COMEDY news

Two bits of great news and two very sad:

Robin Williams Is Making a Run for It, on a Rare One-Man Tour which sounds fantastic! Steve Martin takes a turn at a 90+ year old German Comedy.

In the sad news department make a little room in the afterworld, Dudley Moore has passed away. If by chance you don't know Dudley beyond 10 or Arthur (1 & 2), then for laughter's sake, seek out his film and British Television work with Peter Cook such as Bedazzled or Not Only...But Also!

What can you say about the death of the great Uncle Milty? Milton Berle, we're gonna miss you. 93 years? It hardly seemed like 92.

This THURSDAY: Absurd Night Live does Spiegelmania

After a successful run as part of the EXIT Theater's Classic Absurdism festival, ANL appears at Spiegelmania with a mix
of material from the EXIT show plus BRAND SPANKING NEW funny-bits and a special guest star!

Boredom Beware!

This Thursday, at Spanganga, Absurd Night Live and Spiegelmania join forces to battle the dreaded UNCOMEDY. Spiegelmania is a heroic weekly comic juggernaut, built of stand-up comics & sketch comedy, boldly entering the darkness that is Thursday night carrying the unrefutable light that is Hahahahahahahaha! Hosted by the only Mike Spiegelman officially endorsed by his Mom.

This week mikl-em's Absurd Night Live rides shotgun with Spiegelmania. After a sold-out run as part of the EXIT Theater's Classic Absurdism festival, ANL appears at Spiegelmania with a mix of material from the EXIT show and BRAND SPANKING NEW funny\
-bits with special guest star: Aaron Treat of Banana, Bag & Bodice and Popcorn Theater fame--he's in town for ONE NIGHT before returning to NYC. Also on the bill are comics Kevin Avery, Lee Levin, Steve Mazan, Dan Crawford, Bob Johnson!

Together Spiegelmania and Absurd Night Live will make the night unsafe for the UNFUNNY, at least at Spanganga from 10-11:30pm. If you are anywhere else at that time you may be bored, sad, or, worst of all, exposed to blatant John Ashcroft. Please, for all our sakes, come to Spiegelmania and get the hahahahahahahaha that you deserve!!

PS super-discount-info: if you tell 'em that 'the Squid List sent you' you will get in 2 for 1 on the already low-low $5 door price. so do that and spend the savings on drinks!

For fans of the soundtrack to Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, a great story about the singer of Po' Lazarus!
It turns out the song was recorded while he was in prison in 1959. TThey just tracked the singer down (who was unaware of the movie, and barely remembered the song) and gave him his platinum record and his first royalty check!

Okay, we have now had 2 performances of Absurd Night Live and the show is going very well.

There are only two shows left!! Word on whatever street it is that I listen to says that the last show, this Saturday (3/2) is
very close to sold out, and I know that a fair amount of tickets have been sold for Friday night as well. If you want to buy them
in advance on line you
can, but you can also just phone in and reserve them from the EXIT
and then you don't have to pay the service charge and you pay at the door. The advantage to getting the ticket online is that you
definitely have it. If you only reserve it then they will sell it to folks on the waiting list at 15 minutes before the show starts.

Come out and see it! It's funny! (if I do say so myself) It's weird! (and that counts for something!) It's MINE! (which
is no fault of your own. And of course I share responsibility/blame with a talented gang of cohorts.)

Campaign finance reform may be at hand. A huge setback will possibly occur to the ease of influence on American politics (which is what passes for government) by those in the dough. An enlightening profile from the Washington Post of the Republican whose name is on the bill, who is not making any friends from this. So soft money might take a hard hit. Which means that the only the rich who run themselves up the polls. Meanwhile, how bored are you? Do you want to just read a lot of dirt on a lot of politicians? It's enuf to make you wish for anarchy, ain't it?

Absurd Night Live

coming up February 22-23 & March 1-2 as part of

The EXIT Theater's Classic Absurdism Festival!!!

mikl-em (veteran of Banana, Bag & Bodice and Popcorn Theater)
has assembled an impossible cast and inevitable special guests
to help engineer an intersection for a car crash of sketch comedy
and Absurdism. Borrowing from the rich and giving to the absurd,
he pulls from sketch comedy archetypes and Absurdist forefathers
to hatch sketches like you've never seen and will never forget.
What sounds like words you've never heard before? How many
licks does it take to get to the center of a comedy sketch?
Ask not for whom the stethoscope and I'll see you in Poland!
Your smileage may vary. With guest hosts Ed Holmes (2/22-2/23)
& Donald the Nut (3/1-3/2).

You can get tickets from ticketweb, but there are only so many--so hurry!! There are a lot of great shows in the festival, so maybe you should get an all festival pass!

If you haven't heard I'm writing/directing... a play? a show? What should I call it? It's an hour long, it is based on both sketch comedy & absurdism. Meaning that these are sketches but with a darker humor & themes referential to the works of Beckett, Pinter, Ionesco & others running throughout. The cast of 5, plus me sometimes, is a talented group of friends who will
amaze and astound and absurd. I'll post more details here soon. I just wanted to post SOMETHING sicne I haven't for nearly a month and to explain that silence--I've been busy with this thing! THe show goes up on Feb 22-23 & March 1-2 at the EXIT theater Here's more details:

CLASSIC ABSURDITY

A Festival of the Absurd. From the heart of San Francisco, deep in Fringe territory emerges a
three-ring festival of EXIT Theatre's signature absurdist fare. Featuring:



In EXIT Stage Left THE BALD SOPRANO by Eugene Ionesco
Ireland's Asylum Theatre presents a stripped down, sent up, furiously
funny adaptation of Ionesco's classic comedy which won rave reviews at
the Edinburgh and Cork Fringe "WONDERFULLY PORTRAYED ... WILL HAVE YOU
IN STITCHES" Irish Examiner.



In EXIT Theatre UBU ROI by Alfred Jarry

directed by Rebecca Novick

100 years after it caused a riot in Paris, this hilarious half Macbeth, half-schoolboy potty mouth
for runner of the absurd still delivers dangerous truths about the corruption of power.



At EXIT on Taylor THE CONDEMNED MAN'S BICYCLE by Fernando Arrabal

directed by Rafel Klopotowski.

A fever dream worthy of Dali emerges from the repression of Franco's
Spain as a Freudian fairytale with socialist ideals and sadistic undertones.



All shows Wednesday through Saturday February 20-March 2, 2002 8:30 PM
$12-20 sliding scale Reservations: 415.673.3847; Tickets available at
Tix Bay Area at Union Square.

ALSO under the CLASSIC ABSURDITY big top:



STAGED READINGS A collection of unknown delights and rarely produced
masterpieces lightly staged and fresh from the page.

Saturday 2/24 The Chinese Wall by Max Frisch

Saturday 3/2 Resounding Tinkle by N.H. Simpson {an absurd translated article on Simpson} [directed by Bill Peters]

both in EXIT Theatre
and Picnic on the Battlefield by Fernando Arrabal
directed by Rafel Klopotowski
all shows 7:00pm at EXIT & EXIT Stage Left. Pay what you can.

AND...

then there's our little old thing Absurd Night Live!!