Movies I have seen while on Holiday

Aiiight. Here's how I've kept myself busy while visiting the folks in West Chester, PA:

SHAUN of the DEAD. Got it on DVD. Very happy.

LIFE AQUATIC with STEVE ZISSOU. I didn't like it at all, thought I was being too hard on it, went home and printed an official TEAM ZISSOU card out from the internet and taped my picture to it, then rethought about it and decided no, I did not like it. But I kept my TEAM ZISSOU card, and hope to get discounts at aquariums across Rochester.

THE TERMINAL. TEAM GEVA COMEDY IMPROV member ADAM isn't a big fan of Spielberg, and I can get why with movies like this. Pretty funny at the beginning, but it jerked out at the end.

Oh, and I remembered another title from my top ten list for Record Archive's best of the year:

F(scum bib)ing Am, GOLD. Electro rock at its best. Not to be a complete jerk, but I wrote a few pieces on some of 2k4's albums for City...http://www.rochester-citynews.com/gbase/Gyrosite/Content?oid=oid%3A3170

Now I just have...what, three more to remember?

Tim

XMas Roll Call!!

Hey All! This is to let us know where all the members of geva comedy improv are spending christmas, and what you are doing! I'll start...

Paul - Rochester, going to temple and chinese food!

Pics from this past weekend

NELS -- the Spirit of the Holidays -- in the green room before the show, with SUSAN, who played Emilia Proudfoot.


BRIAN preps as Willowbrook's worldy bum.


PAUL -- the cynical New York socialite who finds Christmas after all -- at the unofficial Geva Comedy Improv after party. When we say, "after party," we actually mean we went out to Lux. To Paul's right is Friend-of-GCI BIG AL.

The Return of the Riceman

Last night, in our darkest hour, Josh Rice returned from the far away Southern lands where the air is thick to inspire us. He suggested a quest to a familiar familiar place in a dark part of town. We traveled down Monroe Avenue which was unusually free of the pan-handling crackheads. The frigid polar sieges of our fair city were to great for even them. But onward we traveled to Acme Bar and Pizza. Pizza and beers were enjoyed by all and once again we were merry and full of cheer! We thank thee, Josh Rice, for your leadership in this endeavor. You are forever in our hearts.


Yo yo yo, in regards to last weekends shows, I would say that Friday Night's theater sports was off the heezy!!! Really freakin' funny people, you should have been there.

Nellis

Big ups to the peoples

Hey, thanks to everyone that came out and supported us for this weekend's shows!!! We had a fantastic time, and are always really humbled by the fact that Rochester has supported us so well. You kids rock.

Friday Night's theatre sports went very well, and although Adam (playing for "Satan's Little Helpers") tried to sway popular opinion by giving the audience donuts, "Edgar Allen Mistletoe" took the evening. Next Theatre Sports? JANUARY 14th and 15th.

Saturday Night's A Very Improv Christmas -- our first improv Christmas movie -- was a hoot! James, coming home to his hometown of Willowbrook, teamed up with the evil Xavier Frost to try and plant a string of Wal-Marts down the Main Street of his childhood, causing all kinds of ruckus between him and his old sweetheart, Constance! Ernie, the worldly bum, was given a quest to find love by the Spirit of Christmas, while Bert -- the grouchy but loveable cop -- made a splash dancing down Main Street. Bing realized that his old pal James and Xavier had a love that could only be hate, and rolled up his sleeves to fight James; however, James only needed to roll up one sleeve in handily defeating the hapless Bing. The cold-hearted Xavier Frost realized he had made a mistake by giving up on his old sweetheart, the town's hippie teacher Emelia Proudfoot. They got married and Xavier gave his missile factory to his assistant in true Holiday Spirit. A kindly old woman showed James the warmth of the heart, and he soon realized that his heart needed Constance; did she take him back? It's a Christmas movie, yo. Of course she did. Everyone lived happily ever after!!!

Thanks again to everyone who came out and saw the shows!

Bob's pictures from MAGIC IN THE MAKING

Bob Russell, Geva's Marketing Superdynamo, took these pix from Geva Theatre Center's Magic in the Making this past Monday!


