|
|
Main
The Bastion had a jam-packed Tuesday this week, first hitting a party and screening for the short film Punched in the Gut, by Paul Thomas and Andy Roberts, and starring Claire Simon from Claire Simon Casting, Jennifer Rudnicke and Matt Miller from TP&R Casting, Beth Kligerman from Second City, Dan Antonucci, Brady Novak, Robert Buscemi, Keith Smitherman, Danubia Guerra, Andy Roberts, and Paul Thomas. Attendees took over the regular DePaul hotspot Goodbar for the afternoon, overindulging in $10 pitchers of sangria, peach margaritas, and mango mojitos. You can watch the trailer for Punched below, or see it on the big screen when it shows at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival next month:
Leaving the party early, we then headed over to the Beat Kitchen to catch the Chicago Underground Comedy showcase. Here we saw grand slams from Mike Olson, Mike Holmes, Ken Barnard, Tony Sam, Hans Holsen, and making his debut ChUC appearance, Dan Telfer (Impress These Apes, Rogue 8, Don't Spit the Water, and Bastion Special Correspondent!). We also got to see host Nick Vatterott perform for the first time since he 'got off the boat' (what Thomas Middleditch is now doing).
Tony Sam with a friend.
- Kristy Mangel
Auteur Robert Buscemi is currently on a one-month stint in L.A., and likes to harass us periodically with stories about all of the amazing things he's seeing and doing, and doesn't cease in reminding us how much we miss all of our friends there and how very long and cold the Chicago winters truly are.
"Hanging with an extended network of Chicagoans, including Kyle Kinane, Matt Braunger, TJ Miller, and Nate Craig. Former Chicago guy Mike O'Connell blew me right out of the water at the Improv the other night. He headlined a particularly hot show. People went nuts. He's a barefoot one-man lunatic army. I was in awe.
"Then just tonight (Sunday), SpitFire's Renee Gauthier did extremely well at the famous Comedy Store, closing out a really, really freaking strong bill really, really, really well. They ate her up. And--get this--just before Renee, Kids in the Halls's Scott Thompson did a guest set. He was really funny, of course, and marched right up to Renee after her set to ask about her and get her contact info. He was the world's nicest guy, and Renee and I chatted with him in the room and outside for like 15 mintues. Renee's a huge Kids fan. Take it from me--Gauthier brought that room home, and a lot of good comics noticed.
Two of the funniest I've seen lately: Chris Fairbanks and Patrick Keane. I'm up this week at the UCB West's "See You Next Tuesday."
Photo by Krystle Gemnich.
Bastion Senior Reporter Kristy Mangel will be acting the part in this week's Friday Free-for-All, with a round-up of the past weekend, told fan-blog style.
Whew! The Bastion is finally recovering from this past week/end, just in time for the Friday Free-for-All round-up this week.
After helping a comic move boxes from his second floor condo to the moving truck parked in the alley below (he's off to the great wilds of Madison, Wis., only to be hanging in Chicago every weekend for the next year, we're sure) Saturday morning, it was off to Vittum Theater to take in Skepsis, the latest production of Same Planet Different World dance company.
The production included short films by P3 Mediaworks, one of which starred Chicago comedian Brady Novak, in a touching film about a boy's dream to welcome aliens to Earth. We were especially pleased to watch the production with the star himself, Mr. Novak, and comedian/F.O.B. Mark Vana. P3 Mediaworks are also involved with the Lincoln Lodge, and have shot some promotional videos for them, which you can view on P3's website under "Video Production". Cool.
Afterward, we hopped over to the midnight monthly comedy revue, A Demon Who Never Appeared! at Playground Theater. Hilarity and another late night ensued, as it is wont to do after such travails into the midnight show realm.
The next day, Sunday, saw us awake and ready to see the Buffalo Bills CRUSH the Chicago Bears (oh, did we forget to mention we're Bills fans? We are). Crush, they, uhh, didn't. To satiate some of the bad blood we were instigating during the game via text message to every Bears fan we had in our phonebook, we decided to stop by Seven Ten Lounge after the game screening at Delilah's had concluded. It was here we ran into three-fourths of the Visitor's Locker Room, taking in several games at once on the flat screen televisions, talking smack (which they can be heard doing every weekday at 3 p.m. CST on Fearless Radio), and generally being sports dudes. They are our favorite party crew in the comedy scene, it has to be said.
Somehow after that, we made it over to the Mix for Adam Kroshus's and John Springsteen's show, and from there headed to the Bad Dog stand-up showcase. Suffice to say, it was a looonng Sunday.
Monday night was another night at the Mix for the Pants Off open mic, the biggest in the city. It was a relatively demure night, until Josh Cheney had to strongarm an unwieldy and drunken comedian from the venue. It was pretty magical, his handling of the situation and the priceless recovery of the audience. One of those, you-had-to-be-there moments. There were also a few media peoples out, to take in the show and energy of the room. And this is to host Mike Bridenstine: Jon Benet Cougar Mellencamp? Tooo sooon.
Also scene out at the open mic was Second City Mainstage player Brian Gallivan. What a treat! His stand-up is just as great as his improv and sketch work.
