Why's your troupe called that?

[happywaffle]

Troupe name etymologies. GO!

[Brad Hawkins]

The word "tragedy" comes from the Greek word tragos, meaning "goat." In the early Dionysian festivals, the chorus were called "goat-singers" for the noises they made. When theatrical scenes were added to the festivities, this name stuck.

Here's a little article on the subject.

[shando]

No one knows this, but Get Up got on our list of possible names when Shana and I were riffing because it was an acronym, kinda, for GTP, Gnap! Theater Projects. GTP=Get Up. Of all our ideas we liked that one the best because of the multiple colloquial meanings of 'get up'--costume, dance, what you say to someone after you've punched them in the face.

[trabka]

Our Cagematch submission was due and we were spitballing names in RLM when Byron made this big dramatic proclamation that he knew exactly the name that would exemplify us and walked up to the chalkboard and wrote "BAD BOYS" in big letters. No one could come up with an argument against it so we went with it since at that time we were only committed to doing a Cagematch.

In hindsight, he was probably doing a bit.

[shando]

Our Cagematch submission was due and we were spitballing names in RLM when Byron made this big dramatic proclamation that he knew exactly the name that would exemplify us and walked up to the chalkboard and wrote "BAD BOYS" in big letters. No one could come up with an argument against it so we went with it since at that time we were only committed to doing a Cagematch.

In hindsight, he was probably doing a bit.

That's one of the most Byron things ever. Why am I seeing this like a video sketch?

[trabka]

Our Cagematch submission was due and we were spitballing names in RLM when Byron made this big dramatic proclamation that he knew exactly the name that would exemplify us and walked up to the chalkboard and wrote "BAD BOYS" in big letters. No one could come up with an argument against it so we went with it since at that time we were only committed to doing a Cagematch.

In hindsight, he was probably doing a bit.

That's one of the most Byron things ever. Why am I seeing this like a video sketch?

He may have even monologued a supporting argument immediately after doing it, it's been a while.

[Rev. Jordan T. Maxwell]

Well Hung Jury: the legend has always held that Jeremy heard the phrase "hung jury" in Mr. Smiley's economics class (because it's impossible to actually pay attention to anything pertinent in Mr. Smiley's economics class), and the synaptic reflex to a dick joke was instantaneous. the origins of our troupe pseudonyms, Mad Ezekiel and the Oedipus Freaks and Free Falling Malfactors, have been lost to the sands of time...

The Sicks: in the beginning, there were six of us. and our sense of humor was a bit warped. a friend suggested it at a concert and we rolled with it (even when there were later only five of us, and at the reunion show all eight former members played together for the first time).

The Great Mundane: Jay's initial idea was just an exercise in world building, and he wanted to call it the Mundane. i thought that might not be very marketable and threw an adjective in front of it, give it a bit of circus flair. worked out okay.

710 Split: Jeff's idea. because as two tall white guys, it's what we look like onstage together. our friend Karie briefly joined us while we were in L.A. Jeff asked how she fit into the name. i thought about it and told him, "she's the ball." we laughed. she left after three shows.

Indigo Shift: stolen pretty much directly from the fourth issue of Neil Gaiman's "Books of Magic." one character's description of the end of the universe from the perspective of the Big Crunch. if the universe expands in red shift and contracts in blue shift, then the very end must be indigo shift on the spectrum. it sounded like the late shift at a cabaret to me as well, so kind of the perfect pun.

Strange Worlds: not a troupe (yet), but what the hell...i got turned on to the pulps after reading the first issue of Planetary, the last line (and pseudo-motto) of which is "Strange world. Let's keep it that way." When i was trying to think of something that sounded like the title of an old pulp anthology, those first two words were just right.

No one knows this, but Get Up got on our list of possible names when Shana and I were riffing because it was an acronym, kinda, for GTP, Gnap! Theater Projects. GTP=Get Up. Of all our ideas we liked that one the best because of the multiple colloquial meanings of 'get up'--costume, dance, what you say to someone after you've punched them in the face.

plus, the benefit of a built in James Brown theme song...

