the Rick Larsen show
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This crazy thing called "comedy"
Last week, I received a last-minute invitation to an open mic in Tempe. Our friend, Danny Vega, is hosting a weekly night for comedians, poets and musicians at Cafe Roma every Tuesday. I went and performed "stand-up" that I read from a series of index cards. I'll be returning this week, January 24, possibly with new material. What's really special is that this week, making her stand-up debut, is Gretchen Larsen, who is married to me. Cafe Roma lives at 960 W University Dr., Ste. #105, in Tempe.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Empty Marcos
Our temporary Mystery Troupe name this month is "Empty Marcos" and we will take the Firestage tonight at 9:00ish. Admission is free.
Friday, January 20, 2009
Cerberus Cup V
Every few months, The Torch Theatre hosts an evening of competitive long-form improv at Space 55. This event, the Cerberus Cup, pits 9 three-person teams against each other in 3 rounds of 3 teams on Friday night, with the 3 winning teams returning the following night. Debra, Kevin and I have entered the next Cup as "Saguaro Latte." We will be dominating the competition this Friday, January 30 at 9:00. Come out and show your support by voting for us.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
http://space55.org
http://thetorchtheatre.com
Apollo 12
During the month of January, I've been rehearsing/working out with long-standing Phoenix Improv group Apollo 12. We'll be trying out the new line up tomorrow, January 28, at the Trunk Space. Showtime is 8:00 SHARP!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
http://www.myspace.com/apollo12
Video of Frames Vacios
Until now, this News page has been all talk and no action. But now, check this out:
Monday, January 19, 2009
It's the first show by "the empty frames" or "frames vacios."
Who is the Mystery Troupe?
Several of us graduates of the first class of the Torch Theatre have begun to rehearse a new long-form troupe. Alphabetically, our line-up is:
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Alex
Amy Jean
Debra
Ernesto
Jessica
Kevin
Pete
Rick
We will performing for the first time this Friday, January 16 at the Firehouse in Phoenix. We are going on under the name "Frames Vacios" unless we arrive at a permanent name before then.
We expect to perform between 8:30 and 10:00.
the Firehouse is located at 1015 N. 1st Street, in downtown Phoenix AZ.
http://www.strivedreams.com/
Quadruple your chances to see some awesome improv!
For the final stretch of our improv studies, the Torch Theatre's level IV show is four (IV?) times the entertainment. We will be performing a four week run of shows every Wednesday night at Space 55 in Phoenix. The complete list of dates is:
October 21, 2008
October 29
November 5
November 12
November 19
Level IV will be different in several ways. We have been developing a more organic show that is not strictly defined in terms of format. Come to one or more (or all) shows!
Deconstruction, Armando, Little Brown Jug
The Torch Theatre's Level III show is this Saturday, August 9 and will feature not one, not two, but three performances from our class. First, we'll have half of the class performing a format called "the little brown jug," followed by the other half of the class (including me) performing something called "armando." To conclude, we will unite the class as a whole to tackle the behemoth that is "the deconstruction." All told, that's three improv shows for $5.
August 5, 2008
Return of Something to Smoke About
Level II improv class has been teaching us about Harold. We will perform 2 Harolds this Thursday, May 15th at 8:00 at Space 55. Space 55 is on Seventh street and Pierce in Downtown Phoenix.
May 12, 2008
Something To Smoke About
I've been taking longform improvisation classes from The Torch Theatre. Our level One Improv show, "Something to Smoke about," will be live tonight (6pm) at the Trunk Space in Phoenix. The Trunk Space is at Grand Avenue and Roosevelt.
February 28, 2008
Ballpoint Fury! now a blog.
Stay updated on the new sketches at
Ballpoint Fury with the
new blog.
You can subscribe to the
RSS feed and
always know when something new is up.
Friday, August 4, 2006
I'm on e-hobo!
I've just illustrated two of the seven hundred hoboes listed in John
Hodgman's book,
The Areas of My Expertise. They are available for viewing at
e-hobo or flickr. ps: the book is very good.
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
Mail Art
We donated some art to the
Trunk Space's Mail Art show. Here are the images I was responsible
for:
Gretchen provided this
self-portrait:
And here are some shots of the artists in front of their works:
Click an image to see the full version.
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Saturday, July 22, 2006
New Features: Ballpoint Fury & Fan Art
The Sketchbook section of my website has been reborn as a new feature to be
known as "BallPoint Fury."
The new design will allow me to update this section weekly as well as allow you
all to leave comments telling me exactly how badly I need to learn to draw.
Also included in this redesign is the
Fan Art Page. Please take
a look at what everyone has been doing and send in your submissions.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
New sketches, also
Just in time to be three weeks late for Election Day, the
sketchbook page now includes
a series of voting-related drawings.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
New art from the people
New Fan Art is available for your perusal
here. Don't be the
last on your block to submit your Jive Turkey fan art! Click
here.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
the fans have their art, too
Our newest addition to the web page family is this
fan art page and the
inaugural piece of Jive
Turkey fan art. Look back semi-regularly for updates.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
the big Z, issue two
Just this past Saturday, I attended an informal 24 hour comic day with some
friends from my last 24 hour session.
Brandon, from
Male Pattern Radness was
responsible for getting me invited. Thanks must also go out to
Jackie and Eric and
Blue. While my results were encouraging, I did not make it for the full
twenty-four. I don't think I can honestly put out the big Z issue two with
the "24 hour" label, but I finished 14 pages before falling asleep on the floor.
I woke up at about 6:30 in the morning and finished two more pages, but that
leaves eight pages to squeeze in somewhere. What's in it you ask? Some new characters in wacky new metafictional situations, plus the return of Jive Turkey! Yay! More news to follow.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Friday night at the bookstore
We just attended a reading at Changing
Hands by Sal Plascencia and Jack Pendarvis. They were both quite good
and their respective books are definitely worth your pocket change. Sal
read from
The People of Paper, and Jack read from his not-quite-released book,
The Mysterious Secret of the Valuable Treasure. If you ever have the
opportunity to meet Mr. Pendarvis, ask him to show you his excellent Oliver
Hardy impression. Sal's book has multiple narrators, so he employed
multiple readers dressed as beekeepers.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
more to look at
The slow evolution of this page into an actual content-carrying website
continues over on the Art page.
New arrivals will be coming every few days as I handpick items from my
sketchbooks that amuse me.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
the big Z is online now!
You are hereby invited to visit my newly added
ART page which contains my
recent 24 hour mini comic, "the big Z." A
24 hour comic is an artistic challenge
to create 24 pages in 24 hours. Mine was completed at
Samurai Comics in Phoenix back in
April. Enjoy!
Monday, October 3, 2005
Mein Schnurrbart kann die älteren Menschen überwältigen
In recent news, at the last Modest Proposal
show, I was the winner of the Mustache Contest. I won a plethora of prizes from
the Georgia Egg Council. My
powerful, handsome, yet ultimately-temporary mustache earned me the stage name,
"The German Tourist." To pay tribute to this new name, I visited
freetranslation.com and came up
with the title of this post.
Monday, September 24, 2005
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On the scale of
this site falls roughly between
and
by The JavaScript Source
Should you wish to have
your own pitas weblog,
even better than this one,
you can get one here:
www.Pitas.com