Philadelphia. Pennsylvania. AMERICA. Are you ready for the Hopper Brother’s Totally Tasteful Tribute to Those We’ve Lost in 2009?
No? Well, you know what they say- there’s nothing better than a little music to grease the wheels of uncertainty. Check out this cover of Michael Jackson’s “P.Y.T.”. We like to call it “Musicalube”.
See you on the 30th!
Do you like the N Crowd? Do you like recordings of lively conversations with lively people? Do you like gratuitous use of the term “Butt oils”? Well if you answered yes to at least one of those questions, then you will probably enjoy the N Crowd’s Saturday Morning Hangover!
Oh, you were not aware that the N Crowd has a podcast? Well, we don’t blame you. It is hard to keep up with everything that’s awesome and still have time for your family and job and stuff. To catch you up: for almost as long as the N Crowd has been performing every Friday night, Executive Director BJ Ellis has been recording a podcast the following Saturday morning. Ellis invites improvisers to do what they do best: stand near his microphone and talk, such that he may record their wisdom.
This past October he brought this magical audio-wisdom capture machine to the Philadelphia Improv Festival and let ‘er rip. He spoke with PJI Artistic Director Alexis Simpson, and we’re posting it here for your listening pleasure. PJI plus BJ Ellis? We’re going to go ahead and call that “BJI.”
NOT SAFE FOR WORK ADVISORY: BJ doesn’t edit, and so there may be NSFW comments or language. I mean, we already told you about the Butt Oil nonsense. You were warned.
Full episode: The N Crowd Saturday Morning Hangover: PHIF 5 edition (about 40 min). Featuring: Zach Ward, Kristen Schier, Charles Rosen, Ben Snitkoff, Alexis Simpson, and the mysterious “MilkShake.”
Partial episode: BJI on the Saturday Morning Hangover
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.
Comedian, Actress, Improviser, Director, Teacher, Clown, Ridiculous MC. Please Kristen Schier, don’t hurt ‘em.
Name
Kristen Schier
Hometown
Chardon, OH
Stage name
Angela Landsbury (ed. note: Our alternative post title was Hilarity, She Wrote!)
Credits Include:
The N Crowd (Artistic Director), Fletcher, The Real Housewives of Philadelphia
Favorite Onstage Moment?
Feeding an albino iguana crickets and breaking down.
Any good travel horror stories?
I once went cross country with my family for two weeks in a winebago touring civil war battle fields.
Why are you doing this show?
Somebody asked me to.
Why do you do comedy?
I want people to love me
Lately the PJI offices have been a shitstorm of a flurry of activity. There are only ten days and counting until Opening Night and Also Closing Night of The Mike Connor Travelogues (featuring a set from Philly improv powerhouse Rare Bird Show). This show probably ranks like first or third on the list of The Biggest Events in the Course of Human History, so you can imagine how insane things are here at PJI headquarters.
Pictured: The chaos at PJI Headquarters. PJI is an equal-opportunity employer.
We figured, “Why not frost this chaos cake with some buttercream madness”? So in celebration of the ridiculous arsenal of comedic talent we’ve assembled for the upcoming show, we came up with exactly two brilliant ideas. Idea #1: send the performers a mini-survey and post their brilliant responses here on the PJI blog. Idea #2: build a twenty-foot replica of Mr Peanut out of airline peanuts, and blow it up (sending peanuts peanuts flying as far as the forces of physics will allow). We couldn’t find any good explosioning music, and also we can’t afford the insurance. So you’re gettin’ cast surveys. Deal with it.
CAST INTERVIEW #1
Name
Michael Connor
Hometown
Penndel, Pennsylvania
Stage Name
Michael James Peter Thaddeus Reginald Buckingham Milford Brett-Connor III esq.
Credits Include:
The N Crowd, The Hopper Brothers
Favorite Onstage Moment
I changed a line in a play to include my friend’s name who was in the audience and implied that he was learning disabled. No one else in the audience knew I did it. But I did. And my friend did. And when you watch the footage that was shot from that night’s performance, you can hear him boo as I left the stage. What are friends for if not to imply they’re learning disabled?
