So, we had an action-packed day of sketch reading and decision-making yesterday.
We did not have a specific assignment to write for class, just bring in new stuff that hadn't been presented before in a final push to get things considered for the show. We read new stuff for the first half of class, and then we did an inventory of everything that we submitted during the term and assigned production roles for the show.
As usual, I arrived a few minutes late, just as the group was finishing a sketch involving a waxing procedure known as the Titanic. This was originally Mark's baby, but he teamed up with Detroit Angie for this version. I suspect Detroit Angie provided valuable assistance in that female specialty of the passive-agressive insult masquerading as a compliment. (I grew up with two older sisters and eavesdropped a lot as a child, I know what I'm talking about.)
Shane and Laura also collaborated and came up with a sketch involving the urban legend of "Bloody Mary." (I didn't know about this urban legend. The craptastic film "Candy Man" was evidently based on the same premise.) Anyhow, Bloody Mary doesn't really kill you when she arrives. She's just a buzzkill of life-altering proportions. That's all I'll say about that.
Detroit Angie and I also collaborated. Our sketch was supposed to have been the submission for worst sketch ever for the previous week, but I couldn't make it. Ours involved the many parallels between writing and going to the bathroom. We also tried to incorporate as many items as possible from Joe's list of ten things that people should stop doing in their sketch revues. One thing we took away from this sketch is that Dan does an exemplary job of improvving a college-aged woman with Tourette's Syndrome.
Next up we had Brian with a very funny sketch built around the premise of revenge dating. This is getting short treatment only because I do not want to give too much away. Needless to say, a very funny concept, and Brian may have found a way to make some serious money outside of comedy by starting a website founded on this very premise.
Ben had a spoof of dance competition movies. Very funny stuff and very funny juxtapositions of dancing styles matched with horrible late 80s and early 90s pop music. There was also a high school named after an 80s B-list celebrity.
Mark contributed a fantasy gone wrong. A nerd tries to make a pleasure machine for himself. "She" isn't buying what he's selling. This sketch made me sad, because I fear it was perhaps an autobiographical work. We will soon launch a paypal fundraising drive to send Mark to Amsterdam to lose his virginity. (Little known fact: after a decade without intercourse, you re-gain your virginal status.)
Detroit Angie had an extremely funny sketch built around a stock phrase of self-conscious (and full of shit) white Americans from coast to coast: "I'm not a racist but ...." In fact, I think "I'm not a racist but ..." is part of the official mottos for the City of Cicero, IL and Macomb County, MI.
Brian contributed another new sketch that was built around a sick bed. The priest giving the last rites revealed some of the Catholic Church's secrets to the dying woman. This heightened very well, and the last line had us in stitches. If Brian is Catholic, he would probably be excommunicated. Now, that's comedy.
Dan contributed a very funny sketch involving a where are they now episode of Oprah Winfrey involving the kids from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Included in this sketch was an extremely funny title for a book in the born-again Christian genre. We had a lengthy discussion about the Willy Wonka movie afterwards. I haven't watched this movie since I was nine or ten. It may be worth a second look.
My "new" contribution was a re-write of a sketch involving an aristocratic East Coast family with a quirky thread running through its blue-blooded male lines: cross-dressing. In fact, we learn that the family owes its continued existence to she-malism. Joy!
Shane rounded out the new stuff with a funny take-off on the government's over-reaching in the name of national security. He does such a great job of getting the details right in his work: whether it's puns or absurd names for pieces of legislation. This sketch was a great example.
With the new stuff out of the way, we got down to bidness. We had to provide the essential info for each of our sketches on an index card: title, author(s), cast breakdown by sex, one line synopsis, and any props needed. From there, we lined all of our cards into a column. We then had to go to our column of sketches and initial three cards. This part of the process was sobering. You look at what you've contributed and (if you're like me) think, "Shit, that's all I've got to show for the past seven weeks?" After you initial three of your cards, you then go to every other person's column and initial one card/sketch. After that, it's in Joe's hands. He estimated he'd whittle it down to twelve pieces by next week when we have our auditions.
The final order of business was assigning production roles: stage manager (Mark), papermeister (John), music and special effects (Laura), graphics (Shane), props and costumes (Angie and Dan), "Mom" (Ben, which means Mark will now make jokes about having sex with Ben), and "Swing" (Brian, which means he gets to have sex with everybody in the group).
So, that was it. No homework for this week. All we have to do is show up early for auditions and look very stone-faced and humorless during the entire process. Should be easy and very fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment