Friday, February 26, 2010

Show 70: Grand Rapids, DAAC

Turnout: 12 or so...
Monetary Votes of Support: 42
Personal Injury Report: Rough night for joints that start with vowels, ie, Ben's elbow and ankle.

Show Description: Back in goddamnrapids! Small show, Jay (Blessed Sacrifist) from good old Milwaukee, Extra Vomit and Hegemonicide, posi hardcore spazz action fun. Smaller turn out, but good conversations and good times. Some folks there making a documentary on DIY spaces, comparing the DAAC's mission of advancing DIY to DIT (do it together) to a Trotskyite basement in Lansing. Sounds very interesting.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questons or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Show 69: Detroit, Trumbullplex

Turnout: 22
Monetary Votes of Support: $82.25 (30 merch, 32 hat, 20 donation)
Personal Injury Report: Kate kept pulling out her hair during the show.

Show Description: A solid show at an awesome space. The Trumbullplex is two big old houses (biggest and oldest punk houses I've seen) and a theatre space. It's amazing. We played in the dining room so they wouldn't need to turn the heat on in the theatre space. It was Clara's birthday (she's the one getting a b-day massage in the pic). So now we can say we've done this show at a birthday party.

We did some pre-show experiments, that kind of threw things off a little this time. First, we got into town really early and went to a cafe/bakery (which had great bakery but not a lot of seating) and overheard conversations about an awesome urban beekeeping organization. Then we moved to a cafe/restaurant (cuz we wanted something other than bakery and it was too snowy out to wander around and eat peanut butter). We found the best food for it's price we've encountered in a while at Cass Cafe, and (this is where the experiments started) Kate had a couple drinks. She never drinks before the show. Then, we got back to the house and set things up in the dining room, Kate wanted to play chess (cuz it makes her upset when I beat her, which fuels a little method acting for her). Unfortunately, for our second experiment, she won. This (and trying to cram the audience into the dining room) got me flustered enough during the introduction that I forgot to put the blindfold on, which then snowballed into me missing cues cuz I was worried about what Kate will do when she takes the hood off and finds no blindfold. Yes, in spite of writing a part for myself with no lines, I missed some lines. Hurns.

These variations went unnoticed by the audience, who seemed to really love the show. We didn't have a big group discussion, but did have a number of really excellent individual conversations with people and felt really good.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questons or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Show 68: Hamilton, Sky Dragon Center

Turnout: 30
Monetary Votes of Support: 177 total ($33 merch, $144 Suggested PayWhatYouCan Donation) Canadian money is about the same as US, a tiense less.
Personal Injury Report: Unscathed Again! man... the Pittsburgh ear incident must have done it.

Show Description: Thor, who we knew from Bedlam Theatre in Minneapolis set up an outstanding show, falafels and all, at Sky Dragon Center, a cafe slash dance studio slash show space, slash bar slash community center-- it's a pretty nice set up.

45 seconds before the end of the show, two cop cars, with lights flashing pulled up directly in front of the picture windows and started shouting. Their timing was uncanny, made us freeze for a few seconds while someone went outside to do a copwatch and make sure they weren't shouting at us, then we finished the show. We had another great discussion, that's three in a row now.

I was asked afterwards if, because of doing the play, I'd given some thought to whether or not I'd be able to actually do something like this-- which I answered, but am still, right now, examining and expanding on my answer. Nice question.
Perfomance-wise, this was one of the stranger ones, at least on my part, I don't know why.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questons or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Show 67: Toronto, Tranzac


Turnout: 13
Monetary Votes of Support: 58.16
Personal Injury Report: Unscathed! We're finally getting good at this.

Show Description: This time we used a stick for the prop gun to avoid border crossing troubles. It worked alright, fell out of the holster a couple times but was better than the rolled up piece of paper we'd used in Pittsburgh.
I liked Canada right off the bat and thanks to Kelly we were not left without an audience.
Also, this show was one of the ones where we got to hang out afterwards, talk, and have some food with the people who saw it. This always makes my night. It's so good to get to know people outside of the environment the play is in. Refreshing. So, thanks guys.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, comment on it or ask us some questions. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

show 66: Buffalo, NY Rust Belt Books


Turnout: 11
Money: $24 (our cut)
Personal Injury Report: Reverse! My back was really sore before the show, and felt great afterward. Maybe I'll create a new form of tie-yourself-to-a-chair yoga!

Show Report: Rust Belt Books is an awesome huge bookstore, full of old rare and radical stuff. They've got a beautiful little intimate space in the back for performances. It's really nice playing the show in small spaces with focused lights (and focused audience) every once in a while (most actors don't know how spoiled they are).

I think the performance went really well. I messed up the communication with Rust Belt, and let them think we were coming Friday, when we were actually there Saturday. Fortunately, they let us perform anyway, and the turnout somehow didn't totally suck in spite of the confusion. A decent discussion with enthusiastic young people (one of whom was doing a report for his theatre class).

We went to Nobody's for a concert afterward, but didn't feel much like shaking our booties. Ended up sucking the mop late into the night. Which I guess is unavoidable every once in a while in this line of work.

