The Bastion Gets Renee Gauthier to Dish on Posh Spice
Renee Gauthier gave us some details on the episode of "Twentysomething Toddler" that we featured last week.
"That sketch was written by Josh Spector and we were able to improvise on the loose script. The dad is Nate Craig and I am obviously playing the mom. Adam Hunter is the son. The series will be following Adam in normal life situations with parents who always treat him like he's four years old. I had a great time shooting this sketch, it was a lot of fun!"
Also, tune into NBC on Monday, July 16, to see Renee work her tail off as a personal assistant to the Poshest Spice Girl of all in the hour-long reality special "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America," then check back here with the Bastion to read our exclusive, post-Beckham interview about what it's really like to be the left arm and shopping bag holder of the one and only Victoria "richer than you can dream of" Beckham.
Show up at the Beat Kitchen (2100 W. Belmont) on Fridays starting on June 29 to see Ken Barnard, Tony Sam, Hannah Gansen, Kumail Nanjiani, Robert Buscemi, Josh Cheney, David Angelo, Ricky Carmona, and more rip hilarity from the pop culture headlines. Be there or be an idiot.
The Bastion hung out at the Blerdsiversary party last Saturday night at the Spot. Yes, our head still hurts. But it was an awful lot of fun. Photos from the soiree can be seen here.
Also, last week, Bastion photog Krystle Gemnich got some great shots at the Random Acts show at the Lodge (including the one of Matt Braunger, who now does comedy in L.A. but told us he's still "totally gay for Chicago", where he learned everything he knows about being funny, at right), and a ton of good pics of the Dwight Nights shows, which can be gawked at here.
It seems that the The New York Timesagrees with us that the old paths to comedy opportunities are being increasingly abandoned in favor of that zippy and irresistible internet thing: "For comedians who aspire to break into television, it’s no longer necessary to spend years cracking one-liners at stand-up clubs in hopes of landing an HBO special or a sidekick role on a network sitcom. With clever material, an act that mixes live skits and multimedia, and, especially, some savvy use of the Internet, members of a young comedy troupe can suddenly find themselves starring in their own cable series."
The Bastion's recent conversation with Maria Bamford about her phat and creatively flexible deal with Super Deluxe, as well as Chicago examples of online self-promotion (i.e. Blerds) turning into more and more IRL opportunities has us thinking about this even more.
We've been talking with Jon DeWalt of Chicago's ThoseGuysFilms.com, who are also taking maximum advantage of the viral video phenomenon and are putting out original content as frequently as possible. According to Jon, "We have a ton of online outlets. It isn't like in ye olde times in the days of The Lonely Island (three years ago) anymore where your website was it, and everyone flocked to see if you have a new video out. Now there are so many video websites that the playing field and viewing population is really divided. So we try to get to as many as we can - we are on Super Deluxe and Funny or Die - these are the two video-sites I most enjoy being a part of and we have gotten the most views from. We are also on MySpace which is good for fan feedback, and average for views, and we are also on iFilm and YouTube which have not gotten us a lot of views at all. AOL featured one of our shorts, 'L'attraction,' off of iFilm and it got a lot of hits from that, but otherwise iFilm hasn't brought us anything. YouTube is tough because if you get one popular video you will be set on fire, but that is not likely because every douchebag in the world is uploading his drinking videos and every confused twenty year old girl is uploading her bikini dancing videos and it's like okay, where is the real comedy? That's why we like Super Deluxe and Funny or Die - it focuses the audience."
Jon went on to explain: "We get some pretty good traffic, we have been in some magazines and featured on Super Deluxe and AOL and some other things. Like I said it is weird because one video will get thousands of views in a day; like today we just uploaded 'Musical Makeover Montage' and it has over 2,700 hits in less than a day on Funny or Die - that same video and same amount of time on YouTube? Nine hits. But what I do like is that the overall sum of views and feedback and people who are enjoying our work gets a little bigger with each video, it has been snowballing for over two years now, and it keeps adding on slowly but surely. That is uplifting."
The Bastion has also been chatting with the charming and funny masterminds behind "Ask Anything With Beth and Val," aptly named Beth and Val, two more comedians taking advantage of those series of tubes to get their material in front of a wider audience. Valerie Hurt and Beth Dover are two self-described "theater dorks turned laugh whores" based in LA who do improv and sketch. Beth trained at Second City in LA and is writing for the National Lampoon Lemmings tour, while Val studied with the Groundlings and does a fake home shopping show on VH1 called the Home Purchasing Club.
Some of Beth's MySpace videos caught the eye of CJ Arabia, who works for dotcomedy.com, and the pair were invited to contribute to dotcomedy.com, which was looking for funny fresh female talent. Beth and Val learned iMovie and started using a Mac laptop, shooting and putting up their stuff, which is in question and answer format with an eye toward pop culture and current events.
