Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Picked Up

UPDATE ON WTF?

Chicago's city council heard the outcry on the outlandish proposal and have tabled the legislation for review. That doesn't mean it's over, but there's hope.

PICKED UP

The abundantly very talented John Pierson has put together a panel discussion for a show at the Nee-Futurarium about writing for televison. I'm on it. Come see it. Here's the low down from John...

Hey friends. At the neo-futurarium I am helping to sponsor a panel discussion after Picked Up's "The Mime" this Thursday with Schadenfreude, Joe Janes (from WNEP) and Dino Stamatopolous (LA writer of Mr. Show, Conan O'Brien, and Morel Orel.) I think it will be a cool night and it is pay-what-you-can. I think it will be interesting to any writers you know,actors, or improvisers. Please pass on this announcement.

THE NEO-FUTURISTS INVITE AUDIENCES TO WITNESS THE
FRUSTRATIONS AND ELATIONS OF BEING PICKED UP


Picked Up Panel Thursday, May 15, following the 8:00 p.m. performance of Picked Up at The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland. Tickets are pay-what-you-can for the performance and discussion.

For more information, visit <http://www.neofuturists.org/>www.neofuturists.org or call 773-275-5255

The Neo-Futurists announce a special panel discussion with DinoStamatopoulos, Joe Janes and comedy troupe Schadenfreude following the Thursday, May 15 performance of Picked Up. These successful comedy writers share their first-hand experiences with the television sitcom machine and controlled chaos of the writers' room. Hear stories of sitcom babies being killed or burned alive then rising again in the ashes of their very own afterbirth. Bring questions for these hosts and have them properly answered, or at least creatively evaded. After the discussion, Stamatopoulos will show his sitcom pilot, Saturday TV Funhouse, co-createdby Robert Smigel, which was produced but never 'picked up'.

Picked Up The last prime-time show of The Neo-Futurists' 2007/2008 season is a series of six never-before-seen television pilots performed live onstage. Dean Evans, Jay Torrence and Ryan Walters lead a team of skilled comedy writers in a genuine attempt to create the best TV pilot ever. All shows are framed by the perspective of the writer struggling to exist in the television business. The pilot being 'aired' on May 15 is The Mime, in which a reluctant superhero mime artist takes on the mafia by thinking outside of the box. "Don't do the crime if you can't face the mime."

Dino Stamatopoulos is an American television comedy writer, actor and producer who has worked on Mr. Show, The Ben Stiller Show, TV Funhouse, MadTV, The Dana Carvey Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He was nominated for an Emmy in 1998 for "Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program" and in 1999 for "Outstanding Music and Lyrics." His current project is Moral Orel on Adult Swim.

Joe Janes is the Improv Program Coordinator and a part-time faculty member of the theater department at Columbia College. He is a founding member of the WNEP Theater Foundation, Teatro Bastardo, and Robot vs Dinosaur -Chicago. For Second City, he has been a member of the national touring company, a director of the national Touring Company, Second City-Detroit and Second City-Las Vegas, and has taught for the training center since 1997. He is a playwright and an Emmy Award-winning writer of a children's show in Cincinnati.

Schadenfreude, formed in 1997, has performed sketch comedy at countless venues around the world including The Goodman Theatre, The Second City,Steppenwolf, Lollapalooza, ImprovOlympic, ComedySportz, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (LA), Area 51 (LA), HERE (NYC), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the Chicago Improv Festival, where they were the first group to receive the "Festival Highlight Award." The company's multimedia brand reaches across numerous platforms including a weekly show on Chicago Public Radio (2003-05), film and even cell phone downloads via Sprint PCS. Schadenfreude is currently in the process of selling their screenplay Alderman, which was picked up for representation by Endeavor Talent. They also are in the beginning stages of independently producing their movie Phudie Mart, and they recently finished a TV pilot for WTTW called IL-Informed.

THE NEO-FUTURISTS The Neo-Futurists, performers of Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind and creators of over 60 other original, full-length productions, are a collective of wildly productive writer/director/performers who create immediate, non-illusory, interactive and head-slappingly affordable performances.



THE BS NEWS QUIZ OF THE DAY

Yesterday, I asked...

"The GOP's new slogan - 'Change You Deserve' - is also the slogan of what?"


50% said "Pampers diapers"
- Given the age of their presidential candidate, it should be Depends.

No one went for "The 700 Club" or "Laundromat quarter machines"

50% got it right with "Effexor - an anti-depressant"

According to The Huffington Post, Republicans will counter the Democratic push for change from the years of the Bush administration with their own pledge to deliver, drum roll please, "the change you deserve."

What the GOP doesn't seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that "the change you deserve" is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the...you know -- terrorism.

Actually, I think this is an intentional and calculated move on the part of the GOP. Given how deep they wade in the money from health(s)care companies, they are probably getting a billion dollar kick back. This also means their campaign ads will have to disclose possible side effects.

Voting republican may cause an aversion to science, reason, poor people, universal health care and may cause suicidal thinking (in others). And dry mouth.