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.

Show 29: @ Prop Thtr, Chicago, ILL

Turnout: 4

Door: 19

Personal Injury Report: Ben was unable to breath due to the gag and hood's twisted choking positions and nearly died on the floor.

Show Description: Chicago! We made it there just in time. Without road rage.

Stefan, who set up the show at the Prop was great and our few audience members were enjoyable too. The performance went well and the space was fitting.

There was one oddity though, which I want to mention here, just because well, why not. It's one of those things that happen rarely and I feel like sharing.

There was this guy who walked into the show right before the most intense, intimate and awkward part, which is one of those times when, if you're late, you just sneakily sit down and hope you can maybe try and piece together what is going on, no matter how strange, given you've missed more than half the show already. This guy did not do that. Instead he started taking pictures with lots of flashing, which wasn't really that bothersome, but he also started laughing, loudly, as if we were doing sketch comedy and everything was just hilarious. While performing, I was really curious who this was and if we'd run into him before at previous shows or if we knew him because it felt like kind of a weird joke. He stayed for a little bit and then got freaked out, giving a questionable goodbye, saying, "well, if this is what you guys are doing..." and went to wait out in the lobby until we were finished.

This was a pretty funny episode and seemed to distract the audience more than either one of us. And he did end up knowing a friend of ours, so all in all it was alright.

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.

Show 25: Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago

Turnout: before we started: 25, who watched us: 4.

Cut of the door: $18

Injury report: The reputation of big cities and artist-types declined even further.

Show Description: What's more disheartening than watching a bunch of Bloomington Highschoolers walk away as we start introducing the show? Seeing a bunch of Chicago adults do the same. What's more distracting than performing one thin wall away from the venue's crowded noisy bar? Hearing a TV blasting what sounds like cartoons or music videos upstairs while we perform.

Hey Chicago! We drove hundreds of miles today to show you something, something I spent years writing and that we spent months rehearsing, do you think you could maybe put aside your prejudice against non-chicagoans, or against theatre, or whatever first impressions of us you got and maybe spend 15 minutes giving this a chance before you listlessly make your way upstairs? I guess not.

Ryan (instinct control) arranged some additional acts to play with us. Marissa Perel's intimate performance art evoked a tense slow dance with death, Ryan played his most erotic set ever, reclining on a red leather couch, and this other guy who can only be described as a whiner, played a techno-with-distorted-vocals-and-feedback set that can only be described as vapid hipster imitation noise.

Here's a picture of Ryan humping his reel-to-reel:

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

Show 23: Bohrs' in Chicago

Turnout: 11ish

Monetary Votes of Support: $2.02

Personal Injury Report: Kate ruthlessly jabbed the hard-edged gun into Ben's knee. Right in that sensitive spot that doctors like to tap with their reflex-tester tappers, too.

Show description: After a 7 hour drive back from Pittsburgh (with a stop for a surreal hungarian dinner and burned out house exploration in Youngstown, OH) we went to our friend Bohrs' apartment, watched some TV, ate some corn on the cob, smelled some roasted chicken they were eating, went to a big ole poetry reading at Loyola, performed the play in our second fake mantlepiece and hard wood floor living room, talked about silly things like dragon dicks, theatre programs, cherry pie and the rise of American fascism until 2:30 in the morning.

It was good. But nobody had hardly any cash. Would it compromise our ethics to haul a credit card machine around with us?

Look at this house!

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

Show 4: Mess Hall, Chicago

Turnout: 40

Monetary Votes of Support: 12

Personal Injury Report: Well, though it's not a person, we found out before leaving for Chicago that our car was injured, and that this injury could turn into a mortal one if left unattended. That brings us to where we are right now, writing this post in Champaign IL waiting for Tim the Mechanic to intall a new catalytic converter so we can avoid an engine blow.

Also, Ben's pants recieved a personal injury. The zipper took a turn for the worst. This is the injury that led us on a journey to South Holland IL looking for a Jo-Anne Fabrics to purchase a new one, an Auto Zone to get a car manual we needed and a Radio Shack for a DC to AC adapter.

Guided by Google Maps, we discovered that only one of these three destinations we found online still existed. Empty lots, and more empty lots. Luckily, the Radio Shack was still alive tucked between two deserted bleached blacktop lots looking suspiciously similar to an unlikely survivor of arson, all scraggly and standing there saying, "well I don't know, I swear I had nothing to do with it, I just stopped, dropped and rolled."

At a loss concerning the zipper, we stopped at a Wallgreens and after finding out that they did not sell zippers and frustratingly only sold "handy little kits" of all kinds of sewing shit that failed to consist of the most basic pairing of needle and thread, we decided to rip the zipper out of an existing pair of pants and sew it onto the pants in need: a transplant. It turned out a little shoddy, but at least it works. Kind of like getting a liver transpalnt from an alcoholic. We have well wishes for the pants in the future.

Show Description: Mess Hall is an alternative economic space that holds workshops, education events, and lots more. No money is exchanged in the space. We silkscreened lots of free shirts for people afterwards.

Ryan Dunn of Instinct Control hosted us that night which was great. We discussed the possibilities of "Engine Cooking," which entails preparing food directly on the surface of a hot engine.

This would work great with VWs. Starting out in Milwaukee, by the time you get to Ryan Rd you should have a hot enough engine to throw an egg on it. By the next exit you've got it at runny, give it a flip and you're at over easy, let it go till the next one and you'll be at over medium. This concept needs to be applied quick given the lurking threat of electric cars which god damn them are only good for our short to long term interests.

If you saw this performance, write a review of it, comment or ask questions here! Do it! We'd like to hear it. Because we beleive in artistic transparency.