If you’re the type of dude that follows our Facebook, Tweet machine, or the general buzz of the internet rumor mill, you may have already heard about the upcoming project Rodgers and Hammerstein Are Dead. If you’re particularly “with it”, you may already know that the piece is created and performed by Ladies and Gentlemen. But if you didn’t make it out to Monday’s On Stage Philadelphia at Plays & Players, where L&G made their smash debut, then you probably have no idea who they are! YIKES!
Curiosity is a signpost of great intelligence, and you, dear reader, are obviously one smart cookie. For you, we’ll answer the eternal question: who in the seam hall are these Ladies and Gentlemen?!?
First, a general blurb: Ladies and Gentlemen is Philadelphia’s newest musical improv group. These talented performers take a single audience suggestion and turn it into a fully-formed, Broadway-style musical. Every note, every word, every kickline is made up on the spot. Comprised of some of Philadelphia’s finest improvisors, Ladies and Gentlemen looks to take Broad Street by storm with its blend of toe-tapping melodies and improvised comedy.
The Ladies and Gentlemen are directed by Jason Stockdale. The musical director is the insanely talented Joe Gribbin.
The Cast:
Kennedy Allen
Olivia Brubaker
Apple Milkshake
Joe Sabatino
Kristen Schier
Alexis Simpson
Kelly Vrooman
Alan Williams
Want more? Keep checking the Listen to the Ladies and Gentlemen on Episode 60 of the Rep Radio podcast here. Episode 60 also features the Movement Brigade and the Philly Contact Collective.
Ladies and gentlemen, tonight is the first night of the closing weekend of Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Balloon Ride. Just four more chances to see the fully improvised Victorian time-travel adventure that audiences are raving about!
Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical… is performed at the Latvian Society, 531 N 7th Street, Phila PA 19123 (adjacent to the German Society on the corner of 7th and Spring Garden).
In their travels, Cecily and Gwendolyn have visited most cultures throughout history, so they’ve witnessed major economic upheaval first hand. They know all too well the value of currency(and during a recession, no less!). They inisited PJI keep ticket prices affordable. Admission to tonight’s 8pm performance is only $15; Friday and Saturday’s 8pm shows are just $20; and Sunday’s 7pm Closing performance is a steal at $10! Buy tickets for Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Balloon Ride
Want to get a little taste of what you’re in store for? In the following video, Cecily and Gwendolyn discuss and discover deep truths about Woodrow Wilson.
PJI could not be more excited for this week of shows. If we were any more excited, we’d soil ourselves, and that would be filthy and embarrassing.
Tonight, we debut Open Mic Sandwich, the show that offers meaty stand-up comedy from up-and-comers, served on a crusty Brioche of Philly’s best comedians. This month features Darryl Charles, Kent Haines, and Aaron Hertzog. This is a FREE event- so be prepared to tip your bartender well!
Tomorrow, we enter the closing weekend of Cecily and Gwendoly’s Fantastical Balloon Ride (Get your tickets now!). That means not only are we hosting 4 shows from the only Victorian women who would dare travel through time, we’re hosting 2- count them, two- 10pm performances from some of our favorite improv groups. IT IS LIKE THE BONUS YOU DID NOT EVEN ASK FOR BUT WERE GIVEN ANYWAY.
In anticipation of their big double-bill with the Philly N Crowd on January 30 at 10pm, CUBED has made a promo spot. We’re like 93% (plus or minus a standard error of 93%) sure they won a CLIO for it. Yeah yeah yeah, you came to the internet to get away from commercials; wah weh wah. Face it: internet is the new TV, so suck it up and deal!
Watch as Mark and Dan read some real-life memos, submitted by you- their loyal fans.
“My Cubicle” used with permission and performed by Morning Sidekick Radio Comedy. For more information on Morning Sidekick, please visit their homepage at http://www.morningsidekick.com
CUBED performs with the N Crowd Saturday, January 30th at 10pm. The show is at the Latvian Society, 531 N. 7th Street (7th and Spring Garden), Philadelphia PA 19123. $10.
If you’re one of those whiners who likes to bitch abot Christmas happening earlier and earlier every year, then you’re going to HATE this blog post. Even though it’s not even December yet, PJI is already gearing up for its January production of Cecily and Gwendolyn’s Fantastical Balloon Ride.
WHO? Glad you asked. Cecily and Gwendolyn are two slightly mad Victorian time travelers created by Karen Getz and Kelly Jennings. In this completely improvised, two-person, audience-interactive extravaganza, Cec and Gwen (self proclaimed social anthropologists) “discover” new civilizations and boldly go where no self-respecting Victorian woman would ever dare! We like to think of it as the show Oscar Wilde didn’t have the courage to write.
PJI is having a Cec & Gwen production meeting today, and while we’d love to tell you about it, we think you’d be bored to tears. Insider knowldege is only sexy if there is a lot of backstabbing and substance abuse. The only substance we’ll abusing today is expensive cheese.
Instead, check out this video of Cecily & Gwendolyn answering viewer questions:
You can become a fan of Cecily and Gwendolyn on Facebook. And after that, you can subscribe to their Youtube Chunnel! I mean, Youtube Channel! Man, this British stuff is mighty contagious.
We sat for a long time thinking about what to write in this introduction. What do you write about Mary Carpenter that reflects both her onstage talent and her offstage grace, without making her uncomfortable with all this internet idolatry? Well, I guess you could pit it this way: when Chicago’s legendary Second City came knocking on Philadelphia’s door this past summer, it surprised no one to discover that they wanted to hire themselves a Carpenter. Name
Mary Carpenter
Hometown
Born in Villanova, currently living in Mt. “Hippie” Airy
Stage Name
Phantom Junior
Credits Include:
ComedySportz Philly, Suburban Love Songs and Disco Descending (1812 Productions), City Of Nutterly Love (Philadelphia Theatre Company) , Co-founder of Freefall Productions, Dazed and Amused: The 24 Hour Improv Marathon.
