Category Archives: Comedy

Stand-up paddleboarding, the beach, yoga, and more

On Sunday I went stand-up paddleboarding with Kaylin, gem, and Anela. I’d been wanting to do so for a while, and I’m glad I had the chance. It was a lot of fun and not very difficult at all really. However, my toes really wanted to grip the board! I managed to avoid falling in the water not that there’s anything wrong with that… I didn’t even hit the water when attempting L-sit practice on the board.

One house near the beach kept a bowl and dog treats outside near their gate! It was a pretty cool idea. They must be dog lovers!

After we finished stand-up paddleboarding, Kaylin had to leave, but gem, Anela, and I had lunch at Bear Flag Fish Co. Delicious as usual! Afterwards we headed down to the beach. It was a great day.

These two got scared by a ghost (or possibly thought it was bright). Who can know for sure?

Afterwards we did hot yoga at Purple Yoga because gem’s been raving about that instructor. She was right; he’s pretty great.

When I got home, I wanted to collapse, but I also wanted to eat, so I ate/collapsed.

And then gem showed up to drop off some blueberry bread she baked. It was thick, so she told me that it was basically two slices. I had already brushed, flossed, etc., but it was warm so I had to try some. And then I ate the whole thing. It’s a good thing bread doesn’t make you fat (otherwise Scott Pilgrim would be fat).

BONUS!

I did a couple other things over the weekend too. On Friday I went to ImprovCity with Jessica, and we saw Alex host. Woo! He’s a great host. On Saturday I went to the Dub with Collin and Niki and met Mimi there to watch the World Cup. Jamie tried to get by with just shaking my hand, but I wouldn’t allow it. He’s a good hugger, too!

Now I need another weekend.

Gotham Vixens

Last night I saw Yadi Presents Gotham Vixens at the Yost Theater. It was hilarious and quite entertaining.

Batman (Mr. Snapper) and Alfred (Mr. Buddy) hosted. Poor Batman realized that the birthday card he got in the mail from the Joker poisoned him. The audience joined Batman in asking Alfred to help him find an antidote.

There were many great performers as a variety of Batman characters. One of my favorite Batman characters, Harley Quinn, (played by Dolly Danger, I think) was included in the fun. The effectively had three costumes; she started as a nurse, had a formal red dress underneath, and wore something a bit more fun under that.

I took the photo from a Snapchat. Thanks, friend!

The Joker, played by Martini Bombshell, threw signed playing cards into the audience. I got this Jack of Hearts. A Jack is almost a Joker, right?

Frankie Sin as the Penguin and Lyra La Belle as Catwoman were both great. Mercury Troy’s played an acurately cold and distant (while still entertaining) Mr. Freeze. The Scarecrow’s (Iza La Vamp) act was interesting because I mostly found myself anxiously awaiting the removal of the sack-like mask!

There was one person Batman knew couldn’t have been the one who did it. He remarked that this person had been in love with him for years.

He was talking about Robin (Tito Bonito), of course! This was easily the most hilarious act of the show, which included Robin seductively running his hands over Batman’s chest.

Once Batman realized he wasn’t poisoned and that it was just from his seven Doritos Locos Tacos he had for lunch from Taco Bell, heroes and villains put aside their differences to say good bye. It was a great evening!

The cast, as best I can determine:

Mr. Snapper	Batman
Mr. Buddy	Alfred
Frankie Sin	Penguin
Drea Dillinger	The Riddler
Fever Blister	Batgirl
Red Snapper	Poison Ivy
Iza La Vamp	Scarecrow
Mercury Troy	Mr. Freeze
Dolly Danger	Harley Quinn
Scarlett DeVille	Batwoman?
Lyra La Belle	Catwoman
Core D’luxe	Scarface
Valentina Azul	Twoface?
Martini Bombshell	The Joker
Tito Bonito	Robin
Vivienne Von Deadly	Mad Hatter

I’m not positive about who played Batwoman, and Twoface ended up not being in the show.

Coup de Comedy 2014

Last week was Improv Revolution‘s Coup de Comedy Festival 2014. There were a ton of hilarious events. While not everything was my cup of tea, the majority was great fun, and some groups were simply amazing.

