Song School

For yesterday's Writing Five class, we had to write songs. Ideally, we had to write a song that could be performed by the entire six-person ensemble for our Writing Six show this summer.  (Remember the running order for a typical show from a previous post? That's why we were assigned that.)

Well, several of us were late yesterday.  Yesterday was also the first class that Detroit Angie missed.  We'll cut her some slack for making every class up to this point despite a roundtrip in excess of 600 miles each week. My theory for the tardiness is that songs scare the Hell out of us.  Like many of my classmates, I am convinced that song writing is hard. Damn hard. I kept trying to brainstorm song ideas during the week, but came up with nothing.  My day job also had me very busy this past week, so nothing made its way onto paper, either.

I arrived 30 minutes late and caught the final bars of Ben's song about menstruation. It was pretty good, at least what I heard was pretty good.  It seems as if it's a song that could easily be adapted to a six-person (three male, three female) ensemble: three couples singing about the effect menstruation has on their lives.  And the three couples could be: three hetero couples or one hetero couple, one lesbian couple (who gets sent to the store to buy tampons in that situation?), and one gay male couple (who could be confused by their inclusion in the song, or maybe their neighbors are the lesbian couple, the lesbian couple's cycles are synchronized, and they demand that the gay male couple has to buy the goods for them).

I arrived too late to hear Shane's song, but it was discussed later in class.  It was about Drones.  This led to a discussion about Shane's point of view about Drones (the pilotless planes beloved by our military), and we brainstormed other applications of Drones.  This didn't get that dark in class, but it could really go to some amazing depths.

Laura announced her song as a "fuck it" song.  No, not "fuck it" in the 2 Live Crew sense.  (I don't think their records were sold in Iowa.) It was "fuck it" in the "I've-got-to-do-this because-it's-the-assignment-but-we-all-know-Shane-is-the-music-guy" sense.  And, indeed, the song mentioned Shane's talent, and the lyrics tore down the wall and sang about why the song was being written and its purpose in the show. Joe compared it to the self-reflexive songs in Urine Town.  One my favorite examples of such a song comes from the boys at The Chaser.

Dan announced his ditty as being in the "fuck it" genre as well.  His song was a piss take of Alannis Morrisette's "Ironic." It wasn't a parody of the song, but it did have several non-ironic things being deemed ironic.  The music director liked his feel for rhythm, but chided him for taking the "fuck it" approach.  I think she was trying to compliment him, but it only came out as a half compliment.  She asked him to write another song during our time in class.  He did, but denied that he had anything when asked.  Classic Dan.  He shared it with us on Facebook afterwards.  It was really good and about conspiracies.  I'll leave it at that, but it should be set to song one of these days.

My lateness prevented me from hearing Mark's or Brian's songs.  I used my class time to write the beginning of an uplifting melody about suicide.  We even tried to find find a suicide note with Siri's assistance using Joe's iPhone 4.  She was no help.  Thanks for nothing.

After class, Joe gave his feedback on our show.  He thought it was really good, but some of the sketches ran long.  A fair criticism and not surprising. He specifically mentioned "Douchebag," "Cocky," "Twilight Fan," and the suburban satanists as sketches that he liked.

And one more thing for this week: Go see Robot vs. Dinosaur's new show.

Closing Night Recap

Last night was closing night.  We didn't quite sell the joint out, but we came close.  Yours truly had  some friends and family make the trip from Michigan.  It was especially fun before the show when I finally got the chance to introduce my mom to Mark.  Mark loves to make mother jokes, and I am often his intended target, which means my mother is actually his intended target.  As I explained to my mom that Mark loves to make jokes at her expense, the rest of the room cracked up, and this was the first time I can ever remember Mark blushing.  He blushed through his beard.  

With that out of the way, we made our final pre-show preparations.  It was an unseasonably warm day yesterday, and the theatre felt pretty muggy.  It was even worse backstage.  It was also St. Patrick's Day, so we were curious to see if our audience was going to be under the influence.  

Those of us who have continued in the writing program were happy to see our current instructor and the director for our Writing 6 show, Joe Janes, in the audience.  We waited for Guffman and he arrived!  We even caught him laughing during the show.

The show got off to a great start with "America's Biggest Douchebag."  Michelle and I ran the lines earlier in the week, and we kicked around some ideas for my character to say when he's supposed to be on his cell phone while he's being introduced.  The line "yeah, definitely bangable" was directed at Michelle's character.  The audience liked it, and they were very generous with their laughter throughout the night.  