Favorite onstage moment?
Hitting on the cop who just pulled me over and later meeting in Applebees under the harsh light of reality.
Any good travel horror stories?
Going on a sailing trip with people who “Knew” how to sail, and having to be towed in twice.
Are you reading Toiling in Obscurity, the blog of local sensation Jaime Fountaine? It’s pretty kick-ass. We’re going to add it to our blog roll as soon as we post this post.
Once or twice a month, Fountaine takes her internet comedy into the 3-dimensional time-space reality via her two regular performance series. One is the aptly named Toiling in Obscurity series. The second, which is coincidentally called “Second Stories”, is the very reason I’m blogging this here blog. Tonight is a very special presentation of Second Stories, where you the audience have more power over the show than you’ve dreamed possible. Could it be?
SEXY POSTER FUN TIME SHOW!
It is! Second Stories presents Revenge of the Rant-O-Wheel!
Join Jaime Fountaine and Steve Manheart for a Brief History of the Rant-O-Wheel and a lively demonstration, featuring some of your best-loved local personalities and a chance for YOU, the audience, to participate! Whether you get up and tell a story, or just shout out the weirdest words you can think of (to make it harder for those jerks who volunteer), the show is in your hands!
Tonight, 8pm – that’s like 2 hours from now! The Dive, 947 E. Passyunk, Philadelphia, PA, 19147. And it’s free! Free! FREEEEEEEEE!!!
Jaime hosted this event for October’s PJI Presents: GALA (you can look at pretty pictures from the night here.) While that show was literally seven gallons of fun, tonight promises to be ten or eleven times that. Why? Well, I’ll be there, which is pretty cool. Also, I hear a rumor that Pat Kelly from the Sixth Borough and at least one-half of Meg and Rob will be there. Which half? Honestly, I’m not sure. I’m just praying that the dividing line is vertical and not horizontal, if you know what I mean. I will be pretty pissed if I show up at the Dive and there are two pairs of lifeless, skinny yet shapely legs. GROSS.
Also, is “Manheart” Steve’s real last name? If so, that is the awesomest moniker we’ve heard since we learned about the existence of child star Max Records.
EDIT: I didn’t know there would be prizes! Congratulations, Meg Favreau! Although everyone who participated was a winner, you were truly the winner, in that more people clapped for your story than for anyone else’s. And we all went home craving a “Red Hamper.”
This Travelogues cast interview features someone who is best described as a Philadelphia improv powerhouse. We bolded the word powerhouse to hammer home our point. We bolded the word hammer because it makes us think of “acclaimed” rapper MC Hammer, and this improviser is also pretty sick when it comes to rocking a microphone. Also because jokes always come in threes.
If there’s an improvised show in Philadelphia she’s probably had some hand in it, whether via performance or coaching those who perform. At last October’s 5th Annual Philadelphia Improv Festival, she racked up four, count ‘em, FOUR, appearances. So it’s no surprise that she’s a part of PJI’s upcoming The Mike Connor Travelogues.
Our next cast member is not a man to be trifled with. He was Batboy in Batboy: The Musical. . He’s the Philly Phanatics’ right-hand man. He knows several hundred forms of Boring Kung Fu. Who is this modern miracle? Let’s find out.
Last night I played a dead unicorn doing a trapeze act.
Any good travel horror stories?
I was on a national tour, going down a mountain in western Idaho in a TOTAL blizzard, and our driver was very inexperienced. She totally did great, but we were literally barreling down the road passing eighteen-wheelers that were pulled over to the shoulder, and couldn’t hardly see anything. It was hairy.
Why are you doing this show?
To have my name associated with PJI and Mike Connor. And I’m totes free Thursday night.
Why do you do comedy?
It’s better than sitting home watching John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars for the seventeenth time.
If we had to judge based on this picture, we’d have to go with … yes. But there’s nothing wrong with being insane- at least not the kind of madness that leads you to do improv, direct Color Guard, and star as Gwen Stefani on an episode of MTV’s Made. That’s the kind of madness we’d happily put into a clean luer-lock syringe and inject directly into our bloodstream. Say no to drugs, kids. And say “YES!” to the delightful psychiatry of the fabulous Kristin Finger.
In the interest of continuing our series of Travelogues cast interviews, we are continuing our series of Travelogues cast interviews! A bit “on the nose”, yes, but we like to think that an enormously large bullseye is still a bullseye.
This episode features one Sean Curran, Philadelphia-ish based funny man, ComedySportz Philadelphia player since 2005, and the Editor in chief of Gamervision.com.
It’s a tie between the time Dave Jadico kissed me on the lips, and the time I kissed him on the lips. Either way, kissing Dave Jadico.
Any good travel horror stories?
Once while driving back from Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (home to the world’s tallest roller coaster), my wife and I stopped at a little motel somewhere off of route 81. The only room available was a smoking room, which meant that it smelled like a 70 year old musty ashtray. Also, the room’s bathroom locked with a deadbolt from the outside. Think about that – it locked from the outside of the bathroom. This means you can’t lock people OUT of the room, you can only lock them IN.
Why are you doing this show?
I wanted a chance to stretch my longform legs, as it were. I also need to show my parole officer that I CAN be around other people in a calm manner. One of those is true, one isn’t. Can you guess which is which?
Why do you do comedy?
Two reasons: 1. I’m very starved for attention of any kind. 2. Applause powers my pacemaker. Without the adulation of the masses, I would die. One of these is true, one isn’t. Can you guess which is which?
SEXY POSTER FUN TIME SHOW!
