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Blue Streaking
There were almost as many recognizable faces in the crowd at Side Splitters as there were on stage Sunday night. Nine local media personalities competed in the second annual Host with the Most Fun’raiser. My wife and I bought tickets to support my Smoky Mountain Television co-host Taz Cable. Brittany Bailey and John Martin had a front row seat to support their WBIR colleague Erin Donovan.
As I looked around the showroom, I saw Cynthia Moxley, Alan Carmichael and Scott Bird of Moxley Carmichael Public Relations. Cynthia writes a popular party-hopping blog called the Blue Streak. In it, she posts photos that she takes at many charity events around town. As a result, she’s not in the pictures. Seeing her gave me the idea to turn the tables on her and to snap a few pictures of the audience in the few moments left before showtime.
Michele Silva was there to root for Taz and for her WVLT colleague Whitney Kent. Michele was seated with WVLT’s Lorena Estrada. I especially enjoyed Whitney’s Shirley Nash Pitts impersonation. Tonya Cinnamon posted a photo on Facebook of Whitney imitating Shirley’s “Clean It Up” facial expression.
Mayoral candidate Mark Padgett and local attorney Stephen A. Burroughs were seated on opposite sides of the room. They both got countless mentions from the comedians, especially Burroughs who is known for his billboards, his Facebook memes and his recent Swagfest.
There’s Money in the Banana Stand
It’s great news for “Arrested Development” fans like me. The cast appeared together on a panel at The New Yorker Festival on Sunday. The New York Times reported that series creator Mitchell Hurwitz told the audience the crew would make ten more episodes of the cult-classic show plus a feature film. The actors who played the three Bluth brothers, Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Tony Hale, all wrote about the news on their Twitter feeds.
There are so many things I love about “Arrested Development” that it was hard to choose a clip to embed here. My family and I often joke about Gob’s magic career. I still laugh about his ambition to be in the magicians’ trade journal, “Poof!” magazine. Sometimes the song Gob used as a theme, “The Final Countdown,” will get stuck in my head. The next time Amazon.com gives away mp3 credits, I need to remember to download it. Here’s a clip from Season 2, featuring Gob and Buster trying to trick Tony Wonder, played by Ben Stiller.
Eth Lab
Side Splitters Comedy Club isn’t normally open at lunchtime. It was yesterday. The Volunteer chapter of the PRSA held their September meeting in the club on Thursday. This is Ethics Awareness Month for the organization. Ethics chair Michael Holtz of the American Cancer Society was responsible for the meeting’s content. He hired Einstein Simplified to do ethics-themed improv scenes.
Five of us from the group were available for the gig. We prepared by reading the case studies on the PRSA website. We took some of our regular games and twisted them slightly for the occasion. We even made up a new fast game, “Spin Doctor,” that will likely show up in our Tuesday-night repertoire.
I knew many of the people in attendance, which made me feel a bit nervous. The PRSA members are public relations specialists from charities, hospitals, banks,PR firms, government agencies and more.
Managing partners Bridgette and Coley O’Dell did a fine job of feeding the guests. The buffet lunch included mixed-greens salad, pulled pork, beef brisket, cole slaw, potato salad and pecan pie. I took the stage to get things started. Before introducing my fellow improvisers, I suggested that the PRSA members should consider booking their companies’ holiday parties at Side Splitters. Of course it would be nice if they also hired Einstein Simplified to entertain, but they could just as easily have Bridgette book a stand-up comedian for their party.
Peter Principle
All the news stories about Ben & Jerry’s new flavor gave my wife a start. She hadn’t seen the classic Saturday Night Live sketch from which the flavor gets its name. The Miami New Times compared it to ten other foods with terrible names, including two I spotted at my local grocery this Spring.
Guest host Alec Baldwin played a character named Pete Schweddy. He arrives at his local NPR station with a tray full of baked goods, specifically cookie balls. We can see that the “Delicious Dish” hosts, played by Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon, are sampling confections. The comedy comes from the idea that a radio listener would be horrified to hear their description without seeing what was really happening.