Wednesday, May 7

The festival began on Wednesday, May 7 with the Improv Revolution / Live Nude People joint show. As a long time LNP fan, this was actually the show about which I was most excited. I particularly like their dance party game in which everyone on stage dances until the music stops. At that point, everyone freezes, someone touches the persons they want to see stay, and then everyone clears. After a short scene, it repeats.

After the opening show was the Revolutionary Comedy Awards honors Tony Hale. While waiting in line, we were allowed to put questions on post-it notes for Tony Hale to answer. gem wrote a particularly funny one, but you’ll have to ask her what it said. The event itself opened with a stand-up act, Sky & Nancy Collins.

This was one of my favorite sets from the entire festival. Sky & Nancy Collins present themselves as a wealthy married couple from the gated community Rancho Pico de Gallo in Orange County. I suppose you have to understand some of the Orange County stereotypes, but luckily I do. “We’re married to each other. I guess that’s okay,” said Sky Collins. Mentioning right off the bat that they’re friends said they were funny, prompting them to try stand-up, they nonchalantly talk about their normal life in Orange County, with their disconnect from the non-wealthy making for many hilarious moments. Sky & Nancy Collins are actually Marc Evan Jackson and Carrie Clifford.

Tony Hale was funny even though he wasn’t performing. He discussed his life, both leading to his role as Buster Bluth on Arrested Development and after. He seemed very down-to-Earth and gave a lot of life advice. He specifically mentioned that a lot of people seem to be constantly looking ahead to their next gig or stage of life, and while it’s good to have goals, he reminded us to be happy in the present. “You have value exactly where you are now.”

Thursday, May 8

The second day started with Awesome Sketch Presentation with Adult Babies & Humble Bees, a sketch show with performers (mostly?) from iRev. After that came Red Door. I remember thinking Red Door was very funny, but now I can’t seem to remember specifics, which is too bad. Next up was Octavarius, an improv team traveling from the future to keep history on the correct path by performing improv.

Following that was The Resistance from ComedySportz. Wow. They were amazing. The Resistance improvises action / sci-fi / horror movies on stage. Rolling around on mats? Gunshots? Monsters? Torture? Fight scenes? Fight scenes with strobe lights? Heck yes, the Resistance had all of these things. It was, of course, funny as well, but I actually got into the story too.

The night ended with Sparks to Fire. They performed short stand-up sets followed by improv based on those sets.

Friday, May 9

Friday began with the ClownMa dell’Arte show. This was the second clown show I’d seen, and I guess I must really enjoy them. It was a hilarious show that included one clown eating the flowers from stems before trying to get her heart’s desire to eat the petals she spit from her mouth. I also essentially had a clown grind on me. No, it wasn’t one of the cute ones.

Later I saw another awesome ComedySportz show – U-Sical: The Improvised Musical About You! They listened to some audience members talk about interesting events in their lives, including the man who knocked himself out by riding a bike into a tree, the woman who got to feed a bear cub (oh man, I love bears), and Josh Nicols’ story of how he delivered a copier to a hospital and got attacked by patients. It’s probably no surprise that we got to see Josh’s story, because that did sound like the funniest one. U-Sical did a great job, and I’d love to see them again.

After U-Sical, we got to see Carrie Clifford (of Sky & Nancy Collins) again in a two-person improv show, Razowsky & Clifford. After that was Stand-Up on the Spot: The Improvised Stand Up Show with Jeremiah Watkins. It involved a variety of stand-up comedians performing sets on-the-fly based on audience suggestions. I didn’t find all of them funny, but some certainly were. The night ended with an Improv Jam. I watched, but I didn’t participate.

Saturday, May 10

I started the day watching some Spectacles Improv Engine – specifically Ghostlight and FlySpace. Both are some of my favorite teams, with FlySpace performing more traditional scenes and Ghostlight always performing hilariously spooky scenes. I really like Ghostlight, and it’s surprising how often I get into the stories they conceive.

Following Spectacles was the Epic Open Mic, in which people tried their hands at stand-up. I think they were all students or recent graduates.

Next was another highlight of the festival – Twilight Zone UnScripted by Impro Theatre. It really felt like I was watching a couple hours of Twilight Zone episodes! I was pretty blown away. For each “episode,” the group would take a simple suggestion from the audience on which to base their performance. I saw a man haunted by vivid war flashbacks, a long line of mayors put in place by aliens, a woman preyed upon by memories of a fire in her childhood and scared of s’mores, and more. Impro Theatre also performing in other styles as well. I’d particularly love to see one of their westerns!