Any good travel horror stories (besides the ones you’re telling Nov. 12th, of course)?
In Die Hard with a Vengeance, the bombs are made of these two chemicals. Separately, the chemicals are harmless. However, when you combine them, they become highly explosive. Similarly, my sister can go for a drive and nothing will happen. I can go for a drive and nothing will happen. But when my sister and I go for a drive together, we always have car trouble.
Why are you doing this show?
I took this long trip. I had all these crazy experiences. I want to tell people about ‘em.
Why do you do comedy?
In first grade Mrs. Dougherty gave out awards to each kid at the end of the year: good speller, good builder, good drawer, etc. I got an award for best sense of humor. I knew then that I would grow up to be an unemployed, judgmental goon with no discernible skills other than finding fault in the way other people live their lives. Thanks, Mrs. Dougherty.
It’s time for the third installment in PJI’s Travelogues series. We follow Mike Connor’s adventures as he traipses across the US on a 30-day plane ticket. When we last left Mike, he had just put his feet in the mighty Pacific for the very first time… and all he could think was “is that all there is? Very Peggy Lee, Mike. Very.
Mike is texting PJI with all the happenings of his 21st-century hobo trek, and we’re posting them all right here. Thrill as he crosses the famed Golden Gate Bridge! Delight as he makes peace UN-style after the worst German “bombing” since World War 2! Laugh as he becomes the very thing he hates most! Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Connor’s Travelogues.
San Francisco continues
Mike Connor at the famous Golden Gate Bridge, wearing his fart-blocking headphones
9/11/2009
[10:06:36 PM] Just ran across the muthafuckin’ golden gate. Made that bridge my bitch. The bridge was like “oh im so long” and i was like “shut up bridge and make me dinner!”
[11:20:08 PM] San fran has a joint selling “philly cheese steaks” on market street. Whats up culinary diaspora
9/12/2009
[4:59:56 AM] Tired. Its amazing how these four days of fun have caught up to me. Been on a glee bender. After a good nights sleep ill be hikin & eatin & chillin again.
[5:38:16 AM] Wow! This one dude was just wearing a Golden State Warriors tshirt! Who knew there were actual Warriors fans out there? Chris Mullin yo
[1:41:03 PM] A hard dumpin german busted the toilet in our room at the hostel. The first real tribulation of the trip thus far.
[11:32:58 PM] The entire city by the bay smells of weed. Its like you look around wondering who’s smoking then you realize everyone is.
Hippies, I'll bet. Probably high on the power grass, too.
9/13/09
[1:49:09 AM] Brought the UN contingent to the bar. 2 yanks 2 kiwis a frog and a swede
[11:09:05 PM] Not sure if this frenchy is awkward cause he doesn’t speak english or just awkward in general… Like even without subtitles.
[2:22:32 PM] Checked out of my hostel. Flight isnt til midnight. Unshowered walkin around union square w/ a giant backpack… My god… Ive become a hippie!
[2:38:25 PM] I dont know if my last fart was audible to the folks on the street because im listening to my ipod.
FIN
Well, Fin on San Francisco. So more like San Fin-cisco. Or Fin Francisco. Or San Fran-Fin-co is kind of catchy. When you say it, not when you write it. Oh, nevermind. Just join us next time when we catch up with Mike in Boston U.S.A, okay?
Part two in a series where we follow comedian Mike Connor on his 30-day journey around the continental US. Mike departed Philadelphia on September 8th and has been updating PJI staff member Alexis Simpson via text message. She’s posting his updates, word for word, character for character. Join us in progress as Mike finishes up business in the Lone Star State and heads to everyone’s favorite flower child Mecca.
Austin, continued.
9/09/2009
[11:20:51 PM] i was worried that i would have to embelish some of my experiences. After two days on the road i realize itll be hard to decide what NOT 2 talk about.
