Stories from a Fearless week of Fearlessness
This entry is going to be pretty long because the last week was a pretty massively amazing week and even though I’m just trying to sum all of it up, there is a lot to sum up.
Last week, we launched a theatre company.
Interesting how I say that so casually. We launched a theatre company. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Any yahoo can launch a theatre company.
That is quite possibly true. Fortunately, when I tossed the idea at a bunch of other yahoos I knew, their initial response was not to laugh at me and tell me that I was a crazy person. Instead, they told me they liked the idea and that they wanted to help. Still sounds pretty casual, doesn’t it?
Geeks Without God was recorded LIVE! Well, it’s always recorded live but…
This weekend we recorded Geeks Without God in front of a live audience with guest Aric McKeown. I won’t deny I was pretty nervous about it since you never know how that sort of thing is going to go. I shouldn’t have worried.
We were first up and since we figured people would be coming in at various points throughout the evening, we assumed that the audience at 6:30 would be relatively small. Wow were we wrong. In fact, there were at least fifty people there when we started recording. Most of them seemed to be enjoying the show.
I was also trying out my portable audio recorder. We had it plugged directly into the sound board and having listened to the podcast, I have to say that it turned out amazingly well. I really look forward to the next time we can do a live recording using the same technology.
Oh yeah, and Aric is a funny funny guy.
So here’s the link to this week’s show. Click on through if you want!
It is Monday Morning – Must be Time to Gloat
It’s been over a month since we recorded a Vilification Tennis podcast and even though we were tired as hell, we decided we should record it after the Fearless launch party on Saturday. This could have been a horrible decision had the event been a disastrous failure.
The event was instead a huge success. Thanks to a great many people, we raised better than half of our operating budget for the year and it is rumored that the wacky comedy to which we subjected our audience was both wacky and comedic.
All things considered, we were blown away by the success of the event. That meant we were pretty euphoric when we recorded the podcast. Which beats the alternative. Eric had also prepared humus and salsa. That goes a long way to creating a positive podcasting environment.
So if you are a fan of the podcast, you should listen to this week’s episode. I think we were somewhat amusing.
Fearless Comedy Launch – What is happening?
I’ve been talking about Fearless Comedy for a while because it’s a big deal and I’m really excited about it. This Saturday’s launch party is the “official” start for the company. I think we have a great lineup of entertainment for the evening.
So if you’ve been reading/hearing about Fearless and the launch party and you are thinking “man, that sounds awesome but I really want to know more,” this is the post for you!
The event takes place at the Amsterdam Bar and Hall in downtown St. Paul. It starts at 6:00 and runs until midnight. The event is a fundraiser and the suggested donation at the door is $20. If you can’t pay $20, pay what you can and come anyway. The best way to kick off this company is with a room full of smiling, laughing people.
So what the hell will we be doing for six hours? A lot! We’ll have a silent auction. We’ll have Fearless T-shirts and stickers for sale. The Apropos of Nothing podcasting crew has cooked up drink specials for you to try! We’ll be hanging out and talking and laughing. And there will be comedy. Oh yes, there will be comedy.
To ensure there is time to both laugh and talk, we’ll be doing 30 minutes of entertainment every hour. The whole event is hosted by Fearless Partner Bill Young, who is funny. So there’s that. The rest of the night lines up like this:
6:30 PM – Live recording of Geeks Without God with special guest Aric McKeown. Also featuring a live performance of the Geeks Without God theme song by me and Geoffrey Brown!
7:30 PM – Fearless Partners Courtney McClean and the Durty Curls will serve up some naughtybilly musical musicness.
8:30 PM – Live Recording of the Obsessed with Joseph Scrimshaw podcast. Joseph will be interviewing a random audience volunteer about their obsession.
9:30 PM – A Fearless Comedy Showcase featuring Stand-up Comedy by Bill Young, original music from Big Fun Radio Funtime by myself and Geoffrey Brown! We’ll also be introducing the winner of the Fearless Fringe Sponsorship.
10:30 PM – Fearless partner Ian Rans presents the $50 pyramid! You’ll have a chance to compete for fabulous prizes including actual cash money! We’ll also play two rounds of PowerPoint Karaoke featuring presenters Joseph Scrimshaw and Aric McKeown! They will not have the opportunity to win cash money.
So it’s a big night with a lot of exciting entertainment. Can’t come for the whole thing? Come for a couple of hours! Can’t afford $20? Spend less!
The show is 18+ so if you are younger than that, you still have time to acquire a convincing fake ID. Ask your mom! It’s for a good cause!
Tell your friends to come and make a date night out of it. Our goal is to raise a lot of money and shoot some comedy in your face.
I know – that last part sounded pretty dirty.
Geeks Without God and Appropos of Nothing – Together Again!