Once again, "Twilight Fan" killed.  I was actually able to listen during "Alpha Dog" this time. It really needs to be funnier during the early parts and it goes too long.  However, the audience laughed at the crowning moment of the sketch where the upstart gets owned by the so-called alpha bitch.   That made me breathe a little easier.

I was busy reviewing lines for the next three sketches (New Procedures, Douche #2(Truth), and Workout Barbie), but I heard laughs, and that's all that counts. I was more jittery than usual for "Glazed, not Smothered," but all of that evaporated as soon I walked through the curtain onto the stage.  Once again, that sketch went swimmingly.  The audience laughed often and loudly.  Mark was so happy when we got back stage.  

Cocky was up next, and it seemed as if it got the loudest laughter of the three times we performed it.  Dan and I almost knocked heads when my character was being introduced.  That would have hurt, but it may have also been pretty damn funny.  Shane did his euro-trash version of the Russian cock fighting trainer -- Gorbachik.  He could seriously go out macking in Portage Park with that get up.  

The crowd laughed heartily when Scott was introduced as Douchebag Lenny.  He embraces that role to a convincingly scary degree.  

"Shot" was next in the line-up.  My character is chewing on pretzels throughout the scene.  Last night, the pretzel shrapnel was at its most extreme.  I wish I'd played it up to that extent in the earlier two shows.  The audience was on-board with us, and they were really great.  

Minstrels got its usual thunderous laughter, and that set the stage for the crowning of "America's Biggest Douchebag."  I thought that Trent had a chance to win because the audience laughed at him during his intro and because I had a few friendly faces in the audience.  Not to be.  A distant second to Lenny "Big Dawg" Dvorak.  Trent threw his bluetooth at Lenny in disgust before flipping off the audience and leaving. Lenny wasn't finished yet.  He made a quip about "ridin' train on bitches." So wrong, and the crowd loved him for it.  

We had a great party at Shane and Natalie's after the show.  It sure beat trying to go to a bar on St. Patrick's Day in Chicago.   Shane gave everybody very nice and heartfelt cards.  We plowed through a prodigious amount of alcohol and pizza.  By the way, Michter's 10 Year Single Barrel Bourbon is a great insobriety aid. We continued our witty banter.  We hugged each other.  We said awkward things intended to be compliments.  It was an honest-to-goodness piss-up.

We're now turning our sights to our Writing 6 show, which should go up sometime in July.  The classes have been going well thus far.  Last week Shane did a very funny re-write of a sketch involving a musician selling his soul to the devil.

This week we had to write relationship sketches.  Detroit Angie wrote an off-the-wall one in which Dan had to read all of his lines with his face puckered.  I think my laughter approached snorting levels several times.  Dan did a funny sketch involving a first date and a man with alien hand syndrome.  It had elements of Dr. Strangelove, which is one of my favorite films.  Laura had a take off on film noir that had some very funny lines about used condoms.  Mark wrote a horribly inappropriate extended blackout that you'll never see performed on stage. It could, however, make it as a porno short film/cell phone commercial.  

Second Show

So, last night was our second show.  The midway point of our run.  Once again, we sold the joint out and had people standing along the wall.  That was a good feeling.

The second show was a valuable lesson.  We had an issue with seating before the show.  As people often do with general admission, they choose a seat with a buffer seat between them and other people in their row.  That can't work for a sold out show.  That's where ushers come in or a polite announcement to the audience explaining that the show is sold out and the need to scoot over to make room.  Our announcement was a tad brusque.  One thing you don't want to do is irritate the audience.  I hope we didn't, and apologize if we did.

During the first scene, we still had people filing in and getting settled.  It felt like we stumbled out of the gate a bit.  I don't know if that's because we were out of sync, because the audience was still getting settled, or because the audience was just different.  Anyhow, we know what performers are talking about when they say that every audience is different.  Sure, that's a truism, but when you actually perform, you really grasp what that means.  We did not do a pick up rehearsal during the week.  Instead, we ran lines before the show. And I think at points we were less fluid with delivering our lines.  We are going to do a pick up rehearsal this week.  We want to make closing night as smooth as possible. 

By the end of the night, we righted the ship and picked up momentum.  We improvised a little more later in the show, and some tweaks to other sketches.  I think the tweaks were an improvement.  The final scene of Douchebag had a few more improvised jabs thrown in amongst us guys.  Sam's character "Truth" was the winner -- which we considered a mild upset. All of us in the cast agree that Scott's "Big Dawg" is probably the odds-on favorite every night.  See? Every audience is different.

