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."
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