The Interstitial Adventures of Jason Hart

Milwaukee Sketch and Improv Fest

2006-08-11T09:51:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves to laugh. Now Milwaukee will play host to a two-day event celebrating comedy in all its forms. The first ever Milwaukee Sketch and Improv festival runs August 11-12, 2006 at Bucketworks.

“Milwaukee is known as the City of Festivals, but there is no yearly comedy festival. Since I realized that, I’ve been working on getting one started. Two years later, it is finally happening,” said festival director Matt Kemple, “My main goal with all this is to showcase what our city has to offer. There is so much talent that I think needs to be shown off on a larger scale.”

Over two days, eight comedy groups will perform live sets, show short films, and participate in a free-for-all improv show. “It will be a picnic in the Garden of Comedic Delights, which is a great garden for picnics because all the flowers tell jokes,” said Jason Hart, head of The Paris Business Review, one of the groups performing.

The festival lineup includes the PBR and other Milwaukee favorites Alamo Basement, D.U.M.B., The Gentlemen’s Hour, and Quasi Productions. Newer to the comedy scene are Broad Minded and Winkstar. Also performing is the Traveling Art Circus, a group that has toured the west coast for the last decade, and recently relocated to Milwaukee.

Mike Q. Hanlon, who runs Alamo Basement, said, “We're thrilled that Milwaukee is joining the Comedy Festival circuit. There are enough talented groups in this city, and it's inspiring to see everybody joining together. We're really excited that we get to be part of the first Sketchfest in Milwaukee.”

For more information about the sketch fest please email Matt Kemple at milwaukeesketchfest@gmail.com, cal l 414–305–1324, or visit Bucketworks.

Auditions for Pink Banana Theatre's Summer Show

2006-05-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

Pink Banana Theatre is auditioning non-equity actors for their summer show; a set of one acts featuring Larry Shue’s “Grandma Duck is Dead”, as well as pieces by Milwaukee playwrights. Show dates are July 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, and 22. Auditions will be held Sunday May 28 7-10 PM at the Broadway Theatre Center (158 N Broadway, Milwaukee WI), and May 30, 31 5-7:30 PM in the Brady Street Pharmacy (1696 N Astor, Milwaukee WI). Performances will be in the Broadway Theatre Center. Pay is a percentage of actors’ tips (expect around $10). For more information, please visit website Pink Banana Theatre.

Theatre in Milwaukee this Summer

2006-05-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

This comes from Alamo Basement's Mike Q. Hanlon:

There's so much incredible theater coming up this summer in Milwaukee that it blows my mind. Here's some stuff that you should really get out to see:

**Alamo Basement**
-July 1st, 8:00
-at the Broadway Theater Center
-158 N. Broadway
We're doing the 24-hour thing again, except instead of doing a bunch of short plays, we're going to create one Full-Length Play! We've never attempted this (has anyone?), so you shouldn't miss this.

**Alamo Basement**
-June 24th
-at Bucketworks
-1319 Martin Luther King Drive
A new arts publication, Nerve House, is starting up in Milwaukee, and we're going to perform a scene or two at their release party on this night.

**The Gentlemen's Hour**
-May 19th, 10:00
-at Comedysportz
-420 S. 1st Street
I'll say it again, these 4 guys are the funniest thing in Milwaukee. If you aren't already going, change your plans!

**Monkey Knife Fight**
-June 9th, 10:00
-at Comedysportz
-420 S 1st Street
I don't know anything about MKF, but it's a new sketch comedy group and this is their first show. Go show some support.

**Combat Theatre**
-June 16th, June 17th
-??
We basically stole the 24-hour idea from Combat Theatre. They've been doing it for 7 years. Show some respect and show up!

**Pink Banana Theatre**
-July 13-15, July 20-22
-Broadway Theater Center
-158 N. Broadway
Our good friends (and frequent collaborators) in Pink Banana are putting on their 4th set of one-act plays. The centerpiece this time around is Larry Shue's brilliant "Grandma Duck is Dead." You're a square if you don't go.

Honestly folks, there's a great, vibrant fine-arts scene in Milwaukee, but it needs you to support it. Make the effort to get out to *at least* one of these awesome shows!

Ain't it the truth. This will be a great summer for theatre in Milwaukee.

Rivet Games

2006-05-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

The hyper-early unofficial Rivet Games website has launched. This is the games company that Alden, Dave, Sam, and I are starting. Check it out, if you are inclined. Not much there yet, but you can play Catacomber.