They don't get a ton of money for their efforts but they have a lot of fun entertaining questions from viewers, ranging from "If a guy shaves his balls, does that make him gay?" to "Have you ever touched anything and then regretted it?" all the way over to "If Anne Heche was crazy at some point, doesn't that mean she still could be?"
Beth and Val's self-loading video about the viewer comments that came their way after being featured on "What Would Tyler Durden Do" can be seen here.
This past Saturday, the Bastion went on location to the filming of 'Angelina', a short collaborative film by comedian Robert Buscemi and local filmmaker Steve Delahoyde. We were cast to play 'listless-and-slightly-annoyed' audience member to Buscemi's Angelina soliloquy, a task that proved nearly impossible as takes were repeated over and over, steadily increasing in ludicrousness as Buscemi and co-star Jared Logan added further and stranger dimensions to the characters, characters who are already absurd and improbable beings from the possibly deranged mind of Buscemi. Sufficed to say, we were physically worn out by the end of the shoot. Add to that the 20 minute black-out period when all of the technical equipment combined with the season's first air-conditioning blew the circuits in the back of the Lincoln Restaurant, and our afternoon proved to be delightfully weird.
You can watch the live version of Angelina below. Photo above by Sarah Hadley.
Same Title, Different Story, Second City Film Contest
There's a cool new Chicago-based creative comedy-related podcast online these days, called "Same Title Different Story." Creator Chris McAvoy explains the premise: "The idea is to give a group of writers the same title, ask them to write the story that belongs to the title, then record them reading their piece."
Chris has put out several episodes already, to an enthusiastic audience that seems to keep growing. "The reaction has been pretty good so far. We have a handful of 'subscribers' (people who subscribed for free through iTunes) and a larger number of people that listen to the podcasts directly on the website. The list of writers for the next few titles has gotten quite large as people hear about the project and want to participate.
"The process is pretty straightforward, but it's time consuming. I sent out two titles to a group of sixteen people in February, and arranged for recording at the Playground in March. I wrote the software that carries the pieces in March, now I'm editing the recorded pieces, about two a week, and putting them online. The release week was pretty encouraging, we had brief write ups on Gapers Block and Chicagoist, and I was on Talkin Funny plugging the show. All in all, it's been a lot of fun. Writers really like working on the project, it gives them some framework to work within, but is still open ended enough to not be stifling."
Also of interest to creative types - are you a Second City-related person who has a funny short film you'd like to put up on the big screen at the Austin Film Festival? Second City Entertainment is currently accepting submissions for the Second City Shorts program of the 14th Annual Austin Film Festival. Submissions are limited to less then fifteen minutes and entrants must have some current association with The Second City. The deadline is June 1st, 2007. For more information, download the submission form here.
Well not exactly, but they ARE making some films today with the girls in the Vivid Comedy Party, to be shown at tonight's Vivid showcase at Riddles. Two members of Blerds are opening the show for the next three nights, in addition to the film screening. Blerds member Mike Bridenstine said, "We're shooting some comedic videos with Brea Lynn and Monique Alexander from Vivid later this week, specifically for the live shows. They should be fun to make. Actually, I'm mostly looking forward to overhearing the awkward conversations the guys from Blerds will be having with the ladies. I'm picturing each guy in Blerds right now and cracking up at each of them, individually, for what I imagine they'd come up with to talk about.
"We've actually shot Blerds videos with adult entertainers before. A lot of people don't know this but all of the females who are currently in our videos are, or were at one time, heavily into the pornography business. Okay, not really. But this'll be a fun and interesting experience. I'm looking forward to these shows."
In other Blerds-related news, they've finally made the jump to YouTube and were recently featured on SuperDeluxe and DotComedy. You can 'digg' Kumail Nanjiani's "He-Man" video, too. And watch the most recently released Blerds video, "Upscale Plastic Surgery":
Our friends at Blerds have been making quite the strides lately. We'd like to let our brethrenon the coasts know that they should be on the look out for our boys, as dates have been finalized and are as such:
This weekend: Blerds representatives will be at NACA in Nashville.
March 1-3. Opening for Vivid Comedy Party @ Riddles. Orland Park. Five shows in three days.
March 7. Empty Bottle. Chicago.
March 29. Underground Lounge. Chicago.
April 5. UCB. Los Angeles.
April 8. Beauty Bar. New York City.
April 10. Check Your Cool @ Parkside Lounge. New York City.
April 11. UCB. New York City.
April 12-14. DC Comedy Festival.
April 19. UCB. Los Angeles.
