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Saturday, May 7, 2011

We’re Back…

…and we brought new friends with us.

Two years ago Frim Tanklin and I performed our last Crazy Monkey improv show. We spent the next year watching our friends bring the Crazy Monkeys to new levels. Sometimes they wowed us with their creative genius while other times we struggled to accept the new direction our old group was heading.

After a year of talking imrpov, Tim and I decided to the only way our words could hold any weight was if we actually started to improv again. We started a group of our own, Ad Liberation. It was our friend and former Monkey Andrew P who came up with the name one fateful walk in the rain after we missed the televised Kentucky derby.

We recruited our friend and former Monkey John S, but the insecurities of three grown men playing make believe in a garage got the best of us. It wasn’t until our friend Matt G forced us to keep doing it that we really got off the ground. The hilarious Mary Tanklin and friend-of-a-friend Katie F joined us to help ease our insecurities and increase our numbers. Katie F found the lure of make believe and laughter is hard to resist, but Mary decided to be our number one fan instead.

Eventually John left, and we were down to four players. We practiced every other week or so. Sometimes more often than that, sometimes less. Over Christmas vacation we practiced in the Saint Joseph’s College theater scene shop which is a huge cluttered room with two walls of windows and an assortment of junk perfect for sparking imagination.

We had our first show in February in a crowded basement turned venue called Jurassic Park. Andrew P was our special guest star and improvised a wonderful song to start the show. While the audience was large and seemed to enjoy us, the show was a mess.

We held auditions later that months and we were joined by two strong new members, Zach B and Mike K. It was then that we began working on a new format Tim and I discussed at a high school murder mystery dinner theater performance. The six of us talked and talked and practiced and practiced until we refined and nearly perfected our new format.

The format is simply a long form structure that incorporates elements of short form games intended to tell a story. I hope you enjoy.

For more Ad Liberation information check out out our website.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

National Poetry Writing Month (pt. 5)

Well my favorite month is over, and with it comes the last five April Poems. I was pretty self-conscious about the poems and always referenced my fair warning from part one when I linked new posts on Twitter account, but Frim Tanklin quelled my insecurities when he told me he how fun he found them.

The inspiration to write couplets came from the Isadora Quagmire from A Series of Unfortunate Events, and the inspiration to name the poems came from my friend Sam who wrote very funny haikus with very funny titles.

Three of poems could have been titled “Love Poem" and whatever corresponding number, but I feared I would come across as both cheesy and desperate if I wrote too many love poems, so I gave them different names. I think the love poems are my favorite.

April 26, 2011 (Love Poem IV)

Didn’t want you to find me boring, so

I drank a double shot of espresso.

April 27, 2011 (Love Poem V*)

A private picnic, purple flowers at the end,

You held my hand and led me through the darkness, Friend

April 28, 2011 (Alone Time Poem)

Thirteen hour day began with banana pancake,

Ends with two hours of “me time” for sanity’s sake.

April 29, 2011 (Three Apple Mary Poem)

Sidewalk patio of the Knickerbocker

Tom’s doppelganger was the evening’s shocker.

April 30, 2011 (Perspective Poem)

Racked up a one hundred and fifty-five dollar bill

but with Andrew I played laser tag in Louisville.

*Co-written with my friend Joe Flores