Well hello there everyone! If you happened to miss The Cosby Sweaters opening for us earlier this month…no worries. They will be back again this Wednesday for the fifth of our six show run at the Apollo Theater Studio. We have had the privilege of sharing a number of different stages with The Cosby Sweaters throughout the past year or so, namely The Playground, and I just love the way that these guys play on stage. We recently performed with them at Stage Left Theatre for some late night comedy with pH Productions. The suggestion that night was…and I want to get this right…ahem…”wieners on the glass”. The resulting show was raunchy, shocking, fast-paced, but most importantly…it was funny as all get out. So skip Lost this week (see previous blog post here) and come on out to watch a night of uninhibited hilarium with our friends…the Cosby Sweaters.
Mark your calendars, because this Wednesday Valid Hysteria is going to be opening for our fourth of six performances at Chicago’s Apollo Theater Studio. As you can tell from the photo, the make up of Valid Hysteria is a little different from Batterymouth – they’re a larger all-female team, we’re just three guys.
Valid Hysteria has been around since 2006 and you may have seen them perform at any number of places around the city including The Playground, the Apollo Theater Studio and various barprov shows. One of the cool things about the ladies of VH is that I’ve seen them improvise within the constraints of wildly different long form structures throughout the years, which always leaves me with that delightful “what are they going to do this time” feeling before I see them perform. So, come on out to the Apollo Theater Studio on Wednesday and take in that feeling with Batterymouth as we wait for the laides of Valid Hysteria to hit the stage.
I think that I’m done with Lost. Yep…pretty sure that I’m done with it. I’ve watched all that I can watch. I’ve suspended my disbelief far enough. I felt strongly enough about the first two seasons that I forgave the last two. I continued to watch when the “monster” turned out to be a cloud of black smoke. I willingly trudged along as more questions went unanswered…and more, and more, and more. And now…not even the sweet freckled face of Evangeline Lily can lure me back. Because I’ve seen The Matrix Trilogy. I know how this ends. It ends with a deus ex machina in the form a baby’s face made out of robots. It ends with someone waking up and saying “Oh my God. I just had the craziest dream. I was on an Island…and you were there, and Uncle Jack, and Farmer Sawyer. Man…I sure am glad that I don’t feel lost anymore.” I no longer have faith that these writers know where they’re heading. They have officially written themselves into a black abyss in my opinion. Done. Finished. Over. I throw in the towel at a giant, wooden time-traveling wheel apparently stuck in an arctic cave at the center a of a tropical island. And I’m supposed to be OK with all of this because Daniel Faraday says it can happen…and he’s a physicist y’all. Respect. Well…I’m just not buying it, folks.
That being said…wouldn’t you rather skip Lost tonight and come out to see the 3rd show of Batterymouth’s six week run at the Apollo Theater Studio?
In two days our close friends Nipple Competition will be opening for our third of six performances at Chicago’s Apollo Theater Studio. You may have seen these guys recently performing sketch comedy at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival or doing long form improv around town at any number of places.
It’s always a special treat for us to do a show with Nipple Competition, because it always feels like a mini-reunion. You see, all three members of Batterymouth and three out of four members of Nipple Competition all used to be on the same Harold team at the iO Theater together called Skeleton Attack. The team was together for about a year and a half and it’s how a lot of us cut our teeth on the Chicago style of improv. A discerning eye could probably come to the show and pick up on some subtle similarities in the performance styles of our two groups…or they could just watch the show and laugh their ass off. Either would be appropriate.
Thanks to everyone who came to our show on Wednesday – our second of six long form improv shows we’re doing at Chicago’s very own Apollo Theater Studio. Our suggestion was “Venus” and the show included Zack burying Mark in a garden co-op, Mark hitting beers out of my hands (and the air) and onto the floor and me hitting both of them with a roll of paper towels. I think there were some scenes in there too. Good times.
For this run we’ve been going all Brechtian and hanging out with folks in the audience pre-show, which has been a good time. One of the people we chatted with before the show this week was Pat Dwyer of the sketch comedy group Kerpatty. Outside of the standard pleasantries, we ended up talking about a lip dub video that the group had recently put on YouTube which all three of us had previously watched and enjoyed. In an interesting follow-up to my Katy Perry blog post, the song that they’re lip dubbing just happens to be “I Kissed a Girl.” Irony.
Considering the fact that all three of us got a kick out of the video, I figured I might as well share it with all of you at home players here. Enjoy.