By naming their ice cream flavor after Schweddy’s holiday treats, Ben & Jerry’s puts many shoppers in the same position as the imaginary NPR listeners in the SNL sketch. Those who saw the sketch will think it’s hysterical. Those who haven’t seen it will think the ice cream company, a subsidiary of Unilever, has lost its mind.
Candygram
A veterinarian named Kaihla Dailey has expressed an interest in joining Einstein Simplified. We chatted after one of our weekly shows at Side Splitters. She told me that she had some previous improv experience with a troupe in Ventura, California and had earned her veterinary degree at the University of Tennessee.
I asked if she knew Dr. Jim Brace, a friend of mine from church. He’s a professor and associate dean at UTCVM. Kaihla said everyone knows and loves Dr. Brace. She said he’s like the Dumbledore of the school. One time when Kaihla’s car broke down, Dr. Brace drove to Karns and gave her a ride so she wouldn’t miss class.
On Friday night, Einstein Simplified performed at a relatively new venue in Rockford, Tennessee. The Riverside Business and Event Center used to be a Baptist church and it still looks like one. When the congregation outgrew the facility, they built a bigger church nearby. The old church now plays host to family-friendly concerts and comedy shows. In fact, marketing director Caryn Geren is looking for stand-up comedians who can get laughs during shows billed as “Clean as a Whistle.” Einstein Simplified agreed to do PG-rated shows there on the second Friday of the month. I missed the July show due to my vacation. The next show is September 9th.
The group invited Kaihla to perform with us on Friday. Her mom drove in from North Carolina as a surprise. She didn’t realize it until her mom stepped forward as an audience volunteer for a game of “Animatronics.” Kaihla and I did a few scenes together including a game called “Rewind.” We acted out a basic scene (hunting for a land shark) and then had to redo it in different styles. In the first round, I offered to give Kaihla a boost over an imaginary wall. By the time we did it a third time (as Frankenstein’s monsters) and a fourth time (as The Golden Girls), I was basically throwing her over the wall around Chevy Chase’s home.
Trending Topic
Except for a rain delay, my Father’s Day played out as I had hoped. I went for a swim and enjoyed smoked chicken and grilled peaches for dinner, which I anticipated in a guest post about Father’s Day for Food City’s Power Shopper Blog. Although I have a business relationship with Food City, the blog post was done as a favor for The Tombras Group.
Earlier in the day, my daughter called to sing the Father’s Day song that I had learned from an old Groucho Marx album and passed along to to my kids. My wife and son joined in the serenade. My son started plunking out the tune on a keyboard, trying to guess what note I meant to sing.
My wife wanted to buy me a cake for my upcoming birthday but I told her I would rather defrost a slice of the banana walnut cranberry cake from Touch of Love Catering that has been in our freezer since February. My wife doesn’t like banana-flavored things, which may be why she bought a chocolate Father’s Day cake for us to share. At first glance, I thought the decoration on top said “Hi Dad!” but it actually says “#1 Dad!”
Cartoon Violence
They needed one more warm body for a PSA promoting the American Red Cross Beat the Heat Summer Relief Auction. Paul Simmons of Einstein Simplified would do the talking. Aaron Littleton would wear something reminiscent of the Heat Miser. All I had to do was beat him with a baseball bat.
I agreed to meet the others at WBIR on Monday afternoon. Michael Wiseman ran the camera and would produce the finished PSA. Lori Marsh and Cheyenne Duffy were there on behalf of the Knoxville Area Chapter of the Red Cross. I told them I would have to miss the July 21st auction because of a previous commitment to host a beauty pageant that night.
Before we started shooting, Paul gave me a crash course is stage combat. Instead of swinging the bat at Aaron, I would thrust the base of it downward in a “plant the flag” motion. Aaron’s pratfall would complete the gag. Later, Paul would pretend to punch Aaron in the face by stopping his fist at a specific point. Unfortunately Aaron leaned in a little too far and got smacked for real.
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