Theater is Fluid

One show close to my heart closed this past weekend and another one also wedged deep within my chest cavity opened. What's odd, is that while being very invested in the shows, I had very little to do directly with their development. The closer was Robot vs Dinosaur's Are You There, God? It's Me, Satan at Gorilla Tango. A very strong sophomore effort from our group. And it made some money. Enough to give us some good footing going in to our next project. Are You There God? was a sketch revue. Well written and performed and as good, if not better, than any other revue running right now. My involvement? I started the company and from time-to-time during this process stuck my head in the door and said "Hey, that looks good." A job well done, on my part, I must say.




The show that opened is WNEP's Soiree DADA: Schmuck die Hallen at the DCA Theater. It is our slickest dada show in our most professional space with our most blatant theme. In many ways, that should be ringing the death knell of Soiree Dada. Happy to say, it does not. Well worth it to see this show, even if you have never seen dada before. You can get a break on the cost of your ticket by bringing an unwrapped toy that goes to charity. $10 off if you bring a really cool gift. $5 off if you are a loser and just bring a crappy coloring book and off-brand crayons. My involvement with the show? I came up with the title. I also co-created Soiree Dada with Joel Jeske back in the winter 1995-96. Our first show was a two-man dada thing at an open mic in the back of Sheffield's bar on an icy cold Monday night. The audience didn't know what hit them. I also didn't know what I was hitting them with.


The holidays are quickly approaching and off-loop theater is alive and well. With the temporary slow down in my schedule, I'm going to try to take the opportunity to see more stuff.


THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

On Friday, I asked...

"On Thursday, Sarah Palin made a holiday appearance in Wasilla to pardon a local turkey and then did an interview with what happening in the background?"

31% said "turkeys being crammed into a cage"

No one went for "turkeys being bred" (Even turkeys think abstinence is dumb) or "turkeys being dropped from a plane" (They learned their lesson after the 2007 Wasilla Turkey Drop, Les Nessman reporting.)

69% got it right with "turkeys being slaughtered"

According to The Huffington Post, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin appeared in Wasilla in order to pardon a local turkey in anticipation of Thanksgiving. This proved to be a slightly absurd but ultimately unremarkable event. But what came next was positively surreal. After the pardon Palin proceeded to do an interview with a local TV station while the turkeys were being SLAUGHTERED in the background!! Seemingly oblivious to the gruesomeness going on over her shoulder, she carries on talking for over three minutes. Watch the video below to see for yourself. Be warned, it's kind of gruesome.

Can Joe Six-Pack say "oblivious"? My favorite part is when she talks about having a little levity this time of year while a turkey is being bled. I love the look on the guy's face doing the slaughtering. He looks around from time-to-time like "You know, I'm killing turkeys here, right?" Personally, I think he's wringing the wrong neck.

The turkey's the one sipping Starbucks.