10000 Comic Books: Tim Uren's Online Journal

Cannibals are Cooking

Mon, 19 May 2008 13:25:56 GMT

This Thursday, my show, Cannibals are Cooking, opens at the BLB. It's a one-man show written by Mark Steven Jensen (who, among many other credits, was one of the playwrights for Hardcover Theater's London After Midnight series). It's about Edgar Rice Burroughs railing against Hollywood. The studio wants the rights to produce another in their profitable series of Tarzan movies. Drunk and furious over the portrayal of his noble creation, Burroughs is ready for savage contract negotiations. The show journeys through Burroughs' past, as he fights for the ultimate fate of one of literature's most iconic figures: Lord John Clayton of Greystoke, the mighty Tarzan. It's a very interesting version of Burroughs that I would love for people to come see, so check it out!

It runs Thursdays and Saturdays at 10 PM at the Bryant-Lake Bowl for the next two weeks. Tickets are $12 or $10 with a Fringe Button and may be reserved by calling 612-825-8949.

Much obliged!

The Funniest Bar in New Jersey, 1959

Tue, 13 May 2008 19:13:28 GMT

Back in the 1350's, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron. It describes a group of travelers spending two weeks in a villa in the hopes of escaping the Black Death. To pass the time they tell stories to each other-- bawdy tales of love's misadventures.

Hardcover Theater has tapped the talents of Shanan Wexler and Joshua Scrimshaw to update this concept and some of the naughtier tales in Johnny Bocca's Sex Farce for Swingin' Lovers now playing at the Playwright's Center. Set in a bar in Naples, New Jersey in 1959, the local barflies gather to listen to Sinatra and swap booze-soaked stories of love and lust.

Boccaccio dedicated his text to the ladies. "Within their soft bosoms, betwixt fear and shame, they harbour secret fires of love, and how much of strength concealment adds to those fires, they know who have proved it. Moreover, restrained by the will, the caprice, the commandment of fathers, mothers, brothers, and husbands, confined most part of their time within the narrow compass of their chambers, they live, so to say, a life of vacant ease, and, yearning and renouncing in the same moment, meditate divers matters which cannot all be cheerful." In that spirit, the story-telling in Johnny's Bar is interrupted by Lenora, a housewife with a broken Edsel and her own story to tell.

Shanan directed the show as well as co-writing it. She and Joshua are also part of the super-funny, super-talented cast including Emily Brooke Hansen, Arnie Roos, Amy Schweickhardt, Eric Webster, and myself. I'm extremely proud to be part of this well-crafted theatrical treat. It's heart-warming, eyebrow-raising, liver-ruining fun.

Cheers!

I've Hit the Big Time!

Mon, 12 May 2008 06:23:04 GMT

Scroll to the end of the Adaptations section...

I'm ashamed of how proud I am.

Plate Spinning

Wed, 07 May 2008 11:33:27 GMT

So much to do. So much to say. I shamefully have not updated in a while. So Rats in the Walls and Michigan Disasters both completed their runs at the BLB. Many thanks to the folks who came out to see them.

Tomorrow during the day, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory starts up at the Old Gem; and in the evening Johnny Bocca's Sex Farce for Swingin' Lovers opens at the Playwright's Center.

On Saturday May 17th, I'm making a guest appearance in the Vilification Tennis show.

On Monday May 19th, I'm making an appearance in Adventures in Mating as Jeffery!

And then the last of my one man shows, Cannibals are Cooking starts up on Thursday the 22nd.

My brain is a little bit mush, but these are fun shows all around. I'll burble more about them individually soon...

Fringe Lottery Sez

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 17:42:19 GMT

I am #97 on the waiting list. That's a bit daunting...

Nonetheless, I had a lovely evening hanging out at Bedlam making the chit chat with folks. Kelvin and I nearly closed the place down talking geekery, jug bands, and world travel with John and Amelia. Apologies to Katherine for the vicious attack on her finger by way of my excessively sharp and pointy promotional material.

Melissa Kaercher recently linked to a great essay in her blog, and I loved it so much I will do the same:

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=503829

I've moved!

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:22:39 GMT

I mean both that I have relocated to a new home and also that I finally fought off some inertia and made a series of coordinated physical motions. The first means I am now no longer a resident of Minneapolis. Now I live in St. Paul. Gone are my Minneapolis ways. Now I possess that certain ephemeral St. Paul-ness. Less obnoxious punk. More cranky old guy.