Did you see this show? If you did write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 65: Jamestown, Labyrinth Press Company


Turnout: A whole bunch, 35 ish
Monetary Votes of Support: 68 (40 hat, 28 merch)
Personal Injury Report: Unscathed!

Show Description: Labrynth Press is a kick-ass locally owned coffee shop and show space. Playing there was a great time, lots of people turned out, young and old, which was a very welcome sight. The whole space seemed to bustle during the show, people were pretty lively. It kind of almost threw me off a little--in a good way.

I believe we freaked out some people who saw us as they were walking by; that's always awkward. Also, my apologies to the guy who's coffee Ben jostled upon his entrance.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 64: 222 Ormsby, Pittsburgh


Turnout: 14
Money: $17 ($2 from merch)
Personal Injury Report: Unplanned non-consensual ear peircing 30 seconds into the show. Best injury yet!

Description: Hadn't done the show for a good six days, Kate didn't even run through the lines, but it all went pretty well. Of course, as usual, the only real mistake was in the section where the audience is also reading along with the lines. Hurns.

This was the most bands we've played with since September in Toledo. Which made us a little nervous, but what do you know, people at a 9 band acoustic fest are more patient with an hour long play happening in the middle of their concert than noise dudes from Detroit!

Half the bands were on one tour or another, so the door split got pretty thin, which is fine, cuz we had a great time anyway. Lots of really wonderful music and positive DIY energy, with us as an intense pit of negativity right in the middle.

This, plus the fact that the car needs more work (exhaust, suspension, alignment) makes me long for the happy day we get to tour on bikes with a comedy set in a yurt.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, comment, or ask us some questions. We'd like to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.






Friday, February 12, 2010

Future Productions!

Here's a little list of 5 potential future shows (well, 4 shows and one comic) to whet your appetite. Financial support (see previous post) will enable us to focus more energy on making these things happen. Otherwise, they'll be competing at a financial disadvantage with earning enough money to live and fund the projects ourselves, reading a lot of Antonio Negri and participating in this intentional community.

1. Mauser- an updating re-write of Heiner Mueller's updating re-write of Bertolt Brecht's best Lehrstucke (Lehrstucke = learning play, intended to be "didactic for the performers" The Measures Taken= Brecht's best, in my opinion) Our version will feature power electronics karaoke, with the audience playing the part of the chorus. It'll be didactic for EVERYONE! Cuz we know how much America loves didactic!

2. YURT! an absurd insurrectionary comedy about Mongolian invaders taking over america one city at a time (to punnish you all for hating didactic theatre). Performed in a traveling yurt (yurt= mongolian hut, like a teepee but less pointy) and featuring sniveling caricatures of local politicians from every town we visit.

3. The Demon Bargain. A series of related scenes written by anyone (and made available for anyone to produce) that confront our choice to sacrifice the entire future for our mild comforts through a demonical analogy. Jeff Grygny is responsible for this initial idea, and Damned Theatre (allies in Milwaukee) might be mounting it's initial production.

4. The Trial- A one man show about Maoist paraphernalia, the erosion of public commons, and the absurdity of the American judicial system. Based on a true story!

5. Ceasar's Ruin- A fantasy adventure comic book idea i outlined a while back (not a play, but still awesome).

Sounds fucking awesome, right? Please help out. Seriously, we're incredibly efficient and your small contribution will go a long way. If you wanna know more about any of these things, each has been at least outlined and initiated in some form. Just drop me a line at insurgent.ben@gmail.com and I'll share!

Economic Report: Feb 13

That's the chart of how we did from Jan 1st until today. It's been an exciting ride. The first big drop around Jan 11th, was an oil change, radiator flush and drive from NC to Savannah, GA. The big incline afterward was kick ass shows in Florida. The huge drop off on Feb 3rd was when we realized that we'd worn our tires down so far that there's no way we could safely drive in the snow and replaced all four (then skidded into a ditch a few nights later anyway). Full details on the rest of this account are of course available here. Some description of what we're doing is here.

Now we've got about a week off in Philly, then we're back on the road til the end of the month. Right now we're booking a little tour back to Florida from April and a West Coast tour with Peter J Woods (and his more reliable vehicle) in July. We're still (barely) positive on this tour, which means the theatre is paying for itself, and we're still living on mostly peanut butter, oatmeal and generosity (much appreciated all of you!) so our savings are holding out well enough that we shouldn't go broke personally before July (after, it looks like we'll have to wrangle some kind of income).

This chart is the balance of all the tours and donations and everything combined (if the right side is cut off, it's cuz blogspot doesn't cooperate with googledocs inspite both being owned by the same corporation, fucked up, right?) This is looking better, but still doesn't give us much of a buffer (especially if the car fucks up again).

Here's another graph, which shows where the money is coming from and going to, roughly. We're also tracking some other data, but that's too complicated for googledocs, so we'll crunch those numbers and post about it sometime mid March. Thanks!

If you like this show, or like the fact that a couple crazy people are touring the country with DIY theatre, please help keep us on the road, and help us develop new projects by donating. Give me a call at 414 305 9832 if you wanna mail a check (and get a tax break) otherwise just use the little chip-in gadget on the right hand side of this page.