And, as a special bonus for us in Chicago, the first "Beers with Brido" will be held THIS Sunday at 9:30 p.m. Details from Mike Bridenstine himself are as follows:
"'Beers with Brido' is my new video podcast. Or vodcast, if you're a nerd. I thought it would be funny to do a talk show where everyone gets progressively and purposefully drunker. It was going to be called "12 Beers with Brido", but I don't want my guests to feel pressure to drink 12 entire beers (or only 12 beers, depending on who it is). I'm going to have comics and other friends of mine who are fun to drink with as guests. It'll be shot on camera and then edited down to five minute or so clips to watch online. The first episode will be taped live at the Spot on Sunday at 9:30pm. It'll feature my guests T.J. Miller, Sean Flannery, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, John Leadley and some other special guests. The Spot was very nice to give us open bar for much of the show taping."
The Clapkees (AKA the Blewt fellas, who produce Don't Spit the Water, among other things) are featured in today's Red Eye, in a special story about YouTube's apparent power to turn unknown creative types into NBC sitcom deal-landing stars. (No, the Clapkees don't have a deal with NBC. But you never know.)
Also, in Sunday's Tribune, flip through the Arts and Entertainment section for a little sumpin' sumpin' about the Blerds and their online video exploits.
It's like we keep saying to the Chicago comedy community - get your stuff online! People who write big checks are watching. And yeah, there's lots of junk and fakery, but the cream will rise to the top, and you're a fool to ignore this channel for your expressions.
Very Bad Porn Launched in NYC, Heading Our Way Soon
Two of Chicago's up-and-comers, Thomas Middleditch and TJ Miller, launched their latest project, Very Bad Porn, last week in New York with a big show at the UCB.
The official website is here. The MySpace is here. The Chicago launch? October 17. More details on that as the time approaches.
Principal Onyx Blackman, also known as Greg Hollimon, recently joined Ruby Streak's Second City podcast roster. Here's the MP3, where he chats about his long-term rollerskating habit, which must be quite a sight to see when you consider the man is roughly twelve feet tall.
A new Blerds video, Dick Joke, is up on their site. It's NSFW, and it features TJ Miller, for those of you with such concerns. Also, there's some code wonkery, but we're sure they'll get it sorted out soon.
A felt incarnation (and creepily accurate version) of Chicago Underground Comedy co-founder Tony Sam has kicked off a new blog, Ask Dr. Tony, in which he addresses your most pressing and embarrassing medical concerns. Got a rash or an itch? Dr. Tony can help. Sort of.
The Bastion is entertaining several interesting date offers from Craigslist, who will be rewarded with our charming company and the delights offered by the Star and Garter girls at FIZZ on Thursday nights. Hope they know what they're getting themselves into.
How fortuitous that just this morning the Bastion was on the treadmill at the gym watching The Blues Brothers on Comedy Central (not so funny with no sound and just closed captioning, by the way) and thinking about Chicago comedy alum, and possible future contributions by their offspring.
Second-generation Chicago funnyman Rob Belushi (son of Jim, nephew of John) is Second City musical director Ruby Streak's subject in her 20th podcast. (Archive of her podcasts here.) Listen to the clip here, wherein Streak, who's been with Second City since 1977, chats with young Belushi about "punctuality, travels through the comedy circuit and Mel Gibson's mug shot."
EDIT: More on Belushi. "The Adventure Club," every Tuesday at 10:30 at the Playground Theater (until October 10), will feature a rotating guest cast of stand-ups, improv performers, and sketch troupes, including Rob Belushi, Thomas Middleditch, Jon Barinholtz, Jason Hodge, Brendan McGowan, and Dean Carlson.
The Bastion caught up with our friend Brooke Van Poppelen, back in the Midwest for a short time, at Tuesday night's Chicago Underground Comedy show. It was here we also met John Mulaney, in town for a Zanies stint next week before heading back home to New York. Jeff Klinger was also visiting town for a few days, and even between CJ Sullivan's cajolings and the 10 Year Anniversary Show at the Elevated Wednesday night, we weren't able to convince him to stay a bit longer.
Tony Sam's inner monologue comes out during his hair appointment.
John Mulaney discusses the intricacies of drunken money-making and chemically-induced paranoia.
Brooke Van Poppelen gets to the truth about her food journaling and her dealings with NYC denizens.
The Bastion has been having a lot of fascinating conversations with comedy types - fans, performers, students, and industry folks - about what it would take to make Chicago less of a place to simply learn and hone the comedy craft, before heading east or west to "make it," and more of a place where things really happen.