Afterwards, we returned to the Green Eye for drinks, bantering, and pizza from Piece.  Several friends who watched the show joined us, and we had a great time.  We're excited for next week.

First Things Second: Introductions

This post should have been written before the lengthy post regarding our first show, but I was too excited last Sunday to bother with formalities and decide to jump in with a detailed rundown of our opening night.

The show is called "Back Pocket Gang Presents an Evening of Sketch Comedy."  The Back Pocket Gang is a group of friends who met each other taking a comedy writing class at the Second City.  We began our Writing One class last year at the beginning of May, and our instructor was Nick Johne.

We started with fourteen people, and there have been some defections over the past several months, but we won't go into that.  Currently, nine of us are producing and performing our own written sketches for a three-show run at Chicago's Gorilla Tango Theatre.  As you probably gathered from the previous post, that was our opening night.  The nine writers for our show are (in alphabetical order): John Bauman (yours truly), Angela "Detroit Angie" Bridges, Benhur Calaguas, Dan Grillo, Mary Kroeck, Angela "Chicago Angie" Lang, Mark Peters, Laura Rodnitzky, and Shane Swinnea. 

Seven of us (Detroit Angie, Ben, Dan, Mark, Laura, Shane, and I) continue to take the writing course at the Second City, which consists of six levels.  At the conclusion of Writing Six, your class puts on show at one of the Second City's smaller theaters -- either the DeMaat or Donny's Skybox.  I will be chronicling that process as well, but right now I'll introduce the nine of us writers for "An Evening of Sketch Comedy."

John: A native of Kalamazoo, Mich.  I found myself in Chicago by way of (in chronological order): Ann Arbor (Go Blue!), Munich, Sydney, and San Francisco.  I began taking classes at the Second City at my wife's behest.  She decided I was going to take a class about a year ago.  She made the executive decision to enroll me in Writing One.  It was one of the best decisions I never made. I wrote "Alpha Dog" for the show and perform in several other sketches. 

Detroit Angie: So named because she commutes to our Saturday class from her home in Ferndale, Mich.  E very week. By bus. Not impressed yet? She's never missed a class. Still not impressed? Watch a sketch that she's written.  She's hilarious.  She wrote "Twilight Fan,"  and she has been a workhorse of formatting  and program publishing.

Ben:  Yes, his given name is "Benhur," which is super bad ass.  He's a native of the southern suburbs.  There's something inherently funny about the site of a Metrosexual of Filipino descent talking in thick Chicago accent about "broads" and "jagoffs."  Ben does this constantly.  He has a great range as a comedy writer, and he's a talented actor.  He wrote "the Minstrels" and acted in "Alpha Dog" -- providing some much-needed oomph.  He would have acted in more sketches if not for a busy work schedule the past new months.  He headhunted Scott to act in our show.

Dan:  A native of Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood.  He is a super funny guy who has a lengthy rap sheet as an actor.  He has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports, movie, and political trivia.  If you need an exact quote from a funny SNL sketch from the 80's, he'll know it verbatim.  In our first writing class, he did a free write in the voice of a fastidiously germaphobic Lutheran reverend in a German accent.  We've been riffing in German accents ever since.  He always brings funny stuff to class, and we have been in awe of his acting skill during the show.  He wrote "America's Biggest Douchebag," and acted in several sketches.

Mary:  A Chicagoland native.  She hooked us up with the Gorilla Tango Theatre and instigated this rodeo.  She is the moral compass of the group and also directed this production, which put her into the role of enforcer and cat herder.  She wrote and performed "Workout Barbie," and also performed in "Twilight Fan." In addition, she headhunted Nicole to acting our show.

Chicago Angie: A Southside native who has moved to the Northside and is amused by that alien land. She always wrote funny stuff in our Writing One class.  She made an impression the first day of class with a reference to storing a dead hooker in the trunk of a car.  She wrote "Shot."

Mark:  The man from Buffalo, N.Y.  He is constantly talking shit about your mother, and my first memory of him in class was the line, "If I make this shot, your mother is a pig-fucking whore."  He likes, basketball, dogs, poop jokes, and language.  He is a very funny guy who is obsessed with Satan despite his Catholic up-bringing.  He wrote, "Glazed, Not Smothered" and acted in "Cocky" and "Shot."  He lives on the Northside of Chicago with his same-sex canine spouse, something he never considered until Rick Santorum suggested it.