There were two more shows. First, there was The 313, who were very funny. The festival ended with Delicious Moments, a two-man improv team. I don’t know if it was just for this show or if they always do it, but their gimmick was that they each performed multiple roles at the same time and would run back and forth between them. They’d even interrupt the show at times to recap who was on stage under the guise of reminding themselves (but also, most likely, for comedic effect). It was very interesting and amusing. I like it when improv comedians/teams have a gimmick that make them stand out a bit.

And that was the 2014 Coup de Comedy Festival! There were so many talented people performing. It was fun to see Tony Hale, and of course I already know iRev, LNP, and Spectacles. I would totally love to see Sky & Nancy Collins, The Resistance, ClownMa dell’Arte, U-Sical, or Impro Theatre again. Hopefully I’ll have that opportunity in the future!

Puppet Mayhem goes to hell

Last night was the last Puppet Mayhem for a while. The gang went to hell to travel through the circles of hell to rescue their friends. We took our friend Jackie to the show with us, and I think she enjoyed it. I know I had a lot of fun.

My favorite one-liner from the show was, and I’m paraphrasing from memory, “your mama’s like a waffle iron, in the mornings I fill her with my batter.” Now what disgusting ~~human being~~ puppet would say that? One that wouldn’t normally talk like that, actually.

After the show I saw that Puppet Mayhem was selling shirts! Of course, I had to buy one. Good times!

Spectacle’s Star Wars show

Saturday, May the Fourth, was Star Wars day. (It’s a pun on “May the Force be with you,” but you all knew that already, right?) Spectacles Improv performed a Star Wars show, and as a fan of both improv and Star Wars, I couldn’t miss it.

The show was awesome. There were a lot of people I liked, and it’d be hard to talk about specifics. But I’m going to do so anyways. Alex was Yoda and the Emperor. He was great, and his make-up was especially fantastic. I also liked Jac as the Imperial cadet quite a bit. Lloyd was a funny C-3PO; I enjoyed it when he translated Chewbacca’s song. In another scene, he was being carried by Chewbacca. I forget the exact game, but it was one in which people step forward when they have something to say. The person playing Chewbacca walked to the front of the stage backwards, effectively volunteering Lloyd as C-3PO. They probably talked about it ahead of time, but it was still really funny. Also, check out Lando in the picture on the left. I forget the name of the performer, but I liked his costume!

After the Star Wars show, I saw Lloyd in the lobby, and I had the opportunity to introduce myself to him. I was critical of him on the blog previously, and I just felt like he had a right to know who I was. I plan on coming to a lot of shows in the future, and I don’t want to awkwardly feel like I’m hiding. He was very nice, I enjoyed talking with him. Plus to be completely honest, he’s becoming one of my favorite performers! He’s particularly witty and quick-thinking.

After a brief break, there was a Comedy Kaze show. They performed 45 scenes in 45 minutes, with the scene names coming from suggestions written before the show. My scene was “super itchy,” which they turned into a scene about a superhero named Super Itchy. His nemesis was Wool Sweater. gem’s scene was “a Cinco de Mayo Miracle.” In that scene, someone brought tequila to a party. They thought it would only last a short time, but miraculously it lasted for days!

It was a very entertaining night, even if I was jittery because of coffee!

Spectacles and ImprovCity

I saw some more improv this weekend! Friday after going dancing, we went to STAGEStheatre to watch Laugh Chance and The Friday Society. They were both really funny. Laugh Chance is the team that chooses games randomly. It’s a pretty great way of making the show different than other improv teams without really having to change much. I also wonder how much knowing what games you’re about to play helps a player. Maybe it’s a bigger change than I think. The Friday Society was very entertaining as well. I was pretty sleepy the first time I saw them, so it was nice to stay awake for it. gem didn’t drink coffee, and she struggled a little. Hopefully I’ll be back for more Spectacles in two weeks.

Last night I saw ImprovCity’s Cubed Comedy Matches. The night consisted of three teams of three with each team consisting two ImprovCity members and one of their high school students. The students were definitely talented! It seemed like a really great opportunity for them. I’m starting to get a feel for more of the players, which just makes it funnier as I learn their personalities. They had a particularly great town meeting, but I also liked when one performer decided to be the Bible’s Joseph for an advice game.

