Austin Improv

I'm through the security and in the airport with my computer (which has wireless) so expect some updates on the Del Close Marathon (and other NYC shows and happenings) tomorrow!

I'm now in NYC sitting pretty in a very nice but small hotel room.

And if yoose guys driving here from Chicago are reading this, it is the: Four Points Sheraton in Chelsea, 160 W. 25th Street -- just a short walk away from the main UCB theatre.

Now for a snack and a nap before my first Broadway comedy/play, "The Lt. of Inishmore".

Tomorrow around 4ish, Del Close Marathon begins with it's opening poop.

sara_anm8r wrote: Tomorrow around 4ish, Del Close Marathon begins with it's opening poop.

Either this is a typo or it's a tradition I don't know about. If it's a typo, it's a tradition I think we should start.

"And now, the 2008 Olympic Games get going with the traditional Opening Poop Ceremony..."

Yes, I meant to say poop in lieu of sh*t. You may already know this, but the improv players have this march through Manhattan drinking & yelling stuff and making a ruckus and then end up at the theatre doing the same. Some point along the way they get a "word" and that is supposedly the theme for the whole weekend. Hm. I don't remember the word from last time, but someone intergrated it a lot on the last night of shows and got some improviser laughs. There are a lot of imps and imp laughter, rather than regular joe laughter. Hm.

Anyway, the dark comedy play I saw last night -- the Lt of Inishmore -- was BLOODY GOOD! Really, it was very bloody satire about the anger, grudges, violence & terror in Ireland (and the world?) as well as the pointlessness of it all. Big laughs at the end after building up the characters and the circumstances. Very smart. I loved it. The stage was covered in bodyparts and blood at the end, and so were the remining characters. I stood at the back stage door and got autographs from all the main players. It was raining and I thought that was strangely fun. Main actors were from ireland.

Side Note:
I met the producer's assistant backstage as well. She was a young kid from San Antonio and was with her mom. She's studying English literature at Columbia and is just doing this as a summer job. But when I asked her if she was interested in producing, she told me she may decide to produce in the future. I got some advice from her on what shows to see next, and they were ones I already knew about. History Boys was up on her list (it beat out Inishmore for the Tony and I've been thinking about going to see it) and Ave Q (which I don't really want to see). Hm.

Tonight:
I've got tickets to see improv comedy! I'm going to see...
8:00 - Baby Wants Candy
9:30 - Fivesome
11:00 - Horatio Sanz & the Kings of Improv
... and I expect to have some laughs there.

I saw Inishmore a few years ago in London and it is indeed the bloodiest stage spectacle I have ever spectated. Shots with brains splattering, dismemberment and more.

Update...

Baby Wants Candy was fun. There were 3 couple of characters established in 3 "2 person scenes". They all ended up having to live through a time when the internet was destroyed. A couple of the characters tried to start up the internet with a mimiograph machine, but then decided to go on a quest to take back the internet. The surprise reveal character at the end (revealed after a very long series of face-ripping reveals) turned out to be Tom from MySpace who was just resetting the internet so that he could be in everyone's top 8. The in a pretty glorious song about, my friends, my life, My Space, the cast reclaimed the internet.

Fivesome riffed off the suggestion "Private Eyes Are Watching You" and did a long scene about listening-in/ spying on other people's conversations that lead to a series of other scenes inspired by that and in turn that came back to and inspired the "listening-in" scene. Very fun.

Horatio Sanz & kings of comedy was not very good. Horatio was joined by 10 (probably good) improviser-friends who where all crowding eachother for ownership of the scenes. Yuck. Didn't like it. Not much listening going on there.

This morning the guys from Chicago joined us and took showers and a nap. My room was very stinky when they came in, then smelled like soap when they left. We went to lunch at a Puerto Rican restraunt,

We then parted ways and Andrea & I went to the MAIN UCB theatre to see I Eat Pandas, but there was a line, and we decided not to wait. Instead we went to watch the end of the ColdTowne show at the OTHER UCB theatre. It was fun and they did a good job. Lots of laughs in the audience.

Andrea & I then went hiking around Greenwich Village, ended up in Little Italy, had great pizza, then went back to the UCB at 8:00pm to see an 8:30 show of Baby Wants Candy. At this point the line was 4x as long and there was no way we were going to get to see Baby Wants Candy. Instead we decided to wait and just get in to see something. After 2 hours of waiting for standing room only, we decided to go back to our hotel... where we found the rest of our group sacked out.

Tomorrow we are going to see the original Broadway musical, The Drowsey Chaperone @ 3pm. Then we have tickets at 9:30 to see ASSCAT.

So that's it for now.

Big props to the DCM Marathon.

I spent nearly 24 hours in the UCB theatre following the ColdTowne show (it was a doozy!) watching, chatting, researching, boozing, secret-room-stomping, and dozing off for tiny chunks of time during not as good shows (read: some shows were purposefully very experimental and ended up being "not as good"). I hadn't slept in a bed or for more than an hour at a time since we drove straight to nyc after Chicago and if you left the theatre, you lose your spot. So I just stayed there. Every hour or so a couple of people would leave and you could inch closer. There was some major people stuffing going on there.

I saw some very good shows. I had lots of fun. Thumbs up.
Not the big community feel that I got from other festivals, but other things made up for that.

I encourage more to apply next year. More More More. Austin, Austin, Austin.

I feel like a 12 year old.