Laura:  An Iowa native who regales us with stories of her time in China and Spain.  She has even attended meetings for the show via Skype from China.  Don't be fooled by her intellectual look and University of Chicago degree.  She has a very dirty mind.  She is a proud Iowan who knows arcane facts about theIowa Hawkeyes football team and trash talks my alma mater.  We have nicknamed her "Child of the Corn."  And Anne Frank because she is in the attic-like tech booth for the show.  She wrote "New Procedures," and headhunted Michelle to act in our show.

Shane:  A native of Oklahoma.  He's is an extremely talented guy who sings, writes songs, plays guitar, draws, and writes some seriously funny shit every week.  I told his wife that he's a bastard because of these many talents.  She didn't disagree.  For your birthday, he will draw you a sketch that is based on material you've written or something funny that has happened to you.  He is the assistant director and wrote "Cocky" and our intro song.  He also performed in "Cocky" and created the poster for our show. 

Rounding our band of misfits are our actors: Michelle, Sam, Nicole, and Scott.  They are all extremely talented people who brought our material to life.  I am extremely grateful to them for their efforts with "Alpha Dog."

Opening Night Recap

So, we opened "The Back Pocket Gang Presents ... An Evening of Sketch Comedy" last night.  Seven of us writers (Detroit Angie, Dan, Laura, Ben, Mark, Shane, and I) also had our first Writing Five class with Joe Janes at Second City yesterday from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.

With class until 4:00pm, we were going to have just enough time to grab a quick lunch at Piper's Alley before driving over to Bucktown to get ready for our 6:00pm show.  Our Writing Five and Six classes are part of a sixteen-week process that culminates with us putting on a sketch comedy show at the Second City.  However, we in the Back Pocket Gang couldn't wait one year, and we decided to put on our own show.  Now that we are in Writing Five and Six, we have a seasoned professional, Joe Janes, directing the show. We've already learned some valuable lessons putting on our own show without a pro's guidance, and we're sure that we'll learn even more in the next sixteen weeks.  Coincidentally, the running time of our Writing Five and Six show will be approximately as long as "An Evening of Sketch Comedy."  Hopefully, we don't learn that we royally screwed everything up with respect to "An Evening of Sketch Comedy."

We began class with Joe giving us an overview of the general concepts for establishing a running order.  It reminded me of picking a batting order in baseball, and Joe's example also had nine slots.  This started to make me nervous, because we didn't follow this guideline. For example, the first and last scenes ("the opener" and "the closer") are meant to involve the entire ensemble. We didn't do that.  Our show opens with the first scene of a runner and ends with the last scene of the runner -- which is Dan's gameshow/reality TV parody assailing the fine work of America's douchebags.

The next-to-last spot is supposed to be the funniest/strongest sketch of the show.  That's a relief.  I think we may have done that by putting Ben's sketch with dueling minstrels in the next-to-last spot.  Then Joe informs us that the seven-spot should be our "going to crazy town" sketch. Damn it!  I have a pretty strong feeling that my sketch, which mixes doggy daycare with the corporate world, is our show's ticket to crazy town, and it's early in the show.  The theory of having the "crazy town" sketch towards the end of the show is that you've built trust with the audience and they're more willing to make that leap with you after you've built that trust.  On the other hand, if the audience doesn't enjoy the trip to crazy town, then you have less time to lose them. That, and the next-to-last sketch is supposedly your strongest, so you should get them back if the crazy sketch bombs.  That revelation probably would have worried me, if I weren't so excited about acting in the show. 

We had a great class running through re-writes of previous sketches.  Because seven of the eight people in our class have gone through these classes together, it was a very fun trip down memory lane, but more on that material in the coming weeks after we have completed our run at Gorilla Tango.

So, back to the show.  After class, Angela, Dan, Mark and I grabbed some grub at Chipotle and then piled into my Jeep.  We arrived at the theater around 5:00pm, the house opened at 5:30pm, and the show would begin promptly at 6:00pm.  We gathered in the basement of the theater and waited for the stage to be free.  At that point we received some pleasant news: the show was close to selling out. I high-tailed it upstairs to buy a ticket for my wife.  With that crisis averted, I went back to preparing for the show.

The backstage area is pretty cramped.  We all set up shop and I put all of costume changes in order on a table: I was wearing a suit to be a douchebag in Dan's sketch (complete with sunglasses while indoors and a bluetooth); then I had my black tartan v-neck sweater (to look suitably suburban for Mark's sketch); then my Red Wings jersey, boxing gloves, and chicken accouterments for Shane's cockfighting sketch; then my doctor/mechanic garb for Angie Lang's sketch; and finally my crown and Australia Wallabies rugby jumper for Ben's sketch.  While this sounds like a lot, it was basically putting different tops on over my shirt and tie.  I had it easier than Michelle, who had to scurry downstairs to change into different dresses and a powersuit.  And I also had it easier than Scott and Sam, who had to make a very quick change from minstrels to douchebags for the conclusion of the show. 

