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Ah, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?. The hit PBS show by way of educational computer game turned more kids on to geography than anything else. Americans aren't that good at geography, after all, what's the point of learning about the OTHER areas of the world? You may remember a few years ago the report that six out of ten Americans could not identify Iraq on a map, well, the other four have WitWiCS? to thank for the knowledge.
Local comedian/writer Gregg Gethard was a contestant on one of the very first shows and will be reliving that fateful day with a live running commentary tonight at Connie's Ric Rac (1132 S. 9). In addition, folks can test their own knowledge with a geography bee with Jon Goff and Meg & Rob will act out comments from the Youtube video on stage.
But that's not all, as the story just seems to get bigger and bigger over the years. Through recent internet posts of the tale, Sean Altman of the acappella group Rockapella, who performed the theme song for the show, got in touch with Gregg. And now that the time has come for the live show, Sean will be in attendance to play songs from his recent project Jewmongous.
So now is the perfect time to dust off that globe and finally, once and for all, figure out where Syria is. The show starts at 8PM and is $10 and BYOB.
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This Thursday through Saturday, the Philly Improv Theater will present the first-ever all-female comedy festival in the city by the name of "Bonerama." It's the brainchild of Alexis Simpson, Artistic Director of PHIT (member of Illegal Refill and Rare Bird Show), Meg Favreau, Managing Director of PHIT (stand-up comic and one half of Meg & Rob) and Tabitha Vidaurri (of The Sixth Borough) and will feature some of the best female improv, sketch and stand-up comedians that Philadelphia has to offer. We recently took a moment to chat with Alexis about the fest.
Why a female comedy festival?
Tabitha and Meg were actually planning on doing an all-female comedian show. I know people like Karen[Getz] and Kelly [Jennings] of from Cecily and Gwendolyn have done it before and it's always a good thing. It really does celebrate the underdog in a boys' club and when they emailed me I said, “yeah that's a really good idea, why book just one show when we have a lot of really awesome female improvisers that can make a three-day weekend out of it?”
Do you see it as an opportunity for these performers to do something different?
I think that BWP and Cecily and Gwendolyn are two-women improv groups that probably won't do anything different and will just do their show which is great, but I think the most different thing will be what Amie Roe (of Illegal Refill) came up with, “Real Housewives of Philadelphia.” It's going to be a chance to see some improvisers do something really different. And the cabaret-style show, “The Bonerama Variety Hour”, which is what Meg and Tabitha originally planned, is a really good chance for people to experiment and maybe go outside of their comfort zone.
“The Real Housewives...” seems to be something ripe for parody...
It writes itself. I'm addicted to the show, I think it's amazing. I got hooked on the New York one. I just love watching these self-important, completely delusional women. They're rich, fine, great, and some of the women on that show actually made their own money and that's cool, but they're delusional and sick and there's so much drama that doesn't matter. Someone was asking me about it and I said “this is what happens when you don't have bigger problems to worry about.” You get mad about who said what about you at the Gucci party because you don't care about paying your electric bill. We're taking little bits and pieces from all of them. Liz Scott (half of BWP) is thinking of challenging herself to speak in only lines from the show. They're great characters, it's just fun to play awful people.
Do you think that these female performers have been limited in what they usually do on stage?
I don't think I've thought of it that way, but I guess that's the way it is. I do think when I watch a lot of comedy, and it goes back to why I feel good about this festival, is that I really feel that women are put into roles by men and allow themselves to be put into roles by men in which they are playing either the wife, the girlfriend or some slut. I've seen a lot of sketches written that way, I've seen a lot of improv sets go that way and I think “come on, do something else!” I do think that I've seen bits here and there that are different. Tabitha and Meg write really great roles for women. And there might be some other women involved that would like to do something more experimental in a show that is just for them.
You can see that limitation in movies too, I'd say...
Yeah, there's some hot girl that they want and usually she's hotter than the guys that's she's dating. I hear The Hangover was a great movie but the girl has the same ten lines like “Where's the groom? If you don't get the groom here I'll be a bitch!” And I see it too if they are not the hot girl that isn't very interesting, they're the crazy chick that's kind of funny.
How does Philly compare to other cities as far as female characters?
