|
|
|
Archive: September, 2011
If your problem with improv comedy is that part where somebody is suddenly like "I'm a Martian" and you're like looking at him like no you are not, I can see your wallet chain, you're just a person still, then you might wanna check out Dark Comedy. This PHIT production is performed entirely with the lights off, and has some rather artful is vague-seeming constructs that define it as well. The upside of the opening night's performance: The recurring jokes and utter weirdness of it all. Coolly offputting and surprising. The downside? Maybe it went a little long thanks to those extended noise-making sessions between scenes.
Through Sept. 10, $15, The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St. MORE INFO HERE.
At first, Annie Baker’s/Theatre Exile's The Aliens feels like a stoner sketch: Jeb Kreager and Sam Henderson play delicious silences punctuated by song scraps, hanging by the Green Sheep Cafe’s dumpster. Then Matt Pfeiffer’s production takes off for parts unexpected — the nature of genius, the meaning of friendship, life’s cruel twists, quirky songs — with sublime beauty, grace, and “genius,” whatever that is. These 30-something slackers adopt a 17-year-old busboy (Aubie Merrylees) and... just see it. Really. Feel your heart contract and expand. Afterwards, you’ll “Thank The Aliens.”
Through Sept. 18, $20, Studio X, 1340 S. 13th St. MORE INFO HERE.
Every Friday, Ryan Carey takes a look at who and what’s giving Philly the giggles. Today, he chats with Tommy Pope, who was named Philly's Phunniest at Helium Comedy Club on Wednesday.
City Paper: Congrats on winning Philly’s Phunniest! How long have you been doing comedy?
Tommy Pope: I started comedy at the end of 2008. My brother always tried to talk me into it [and] he finally got me down to Helium’s open mike. Back then, it was one of the only public open mics. At that time, you just signed up and hoped to get on. I got on once in the first three months, and then another quarter year went by before I got on again.
CP: How did it go? Was it immediately gratifying, or did you bomb at first?
As usual, Philly Improv Theater (PHIT) has given on-the-spot comedy a spotlight in this year’s Fringe Festival. 3 Mad Rituals calls for five actors and a monologuist taking suggestions from the audience for a trifecta of spontaneous entertainment. The opening night’s crowd forced the PHIT actors to make scenes and ridiculous characters out of hair spray, Chanukah and bullies. Lucky for you, 3 Mad Rituals is running most nights of Fringe.
Sept. 4, 5 p.m.; Sept 7, 10 p.m.; Sept. 11, 8:30 p.m.; Sept. 17, 10 p.m.; $15, The Adrienne, 2030 Sansom St. MORE INFO HERE.
View galleryPop-culture critic Diana Palmieri raps about last night's episode of Jersey Shore.
This episode was surrounded by the same hype as Snooki’s season-one punch heard around the world. I was expecting (and maybe looking forward) to seeing Ronnie go ape-shit on The Situation, letting out years of pent up frustration and Xenadrine side effects on him. Instead, the only thing that takes a blow is Italian craftsmanship when Sitch headbutts a concrete wall, sufficiently knocking himself out. After he gets in the ambulance Ron and Sam disrespect the Smush Room by bringing their emotional trash in there. Sam once again proclaims that she’s “done” with Ronnie after learning that he’s done the unforgivable: he talked to a girl in Long Island.
After their chat, Ronnie proclaims that he's already lost himself in Italy and wants to go home. He is upset and needs to get away from Sam, saying “you can’t help the one you love,” which is true because you also can’t help who you consistently throw furniture at. Vinny encourages him to stay by spouting inspirational self-help book jargin about there being light at the end of the tunnel — which he realizes is true considering the "light" comes in the form of $100,000 an episode.
With a handful of Tiffins (sit-in + take-out Indian food) under his direction and a food truck to follow, Munish Narula certainly deserves the play he'll get for opening his long-awaited Tashan at 777 S. Broad St. on Sept 12. With a handful of Eagles, Phillies and their respective coaches living in the tony new 777 condo/apartment complex, the pre-opening event for the lounge/restaurant on Sept. 8 is expected to be the first hot party of the Autumn season. Or, at the very least, the last of the wild summer bashes. Blame in part Narula’s desire to make Tashan as much of a rich architecturally evolved lounge for the casual cocktail crowd (he reminds me after upstairs at XIX, there’s no beautiful space on Broad Street where you can just sit and have a drink) as it is a regal Indian restaurant with the same warm quality of cuisine that eaters have come to expect from Tiffin. To that end, Tashan’s musical program features DJs on the Bhangra-muffin tip as well as the promise of live Indian musicians, both classical and experimentally clubby.