Some Cuddlefish Design Products

2006-04-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Cuddlefish Designs

2006-04-22T18:36:00.000-07:00

I keep coming up with ideas for t-shirts and coffee mugs, and I think other people might enjoy them as well, so I started a store at Zazzle. Please visit the store if you wish, and see if there is anything you like. If you purchase through this link, I will receive 17% of the sale price. I hope you enjoy! :)

Cuddlefish Designs

The Paris Business Review

2006-04-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

In case you didn't know, I have a sketch comedy group called The Paris Business Review. Check out the site for information and free videos.

Eye On Lasik

2006-04-19T13:30:00.000-07:00

I started a new blog about Lasik eye surgery here:

Eye On Lasik

Jacqueline Lalley reading at Four Stories

2006-04-18T22:11:00.000-07:00

Jacqueline Lalley, my girlfriend, read at Four Stories, a series described thus:

Four Stories is a monthly literary series bridging Greater Boston’s nightlife and arts community. Each event is held in a club, bar, or lounge, and features appearances from some of the most acclaimed authors in the nation, all reading their work under a unified theme.

The idea is to bring writers and readers, intellectuals and club-goers, friends and interested people together in a more upscale environment than a bookstore, to think, drink, eat, talk, laugh, hear stories, trade tales. It's simple, amusing, thought-provoking, and free for entry.

Here's the link, its really funny and Good:

Jacqueline Lalley at Four Storie

Plight of the Ruling Class

2006-04-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the first run-through of Insurgent Theatre's new production, and all I can say is wow. It is going to be a great show. For real. Check it out: Plight of the Ruling Class. It's going to be hard to get tickets since the venue has so few seats, so I would order them in advance.

Samwell Online

2006-04-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

Super-funky music master and my friend is finally up online here:

Samwell Music

Make sure to listen to "Knees got Dirty"

Lauryl Sulfate on proselytization

2006-04-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

Lauryl Sulfate is an always entertaining and insightful writer. She blogs today about proselytization and her uncle's death from cancer. It's really wonderful. Here's an excerpt:

Anyway, I was trying to eulogize my uncle, and failing hopelessly, feeling inadequate to the task and furthermore feeling somewhat unworthy. (After all, who was I to him, really? Like I said, we weren't homies or anything.) And then, oh and fucking then, I got this bulletin in my box:

"----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: XXXXXXX
Date: Mar 31, 2006 8:07 PM

top 5 guys/girls i would kiss

Body: Would you have opened this if it said "GOD" in it?

Respost this in 5 minutes if you TRULY LOVE GOD and a miracle will happen tonight at 12.

P. S. Don't ignore.

You never know when God is testing YOU

Repost with subject: "Top 5 Guys/Girls I Would Kiss"

...and suddenly, I was filled with white-hot rage at the stupid fucking bible-thumping hypocrite that would dare post that shit in my box. I mean it, I was livid. All I could think of was my crazy curmudgeon uncle who everybody loved, and how much pain and suffering he and my aunt must have borne, and ultimately, how short his life was and how it just wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that he suffered and died and it isn't fair that we all suffer and die. "Oh, is God testing me now, is that it?", I wondered. "Was God testing my uncle? How about his kids? Oh, yeah, now it's fine. Thanks. I feel so much fucking better.

I don't know if I believe in a god or an afterlife. Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. I hope that these things exist, because I have a chronic, all-consuming fear of death. That's why I'm a hypochondriac, and for all I know, it's also why I am a driven creative person. (Irony! See Joseph Heller for more details.)

(an aside) Before I get into the meat of this, I want to say that I love and appreciate you explorers (like my friend Lisa, who will no doubt be reading this), who don't know the answers either, but are constantly searching, and sharing their search. This rant is not directed towards those of you who talk in your blogs about god in the abstract, the mystery of the universe, etc. You are beautiful. Keep digging, you crazy archaeologists. (end aside)

What I DO know is that I am sick and tired of overzealous Christians shoving their dogmatic dreck down my throat. And I get the feeling that I am not the only person that feels that way. If I were in charge of spin for the Democratic party, I would create a new campaign slogan, and it would be so successful that liberal America would finally get its shit together and kick that zealot Christian neo-con and all of his ilk out of our White House for good. This is my slogan. Well, it's more of a letter, really. Here's how it goes (Imagine it on a tee-shirt, if you will):

DEAR CHRISTIANS,

LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE!