The Banks Got Theirs. When Do You Get Yours?

Here's a link to the zine I mentioned below.

Looking forward to comments feedback.

Show 63: Philadelphia, Wooden Shoe

Turnout: 7
Monetary Votes of Support: 42 (32 door, 10 merch)
Personal Injury Report: Unscathed!

Show Description: Snowstorm everywhere! This made for exciting driving and a very intimate show for those who came out to the Wooden Shoe. The discussion afterward was lively and, much like the experience of driving in the city, it swerved about often. I really liked this performance, one of the better on my list of already solidly performed shows.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Here are two small pictures...

Show 62: Pittsburgh

Turnout: 15
Monetary Votes of Support: $20
Personal Injury Report: unscathed!

Show Description: Well, there was this great preview in the City Paper, and some really cool music playing with us. Then there was this huge blizzard. For a little while it looked like we'd be playing for the bands + 1, but within the first five minutes of the show a handful more turned out which made us happy enough by the end of the night. Good music, interesting space, some exciting conversations. It was kind of fun driving around hilly hilly Pittsburgh in the piles and piles of snow. Looking forward to being back there next week. Hoping the weather is more cooperative.

Also, heard 30 seconds of some talk radio bullshit from fox news while scanning channels and was inspired to write a very short essay, which I'll post here soon.

Did you see this show? If you did write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.


Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Show 61: Toledo, Bozarts

Turnout: 22
Monetary Votes of Support: 101.80 (57.80 donation, 44 merch)
Personal Injury Report: Ben swallowed a mouthful of sock saliva down the wrong tube and had to hold it, silently, in his bronchia for an uncomfortably long time.

Show Description: Great noise set by Dr. Rhomboid Goatcabin, solid turnout, great space, excellent. Bozarts had pretty much all their wall space covered with art, both individually and collaboratively made. It's great to see an art gallery that's used the way this one is.

Hadn't done the show in two days so there were a couple strange things that happened with the radio parts and Ben's sock swallowing, but all in all it was alright.

Did you see this show? If you did write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 60: Madison, Project Lodge

Turnout: 9
Money: 56.50 (35 door, 21.50 hat)
Personal Injury Report: After the show we drove our car into the ditch, then into a corn field, then finally our battery died and we were pulled out by a nice man with a truck at 2 in the morning.

Show Description: We played amongst pink hearts and red string. See that big thing on the wall in the picture, that is a giant heart. I made the performance extra lovey because of this.

After the show, we stuck around to hear some poetry, and then drove to burlington where, on the way, there was a treacherously deep drift of snow in the road that, as I mentioned before, slid us smack into the ditch just barely missing a sign. Another car went in not three minutes after us. As we tried to dig ourselves out, we got to watch numerous trucks and cars swerve, spin and just barely save themselves.

Did you see this show? If you you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd like to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Friday, February 5, 2010

Show 59: Sheboygan

Turnout: 35
Support: $101.51
Personal Injury Report: Kate gone and slapped me upside the head for reals. Also she landed funny a bruised her butt a little.

Description: Couches! GREAT music! Solid turnout. Some friends and family members seeing the show for the first time. Made enough money to keep us in the black after spending $350 to replace the tires we've traveled almost halfway across the country 4 times on (now that we're driving on snow often balding tires seem like a terrible idea).

Having more than 20 people in the room always makes the performance feel really good. My family and Mike Hanlon's students liked the show. Some folks left quickly, looking a little distraught, which makes me wish we could go directly into group discussions or somehow make them feel more comfortable discussing things with us. We did have some good one-on-one conversations with people.

Did you see this show? If you did, comment on it, write a review or ask us some questions. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Show 58: Milwaukee, Alchemist

No picture of the show space, camera died. Here's the street view though.

Turnout: 10
Cut of hat: 35
Personal Injury Report: Ben keeps getting pinched by his zipper.

Show Description: We played in the basement of the Alchemist in a tiny room that worked quite well, extra creepy, and also carpeted--that was new. I was really glad that some people who hadn't seen the show yet came out and also that folks who'd already seen it came back. Thanks Jeb, Pete and Jill. The performance went well despite my eating about a cup and a half of raisins out of nervousness beforehand. Since this worked, I intend to do it before every show.

Did you see this show? If you did, comment on it, write a review or ask us some questions. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Show 57: Chicago at the Ball Hall

Turnout: 30 or so.
Cut of Donation Jar: $18.22 ($4 from hat passing)
Personal Injury Report: I decided to bang my head on the floor like I meant it.

Show Description: Whoo-Hoo! This is what I had always expected from Chicago that we'd never quite gotten a hold of until now. Besides my expressions of victory, there's little to say.

The performance was dead on--largely due to the number of people that turned out, a good vibe in general--Edwin who ran things was great, the music was a welcome surprise considering we didn't have a chance to look it up to see what it'd be beforehand, and the audience seemed to appreciate what we were doing.

Going into it, we really didn't know how this show was going to turn out; it's great when that uncertainty results in success.

Did you see this show? If you did, write a review, ask us some questions or comment on it. We'd love to hear it because we believe in artistic transparency.