There was also a raffle for various prizes such as bread, games of bowling, passes to Boomer’s, and ImprovCity tickets. The biggest prizes were signed artwork by local artist Ryan Eduad. Guess who won? Well, quite a few people because there were a number of gifts, but what I care about is that I won as well! I won a print called The Soul Collector. Feel free to click the link to check it out.

OC Improv Fest feedback

Earlier this week I was surprised to find that Graham Beightol of the OC Improv Cup, Cherry Spitz, and the Friday Society, commented on my previous post. He thanked me for attending, asked if I could provide feedback on ways to improve for next year, and asked permission to use my photos in future promotions. I was pretty surprised (and not just because my photos were so bad).

I’m guessing they were Googling for feedback on the festival and came across WebPageless. I provided some feedback and gave my permission to use the photos. The festival was great not only as an event in itself but also as a way to get to know so many different teams. Hopefully I’ll check out more Spectacles improv in the future – possibly this weekend.

Austin Floyd, of whom I was critical in my previous posts, also commented. He said, “I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.” He went on to offer to cover my next ticket to a Spectacles show, which was very nice of him. We exchanged e-mails, and he even mentioned singling out his friends as part of his hosting. Honestly, it didn’t cross my mind that he might know those people.

I wanted to make clear here what a funny performer he’s been when I’ve seen him and how nice he was when he contacted me. After talking to him, I’m looking forward to seeing him host again. Maybe I’ll throw him a bad suggestion or two!

OC Improv Fest night three

With the third night being on a Saturday, there was no rush to get to STAGEStheatre for the third and final night of the first annual OC Improv Festival. We ate at Don Carlos Mexican Restaurant a block down from the theatre, picked up some Starbucks, and then headed to the theatre. Once again we managed to snag front row seats.

The night began with two family-friendly sets starting with May Contain Nuts. I saw their Halloween improv show back in 2011, so it was nice to see a team I knew again. Honestly, I have no idea if any of the performers this time were the same I saw previously or not, so maybe that didn’t really matter anyways.

ImprovCity was second, and I actually was familiar with the performers. They were generally very funny, but certain parts were a little hit or miss. They normally perform Friday and Saturday evenings close to my house; I really need to see them more often as I enjoy their performances.

After the family-friendly hour, Dr. God Revival with Dave Holmes performed a double-length, hour-long set. They actually featured Dave Holmes! Okay, I honestly had no idea who he was, but he totally has a Wikipedia page, which makes him Officially Famous. My friend Stephanie pointed out that he was VJ on MTV. I assumed she didn’t mean my high school friend VJ so I quickly guessed a VJ is like a DJ but for music videos. MTV was definitely not in my TV rotation.

Anyways, I don’t intend to belittle Dave Holmes. I only knew him as the guy performing improv, and he did a great job. In fact, they did things a little differently, and I always appreciate an improv troupe that has something unique. Dr. God used a lot of monologues by Holmes supposedly based on his own life. He would perform a monologue for five minutes or so, and then the team would perform scenes loosely based on the monologue. I really enjoyed the monologues. I’d love too see an hour of just monologues. I realize lengthening a five minute idea to an hour might be a lot of work, but it’s seem conceivable that it could be done if a group of four or five took turns telling monologues, each person beginning when he or she had something to say related to the previous monologue.

After Dr. God was the The Reckoning. I don’t remember disliking them, but I don’t remember much of anything, and I didn’t any photos either. I jotted down that they performed longform. They were decent enough, but I don’t think they were great.

At 10:00, Ghostlight performed. The Spectacles webpage described them as “a blend of hilarious and spooky,” so I was really looking forward to seeing them. Honestly, they didn’t live up to my expectations. However, I feel like it might have been due to time constraints and the luck of the draw. I’d really like to see them again in a full show.

During their set, they asked the audience if anyone had ever had a supernatural encounter. One person said he had, and they asked him to come tell them about it. He eventually came down to talk, but it took him a while to do so. As he told the story, he seemed to stall a lot. I get the feeling he was joking when he raised his hand and didn’t mean to volunteer for it. I guess that’s fine, but it also ate into their short half hour allotted time.

