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To finish our special weeklong highlight of the Bastion's Pick of the Week, A Demon Who Never Appeared! (Saturday, Nov. 4, midnight at the Playground Theater), we sat down with Jared Logan and Kumail Nanjiani, co-founders of the monthly midnight comedy revue, to try and figure out from where the madness stems. Take a look inside... if you dare!
First off the bat: can you please introduce yourself to the readers: where you hail from, when you landed in Chicago, what you've done artistically since you've gotten here, your favorite movie/band/comic book, and your measurements.
Jared: I'm Jared Logan. I'm from Morgantown, WV. I lived in Knoxville, TN for a while. I went to college at the University of Memphis and I moved to Chicago in 2003. Since I've gotten here I've been doing stand-up comedy nonstop, but I also found time to stage manage one play (called Mexican Wrestling Macbeth) and do the lighting design for two other small productions. I'm also a student at i.O. on and off. My favorite movie is Quiz Show. My favorite band is The Flaming Lips. My favorite comic book right now is called Checkmate. It's about super-powered spies that work for the United Nations. I weigh somewhere around 260 lbs, but I like to think I look like I only weigh 230-240.
Kumail: Kumail Nanjiani. From Karachi, Pakistan. Holla. Moved to Iowa in 1997, to Chicago in 2001. Started doing stand-up in 2002, and have been performing ever since. I have probably performed stand-up close to a thousand times now and it gets a little more fun each time. Haven't really performed on stage in any other capacity really. Took a writing class at Second City. I like Before Sunset, Midnight's Children, and Bruce Springsteen.
So, how did the Demon come about? Describe the process of crafting the idea and how it was molded into the creature it is now. In your words, what IS that creature?
Jared: Demon came about when I was in Don't Spit the Water (Saturdays at 10:30pm Playground Theater). That's the great show run by Steve Gadlin and it's put on by Blewt! Productions, his production company that Demon is also a part of. Tyler Lansdown, a hilarious improvisor, plays Big Dummy, the announcer, in that show. He's in the booth and makes occasional wisecracks over the god mic. I saw how funny he was, but due to the constraints of that show, he can't just talk and talk. I thought, wouldn't be funny if there was someone up there on that microphone who is trying to ruin the show? Insulting the guests, interrupting, being a bastard. But of course, it wouldn't be funny if it was a person you could see, so Kumail and I came up with The Demon.
The Demon is a creature from the netherworld with no body or tangible form. All he can do is talk and pull off bits of really unimpressive magic (like making the lights go on and off.) Occasionally, he possesses people or grants wishes, but only if it might ruin the show and we have enough in the budget that month for special effects. He's a complete and total piece of shit. I guess he's supposed to represent everything that can go wrong in a show.
Kumail: Basically we thought it would be a funny idea to take this creature from Hell, with awesome powers and rage and all of that, basicallly an evil being used to getting his way, and strip away all of his powers, and then have him sit in on a show at midnight on Belmont and Halsted. So it ends up being this creature who believes he can send forth rivers of lava, but here he is unable to even ruin a tiny local show, mostly because he is incorporeal now. And he is, as Jared, a total piece of shit. He is petty and mean and jealous and... basically everything bad.
You've been doing this... eight months now, right? How do you think the show is now in comparison to when it first began?
Jared: The show is much tighter now than when we started. We do a new script every month, which is great practice for writers, having to get it prepared and everything. Now, we've got the process down so we always have a rough script two weeks before the show. That way everybody in the show can give notes and have time to learn their lines. We're much more rehearsed now than we were, but we don't want to lose that 'doing it for the first time' anything-can-happen excitement of those early shows, so we always write in bits that are meant to be improvised.
Kumail: Plus, our characters have really developed into having actual personalities and relationships. In the beginning, we had no idea how these guys were going to turn out. We basically had, you know, "This is the announcer character. He is dumb. This is the band leader. She is also dumb." But over time, these characters have evolved into very idiosyncratic and specific people. And they have relationships with each other that stay very consistent. For instance, in the beginning the Demon was just this presence trying to ruin the show. But the rest of the cast has spent so much time with him now that we all kind of know each other. And I think that's why we see a lot of repeat audience members; it's rewarding to see these relationships and characters develop over time.
Continue reading "Inside With: Jared Logan and Kumail Nanjiani, Co-Founders of A Demon Who Never Appeared" »
The Bastion got to chit-chat with their favorite poet and spoken word artist, Joel Chmara, the other day. He's going to be a guest at a Demon Who Never Appeared!, midnight, Nov. 4, at the Playground Theater. We're certainly hoping he brings Winslow to back up the beat.
Firstly, can you introduce yourself to the readers: what is it you do, what are some of your past artistic projects, and what is on the horizon for future artistic development?
I am a performance poet who loves me some music. With the help of my trusty beat machine Winslow, I turn it out like it was 1985. I am part of a group of very talented poets called "The Speak'Easy Ensemble". We perform all over the city. I've been on HBO's Def Poetry. I am a professor at the College of Lake County.