As we set up back stage, Shane received a text from Laura -- sold out, standing room only.  I think we were all getting excited to go on stage.  I was pacing around and doing stupid dances backstage.  I finally settled down and began going over lines.  Finally, the time came for Shane to warm up the crowd with his intro song admonishing people to turn off cell phones and pagers.  As usual, his timing was perfect, and he killed it.   

With that, Michelle and I were set to take the stage for the first part of Dan's sketch.  The audience gave us a great reception, and some big laughs.  Dan has a special talent for writing dickhead men.  I suppose I should feel honored that he thinks that I have a special talent for playing such men.

Next up was Detroit Angie's sketch, performed by Dan and Mary.  As is usually the case, Detroit Angie wrote a very funny and technically strong sketch.  We could hear the laughter back stage.  With Shane's song, the opening of Dan's sketch, and Detroit Angie's "Twilight Fan," we were well on our way.

My sketch, "Alpha Dog," was next.  I think I heard some laughter, but I was busy reading lines and talking to Dan about his sketch.  The actors (Ben, Scott, Nicole, Sam, and Michelle)  have put that sketch on their back and morphed it from a very rough and confusing first run through to something that made the audience laugh.  Thanks for saving my ass, guys.

Laura's hit piece on bureaucrats was next, with Dan and Sam playing wonderfully off each other.  The laughs continued, and I think at this point we were feeling pretty good about ourselves back stage.  The nerves had settled down, and we were humming along.  Sam's work wasn't finished, because he was right back out for the second installment of Dan's douchebag chronicles -- the pretentious artiste.  When Sam auditioned for this part, we had to have him.

Next was Mark's touching look into the lives of a married couple with differing approaches to their religion -- Satanism.  This sketch has me dressing like somebody from the Santorum campaign. It's a joy to perform, in large part because the actors (Michelle, Scott, and I) get turned loose to complement the dialogue with  action.  Michelle is a very experienced actor, and she taught me quite a bit about following your scene partner while we were rehearsing this scene.  (And I'm not sharing my secrets, so there!) 

Next was Mary's monologue, "Workout Barbie."  I remember when she wrote this in our first writing class.  I cracked up, and kept calling her "Workout Barbie" for the remainder of the course.  From backstage, it sounded as if she had the audience eating out of her fabricated, plastic, doll hands. 

Shane's cockfighting sketch began the home stretch.  When he wrote this in Writing Two, I damn near wet myself from laughing.  The script is funny as hell, and when you add Dan's portrayal of the cagey boxing coach (think Burgess Meredith's Mickey from Rocky), you'd better be wearing Depends (TM). 

Building on that momentum, Scott and Michelle came out to introduce the third of Dan's douchebags - the big, blowhard sports fan douchebag who thinks he's irresistible to all women.  Scott owns this role.  Dan was about as close to giddy as I've ever seen him when Scott read this part during his audition.

Angie Lang's "Shot" was next, and it was in the "crazy town" slot that I mentioned above. If "Alpha Dog" couldn't be in the crazy slot, this was a good choice. (Quite fitting, actually, because Angie was always willing to go to crazy town with me in Writing One.)  "Shot" has a husband and wife (Nicole and Mark) going to a an OBGYN who behaves like a mechanic (yours truly). Well, the audience got right on the bus with us, and we had a nice little voyage to crazy town. Honk! Honk!

In the next to last spot, we had Ben's "Minstrels."  The laughter was loud and frequent.  I was standing right behind the curtain the entire time for my entrance near the end of the scene.  Ben was sitting next to me.  He had such a look of joy on his face, and deservedly so.  I was so happy for him that I almost stopped paying attention and missed my cue to enter.  (That would have sucked.)

Finally, we reached the conclusion of Dan's douche-a-rama. The audience went nuts when Scott came out in his get-up for the end of the game.  The sketch is set up as a competition, but Scott blew me and Sam away with his portrayal of Lenny last night.

And with that, we were ready to take a bow.  The audience was wonderful, we were all grinning from ear to ear after it was over. We reconvened at the Green Eye tavern. (It's under the Western Blue Line stop. Go there. They serve good beer, the bartenders are friendly, and it's a gorgeous space.)  We also ordered pizza from Piece. (Green Eye has no kitchen, but you can bring in whatever food you like.) The lovefest was in full bloom.  Even Dan and I were smiling.