Will it always be the case that you'll have to leave Chicago altogether to create your art and/or make a living from comedy? Okay, sure, Chicago's not likely to build a TV/movie production hub here anytime soon (although, of course, the movie industry was actually born here), but are there things we could do to make our collective and individual presence felt more without us having to leave the cozy shores of Lake Michigan? Or what can comedians in Chicago do to make their work better known before they make what might be an inevitable latitudinal shift to pursue more opportunities?
These conversations are ongoing, and we certainly haven't figured out anything profound since we were born just a month ago, but one thing is very obvious - comedians need to have an online presence.
As The Bastion's loyal readers know, we try to include the linky goodness whenever we can. It makes for a fuller, more interconnected piece of comedy reportage, and it gives interested readers a way to immediately find out more about the comedians we're talking about. It's what HTML is for: one-click cross-referencing info. That's why it's so puzzling when we go to put a link in for the latest comic we're blabbing about, only to find...very little online info. There are evolving Chicago comics who have talent, and truly unique voices, who can hold a room in rapt attention, but have almost nothing online that represents who they are and what they can do.
Cats and kittens, if you're serious about your comedy, you need to take steps to make sure that when someone googles your name, something zippy and user-friendly and multimedia-enhanced pops up in the first five links. Make it easy for people to learn more about you. Make it easy for people to contact you. Make it easy for people to see examples of what you do best.
Admittedly, The Bastion is a little tilted toward all things techie. Yeah, we can code HTML by hand. We rock it old style. But you don't have to be able to do that to put your face online. And you don't have to go all Eugene Mirman on the dubya dubya dubya, but these days it's cheap and easy (not to mention fun) to put together vids and fun clips and post them online for all to see. Maybe you can't kick it off right away with a full-fledged slickly designed multimedia wonderland, but at least get started with a danged MySpace page, get the goods up, and be known.
i.O.'s New Media Projects Hit Your DVD Player, Laptop, and iPod
Our inside man on North Clark, Baz, has informed us that i.O. has just released a "25 Years of Improv" DVD: "...(i.O. alumni and) cast members and writers of Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, MADtv and Upright Citizens Brigade perform in a gala show of improvised comedy as well as tributes to Chris Farley and innovative improv teacher Del Close."
Also, they've added two new blogs to their blogroll: Last Call with Crago - a blog from student/bartender Jim Crago, and a team-written effort from The Chorus, who are still a little dazed from their amazing experiences at the Del Close Marathon in New York.
i.O. has also launched their podcast project, i.O. To Go, which kicks off with a sketch from the Cupid Players, and then entertains with Susan Messing taking on MADtv's Ike Barinholtz in some energetic longform improv. The two are seen below in a funny clip, which is NSFW due to potty-mouthedness.
Longtime Second City musical director Ruby Streak has put together sixteen podcasts so far, which are yours to enjoy free online.
Streak invites special guests to sit down with her weekly to discuss "life, politics and other absurdities."
She has recently chatted with TJ Jagodowski about his teaching experiences at both Second City and I.O., and with Second City alum and MadTV performer Frank Caeti about life on the boob tube.
Mike Balzer tells us that some spiffy "new media" experiments are a'brewing at i.O.. Mike, or "Baz," if you feel so inclined, is soon to be heading production at IO's Del Close Theater, and says that in addition to the six i.O. blogs that now populate their site, and the occasional videos that they're putting online (check out the "Baby Wants Candy" promo), i.O. is also gearing up for regular weekly podcasts. Mike also hopes to use his new position to bring more national acts into the theater, and will be producing several national festival-type events over the next year.
Renee Gauthier gave us some details on the episode of "Twentysomething Toddler" that we featured last week. 
Also, tune into NBC on Monday, July 16, to see Renee work her tail off as a personal assistant to the Poshest Spice Girl of all in the hour-long reality special "Victoria Beckham: Coming to America," then check back here with the Bastion to read our exclusive, post-Beckham interview about what it's really like to be the left arm and shopping bag holder of the one and only Victoria "richer than you can dream of" Beckham.
The kids at 
Also, last week, Bastion photog Krystle Gemnich got some great shots at the 
The Bastion has been having a lot of fascinating conversations with comedy types - fans, performers, students, and industry folks - about what it would take to make Chicago less of a place to simply learn and hone the comedy craft, before heading east or west to "make it," and more of a place where things really happen.
These conversations are ongoing, and we certainly haven't figured out anything profound since we were born just a month ago, but one thing is very obvious - comedians need to have an online presence. 
Admittedly, The Bastion is a little tilted toward all things techie. Yeah, we can code HTML by hand. We rock it old style. But you don't have to be able to do that to put your face online. And you don't have to go all 
Our inside man on North Clark, 
Longtime Second City musical director Ruby Streak has put together sixteen podcasts so far, which are 