9/10/2009
[7:10:47 AM] A transvestite? In texas? At six in the morning? Sheesh.
***FLIGHT #2: Austin to San Francisco***
[12:43:47 PM] Touched down in San Fran. Im thirsty. Maybe ill drink some of this harveymilk ive heard about. Do they have chocolate harveymilk? Maybe ill see a harveycow!
[12:50:36 PM] Maybe a good show title could be “boy are my arms tired”
[3:24:44 PM] If there were an indy rock band from the Amsterdam Hostel in san francisco they’d be called the Ill Fitting Sheets and their single would be an itunes sensation.
[8:06:15 PM] After five hours in san fran i realize there are 2 types of people here: gay dudes & cute little asian chicks & they wear the same clothes. Also hippies & bums.
9/11/2009
[6:17:47 AM] Just stood in the pacific for the first time in my life. Feels like the atlantic. Tastes like smuckers… It has to be good.
[2:00:24 PM] ”i’ve got nothing to do today but smile” -paul simon. Pretty lazy, paul.
And that’s the news that’s fit to text!
Special Edition! Tonight at Midnight EST, Alexis is participating in a 24-hour improv marathon as part of the Philly Fringe Festival. During the entire 24 hours, any text message she receives - including those from Mr Connor - will be used as her next line of dialogue! With a promise like that, this should get niiiiiiiice and ugly.
If you can’t make the show in person, watch online at www.24hrimprov.com
Life is imitating art. Philly-based joke maestro and N Crowd member Mike Connor is spending 30 consecutive days traveling across the country on an open-ended plane ticket. Connor is the co-creator of 2008 Fringe hit The Hoppers Hit the Road, a tale of two brothers that leave the creature comforts of their Glenside safe haven to pursue their dream of music stardom. So it’s sort of familiar territory for him to pack his things and skip out of this one-horse town.
We’re currently in Phase 1 of the project, which involves reposting Mike’s text messages to Producing Artistic Director/Superman Alexis Simpson. Alexis will be reposting Mike’s updates here on the PJI blog, word for word and character for character, for better or worse. Now, Mike has never been one to mince words, or refrain from using … “colorful expressions”. We don’t muzzle artists, so just be prepared that there might be some content inappropriate for the faint of heart.
So hang on tight, folks. Hats Off! to Phase 1 of the Mike Connor Travelogues.
9/08/2009
[11:42:58 PM] 1st day of my trip & 1st weirdness. Ya know when ya think someones a bum cause its dark but then ya take a picture w a flash & realize they r dressed nice?
[11:55:21] Just had a pleasant interaction with someone who identified hinself as a dallas cowboys fan. Must have filed down the horns. Damn jews– er i mean cowboys fans.
9/09/2009
[1:02:31 AM] Got to the juke joint with stevie & louie. Stevie found me initially. Louie has the pot leaf tatoo on his neck. Smoked a joint in public. Now checkin a band.
[4:18:45 AM] You’d never guess but the people still awake at a hostel at 3am are unapologetic hippies. “false preacher man”? Ooh. How subtle. Jesus fuck
[4:21:43 AM] Oh wait he just went in a medley from john fogerty’s bad moon rising to neil young’s old man. Jesus fuckin cock all bastard shit
[4:24:57 AM] Now the medley has medleyed to no woman no cry. And my wrists have medleyed to slittable. Thanks random hippie dude
[9:52:10 PM] Today, for the first time in my life, someone said “have you seen the bats?” without it leading to rabies.
[9:53:50 PM] Also, i smell exactly like the colorado river. Exactly. Like, i’ll bet i could fool a dog. A dog would be like “thats not a person, its an ecosystem.”
[11:22:31 PM] Today i saw a hot chix boobs then immediately saw an old man in a thong. It was like seeing birth & death in one moment. Terrifying yet hopeful
That’s round one! Kepe come back for more updates from Mike as he belittles hippies all across the country!