LOVE,
THE REST OF THE FUCKING WORLD

Maybe you think this is being mean. Maybe you think that I am being judgemental. Maybe you're like, "hey, not all Christians are like that. Why you gotta stereotype?" But hey, I'm just giving as good as I get. It's about time.

From now on, Christians, the gloves are off. I will fill your inbox with annoying self-righteous bulletins designed to make you feel bad for your heathen hetero lifestyle. For example:

BOYS!:
Repost this in the next 15 minutes if you TRULY LOVE COCK!"

IF YOU DON'T REPOST IN 24 HOURS, your dick will fall off and when you die you'll go to a land where the ONLY BAND IS HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH and everybody is FORCED TO WEAR BUTTERFLY PLEATED DOCKERS!!!!!
Demons will wedge POPCORN KERNELS UNDER YOUR GUMS while you eternally LICK THE VULVA of "Dorothy" from Golden Girls!!!!

I will hand out leaflets with shitty insulting charicatures of your people. I will stand outside of Christian schools in protest, "Child Abuse! Child Abuse! Quit teaching Our Children LIES! Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve! Or Eve and whoever she wants to fuck! And vice-versa!" I will yell. Whenever a Christian woman gets discriminated against for her cultural beliefs, I will say that it is her fault because of the dorky way that she's dressed. I'll say that she was asking for it. I will force public schools across the nation to teach MY way! Robert Mapplethorpe in every art class! Samuel Beckett on every stage! Howard Zinn in every history lecture! And if anyone points out that this is not giving kids all the information they need, I'll call it "religious discrimination".

Dites Donc Interview

2006-04-01T09:17:00.001-08:00

I interviewed Dites Donc for the Riverwest Currents. Here's a copy of that interview, for people who may not have access to the paper:

Milwaukee-based Dites Donc (pronounced “Deet Dahnk”, French slang for “Look here!” or “Hey!”) incorporates irresistible dance music, intelligent lyrics, irreverent attitude, and innovative performance art into an ingenious and sex-saturated amalgam of music, dance, and theatre. Fresh off of a recent tour of points south and a magnificent performance at the Art Bar, Dites Donc members Allison Halter and Lindsay Hayden (producer and band member Mike Stasny was not available) sat down with the Riverwest currents to discuss seduction, feminism, and men as sex objects.

Riverwest Currents: So what is Dites Donc?
Lindsay Hayden: We’re a performance art band, but at the same time I don’t like the performance art label…
Allison Halter: I like it because it’s dorky and wrong. We’re a feminist performance art band.
LH: People are surprised when they come to our show and see more than music.
AH: I think the way we make music is more like…
LH: …making art than making music.
AH: We don’t jam.
LH: The way we make songs is more like we’re building artwork, just like we would with a drawing or a sculpture, but we’re using sound.
AH: I want to make sure you write that we don’t jam and we don’t play guitars.
RC: How does feminism influence your work?
LH: We’re both unrepentant feminists. A lot of things we talk about are things that don’t get talked about openly and honestly or often enough.
AH: We as a band are interested in seduction as a persuasive technique.
RC: Can you explain that?
AH: I feel like a common misperception of feminism is that it’s only didactic or joyless or preachy. But we aren’t coming down on second wave feminism.
LH: Even sometimes when you read Ms. Magazine and they’re trying to be, “We’re funny,” but it’s so forced. You get the idea that they are trying to force the idea that feminism is funny.
AH: It’s really a way that can win people over through seduction, rather than coercion or didactic lecturing. Maybe not win over, but have people consider our viewpoints.
LH: The perception or the backlash of feminism is that they are dour or unfunny. It’s basically a stereotype that gets lobbed against feminists to scare them out of calling themselves feminists, because no one wants to be seen as unsexy or unfeminine or dour.
AH: I want to make sure you write that we’re not coming down on second wave feminism.
LH: It’s like the old myth in comedy that attractive women can’t be funny and funny women can’t be attractive.
RC: Your lyrics are very funny...
AH: They’re completely sincere.
LH: Like when we say, “Our ship is big, let’s fuck.” We mean it. We were thinking, “What does this song say?” and it says, “Let’s fuck.” Let’s just say it. We aren’t jokey.
AH: The first instinct is to laugh. It’s different and weird and uncomfortable to think of men as being sex objects.
LH: The myth of women not being funny is dying.
RC: Your songs and stage shows include a lot of sexual content. Have you ever experienced any harassment?
AH: We own our sexuality; we own what we’re putting out there. I don’t ever really feel afraid.
LH: I don’t ever get hassled after the show.
AH: I think people get a little scared. Especially when I take my clothes off.
LH: It’s so sexual that no man would ever hit on us afterwards.
AH: Because then we’re woman-beasts.
LH: When we’re performing, we are presenting ourselves as a sexual force and a challenge, instead of an object.
RC: What do you challenge?
AH: It’s a challenge to traditional ideas about gendered sexuality. There’s that cliché of women being passive, which is being worked on, but there isn’t much being done on having men be sex objects.
RC: It seems like it’s being done in hip-hop…
AH: Even female rappers talk about what men will do to them on their body. They might talk about how big his dick is, and how long they will last, but no other parts of their bodies. It’s not the same at all.
RC: How does this influence the choices you make in presenting yourselves? Do you consciously seek to dispel stereotypes?
AH: I feel for us a lot of these issues are totally internalized.
LH: We don’t have to think about it when we’re on stage. They’re issues we don’t need to explicitly address because we are implicitly addressing them in our work. We have an idea for a song – it’s funny, it’s smart, it’s sexy; it sometimes has the side benefit of pushing forward our feminist agenda.
AH: Living as a feminist, it’s not something that we have to put a lot of extra work into. It’s just the way we live. But we are trying to challenge ourselves to communicate further.
LH: To really live sisterhood - not just pay it lip service and be backstabbing bitches.
AH: Sisterhood is powerful and we try to live that in the way we treat each other.