Geva Comedy Improv loves PEOPLE!


Here's Tim talking. A lot. Again. 

Judging Idea

Adam and I were talking over Coffee this afternoon. I (Mookie) was remarking about how being the judge is fun, but I feel we should add something to the show's effect. As is in way, I related it to pro-wrestling.

One of the major elements of making money in Pro-wrestling in developing a feud that makes people want to pay money to go see the show. The typical formula is that you put a heel (bad guy) on top and people come in the hope that some face (good guy) will manage to win and deseat the champ. It's the pay-off at the end that makes the people care about the feud.

In a similar fashion, we have a heel judge. He (or she) enters the theatre and tells everyone want to do and scores all the scenes. At the end, this guy who has been so mean for the whole show, is, well, just a mean guy. There is usually a pay-off for the teams at the end where someone accomplishes a 5 and the audience goes bananas.

What else could we do?

We were talking about introducing punishments (or humiliations or forfeits or whatever you want to call them) ala Gorilla Theatre. Perhaps at the end of the night, the winning team gets the prize and the losing team has to do something shameful or embarrassing. What if we went a step further -- what if we said the winning team could choose _who_ to award the humiliation to. It could be a single opposing team member, or even the judge. (We could add a clause that said a team needs to score 15 points or more, or something to that effect.)

I think giving some sort of stakes to the judge, trying to give the audience that ability to see fulfill of their dislike of him (or her), would be really rewarding.

Thoughts?
-Mook

Radio play, and Metallica

This morning ADAM and I went out to R.I.T.'s 89.7 FM to promote this weekend's shows with Geva Theatre Center's new PR Czar KELLY. Thanks to ROBBY for having us out, and we hope everyone -- including Mr. Geva -- enjoyed it.

PAUL and I will be on 90.5 FM WBER this Friday morning (wber.monroe.edu) somewhere between 7 and 7:30 in the morning. Take a listen and hear the hijinx meander through your airwaves with the crew of BER's Friday Morning Show.

Since no one would go with me, I went to see METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER last night. A fascinating, fascinating movie. Seriously. I went in thinking I was going to see the comedy of the year, but it was soooo much more. Oddly touching. So poo to all you haters and nay-sayers. I've been asking the troupe about their opinions for doing an improv band movie, and this only adds fuel to my fire...

Tickets for this weekend's shows -- www.gevatheatre.org!

Tim

Oceans 12

okay guys I'm sorry. I've changed my mind. I just saw around the world in 80 days with Jackie Chan, and now I know what a truly crappy movie is. Ocean's 12 seems like a masterpiece in comparison.

Also, the new Handsome Boy Modeling School album is awesome. I love this kind of thing. Tim Meadows is on it as the ladies man, making the album not only tasteful, but hilarious!!

Nellis

Who's what this weekend

Hey, y'all -- tickets are still available for our improv weekend -- Friday's Theatre Sports and Saturday's Improv Christmas Movie! Get them at www.gevatheatre.org, or by calling 232-GEVA!

Here's the line up for Friday's Theatre Sports:

HOST -- Mr. Doran
JUDGE -- Mookie
MUSIC -- Big Jim

Team 1 -- Paul, Adam, Chris
Team 2 -- Tim, Shawnda, Brian

And Saturday? The Improv Christmas Movie?
Narrators / Directors: CHRIS and JOSIE

The "just visiting his hometown" New York socialite who doesn't believe in Christmas, played by PAUL

James' comic-relief pal, who might just have a great idea, played by TIM

The childhood sweetheart who runs the local store, played by SHAWNDA

The grouchy but good-hearted cop, played by SWITHIN

The wordly bum, played by BRIAN

The crooked millionaire who wants to buy up the wholetown, played by ADAM

The townsfolk -- MOOKIE

James' ex-teacher, who remembers how things "used to be," played by SUSAN

Tonight -- Rehearsal and Josie's party

Tonight Geva Theatre Center had their "Magic in the Making," which opens Geva's doors to the public and shows all that behind-the-scenes stuff. We did some warm-ups with people who strolled into the Rehearsal Hall and did some scenes as well -- good stuff.