“Strange religious harmony what”

I wrote that in my iPhone to describe USS Rock N Roll as soon as their set was finished. I don’t mean religious in the sense they were spoke about religion. It’s more than they seemed like a strange cult. They were either far more artsy than me or pretended to be for the laughs.

USS Rock N Roll performed longform scenes, but their transitions were very odd. Let’s say that in a scene, a person said “no, no, no.” Someone not involved in the scene would stick their arms and circle around the people in the scene as if a child pretending to be a plane. They’d repeat the word “no” as they did so, and everyone else would follow until there was a circle of people chanting. Some would say a different word related to the scene or the feelings of the last scene’s characters. Eventually they would all be chanting loudly together until breaking apart into a new scene. They had a couple other ways of transitioning as well, but this is the basic idea. It was the oddest improv I’d ever seen. That said, I really enjoyed it. They were also able to perform what was effectively multiple scenes at the same time. It was funny and very entertaining. (But again, what? Odd.)

Mission IMPROVable, from Santa Monica, was one of my favorite teams. I’m fairly certain they were a team of secret agents sent, in secret, to perform a comedy. They performed a lot of the staple improv games with high energy. I wish they didn’t normally perform so far from home, because I’d love to see them more.

The festival ended with Laugh Chance, another Spectacles-produced team. Laugh Chance decides what games to play randomly. They had three categories of games – A, B, and C. When it was time for a new game, Lloyd, the host, would pick a category and then get the audience to roll inflatable dice. The letter combined with the number of rolls determines the game based on a board. You can see it (through the terrible blur) in the picture. The games themselves weren’t different than games I’ve seen before, but I appreciate putting a different spin on the normal. It’s nice for an improv troupe to have something that makes them unique. They were funny, but strangely I’m fairly sure not everyone who came on stage with Laugh Chance actually performed. What the heck?

It was a terrific third night, but it felt weird for it to end. After three nights of non-stop improv (except for when they stopped at the end of the nights, of course), I felt like I was improv-crashing. On the other hand, I learned that using the magic of Starbucks I can actually stay up late, so I suppose the festival also taught me that I can always come back on Friday or Saturday nights for more improv!

OC Improv Fest night two

The second night of the OC Improv Festival featured local teams as well as teams from out of town, which was really cool. The show consisted of Secret City Comics Society (Fullerton), Upperclassmen (Long Beach), Kanyay! West (LA), The Lobby, Ranger Danger and the Danger Ranger (LA), Detroit Rock City (Detroit), StrongBose (LA), Acme Improv (LA), Puppet Mayhem (Fullerton), FlySpace (Fullerton), and Bat Manatees (Fullerton)!

Night two opened with the Secret City Comics Society. They were funny and friendly to the audience as well as family friendly. I liked them a lot, but I felt a little bad because the audience only had five people or so at the start of their set.

The Upperclassmen, from Long Beach, swung around on the family friendly scale to a much more adult show. They were very funny, but I couldn’t help but wonder how they can act silly and do improv without getting killed in Long Beach. I’m glad I live in Irvine now.

Kanyay! West from LA was by far the cutest team. Just look at them! And look at that sloth climbing on that man’s back.

The Lobby is another Spectacles team. With the Spectacles teams, there seems to be a lot of “in” jokes. The improv is still hilarious of course, but it seems like I miss out on the whole experience by not being a regular. It’s also odd that they’re listed as if they’re separate teams, but it’s really just different configurations of the same people.

Ranger Danger and the Danger Ranger from LA were unbelievably funny and just two people. They performed a longform about two brothers, their taco truck, and their quest to find one brother’s biological parents and restore Mexico’s gold. That’s quite the endeavor.

Detroit Rock City (someone tell me why I keep typing “Detroid”) came all the way from Detroit. I wonder if they really came just for this or if they have friends here or something. It seems odd. Regardless, they were amazing. Detroit Rock City, Ranger Danger and the Danger Ranger, and Puppet Mayhem were my three favorite teams of the night. Detroit Rock City performed a longform about three people on a road trip. As they drive, they slowly discover that one of them is a mass murderer who keeps killing people who “have it coming.” It’s the eyes.

StrongBose and Acme Improv were up next. Sadly, I have nothing to say about them. I just have to be honest. Sure, they were definitely funny, but you can’t expect me to have comments on every team.

