Tuesdays blog is full of something -
I swear this won't be the ordeal that yesterday's was, and apparently someone read yesterday's and decided to take me up on the offer of telling horrible hospital stories at the Bullshit show last night. Or it was total coincidence, either way...
Total Bullshit performed last night at the Beat as part of the Monday Night Comedy Show and I think it was one of our best, and I love doing this show so having a really strong performance of one of my favorite formats was a nice way to end a long Monday. I've belabored the fact that there's something very fun about the Bullshit thing but last night I think it was finally clear what that is - on a purely mechanical level the show is a cool change of pace because it is not really "improv" outside of the fact that we have no idea what the show content will be until somebody yells something at us - it isn't exactly "stand up" or "spoken word" either but some combination of all three things. But that's not it either.
It is this:
Last night I got to launch into a story about the day the twins were born, which is a pretty harrowing thing by any measure.
We get to inflict these things on the audience, to perform these stories (and it is definitely a performance) which aren't "funny" but the show is a really fantastic build-and-release of tension that is the textbook definition of comedy. Case in point: Horrible Hospital Story*
There's nothing "funny" about thinking that one of your babies is teetering on the brink of death, or talking about the real emotional moment that was contained in that story but the build of that much tension (and there was a fucking lot of it - I love hearing the gasps and 'oh no's build up as things get going) up to that moment of resolution, followed by the huge release of laughter (nervous, sheer relief or otherwise) was super cool. It totally is a non-comedy example of what makes us laugh and I think last night we did it really, really well.
we had stories of near-death babies, crazy homeless people covered in blood, shitty jobs, random violence by people with guns and women getting their asses kicked. None of it falls into the "funny" category but when you get to perform it like that you get that other kind of laughs out of the audience - and that is what I love about that show. We will MAKE you laugh. Forcibly.
another thing that will make you laugh is the Brave New Workshop softball team - but I will let Fotis cover that
* for the record I have truly horrible hospital stories that don't end happily at all - if our real purpose was to just to freak people out we could do that and ruin their nights at the drop of a hat. we'd rather not.
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