Josie (center) and Paul (right, with doo-rag) entertain the crowd at "Magic in the Making."

Afterwards we headed over to Josie's place to have our Holiday Festiveness. We exchanged gifts, but did that thing where you give each other useless and completely unnecessary gifts. Gifts included:

A Freetime from 1987 (go Lou Gramm!)
Plastic grapes
A bag of crap that included Adam's old retainer
A grow-your-own-girlfriend
Silly Putty
A can of Tamarind Juice
A holiday card from Garth Fagan


Everyone enjoys their gifts!

This weekend's shows

I'm definately hoping we do some Christmas Caroling (either) before, during and/or after the shows this weekend. That'll rock!

We should sell Smirnoff Ice. There, I said it.

Lots of College kids will be home again this weekend so I'm hoping that'll help our numbers as people try to find escape from their families.

INDEED,

~Mook.

Random Notes

Here's Mookie's blog: www.livejournal.com/users/mookieghana

Here's a Radiohead song: "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy"

Here are Dan Diggles' three rules for improv from IMPROV FOR ACTORS: 1) Say "Yes, and..." to everything, 2) Say the first thing that comes to your mind, 3) Make your scene partner look good.

Looking ahead to January

Looking ahead to January...

The Sweet Tarts

Last night -- the 11th -- Adam and I were joined by GCI alum Jeff Sachs -- in town from Boston -- as we checked out Rochester's burlesque troupe The Sweet Tarts (thesweettarts.com) perform at Record Archive. They were just like Geva Comedy Improv, only with less clothing and more "va-voom."

Tim

p.s. 10) Handsome Boy Modeling School, WHITE PEOPLE

Sticking my nose where it belongs

I think that the Marketing department is great! They let us design our own flyers now, and they're totally sweet. I like the new one, I think it really represents who we are! We're spiffy and neat, and so is everything about Geva! If you're not already planning on coming to the Christmas shows, you should be!

Hey! What's going on? The Geva improv team went to see Ocean's Twelve last week. Upon leaving the theater, Adam remarked that he really liked the camera work. Unfortunately, when this is the first thing someone says about a movie, you know it must have sucked. And it did, although CZJ was in it, and she is my hero, or rather, Michael Douglas is. You know why.

How's that for a Blog post? Not bad, eh.

Nellis

4) Phantom Planet, PHANTOM PLANET

5) Eagles of Death Metal, PEACE LOVE DEATH METAL

board games

- catchphrase

- balderdash

- scattergories

- cranium

- trivial persuit

these are fun and build good skills & knowledge

thus spake mookie

Upcoming Shows

This coming weekend in the Nextstage at Geva Theatre Center --

THEATRE SPORTS on Friday, December 17th, at 10:30 pm. Don't forget to boo the judge!

A VERY IMPROV CHRISTMAS -- a Christmas movie made up before your very eyes! Saturday, December 18th, at 10:30 pm.

All tickets are $7! Get them at 232-GEVA, or www.gevatheatre.org

Want to see how the magic is made? Feel the intricacies and power of improvisong? Ask about our workshops -- surie@gevatheatre.org

December 10 2004

11:10 pm. Tim here. Trying to find a piece of paper. It's a piece of paper that had my favorite albums of 2004 on it. We at Record Archive -- where Improv Tim's alter ego works -- take our end-of-year top tens very seriously.

And I was happy because I spent all year with a little scrap of paper in my wallet on which I had written all the albums I would, sometime in far-off December, whittle away into a list of ten. Fantomas. Vernon Reid. Prince's surprising MUSICOLOGY. The Hives, Beastie Boys, and Handsome Boy Modeling School.

So I took that scrap of paper and bought some pizza and sat down with a clean sheet of paper and had at it. I cut out the Beastie Boys; not very good, when you really think about it. And Prince? Well, there were ten other records I liked more than that one.

It's kinda like Papa Jones tells Indiana: I wrote the final top ten list down so I wouldn't have to remember them. I think it went something like this:

1) U2, HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
2) The Hives, TYRANNASAURUS HIVES
3) Ministry, HOUSES OF THE MOLE
4)

4)

4)

Nuts.