Follow A.D.'s tweets @ADAmorosi
Fans that swarmed Thurston Moore’s tour bus outside the First Unitarian Church on Tuesday night were disappointed that the gangly Sonic Youth-er didn’t have much time to chat. After supping at Village Whiskey and playing an elegant winning set at the Sanctuary — with Philadelphia harpist Mary Lattimore by his side — Moore and company had to get to NYC to hit the Ed Sullivan Theater by their assigned call time (7 a.m.) for Wednesday night’s Late Show with David Letterman. Not only did Letterman seem to genuinely love the Moore song “Benediction” (who wouldn’t?), at set’s end, he asked Lattimore to demonstrate a harp-solo freakout. Check it above.
Follow A.D.'s tweets @ADAmorosi
There aren’t too many options for the likes of us concert-thirsty folk on Labor Day. So expand your horizons with Bruce Lamont’s dark experimental ambience. Normally you’d see him with his main squeeze, a saxophone, fronting Yakuza, but this show is in support of his chilling solo debut, Feral Songs for the Epic Decline.
Mon., Sept. 5, 8 p.m., $5, with Man’s Gin & Motorcycle Maus, Kung Fu Necktie, 1250 N. Front St., 215-291-4919, kungfunecktie.com.
Devoted poet/avid concert-goer/nerd-grrrl extraordinaire Jane Cassady’s weekly horoscopes run in this space every Friday morning.
Virgo (Aug. 24-Sept. 23): Put on your sparkly tiara, get a pretty dress, make cupcakes and a good playlist. It’s time to celebrate love, poetry, and adorableness in all its forms. Celebrate all of your heart’s rich confetti.
Libra (Sept. 24-Oct. 21): You may come across some fallen trees on your coming walks, but no matter. Clamber over them like you do every other trouble, like you stayed safe and warm in the storm.
Scorpio (Oct. 22-Nov. 22): “To make a prairie it takes/ a clover and one bee, / and revery. / The revery alone will do/ if bees are few.” (Emily Dickinson) This week, you can dream yourself any landscape and it is likely to come buzzing to life.
As City Paper reported in July, the Miss Rockaway Armada crew has had a busy summer. The project features floating junk boats built not only for visual stimulation, but as a platform for musicians and artists to perform. They’ve been building up their fleet at a surreal vacant lot near Broad and Pine streets; the whole DIY-junkyard project will culminate in a parade this weekend to Clark Park, followed by a puppetry/theater/live music performance in Clark Park as part of this year's Philly Fringe; afterward, the crew will settle down for an exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance.
One of the most interesting floats is the human Ferris wheel. It holds three people, and is pedal-powered. The builders actually used it to lower the engine into their tug boat. Another cool float is made out of vegetable crates salvaged mostly from the Italian Market. The framing lumber is primarily trash-picked from construction and demolition sites in North and West Philly. The artists took the time to remove all the nails, and clean the wood to make it usable. Wooden platforms attached to steel or tin drums provide the floating base.
Over the past week, the flotilla moved to the Bartram’s Garden boat launch in Southwest Philly along the Schuylkill River. Construction on the floats was completed on the water, and what couldn’t be transported from Broad Street had to be disassembled and put back together at the launch site. There is one powered boat in the armada. It’s red, it’s loud and it doesn’t leak. It’s used to pull the floats around, and go for a fun ride in, too, as I did. The boat was actually made in San Francisco, but it didn’t actually get into the water until arriving in Philadelphia. This fact lingered in the back of my mind as I took a cruise up the river. You can see footage from that journey in my video, below.
- Activism
- Arts
- Arts Events
- Books
- Dance
- First Person Fest
- Last Chance
- Museum
- On the Fringe
- Philly Artists
- The Curator
- Theater
- Visual Art
- Arts News
- Artist Profile
- Arts Preview
- Street Art
- Been There, Done That
- Big Ups
- Comedy
- LOL With It
- Stand-up
- Critical Mass
- DVD
- Events
- Friday Fill-in
- Ice Cubes
- In Memoriam
- Interview
- Just Do It
- Just Opened
- Kaleidoscopic
- LGBTQ
- Art Phag
- Mailbag
- Movies
- Film Fest
- Movie Review
- On set
- Scenester
- screening
- trailer!
- Music
- 10 Track Mind
- Album
- Album Review
- Concert Review
- DJs
- Local Support
- Now Hear This
- One Track Mind
- Philly Bands
- Show
- Somebody Else Was There
- Song
- The Showdown
- concert photos
- jazz
- DJ Nights Blogged
- Night Watch
- Now See This
- Poetic License
- Printed Matter
- Radio
- Shopping
- Coveted
- Fashion
- What We Heart
- TV
- 24
- Idol Hands
- Mad Men
- ProjRun
- True Blood
- Useless Lost Recaps
- Couch Potato
- Shore Trash
- Turned ONN
- TopMod
- Video Games
- Free Online Game
- PSP
- PlayStation 2
- The 1-Upper
- Wii
- Web Junk
- CAGE MATCH
- Free Online Toy
- Weekend Omnibus
- Win
