Sounds Terrible -- Let's Do It!
Square Pegs
Stuck on Grime
Sui Generis
Swiss Spaghetti Harvest (or Spaghetti Tree)
Taxidermy
The Bannermen
The Escape Plan
The Functional Alcoholics
PGraph plays every Thursday at 8pm! https://www.hideouttheatre.com/shows/pgraph/
-
- deroosisonfire Offline
- Posts: 553
- Joined: September 10th, 2005, 4:49 pm
- Location: Austin, TX
I love the story of how my undergrad group, The Whistling Shrimp, got their name.
So, back around 1984, Nikita Kruschev said this:
"We wish to live in peace and tranquility. But if anyone believes that our smiles involve abandonment of the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin, he deceives himself poorly. Those who wait for that must wait until a shrimp learns to whistle."
And it was a pretty well-known quote at the time I'm told. So, it's the 1984-1985 school year and a bunch of kids are forming an improv group and they ask the director of the theater department if they can be affiliated with the department. He responds by paraphrasing the above quote, only comparing their chances of succes to that of a whistling crustacean. Being obnoxious college kids they decide to show him up by naming the group "The Whistling Shrimp."
I go back this weekend for the 21st Anniversary show. Zing.
So, back around 1984, Nikita Kruschev said this:
"We wish to live in peace and tranquility. But if anyone believes that our smiles involve abandonment of the teachings of Marx, Engels and Lenin, he deceives himself poorly. Those who wait for that must wait until a shrimp learns to whistle."
And it was a pretty well-known quote at the time I'm told. So, it's the 1984-1985 school year and a bunch of kids are forming an improv group and they ask the director of the theater department if they can be affiliated with the department. He responds by paraphrasing the above quote, only comparing their chances of succes to that of a whistling crustacean. Being obnoxious college kids they decide to show him up by naming the group "The Whistling Shrimp."
I go back this weekend for the 21st Anniversary show. Zing.
"There's no such thing as extra pepperoni. There's just pepperoni you can transfer to another person."
-Wes
-Wes
-
- kbadr Offline
- Posts: 3614
- Joined: August 23rd, 2005, 9:00 am
- Location: Austin, TX (Kareem Badr)
- Contact:
Nothing better than drunken "Yes, and..."Roy Janik wrote: And by carefully culled, I mean that we whittled down the list to about 20 favorites, went out for food, got drunk, threw out all the names, and came up with Parallelogramophonograph.
You work your life away and what do they give?
You're only killing yourself to live
-
- Evilpandabear Offline
- Posts: 706
- Joined: December 19th, 2005, 4:09 pm
- Location: "Ph-nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
- Contact:
ED32 - was named after our first former member "Ed Piston." Ed was 32 years old at the time as well.
The GREAT Mundane - "Great" came from Jordan. "The Mundane" came from Andy Crouch, which was inspired by "Mundi," which is latin for world as we are building one world from the ground up. The latin came from the lovely Ms. de Roos as she is a biologist and has a weakness for latin. In fact the name of her blog is usually (she changes it from time to time) in latin. I was trained in the Classics at UT and also have a fondness for latin as well. You may even hear me say, "Emperator Bonum est," which roughly means "it's good to be the Emperor," which is a roman play off of Mel Brook's, "It's good to be the King."
1813 Drake - came from a conversation with Chris Allen in my dream. seriously.
The GREAT Mundane - "Great" came from Jordan. "The Mundane" came from Andy Crouch, which was inspired by "Mundi," which is latin for world as we are building one world from the ground up. The latin came from the lovely Ms. de Roos as she is a biologist and has a weakness for latin. In fact the name of her blog is usually (she changes it from time to time) in latin. I was trained in the Classics at UT and also have a fondness for latin as well. You may even hear me say, "Emperator Bonum est," which roughly means "it's good to be the Emperor," which is a roman play off of Mel Brook's, "It's good to be the King."
1813 Drake - came from a conversation with Chris Allen in my dream. seriously.
"Anyone can teach improv. It's bullshit." -Andy Crouch on June 4th 11:33pm CST
Polite Society Presents...
was the result of a laborious naming process. It was generated by Caitlin Sweet. We didn't like any of the other names enough, and we just barely liked this one enough. I think what pushed it over the edge was the idea that we could append a different presentation for each event.
Polite Society Presents "Beer"
or Polite Society Presents "Your Mother"
But at some point we got lazy and stopped doing that.
Having named the troupe, we discovered the Polite Society is most often associated with the Benjamin Franklin quote "An armed society is a polite society." which has been appropriated by gun nuts. see www.politesociety.com
was the result of a laborious naming process. It was generated by Caitlin Sweet. We didn't like any of the other names enough, and we just barely liked this one enough. I think what pushed it over the edge was the idea that we could append a different presentation for each event.
Polite Society Presents "Beer"
or Polite Society Presents "Your Mother"
But at some point we got lazy and stopped doing that.