This same night we heard the Las Vegas Comedy Festival was holding their call-back auditions at Zanies. Scene out were Bradley Fojas, Robert Buscemi, Pat Brice, Jeb Cadwell, Summer Neville, Eric Pennell, Mike Stanley, and 2004 festival contestant, Andy Woodhull. Good luck to everyone who went out; call-backs will begin again in November. The Bastion is strongly considering a trip to Vega$ in January...
This week we've been catching up on past episodes of Red Bar, and it seems as though there have been some monetary issues with the station. However, after a week of prerecorded shows, they're back on air live every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday night at 9 p.m. CST, and we overheard mention that it MIGHT go to five days a week, and Chicago comedian Brendan McGowan MIGHT be made permanent co-host.
Bringing you all the deets from the past week/weekend from our new home away from home, Gio's on Damen Ave. Why? Because the Bastion is OFFLINE at home, but still dedicated to keeping you up to speed on the latest and greatest in Chicago comedy. We'll be doing this round-up of misadventures Memento-style, starting with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday today and revisiting Wednesday and Thursday in a couple of days.
Friday night was a rousing success of a show to see Renee Gauthier off to the mystical land of Los Angeles. The line-up was a showcase of who's who in Chicago underground stand-up comedy, with appearances by Allison Leber, Brady Novak, Becky Garcia, CJ Sullivan, Mike Holmes, Lauren Bishop, Kumail, Mike Bridenstine, Prescott Tolk, and girlfriend herself, Renee Gauthier. Everyone was on their total A-game, bringing raucous laughter with new material, touching epitaphs, and slight roasting. The night stretched on with post-Lodge favorite Resi's Bierstube around the corner, including way too many 'mystery' beers and lots of revelry. Noticably absent from the festivities was filmmaker/auteur Jordan Vogt-Roberts; we found out later it was because he was in Ohio filming Sean Flannery's wedding (congrats again Sean and Jessica!).
Continue reading "Weekend Recap, from Back to Front" »
Another ridiculous weekend is behind us here at the Bastion. What was supposed to be a weekend full of a rock and roll outdoor music festival turned into a water-soaked, grey, end-of-summer melancholy of days, all ending in incredulous hilarity.
Saturday had us early on deciding not to go down to Touch and Go for lack of a festival buddy. Instead, we called up TJ Miller to see if we could hitch a ride in the Ford Focus and catch his feature set at the Improv out in Schaumburg. Friend of the Bastion Lauren Bishop was on emcee duties (we hear she is the only female to be hired by the club thus far), and SNLer Darrell Hammond was headlining. This would be the second day of a double-show stint; the first show billed as the "dinner show" at 7 p.m. and the second beginning at 9:45 p.m., with about an hour downtime in between. The Bastion ran into Mike Holmes and had a few beers with him during Darrell's second set, where we got down to some serious discussion on the state of comedy in Chicago and the future of current collaborations.
Lauren, Darrell, and TJ 'chillaxing'.
It was a real treat for us to see our friends in front of 300+ audience members in the biggest comedy club in the country, and to be able to meet with Darrell between performances and chat a few minutes with him about the shows. Lauren told us that she, TJ, and Darrell had some really amazing conversations backstage about the business, and we're jealous we couldn't be a fly on the wall for that one.
Speaking of the business of comedy, some things were overheard in the Focus regarding the future of TJ's ever-escalating career. Certain senior partners of a certain huge entertainment talent agency have been in talks with TJ about flying out to meet with him -- flying OUT to meet with HIM. He's being a bit nonchalant about it, but still called up his friend Zegan to go over all the particulars and get his professional advice. Apparently, huge entertainment talent agency got a tip from someone who caught TJ and Prescott Tolk's Bombast show at UCBT this summer, then told aforementioned senior partners to look at TJ; in turn they requested a tape, he obliged, and they were calling the next day. Hot stuff! The Bastion wants a copy of that seller.
The night wasn't done yet, however...
Continue reading ""WEREWLF," Newly Released Inmates, Poorly Stenciled Garden Apts., and Other Topics Not Mentioned in Following Story about Another Weekend of Misadventures" »
 Last night The Bastion caught Schadenfreude's staged reading of hilariously terrible '80's sci fi movies "Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn" and "RobotJox" at the Neo-Futurarium, and then scooted on over to Simon's Tavern for a drink and some chitchat.
Schadenfreude founding member Justin Kaufmann won The Bastion's nerdy little heart by revealing himself to be an NPR insider with his initial friendly e-mail upon our launch on Monday. He invited us to last night's show, in which full-on robot punches were thrown, Kate James did an uncanny recreation of Kelly Preston's indescribably bad performance as Dhayana in "Jared-Syn," and "because it's the future" was given as the explanation for everything from excessive perspiration to the sudden making out of lead characters.
 The Bastion is very interested in creative developments in new media, and naively asked Schadenfreude whether, despite the live-performance nature of their collective endeavor, they "taped their shows." In fact, they are mad bloggers, dedicated podcasters, archive years of videos, host many photo-type experiments, and are committed to sharing new content online on a daily basis. In short, their site is crammed with goodies.
Justin and cohorts Stephen Schmidt and Adam Witt gave us lots to think about, in regards to the nature of comedy culture in Chicago, the delights of modern prankery, the beauty of the D.I.Y. ethic, and the wonders of modern media. More on the topics that came up in our interesting conversation coming soon.
-Elizabeth McQuern
|
|
|