The second means that my web site is updated. In particular, it is updated to reflect my exciting upcoming shows at the Bryant-Lake Bowl! I'm doing three different one-man shows this spring. The first, in March, is a remount of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls", my show from the 2006 Fringe. In April, I'm restaging my Fringe show from 2005, Michigan Disasters. And finally, May will feature a new one-man show, Cannibals are Cooking by Mark Steven Jensen!

Speaking of Fringe related things, I got my application in relative early this time around. Very St. Paul of me. Lottery is Feb. 11th. I'd originally wanted a late-night slot, but one of many changes this year was the elimination of the late-night shows. It seems the Fringe too is getting a little more cranky old guy, and a little less obnoxious punk. The last embers of the Visual Fringe seem to have been extinguished. Bring your own venues are now limited to ten performances. Sigh. Things ain't what they used to be.

Last Weekend with the Fat Man

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:36:26 GMT

This weekend is the last chance for folks to see Fat Man Crying and It's a Meaningless Life. Fat Man is a really fun script (It's got two acts! It's got an interesting, funny, and (mostly) family-friendly story! It's got an honest-to-god set!!!). I'll be sorry to see it end. But the big shaggy beard-- it will go away Sunday and it will not be mourned.

Meaningless has also been fun. We had one lady so disgusted with us she said we should include the fact that it is in bad taste in the advertising. If anyone is coming to the late shows Friday or Saturday... I'm not saying anything for certain here... you know, no promises... but, if you come, bring a cup...

I'm just saying...

Who wants some late night fun?

Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:18:08 GMT

As folks hopefully know, Fat Man Crying opened this weekend and has been going really well. Lovely audiences. Fun to perform. Super sharp cast. Come see it-- you'll be glad you did.

But the other show, It's a Meaningless Life, has sort of taken me by surprise by how much fun it is. It's very informal-- largely just one storytelling performance after another with a smattering of music provided by Pablo and dance provided by Sara Scrimshaw. But this group of folks is such a blast to watch and to work with. In addition to Pablo and Sara, myself and the Scrimshaw Bros., we also have Phillip Low and Alan Berks performing really funny stuff.

So see one of these shows! See both of these shows! Each one has a unique flavor, but they're both treats!

(They're both playing at the Theater Garage at the corner of Franklin and Lyndale-- Fat Man Crying at 7:30 PM, It's a Meaningless Life at 10 PM. You buy tickets online through brownpapertickets.com or reserve them by calling 612-280-9210.)

Regarding the Fringe Website's Top Ten Most Scheduled Shows

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:54:25 GMT

I recently came across an entry in Chris Kidder's blog regarding scheduling shows on the Fringe website. It reflects what I fear might be a common belief.

Chris Kidder sez...

"Now, I've caught some flak before for sharing secrets of the trade with my readers on the Fringe site. Let me explain what I mean. The Fringe is supposedly a fair and equal venue for everyone to try to produce, if you are lucky enough to get into. And that's the way it is set up. However, the savvy producer can bend or break the system in a number of ways to work it to their advantage. The first couple of years that I watched the website and its automated top-10 most popular shows list, I figured it out. Before I did, others had, and their shows benefited from the free press and word of mouth that comes from being "popular". The Scrimshaw Brothers, Ministry of Cultural Warfare, and others figured out long before I did that if you get everyone you know to register for all your own shows on your calendar, you shoot up to the top of the rankings. This was successfully done by a handful of shows last year as well.

Here's wherein I have a problem with this. Only a few people initially realized the way it worked. So, I made mention of it last year in my Fringe Blog in hopes of truly evening the playing field. This year my MySpace bulletins section is being inundated by announcements from folks who want me to add all five of their shows to my calendar. The method is no longer exclusive that of a few people. Democratic methods are closer to being real again at the Fringe. Sort of... if you happen to have an ungodly number of shows due to a bring-your-own-venue, it still can skew things your way more than anyone else.

Another thing that I blogged about earlier this year was that a producer ought to figure out how to be in a specialty lottery category as well as the normal one, because it improves your chances of getting in. It is another thing figured out by a few, and information that would level the playing field if known by all. I do understand the reasoning behind the specialty sections of the lottery, but at the same time, I hate to see the quirks of the system used only by a select few (who often have a lot of connections to the Fringe itself).