In preparation for the Fearless Launch Party this Saturday, we scheduled an epic podcasting EVENT with our pals over at Apropos of Nothing. Last week, the three of us were guests on their podcast. There was a lot of drinking and rambling conversations about all sorts of stuff. It was fun but none of us had enough. The only solution? Another podcast! Only this time the podcast would be on our terms!
So the three of them joined us and we recorded an episode of Geeks Without God featuring our first theist (Jena) and our “first” returning guest (Matt is actually our second but the episode with our first hasn’t aired yet). By virtue of being a returning guest, Matt was tasked with asking us five questions. And with Jena and Salsa being new guests, they had to answer our five questions. That was four people answering five questions apiece. So what you get is an episode nearly that is nearly an hour-long and involves nothing more than answering a bunch of questions.
I swear it is a lot more interesting than I just made it sound. Listen for yourself!
Another Podcast Guest Appearance
This week, my Geeks Without God colleagues and I sat down with the good folks at Apropos of Nothing to talk about Fearless comedy and whatever else came to mind. Actually, we spent almost no time talking about Fearless but it was a good excuse to sit down and record a podcast.
You can listen to me drink good scotch, some chatter about what we all did for New Year’s Eve and near the end, Salsa and I have words about pasta. Frequently we prove that six people talking at once is exactly why most people don’t podcast with six people. Ever.
I don’t want to overstate it, but Apropos of Nothing has never been a better name for a podcast.
This is part one of a massive podcasting crossover EVENT! Listen to part two on Geeks Without God next Tuesday!
Tuesday Morning Geeks Without God Features a Very Drunk Molly
This week is the second of two episodes we recorded at Omegacon. If you listened to the first one, you will know that Nick and Molly had been drinking before and during the first podcast. By the time we recorded the second one, Molly was pretty drunk. Drunk Molly is, quite honestly, really god damned funny.
We did manage to spend some time talking about Fearless comedy, which was theoretically the goal behind the podcast. We also spent a while talking about sex education, which was not at all what we had in mind. All in all, it was quite the recording session. Enjoy!
New Monday Morning Silliness
This week’s Vilification Tennis web updates include a few new things by yours truly. The re-make of Red Dawn naturally inspired me to think about what the next re-make of Red Dawn might be like. So I wrote a Movie Dick article about it.
We also recorded a podcast right after our Vilification Tennis show on Friday night. It’s a little bit different from most of our podcasts. We skipped fucked up news and spent a while talking about the show we’d just done. We also talked about a lot of other comedy ideas, including rape jokes. Seriously – trigger warning. If that is the sort of thing that bothers you, I would hope you have already decided not to listen to our podcasts.
Matt got on a roll near the end of the podcast that will either offend the hell out of you or entertain you. I can’t say which. If you like it, great. If you don’t keep in mind he hit his head pretty hard earlier that evening.
Big Fun Logo Funtime
So one of the things I’m doing in conjunction with the launch of Fearless Comedy is launching a new show called Big Fun Radio Funtime. I’m getting local comedy writers to work with me to produce a comedy radio show that we’ll perform and record live about once every three months. I’m a big fan of the old radio show format so I’m looking forward to this project. I think it will be a lot of fun!
That might be why I used the word “fun” in the title of the show. Twice.
Our first show is going to be on the 18th of January at 10:00 PM and ticket prices are a super reasonable $6.00 in advance and $8.00 at the door ($6 with a Fringe Button). It will feature scripts by me, David Walbridge, Jerry Stearns and Matt Allex. It’ll also feature original songs by Geoffrey Brown (and also possibly me)! Salsa Sterling will also be providing live sound effects for the show.
Currently, I have Dawn Krosnowski, Windy Bowlsby, Gordon Smuder, Don Cosgrove and myself lined up as voice actors for the innaugural performance. So, you know, people with actual talent! And me!
This is also the first “purely” Fearless production on our calendar. Rather than a partner event, this show will be produced by Fearless Comedy as part of our annual show schedule.
And we have a sweet logo for the show by Melissa Kaercher! I mostly made this post for the purpose of showing off the logo so put your appreciation goggles on and appreciate it!
If you are interested in other theatrical stuff I’m doing, you can always look at my Upcoming Performances page.
Fearless Fringe Sponsorship
When we started talking about Fearless Comedy, one of the things I was really interested in doing was a sponsorship program for the Minnesota Fringe.
The idea was pretty simple. I wanted to help encourage comedy producers to give the Fringe a try. I know that navigating the Fringe for the first time can be pretty challenging and the costs can look a little daunting. If we could make navigating that experience a little easier, I felt that it would be a great initiative for our new company and for the Twin Cities theatre community.
Today we announced the Fearless Fringe Sponsorship program and I couldn’t be happier.
Grail Diary 