[Chuy!]

Lampe and I had always wanted to try a duo together and we were discussing names while having some beers (go figure)... It is pretty common for The Oxymmorons to mention the street, Zarzamora when referencing San Antonio locales in shows. It has kind of become a running joke... Anyway, since we are both from SA and Oxy, we decided to name our duo, iZarzamora! Then we proceeded to invite other people to join. So much for our duo...

[Roy Janik]

Worth mentioning...

Sean Hill founded We Could Be Heroes, which became The Heroes of Comedy.

Then he went on to build a certain coffee house and theater complex, and it needed a name... The Heroes of Comedy had this superhero thing going on, so what better place than "The Hideout" for The Heroes of Comedy to reside in?

[zac]

For Local Genius Society, we put a ton of different words on a whiteboard and drew lines between them to make phrases. Then we voted for which phrases we liked the most. Local Genius Society came in second behind "Global Improv Corporation". We went with Local Genius Society anyways...

[happywaffle]

Lampe and I had always wanted to try a duo together and we were discussing names while having some beers (go figure)... It is pretty common for The Oxymmorons to mention the street, Zarzamora when referencing San Antonio locales in shows. It has kind of become a running joke... Anyway, since we are both from SA and Oxy, we decided to name our duo, iZarzamora! Then we proceeded to invite other people to join. So much for our duo...

We need to go get a troupe picture in front of the street sign.

[PyroDan]

Freudian Slip, my college troupe, came about for the obvious reasons it would make a good improv name, but it did barely beat out Manifest Destiny.

Pavlov's Dogs, a nod to our origins as members of Slip, all in Dallas at the time.

Cricket City, my grad school troupe, because the city of Commerce suffers through an almost biblical plague of crickets every summer. The biblical part is not an exaggeration.

Dust Bath, my 5b iO team, came from our last scene in class before our shows, as the last scene we all turned out to be hamsters and took a dust bath before we were to do the hilarious plot point set up.

Never Pickles, I like pickles, Tina doesn't an over the course of a phone conversation of trying to get her to try new foods, specifically veggies, Tina uttered very defiantly and loudly "Never Pickles."

Cubbies, the two founding members, both from Chicago, both Cubs fans, recruited members with some connection to Chi.

There have been others, but those are the ones really special to me.

[happywaffle]

Freudian Slip, my college troupe, came about for the obvious reasons it would make a good improv name, but it did barely beat out Manifest Destiny.

Wow, you were in Freudian Slip? That was the first improv show I ever saw, on a visit to see friends in Bryan/CS, circa 1998-99. I even got onstage.

[PyroDan]

Yeah, I was the "Old Man" on Slip. Started in '94 then played off and on till '99, because I just couldn't seem to graduate. The one thing really great about it though, I was there through the genesis of the the troupe.

[mdalonzo]

The second time we ever had a rehearsal for our new troupe, David Modigliani was distracted by the idea that the Boston Red Sox were about to drop their fourth straight game to the New York Yankees in the ACLS, so he asked if we wanted to go and watch the game before rehearsal, and it turned out to be the game that vaulted the Sox back into the series, which they would eventually win, and then go on to break the curse and win the Series. On the mound that night was the greatest knuckleballer of our time, Tim Wakefield, and we were all super impressed.

Cut to a couple days later. We made a list of names for our new troupe, and the only word that appeared on everyone's list was "knuckleball." We knew it was meant to be, but then, we couldn't figure out what to do with it. Modig sort of came up with "The Knuckelball Now" as a double entendre to say 1. this is a weird time we're living in (and it was) and 2. our troupe will be completely different in our approach (which it was). The name stuck, and it gave Craigy an excellent opportunity to do a whole lot of baseball-related promotion, which lasted a few years.