If this is supposed to truly be a non-juried festival, and the lottery is supposed to be fair, then it needs to be fair. And if the system has a glitch in it that allows everyone to artificially inflate their pre-Fringe popularity, then everyone ought to be allowed to do it, not just those who know the system best. It was not only, in my view, my job to make sure that word got out about good shows and the Fringe Fetival hype, but also to assist anyone who would aspire to producing a show in the Fringe."

I do not ask anyone to schedule more performances of my show than they actually plan to attend. I do not officially speak for the Scrimshaws, but in the many years I have worked with them I have never encountered any instance of them making such a request. It is not standard operating procedure for the vast majority of Fringe productions I have known. Most, if not all, the shows on that Top Ten List are probably there for just the reason they should be.

I have worked very hard over several years to build an audience and a good reputation, and I take a great deal of pride in it. To imply that the pre-Fringe buzz that comes my way is just because I know how to work the system, is disrepectful of my work.

In past years I had suspected perhaps some producers went even further to put themselves on the Top Ten, although this is the first year I've actually seen or heard overt requests to "schedule all my shows-- put me on the top ten!" To each their own.

In total honesty, when I am putting together my Fringe schedule on the Fringe's website, I include all the performances I will actually be in, becasue, well, that is my schedule. One could argue that this is a deceptive practice as it does not represent audience interest, merely my own necessity. Fair enough.

For the shows I am interested in seeing, I schedule one performance of them, even if I'm not sure when I may actually get to see it.

If anyone has, in the spirit of supporting my work, scheduled me for more shows than they would actually attend (which I imagine would be one performance, unless you are my parents...), please undo it. Thank you for the support, but so long as you come to the show and bring friends who are willing to rave about it, you've done all I will ask. If this means I can't be on the Top Ten, that's okay.

Now of course, all that being said, if you think you might be interested in seeing Robert Anton Wilson's "Masks of the Illuminati", please feel free to register yourself at MyFringe and schedule yourself for as many of my performances as you plan on attending.

Improv Extravaganza Weekend!

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:12:58 GMT

This weekend is the Twin Cities Improv Festival! Come see me perform 300 Comic Books Thursday night at 8:30 at the Brave New Workshop, on a double bill with Stevie Ray's! Tickets are only $10, and of course, you have the chance to walk away with a free comic book! Possibly even a good one! The festival goes all weekend of course, so check out the whole schedule. It's a bunch of phenomenally good local improv and esteemed visitors from out of town, indulge yourself with excesses of unscripted fun!

I can now officially announce!

Wed, 09 May 2007 04:14:47 GMT

My initial plan for this year's Fringe Festival was a great script written by Mark Jensen entitled "Cannibals are Cooking," dealing with an aging Edgar Rice Burroughs, recounting his life and berating a hapless production assistant who needs Burroughs' signature for a new Tarzan movie. Unfortunately my request for a venue with a videoprojector was denied-- I was assigned to the Ritz Theatre, (Which I think has a videoprojector, but it's just not available to Fringe productions... ). Since "Cannibals" is made so much more awesome with video, I decided to defer it to some time in the hopefully near future at the BLB.

What show will I be doing? A staged adaptation of Robert Anton Wilson's Masks of the Illuminati, that's what! If you don't know Wilson's work, by all means, check him out. No other author has impacted me, my sense of humor, and the way I think the way Wilson has. On January 11th of this year. I am proud and ecstatic to have this opportunity to try to honor his memory and to introduce (or re-introduce) his humor, his passion, and his twisted sense of fun to audiences at the Fringe this year.

Here's the story:
Sir John Babcock believes he his being chased by the Devil. He's traveled across Europe, desperate to avoid being the fourth victim of a mysterious book that has already driven three people to suicide. His flight brings him at last to a small bar in Zurich in 1914, where he inadvertently interrupts the meeting of James Joyce and Albert Einstein. Joyce and Einstein agree to help unravel the young man's mysterious story of secret societies, ancient symbols, and bizarre dreams; and, ultimately, to match wits with that fiendish rascal, Aleister Crowley.