Dites Donc is playing the Bremen Café on April 9th, and the Riverwest Commons on May 9th. Their music can be heard online at www.myspace.com/ditesdonc.

Riverwest Follies Update

2006-03-02T11:24:00.000-08:00

There will be one show at 7 PM, the doors open at 6 PM.

Location:

Colonial Hall
3055 Fratney (Fratney and Burleigh)
Milwaukee, WI

Cost: $4 / $2 12-18 / Free under 12
Here's the updated lineup:

MASTER OF CEREMONIES
Frank Chandek of Dr. Chow's Love Medicine

MUSIC
Blacksky and the Midnight Collective
Stumblesome

COMEDY
The Paris Business Review
Alamo Basement

SPOKEN WORD
Peggy Hong
Jacqueline Lalley
Jackie Reed-Dettloff

DANCE
Sura Faraj

PERFORMANCE ART
Brew City Cirkus and Scrap Yard Sideshow
Murray
Tess Reiss
Riverwest Co-op
Actual Virtual Theatre

FASHION
Fasten Co-op

Spam Poem 1

2006-02-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

bring on courtesy
-----------------

My aunt was walking up and down the room
It does seem a wonder

Even the heart now beating
We Do Not See this slowing down
My aunt: "...chloritoid axiform outright chitinocalcareous pseudostigmatic stela..."

pseudostigmatic stela.

Watch it Soar
to the Theme Park of the Qin E-Pang Palace

Spam Poems

2006-02-13T13:48:00.000-08:00

I wrote a spam poem for my friend Mel's birthday and I liked it, so I am going to write some more and post them here, and also at my Myspace blog.

Hope you enjoy... all poems are composed entirely using words that I received in spam emails.

Directing the Riverwest Follies

2005-12-21T20:50:00.000-08:00

I have been chosen as the show director for the Riverwest Follies, a talent/variety show being put on by the Riverwest Currents.

There will be two shows: a youth show and an adult show. Both are 90 minutes; the youth show can have performers under 18 (and these are encouraged), and will be family-friendly, the adult show will be adult performances and can be non-family-friendly.

Preference is given to Riverwest residents and performers should be "amateur". Sets should be 5 minutes on average. If you are interested in appearing in the show, please contact me.

VaudeVillain Comedy Showcase December 17th

2005-12-03T23:45:00.000-08:00

I am hosting the VaudeVillain comedy showcase at Darling Hall:

VaudeVillain!

8:30 PM December 17th at Darling Hall.

VaudeVillain is a comedy showcase for Milwaukee's sketch comedy "think-criminals" and "feeling-shoplifters". Musings will be mugged, ramblings will be ransacked, second thoughts will be safecracked.

Starring:

The Gentlemen's Hour
Guyshouse
Alamo Basement
The Paris Business Review

Darling Hall is located at 601 S. 6th (6th and Bruce). $5 suggested donation.

First Post

2005-12-03T23:39:00.000-08:00

Hey, hey, hey... first post on me new blog. Decided to start this thingy so that I could keep track of all my farflung thingies that I fling out into the world-thingy.