Have influences in your life informed your art? How would you describe your artistic process?
I've been lucky to have grown up in Chicago. This city is inspiring and wicked and perfectly coagulated. Our sports teams and weather and food and character have opened me up. I tried to move from here for college and went East coast, then West, but when I was away, I only jonsed for Lower Wacker Drive.
Can you give us a sneak peak of what you'll be doing at Demon?
I'ma do a sequel to the Superbowl Shuffle and will reveal where I score such mindblowing piles of blow.
Alrighty then. Who are some of your major influences, both artistically and personally?
I'm highly influenced by the Chicago Bears and the sexy chinchillas of Peru. The Blues Brothers are super maxed out influences. I loved a show called Mystery Science Theater 3000. Those things made me glow.
I am also very influenced by comedians off many eras. I was crazy about the funny stylings of Steve Martin, Groucho and Karl Marx. More recent people like Bill Hicks, Max Headroom, Beth "the Girlacher" Williamson, Jon Stewart, everyone involved in "Wet, Hot American Summer", and Bob Rohrman. Rohrman is not just the kind of the car dealers, his no-holds-barred slapstick is the stuff of legend.
Do you regularly collaborate with anyone?
I work with folx from my ensemble, in particular, Robbie Q. Telfer. He's really funny and creative. My buddy Derrick Brown, who now lives in Nashville, is incredible. I've toured with him and work with his supple bum when I can. I also record music with my buddy J.
What can we find you doing for fun in your downtime? What else keeps you busy?
I love to travel. I've seen it all. Decatur is prolly the pearl of the Midwest.
I loves the rock n' roll. I don't go to as many shows as I used to. I actually now watch bands from the back as lil' kidlings whir by me yellin' "Up yr nose with a rubber hose ole man!", or whatever they say these days. My hearing's mostly gone.
Where can we see you again, Joel?
I have my first full rock show coming up next Wednesday at a place called the Mutiny. November 8th is when Winslow and I make haste and beatbabies. It will be a show to soon forget, so people should go while they remember.
Photo credit: poeticdream.com.
The Bastion has begun toying with a new series -- Pick of the Week, as decreed by us. This week we are quite sure you don't want to miss the monthly midnight comedy revue A Demon Who Never Appeared! Saturday, Nov. 4 (or Sunday, Nov. 5, depending on your perception of such matters), midnight at the Playground Theater. To kick off this week's series feature, we visited the cast of Demon in a pretty creepy attic on Ashland Ave., for their official press photo shoot.
We followed Demon co-creator Jared Logan up two flights of stairs, the second steeper and darker than the first, to enter the attic before the flood lights had been set up. The high slanted roof peaked over a single stream of sunlight coming through the bay window, the very top disappearing into shadow. Soon, however, this window was shuttered with various wood paneling found scattered throughout the dusty, empty attic, shadows of loose insulation jumping teasingly around various beams and the single, narrow door of entry.
Soon art director Jordan-Vogt Roberts and photographer Jon Wilcox were flooding the room with lighting, making the setting less aphotic, but as they covered the lights with translucent orange sheets of plastic, the room was cast in an eerie glow, and a single treasure chest gaped open and emanated more of the unearthly orange gleam. Quietly, from unknown places, pigeons sang their ghostly coo.
Thankfully, more cast members showed up just as the chill was really beginning to set in, including Kumail Nanjiani, Hannah Gansen, Josh Cheney, and Andy Ross. Soon the room was filled with jovial laughter and the earlier willies seemed silly to have in a room full of such hilarious, talented folks.
After about an hour or so of shooting, which was peppered with discussions of horror movies (with a slant on humorous observations, of course), the world's best police chases, and graphic novel and action movie hero attributes, it was about time things began to wrap up for the afternoon. Documentarian-of-the-shoot Krystle Gemnich had to use the bathroom, so the Bastion decided to show her down the stairs and then catch a smoke while the cast finished putting all the technical toys away. "Here, the door pushes out. Or does it pull in? No, I'm sure it pushes out. It's not. Well. It's not pushing out. It seems to be locked. From the other side."
The door locked itself from the other side.
About the same time this realization set in, Kumail found a hook that jutted from one of the roof beams, unbeknownst to anyone during the time the shoot was occurring.
We were told not to panic, but a distinct sense of claustrophobia crept into our chest. After several minutes of trying to unjam the latch, it was decided that kicking the door down would probably be okay. And that's when Jordan Roberts got to fulfill one of his life dreams -- and, at the same time, be a hero to those that might have, quite possibly, been privy to a demon who DID appear.
Hey, it's Halloween time. Just sayin'. Maybe this parody shoot conjured up more than just graphics for a new, slick press kit and Web site.
Photos from top to bottom: director Jordan Vogt-Roberts with ghostly tendrils afloat -- Krystle Gemnich
The cast waits for direction -- the Bastion
Shot from above; cast looks alarmed by an unknown entity -- Krystle Gemnich
More photos here.
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