And, this year I have abandoned the one-man show. Robert Anton Wilson's Masks of the Illuminati will feature myself and six other cast members with whom I am thrilled to be working. The show will feature Stephanie Cordell, Brandon Ewald, Kelvin Hatle, and Jen Scott. Albert Einstein will be played by Craig Anderson and James Joyce will be played by Joseph Scrimshaw. (I'm playing Aleister Crowley...) If anyone's counting that means Joesph, Jen, and myself will be in both this show and Joseph's Macbeth's Awesome Scottish Castle Party, which puts us at about 30 performances this Fringe... heh-heh...

For anyone who actually reads this little journal, please don't miss this show. It's going to be super awesome! Watch the Fringe website for schedule details!

Happy Walpurgisnacht!

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:30:23 GMT

The Other Halloween!

Seek High Adventure!

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:10:40 GMT

I'm now halfway through my stint as the waiter in Joseph Scrimshaw's Adventures in Mating. It's been a blast and the audiences have been truly unpredictable in the choices they've made. Which is good! As one might guess, this kind of show is a huge memorization challenge-- one that I could not say I have completely mastered (cough ahem cough). But I have not broken down crying or run for the exit. Hooray!

Various summer projects are gearing up: The Twin Cities Improv Festival, CONvergence, and the Fringe Festival. Hopefully, there will be more to say on such topics soon!

Boom

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:35:46 GMT

Watch me blow something up!
I have no idea who filmed this.

So when I'm not at work blowing things up at the Mill, lately I've been gearing up for a short stint in Joseph Scrimshaw's Adventures in Mating. My first night is going to be April 16th!

Theory #3

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 22:13:44 GMT

They keep track of those 5 shows from the waiting list and put them in the Fringe. Whaddayaknow! I'm in!

The Fringe Lottery

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 21:33:24 GMT

Here's How It Was Supposed to Work:
First there would be a drawing for the sub-lotteries, such as National Artists, Artists with Disabilities, Late-Night, Shows that Require Rigging, stuff like that. Then there would be the General Lottery where they chose all the shows that would be in the Fringe, minus five. The last five slots would be filled in later. This would be about 140 shows total. Then the waiting list would be started. However! Every 35th show drawn for the waiting list would be given one of those last five slots, as would the final show drawn. Neat! This worked quite neatly for me as my number did come up as number 70 on the waiting list. Woo-hoo, said I. I'm in.

Here's What Actually Happened:
We got near the end and saw there were about forty some slots on the waiting list left over with no shows to fill them. Too many shows had been drawn for the General Lottery. About 40 too many shows. I, like many people I imagine, had been keeping sort of track and it sure seemed like too many shows. But I was too caught up to really understand it as it was happening. So the last two shows were declared to be in the Fringe to finish out the five spots that had been "held." So, the word from Fringe is, "We'll sort this out based on the order of the balls drawn."

Where Does This Leave Me?
Theory #1: They will take all the shows they said would be in, declare the first 140 or so in and start the waiting list with the remainders. This would put about 40 on the waiting list.

Theory #2: They take the first 140 or so shows, declare them in, and everyone else is on the waiting list in the order they were drawn, regardless of whether they thought they were in or not. This would put me around 110 on the waiting list or so.

The difference only affects those last five shows, but unfortunately, I'm one of them. My guess is they're going with theory #2, but we'll see.

A little sidetracked...

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 20:23:49 GMT

The down side to to having the "fun" link on my webpage is that as I look for fun links I get distracted because they are, you know, fun. Some culprits in particular (who will not actually be used as fun links now that I mention them here...) are ccdomines.com where I found a demo version of Muggins. Muggins is a particular type of dominoes I play with my folks. I've had very limited success trying to convince other Mineappolitans of the game's appeals. The other heinous butcher of productive time is Cliff Johnson's thefoolandhismoney.com. He's the mad genius behind The Fool's Errand and 3 in Three, metapuzzle games for Macs in the days of yore. In addition to providing an emulator demo so that I can play the games again on Windows, the website has plenty of mind torturing puzzles and games. I admit. I am devious. I love devious things.

Second Person, Now with More Me

Thu, 11 Jan 2007 22:44:24 GMT

I just saw a copy of Second Person, a collection of essays themed around role playing, games, storytelling, and the like. It includes an essay by me about improv! It also features Joseph Scrimshaw writing about Adventures in Mating, his choose-your-own-adventure-structured comedy.

