DCM 11: Lessons Learned

I had a great time at the Del Close Marathon in NYC. I watched approximately 24 hours of Improv. Amongst my faves where Code Duello: Hamilton & Burr, Mailer Daemon (happy birthday Unix!), The Upright Citizens Brigade, I Eat Pandas, Omelete, and Three on One. I Eat Pandas brought the house down in particular. I have a big crush on Heather Campbell of Three on One, Last Day of School and The Midnight Show now. She is very funny and fun to watch even when she was on the back line listening. I'm sorry that I missed Improvised Shakespeare but I know they'll be around for the NYC Fringe Festival. I further know that I will probably also miss them then too, since it's already started. I missed all of the DC folks shows with the exception of Bright Young Things and iMusical. iMusical made DC proud for sure with Jordan Hirsch basically stealing the show.

I will give a piece of advice to my future self and hope I follow it. Don't buy a sadwich (or in this case a "chicken wrap") then leave it in your bag while attending shows inside a sauna only to consume it later that night. You will get sick for two days. However, if you do do that, then eat a chili half-smoke at Ben's Chili Bowl and you will magically feel better.

Spaghetti Eis

Let's see... I'd like some vanilla ice cream... with... Strawberry preserves aaaaand, how about some coconut flakes? Wait a minute...  Is that a spätzle press? How about this, push the ice cream through the spätzle press, so it looks like spaghetti. Put the preserves on top like marinara sauce, then sprinkle the coconut all over it like parmesean cheese. That's it, yeah! Like that! Perfect, danke schön, danke schön... hey, just a minute now. Why did you put in that cookie? What's that supposed to be, a piece of garlic bread or something? No, no, no, no, no NO! It was a perfect spaghetti analog and then you went you ruined it! You know what? Just forget about it. I lost my appetite.

ASSSSCAT 30000 NYC 7/19 and 7/26

I'm trying to update this everyday and I'm about to leave the office so I'm getting it done. I just read my friend Paul's post about ASSSSCAT 3000 in LA. I recently saw ASSSSCAT in New York, twice, while attending a level 201 improv class at the UCB training center. So I will describe those shows.

ASSSSCAT 3000 7/19 7:30 show
I arrived at the theater around 5. There was already a substantial line for the 9:30 show. I hadn't checked into a hostel yet, so I sat on the curb and made a reservation with my laptop since that was much easier than dealing with the girl at the desk of the hostel, which was 3 blocks away. I sat on gum and it stuck to my pants.

I had arrived early enough to get a good seat. I was in one of the real theater seats in one of the middle sections. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Amy Poehler and Horatio Sanz were hosting. Horatio is markedly thinner than he was on SNL. So thin in fact, that I did not recognize him at first. It was exciting to see AP in person. She's really charming and cute. They introduced the show, interacted with the audience some, then introduced the other improvisers and the monologist. The lineup included Seth Meyers, Bobby Moynihan, Chris Gethard and a bunch of ASSSCAT regulars who I am not able to name. The monologist was a guy named John from Harvard. I think he was a friend of Seth's. The show was hilarious. All of the performers looked like they were having a great time and the monologist told good, engaging and detailed stories. Chris Gethard and Bobby Moynihan stole the show pretty much. I can't get enough of either of them. Chris Gethard has a gigantic brain. Overall this was probably the best improv show I've ever seen.

ASSSSCAT 3000 7/26 9:30 show
I showed up at the theater at 4:30. I met my friend Ed there and we were among the first. We ended up being the second and third for the 9:30 show. We sat with the girl who was first who was there doing an internship at Nickelodeon for the summer. She was from somewhere in New England and she does improv. I forgot her name but she was very friendly. Ed and I bought an umbrella at Gristede's just in time for the violent torrential downpour that soaked everyone. We remained acceptably dry, although if I had an extra pair of pants I would have put them on.

We sat right up front. The girl we were with had the DL on the fact that Amy Poehler was in LA and therefore would not be entertaining us at ASSSSCAT that evening. The cast consisted of The Stepfathers for the most part plus some people I didn't recognize. All solid improvisers though, obviously. The real action of the night was to be provided by the monologist, which happened to be Dennis Haskins AKA Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell. To describe him as a train wreck does not even begin to illuminate the tragedy that would follow. I don't think he had ever seen improv before because he really couldn't give a monologue to save his life. What he was good at and what he did a lot of was name drop. There was one moment when he tried to demonstrate how TMZ got the description of how creepy he is with young women by being creepy with a young woman in the audience. He kept hitting Bobby Moynihan with his hat, to which Bobby said "Ouch, that really hurts!" I think he said that because it really hurt. Mr. Haskins appeared very uncomfortable and he was certainly making me uncomfortable. A lot of the improv had to do not with his monologues but with what a tragedy that guy really is. I can't decide if that fact was lost on him or not but he did reference it at one point in his second or third monologue. He stopped taking suggestions from the audience. I got the sense that he was very uncomfortable with the uncertainty of requesting a suggestion so he just used his own.

The improvisers did their best to be professional and cordial. I assume the were at least partly as creeped out as I was, I can't say for sure. The certainly didn't let it affect their performance.

The next night I saw Gravid Water. I'll save the description of that for another time or possibly never. I will say that it was stellar and that it was Bobby Moynihan's first time doing that show and he was great.