Having named the troupe, we discovered the Polite Society is most often associated with the Benjamin Franklin quote "An armed society is a polite society." which has been appropriated by gun nuts. see www.politesociety.com
-
- beardedlamb Offline
- Posts: 2676
- Joined: October 14th, 2005, 1:36 pm
- Location: austin
- Contact:
in chron. order:
Los Paranoias (retired): named after an obscure beatles song. as was typical with the group they made this decision when i was not around.
well hung jury (retired): i was in economics class writing down potential names for a group i was starting. the teacher mentioned something about a hung jury and i added the well on the paper. the school would not allow us to perform under this name for our first show in high school so we changed it to the equally offensive "mad ezekial and the oedipus freaks." and everytime i would go back to perform after we graduated we would do things like write hung jury on a flyer and draw a well in front of the words. everyone knew who we were at that point anyway.
we could be heroes: david bowie song. i was not present.
catch 24 (retired): we were beating our faces on the table trying to come up with a name. the conversation ambled and i mentioned that something was just like a catch... 24, just trying to put a pointless spin on an old classic. it stuck, but only because "1, 2, bird" had been vetoed by ben sterling.
heroes of comedy: no one was around for this change from we could be heroes.
gravy (retired): i think mike or craig came up with this one when we were sitting around talking about a new supergroup.
bearded lamb: i was lying in bed as my girlfriend was telling me about her new web design company that she wanted to call blue lamb. i thought it was funny that she would use my last name for her business and i was looking for an alias. bearded lamb seemed to fit perfectly.
right hand yellow (retired): this was my playground incubator troupe. the name came from a harold-like exercise we did where everyone was bouncing around slamming their hand onto the ground, an organic transition from a twister scene.
available cupholders: several of our favorite words were placed into a hat and these two were the first that came out. i think the initial excitement of the phrase coming out of the hat overshadowed the fact that we would have huge problems selling the name and making people remember it. i now don't like it and we're in preliminary talks to change it to something marketable. and so we can sell new t-shirts.
on a separate naming note: my dad always disliked the name marie which became my sister's name given to her by my mom. my mom always disliked jeremy which was to be my name. after they split they both eventually remarried. my dad to a lady named mary and my mother to a bloke named jerry. weird? yes.
also, the hideout was nearly Hipptropolis with an all hippopotamus theme. So close to greatness.
beard
ps - "Lipstick, a Czar is Born" will be my post gender-surgery biography on A&E.
Los Paranoias (retired): named after an obscure beatles song. as was typical with the group they made this decision when i was not around.
well hung jury (retired): i was in economics class writing down potential names for a group i was starting. the teacher mentioned something about a hung jury and i added the well on the paper. the school would not allow us to perform under this name for our first show in high school so we changed it to the equally offensive "mad ezekial and the oedipus freaks." and everytime i would go back to perform after we graduated we would do things like write hung jury on a flyer and draw a well in front of the words. everyone knew who we were at that point anyway.
we could be heroes: david bowie song. i was not present.
catch 24 (retired): we were beating our faces on the table trying to come up with a name. the conversation ambled and i mentioned that something was just like a catch... 24, just trying to put a pointless spin on an old classic. it stuck, but only because "1, 2, bird" had been vetoed by ben sterling.
heroes of comedy: no one was around for this change from we could be heroes.
gravy (retired): i think mike or craig came up with this one when we were sitting around talking about a new supergroup.
bearded lamb: i was lying in bed as my girlfriend was telling me about her new web design company that she wanted to call blue lamb. i thought it was funny that she would use my last name for her business and i was looking for an alias. bearded lamb seemed to fit perfectly.
right hand yellow (retired): this was my playground incubator troupe. the name came from a harold-like exercise we did where everyone was bouncing around slamming their hand onto the ground, an organic transition from a twister scene.
available cupholders: several of our favorite words were placed into a hat and these two were the first that came out. i think the initial excitement of the phrase coming out of the hat overshadowed the fact that we would have huge problems selling the name and making people remember it. i now don't like it and we're in preliminary talks to change it to something marketable. and so we can sell new t-shirts.
on a separate naming note: my dad always disliked the name marie which became my sister's name given to her by my mom. my mom always disliked jeremy which was to be my name. after they split they both eventually remarried. my dad to a lady named mary and my mother to a bloke named jerry. weird? yes.
also, the hideout was nearly Hipptropolis with an all hippopotamus theme. So close to greatness.
beard
ps - "Lipstick, a Czar is Born" will be my post gender-surgery biography on A&E.
Gravy! I loved that troupe. I saw a show where it took place mostly in an elevator, with flash-backs to other times and places. I still remember it as one of the best shows I ever saw.
And Jeremy, if you're not the cupholders, where will the cup go?
And Jeremy, if you're not the cupholders, where will the cup go?
Parallelogramophonographpargonohpomargolellarap: It's a palindrome!
-
- beardedlamb Offline
- Posts: 2676
- Joined: October 14th, 2005, 1:36 pm
- Location: austin
- Contact:
-
- Mo Daviau Offline
- Posts: 1643
- Joined: August 11th, 2005, 3:14 pm
- Location: Austin then Ann Arbor, MI (as of 8/11)
- Contact:
As I understand it, Amy McCurdy had to come up with a name for her all-female supergroup in under a minute, so she used Girls Girls Girls. And it stuck.
GGG doesn't always like their name. Sometimes it misrepresents us as strippers. Fortunately, nobody has ever yelled "show us your tits!" midshow.
For the longest time, I thought that "Available Cupholders" was a tacit reference to breast grabbing, but then Jeremy corrected me. Clearly my mind is in the gutter.
GGG doesn't always like their name. Sometimes it misrepresents us as strippers. Fortunately, nobody has ever yelled "show us your tits!" midshow.
For the longest time, I thought that "Available Cupholders" was a tacit reference to breast grabbing, but then Jeremy corrected me. Clearly my mind is in the gutter.
Another top contender for the Hideout name: The Lumpy Monkey
Another top contender for We Could Be Heroes: Hugh Downs Presents
Another top contender for Los Paranoias: Death
A top contender for Get Up: Upgrade
Girls Girls Girls was previously known as: Rock Star Girls Galactica 3000. I'm not sure how/why we changed it. It's terrible to Google. But still somewhat descriptive.
Another top contender for We Could Be Heroes: Hugh Downs Presents
Another top contender for Los Paranoias: Death
A top contender for Get Up: Upgrade
Girls Girls Girls was previously known as: Rock Star Girls Galactica 3000. I'm not sure how/why we changed it. It's terrible to Google. But still somewhat descriptive.