It also includes folks like John Tynes and George R.R. Martin! Pat Harrigan and Noah Wardrip-Fruin put it all together-- it's very cool!

It Really Happened

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 09:46:58 GMT

For Christmas a few weeks ago, my dog, Pickles, received a canister of Snausages in his stocking. Some time around the new year, I came home one night to discover the Snausages had been knocked off the counter, on to the floor, and the canister had been broken. It had been, so I thought, an accident due to the counter-top wanderings of my cat, Sebastian.

Being the somewhat irresponsible housekeeper I am, I gathered the Snausages and broken canister and simply set them back on a counter. Over the next few days, I mysteriously began to start seeing Pickles wander into rooms with a Snausage that neither Jen nor I have given him. I sort of understood what that implied but it didn't really hit me until I actually saw it. I went into the kitchen and there was Sebastian, on the counter. He pulled a Snausage out of the broken canister, batted it off the counter, AND GAVE THE DOG A TREAT. Sebastian has no interest in the treats for himself. It was an action purely to entertain the dog.

I fear that soon, Jen and I will no longer be in control of our household.

I Thought, Just For A Moment

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 05:59:21 GMT

In November I had the opportunity to perform 10,000 Comic Books at the University of Northern Iowa at the kind of request of Dr.s Paul Siddens and Doug Shaw. It was a real pleasure to once again be in a campus-type environment. At one point during the visit, I was walking toward the student union, distracted by I don't remember what. I abruptly looked up at the union and saw my own name in lights on the large scrolling marquee above the doors. It was, as I quickly discovered, an advertisement for the shows I was doing.

But, if I am truly honest with myself, for just a moment, I thought the giant UNI Magic Student Union was talking to me. Possibly about to grant me one or more wishes?

I'm so gullible, I don't even need other people to make things up for me.

Hey do y'all know about the Twin Cities Improv Festival? Summer excitement for everyone to look forward to!

I'm Tim, and This is the Longest Online Journal Entry of my Life

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 23:12:22 GMT

A sizable chunk of my weekend is going to be spent watching the most recent season of "24." The whole shebang. This will be done, as it has been done since the first season was released on DVD, with a great many friends and chili.

I'm unsure of which I like better: "24" or making fun of "24." Both are delightful.

So clearly the title of this entry is a lie (the title is almost longer than the entry), but as you may imagine... there is no time!

Kaptain Karl's Garbage

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 06:41:31 GMT

Some time ago I ripped most of my CD's on to my computer for subsequent Ipodding and other hip mp3 type shenaningans. Most but not all. There were several CD's that were mixes made by friends or otherwise odd little collections that demanded a little more attention than the average albulm whose info could be filled in by the internet. Today I finally took care of a few of these stragglers and one of the real gems was Kaptain Karl's Garbage. Kaptain Karl is a fantastic combination of talented musician, very funny guy, and total sweetheart. He occasionally plays as part of Great Uncle Helmer at the Dunn Brothers around the downtown/riverfront area of Minneapolis. Anyhoo, ten years ago he wrote and recorded a nice little song called, "Garbage." Since then dozens of versions of the song have been recorded by different musicians (and some non-musicians I believe) and shared in ever-expanding collections. There's bluegrass, barbershop quartet, reggae, gospel, and on and on. Check out the link above and make your own-- it's awesome!

I now declare this bridge open!

Wed, 03 Jan 2007 23:20:48 GMT

Yay! The new website is done! I hope people dig it.

Today was some free time (hence the completion of the web page... and a healthy amount of watching Not the Nine O'clock News). Tomorrow begins rehearsals for London After Midnight: Episode Five. I think we're all going to be there! The cast is so busy with so many things, past productions often get put together with precious few rehearsals with everyone. The script is fantastic, kudos to Mark, Shanan, and John!

Last night I watched the Soylent Blue DVD. Kelvin Hatle, the Scrimshaws, and I performed this no-holds-barred, adult sci-fi sketch comedy show for the 2006 CONvergence sci-fi/fantasy convention. I'm a little blown away by the wondrous monster we collectively created. Many thanks to Tony Karna and the lovely CONvergence folks for preserving this heinous moment.

Sunday night was the final monthly Scrimshaw Show, which was fun. The lovely and talented Jen Scott joined me in performing my little novelty tunes. At the end of the night, I drew a picture of several monkeys hung by the neck. Happy New Year!