I think within the larger context, I think Philly has a really strong driving community and I feel like everytime I turn around I'm meeting more comedians. I feel like New York has some amazing female comedians. I will say, I went to L.A. and [female comedians] are there, but some of the women I saw were in the shadows. I played there and it seemed like they were surprised that a woman could be confident and in the forefront. I thought “Really, this is L.A.! This is a big town.” You see it exploding on the national scene though, so I don't think we're too far behind. I just don't how many other cities are women really in charge where they are running their own companies. And you see Tabitha running The Sixth Borough and Meg being half of a sketch duo that's very prolific and talented...I don't know how much that happens other places.
BONERAMA starts tonight and runs through Saturday. Visit PHIT's website for ticket information.
Illegal Refill are a Philadelphia improv group made up of Nick Kerrr, Nick Mirra, Amie Roe, Scott Sheppard, and Alexis Simpson. In this podcast, Amie and the Nicks talk about their monthly show at Studio 34 and perform an improv set live on-air.
The group will be performing at Studio 34 (4522 Baltimore) in West Philadelphia at 10PM. The show is BYOB and Pay What You Can.
(Liked this episode of the podcast? Please write a review in iTunes so that we can get bigger...huge even!)
These videos speak for themselves, but from the Youtube description: Pat House is very funny young comedian. Occasionally when he performs a moron walks out behind him BUT- never disrupts his act.
That moron is the one and only John Kensil.
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Our bi-weekly comedy talk show returns tonight from 7-8PM EST with our friends at Gtownradio.com (The Sound From Germantown).
Your host Dave Walk will be talking to comedians, playing not-funny songs and other great stuff, so make sure to set your internet dial to Gtownradio.com. Who's on the show this week?
Plus, we'll have the second installment of Where’s My Butthole, a Detective Richard Spoolding Mystery. Catch up now with part one. AND AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH, we'll be playing some of stand-up comic Todd Glass' new album Thin Pig. What else could you possibly need!?!?
That's 7-8PM TONIGHT Eastern Standard Time U.S.A., streaming at Gtownradio.com.
By the way, you can listen to G-Town Radio on your iPhone or iPod Touch!
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Tomorrow the Philly Improv Theater will be presenting a new comedy show in which four panelists discuss the day's issues from a comedian's perspective. It's called The Bully Pulpit and it will be hosted by creator and stand-up comic Luke Giordano. Recently, Luke joined Dave for C vs. A Radio Hour to talk about the show and his fascination with Theodore Roosevelt. Then, with help from comics Kent Haines and Gregg Gethard, Luke previewed the live show on-air.
Keep in mind that this was recorded on June 25th and mere minutes after the news of Michael Jackson's death so there will be some gallows humor here. The podcast is somewhat explicit in nature and thus NSFW.
The Bully Pulpit will be tomorrow evening at the Shubin Theatre (407 Bainbridge) at 10PM. Tickets are available at PHIT's website. The comedians on the show this month are Kent Haines, Pat Barker, Sidney Gantt and Doogie Horner.
(Liked this episode of the podcast? Please write a review in iTunes so that we can get bigger...huge even!)
Come on out!
Details:
The Comic Vs. Audience Comedy Show!
Monday, July 6th, 2009
8PM
at the Shubin Theatre
407 Bainbridge St.
ONLY FIVE AMERICAN DOLLARS (tickets on-sale soon with no creepy service fees!)
Featuring stand-up comedy by:
Carolyn Busa
Chris Cotton
Stu Kamens
Luke Cunningham (from NYC)
And host Dave Walk will have some jokes too.
And did we mention it's BYOB?!?!?
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If the news of Philly's The Sixth Borough winning two awards at Chicago's Snubfest wasn't enough, we are happy to report today that Philly stand-up Kent Haines has been tapped to perform on the next season of Comedy Central's Live At Gotham.
Live At Gotham is the premiere television showcase for young comedians (well, besides the late night shows) that helped jump start the careers of comics like Matt Braunger, Hannibal Buress, Myq Kaplan, TJ Miller, John Mulaney, Geoff Tate and more.
Although it's unclear when Season 4 will air, Kent will be traveling up to The Big Apple in early August to tape his set. Elsewhere, other selections are filtering out; Austin, Texas is sending four of their own.
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Listen today to Boonesville, Alabama native and stand-up comedian Henderson Cole as he joins C vs A. Radio Hour host Dave Walk to talk about his recent move to Philadelphia, his stand-up career so far and the joys of owning a dog.
(Liked this episode of the podcast? Please write a review in iTunes so that we can get bigger...huge even!)
