Impress These Apes Finale.

The Apes.

After a long, exciting 8 weeks, tonight was the "Impress These Apes" finale at the Lakeshore Theatre.

I was way satisfied with the production. It was hilarious and colorful and brilliant. They brought back all the guests from the past few weeks to do bits.
I was happy with almost my complete set.
Which is raaaaa-aaaare.
I havent been this happy with a set since Sketchubator.

Jim Fath and friend.

I suppose the lighting and the theatre helped alot. The Lakeshore is spacious and bright. I could even get up and move to the other side of the theatre inconspicously.

Captain "Ape-Hab" and Hollywood Ape.

Still. I got that feeling; when you take a picture and you feel it-like a natural rush-almost...like: "Oh, that one is going to be perfect!"

Jared Logan as Gameshow Host.

The Flickr set is all over the place, but that's only because I still cant log into my account.

The Winner: Jamie Buell.

Tomorrow is Neil Hamburger and I'm praying to the photo gods for good luck at that venue. I struggled last time at The Hideout, but everyone said the photos turned out fine...We'll see. I'm also really excited to see Neil live. I've heard so much about him.

Along with Victor Borge, another comedian I've been really digging is Emo Philips. I've always loved his silly way of wording things and that goofy voice and hair.
He is a little creepy, but it's all part of a schtick, y'know?
"Well, my brother says "hello"! So, hooray for speech therapy."
I wish he would come to Chicago.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Je t’aime rire

I've been neglecting my posts again. I'm not sure if it's laziness or a blockage of creativity. It cant be the latter, as I've been busy working on a portfolio of sorts, frying my brain looking over 5000 some photos of goofy people in front of microphones in dark places.

Also, business cards! Silly? Professionalish? Well, I like them anyway. See if you can "Guess that comedian's hands."
Look for a website in the near future. That is if I can find someone that can a) Teach me html or b) do it for me for cheap. And I mean free.

The last few weeks have been busy. I took a trip back home to Michigan, got stuck on a train for two extra hours, saw a bad cover band at a crap yuppie bar in Royal Oak and had an all-around relaxing weekend. No comedy whatsoever. Although the level of seriousness to which the guitarist from the cover band took himself was pretty funny.There he goes.

I was home last weekend for the Comedy Awards, which was a fun, interesting...different thing.
At the Hidden Cove afterwards, I got the chance to be accosted by Online Personality Rob Johnson with Kristy and Brido as witnesses. Scarring moment. Dont ask.

I made an ass out of myself on Presidents Day by reciting ridiculous political facts (more so than usual). I reveled in Michael Palascak's joke which referenced every single American president (within one or two minutes).

This weekend was the callback auditions for the Just For Laughs festival. It's sparked a resurgence of pride for my home-country. Something I've never been able to understand is: unless you are an American comedian, you have no idea what "Just For Laughs" is. It's something I've been familiar with since I was smaller. Why? I dont know. It was like Kids In The Hall or The Royal Canadian Air Farce. Always around.
An aside, did you know that This Hour Has Twenty Two Minutes has been around longer than The Daily Show?

Well anyway. The Auditions:

Allison Leber.

The usual suspects went up; a few Blerds boys, some Spitfire girls. Boosh. And one new face. Good stuff.

Tony Sam.

The aforementioned face, Tyler Kroll, who's surname is shared with a certain someone as a nickname. I guess he's good friends with comedian Johnny Beehner, who looks oddly familiar.

As tradition goes, we all went over to the Bierstube for good drinks, conversations and apparently spa sessions.


The last Impress These Apes show is monday at the Lakeshore Theater. I'd really like to go, as I'm sure it'll be photo ops abound.

Oh, I won the Apiary Teeshirt.









I never win anything!

Comedy High School

Jared Logan.

February 7th, 2007. Blerds Showcase, The Empty Bottle.

Figures that the two journalists (myself and Kristy) are the first to arrive at the show, before the comedians, even.
First to arrive, hardest to laugh, less to drink, earliest to leave. It wasnt exactly like that in the fall...There's a professionalism that's arising in everyone, which will do alot of good, methinks.

The Empty Bottle is a tough joint to shoot in; red and green (low) lights, ugly aluminum stars.
I doubt it's that dark when they have rock shows.

CJ Sullivan.

Jared Logan hosted with Kumail, Sean Flannery, CJ Sullivan and Pat Brice showcasing.
A shit-ton of new, awesome videos were shown, including Mike Bridenstines' "Upscale Plastic Surgeon," and my personal favorite, Logans' 30 second morsel: "French Fry."

Kumail.

After the show, we were greeted by fresh-home-from-Florida Buscemi. He regailed us with stories about pelicans, water aerobics and elderlies in trailer homes. Mobile homes? Modular units? What's the P.C. Word for that?

Here he is bonding with the Venue Couch and it's cat.


More quiet observation of comedians with thier business talks and banter, then Kristy and I had a brief conversation regarding Brido's theory of how this scene is like a High School. You have comedians and artists in different grades. I would be a freshmen, as I only entered this less than a year ago.

You sort of start with a child-like mentality: just having fun, goofing off, not really caring about your grades. Things might get serious as you move up. When you're a "junior," you have to start thinking about graduating and what you're gonna' do after high school. Your "college" becomes what city you'll move to to progress in...NY or LA? Or do you stay in the hometown and see if you can become successful where you stay?

If you look at it lake that, your experiences here are like extracurricular activities. Venues you showcase at, shows at The Improv; they're almost like exams. I suppose my only extracurricular activity is The Bastion, but that figures as I've sort of been a yearbook photographer all my life.

Haha. Maybe I'm looking too deep into this analogy. But sometimes the achievement of a big goal can take up to four years of solid development and experience. It seems to happen alot in education and business.

Maybe I'm only a freshmen, but I really wanna take AP Classes.
Plus, those cool Seniors are so nice to me!