I was looking forward to Puppet Mayhem the most, and they didn’t disappoint. Improv? Hilarious Puppets? Well, those are just awesome of course. Obviously combining the two who would make for a lot of laughs. It was great to see my friend Alex Foster, plus the team featured two of my new favorites, Michael Rosenbaum and, uh, maybe his name was James. I don’t know! I was amazed to find out that Puppet Mayhem has an on-going continuity as well. That’s such a fun idea and really makes me want to never miss a show. I’m definitely going to continue watching them.

The last two teams were FlySpace and Bat Manatees, both Spectacles groups and hosted by Austin Floyd. I mentioned last time that I didn’t care for Austin’s hosting style. He’s a funny player, but I disliked his aggressive hosting. In general, his banter with the actors and the audience seems forced, but I particularly didn’t like him cussing as his actors or berating the audience. During FlySpace’s set, he announced that their were smores under everyone’s seats. I don’t remember the context, but it was a joke that made sense at the time. After a few people checked their seats, he singled-out one person in the front, saying “You’re dumb. You’re a dumbass. You’re dumb for looking.” When the Bat Manatees were playing, he asked for a film genre. A member of the audience suggested noir to which he replied, “sounds like a great suggestion, but it’s shit. It’s just smoking and darkness.” Now at one point he specifically asked for a bad suggestion. Remembering last night, I couldn’t help but yell out “strangers!” As I was in the front row, he turned to me, laughed, and commented on how I must have been there the previous night. I suppose that’s encouraging the hosting that I don’t like, but I couldn’t help it. Regardless, I don’t think his style would stop me from seeing improv, but I really dislike it.

The night was fun one, and I’m looking forward to the final sets tonight. I can also say that getting Starbucks before the show definitely helped. On the first night, I was struggling to stay awake at 11:00, but last night I was fine even though I didn’t get home until 1:30. I’ll get some more coffee tonight!

OC Improv Fest night one

Last night was the first night of the OC Improv Fest at the STAGEStheatre. It was a lot of fun even if I had to stay up later than I intended. We saw Improv Shmimprov, Cherry Spitz, Improv Revolution, Fart Jar, Comedy Kaze, Improvfessionals, and The Friday Society. The OC Improv Fest is three nights of comedy featuring most comedy troupes in Orange County and some from out of town! Each team plays for a half hour. Thursday night was 8:00 to 11:30.

The first team, Improv Shmimprov, was my favorite. I’ve seen twice previously back in 2005. I can’t believe it’s been eight years! Some Live Nude People graduates moved on to Improv Shmimprov, which is why I saw their show in the first place.

They were hysterical, and their host said my sweater was quite dapper! Thank you! You can see them in the photo above. I particularly liked the person second from the left in the photo who was very funny (but as I wrote what he said I realized it was a bit too graphic to post). I also enjoyed the person to his right who pretended to be Saddam.

My second favorite team, shown here, was Cherry Spitz. First, check out the one guy’s hair. Glorious! The girl in that photo was so great. In one skit, she played a mountain. She was the best mountain I’ve ever seen!

Next was Improv Revolution. I have to admit that I think I was a bit biased. I found out that they’re from UCI. Why does UCI have two teams? Why wasn’t Live Nude People here if iRev was? Argh!

Also, two of their members just weren’t funny at all. In fact, they were bothersome. I did, however, enjoy their longform improv about the bounty hunter type person from the Gap.

The rest of the teams were all pretty funny. My only complaint is about the Improvfessionals. While funny, their host, Austin Floyd, berated the audience when he got suggestions he didn’t like. There’s no reason to do that. If you don’t like a suggestion, wait for another one. For some people, it takes guts to even speak up. I saw him in the Improv to the Future show and really liked him, but now my opinion of him has plummeted. He asked for a relationship between two people, and the suggestion was “strangers.” even if he hated that suggestion, which was fine in my opinion, he could have easily just used another.

The last team, The Friday Society, featured some people I had seen in earlier groups. They were definitely great, but their scenes were hard to follow because I had trouble staying awake. What can I say? I don’t usually stay up to 11:30!

My friend Alex Foster is a member of The Friday Society but didn’t perform that night. Luckily I’ll see him tonight with a different group, Puppet Mayhem.

And now I should stop blogging because it’s time for night two!