Our poor abandoned blog

I really do mean to do a site overhaul soon. Like many other folks, I've gotten caught up in keeping up with youtube and myspace rather than this site.
The new page I hope to design will have a front page blog so we can keep in touch better.
SO, here's what's going on with us.

• We're shooting some video for a TV Pilot. More on that later.
• We're performing with the amazing Boom Time, featuring Brent Weinbach on November 3rd and 4th In Sacramento. Details HERE.
  
• Best Of Sacramento. The News and Review's readers have chosen our own Amber Kloss as the city's best actress, our Becca Costello as the best journalist and The Crest Theatre, managed by ICBINCer, Sid Garcia Heberger as best movie theater. Congrats all.
  
• We've put lots of videos on line. Visit our myspace page here or, you can check us out on youtube.com by clicking here.
  

More news later, and yes, I'll get that redesign done eventually. Mwah.

The Marathon Run Ends

Last night we wrapped up an 8 week run at the Geery. 8 Weeks! I should be exhausted and thrilled that it's over, I know my family is, but instead I'm feeling a bit postpartum. As we approached this run, initially set for 6 weeks, I was full of dread. How on earth would I manage to balance my life along with this huge time commitment to ICBINC? Well, round about week 2 I was hooked. I had my pacing, I no longer felt on the verge of vomiting on show days and I loved the elation I felt after a great performance. Granted, there were nights when we didn't connect with the audience (see the blog about our show with the over 80 crowd) but we had far more hits than misses. Now, it's done. I know there'll be more projects on the horizon, film, podcasts and the occassional five year olds birthday party but right now, I'm sad that the show is over. Of course, I know that next Friday night while I'm sitting in my easy chair watching Friday night nick-toons with my kid I'll be glad that it's done but I'm glad to know that I'm up for the next challenge.

And speaking of this long run, Becca realized last night that having spent the last 8 weeks performing plus the preceding 6-8 weeks of rehearsals, the ladies in the group have, well, how to put this delicately? Okay, I'll say it. Our periods have synced. And, ladies and gentlemen I am proud to announce I am the Alpha female! Well, thank you, thank you very much!

Held Over!

Weekend numero 6 under our belts and we've been extended. Now, before you get any dirty thoughts, that means we're performing for two additional weekends! So get on down for shows at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday through February 25.

Tonight, what would have been closing night, was a lot of fun. KLJ's mom came to the 7 p.m. (Yes, we talked about vaginas in front of Keith's mom AND Aunt Peggy.) and my pal's Mike and Chris were there for the 9 p.m. (my apologies to Mike for the puppet, nuff said.) along with Tara from St. Simon 3 who is busy making another baby!

I'm too sleepy to write more and I should go to bed before my spelling gets as atrocious as KLJ's.

G'night.

Vagina Monologues The Movie

Another weekend under our belts

Well, we just concluded weekend number 5 in our 6 week run of We Live Here. As the run comes to its conclusion I'm beginning to feel that usual remorse. It's funny, at the beginning of any run (no matter how short or long) I feel like I'm ready for it to be over. Ready to have my weekends back and then when the show nears the end of the run the sadness creeps in, like loosing an old friend. It would seem logical that this run would be taking it's toll on us but the show keeps getting tighter, more polished and now I feel like I could just keep on going. It helps that I have a tremendously supportive husband and a kid who's used to Mommy's "show business ways" (between work and ICBINC I'm often gone on weekends). After the shows we headed to a local late night eatery where Ben and I entertained the group with "gorey childhood" stories with subjects such as shooting at birds, chopping off finger tips, child eating pigs and slicing open punk rockers. Not exactly dinner conversation but at least we waited until the entrees were nearly finished before we got into the really bloody stories.

The Alexander Technique

Hoopla! Becca and I just returned from a 2 hour introductory course in the Alexander Technique. I won't go in to all of the details, not that it's some secrect society I just don't want to get bogged down. Basically, the method is about posture, breathing, body alignment. After just a short 2 hour introductory course I feel GREAT! Like I just had a nap followed by an Espresso Metro Zap Frappe! Can't wait to get to the theatre tonight. Rrrrrr!

Last night's show, by the way, was awesome and totally redeemed old people for me. Last week we had a crowd of older folks (see KLJ's blog entry for all the gorey details) who, despite having all of our comedic charm thrown at them, just weren't going for it. So, you can imagine how dismayed I was when the first folks to arrive for last night's show were of the, shall we say, " old" persuasion. But let me tell you, this audience rocked! KLJ even got one lady to get up on stage during the opening monologue and read titles like "The Vagina Hater" and "Vagina's Make You Gay" from the program. Bet saying "vagina" on stage in front of a crowd wasn't on her to-do list for the day. Hmm, water plants, pick up prescriptions, say "vagina" in front of a bunch of strangers. Nope. Anyway, the crowd was clearly loving the show and on exit I realized that once again we had a big showing of the over 60 set. But these were the cool old people. The kind I want to be when I grow up. Yeah!

Old People

Wow. Last Saturday the audience for the 7pm show was all over 80. They wouldn't laugh during the skits but the were generous with the applause after. I guess they had a good time. One woman in the front kept guessing our lines, outloud, right before we'd say them. I'm not in favor of punching old ladies but I came real close to changing my stance this time.
So last night I spot an old lady, in the front row, and when I mention vaginas in my opening monologue she starts reading the program. I got her up on stage and had her read out loud from the program. She was so sweet and wide eyed, and hearing her say "Vagina's make you gay?" was priceless.
"When you got up this morning you didn't know you'd be talking about vaginas in front of so many people did you?"
"No, I didn't."
Great audience over all. Hoping for more good folks tonight as my dad will be there with an childhood pal of his from New York.

Red Hot Lizard Boy Action All Night Long

We're too filthy for Cable Access. Our current show is one of the racier shows we've done, but we do have a very silly and innocent skit called Lizard Boys. Two reptile loving geeks are in the mall discussing their hobby "Yeah man, my red phase german giant mated with my sand fire high yellow. I got the eggs at home." When a woman passes they both display in the fashion of a male lizard trying to attact a mate. Head bobbing, arm waving, etc. This progresses with them fighting with each other and, well, I don't want to ruin the ending. The Sacramento Bee described the skit as "hilariously visual."

I just recieved a call from the producer of LiveWire on Sacramento Public Access. We were scheduled to appear on the show, and to use a video clip of Lizard Boys to give the audience a taste of our show. Lizard Boys was deemed "too sexual" by this producer.

"What? Lizard boys, the skit with the two boys acting like lizards?" I asked.

"Yes. It's very sexualized. We have standards we have to adhere to." she answered.

"There is no sex in that scene. I watch kid's cartoons every day. Men's eyes pop out of their heads, their tongues roll out, they say "Helllllooo Nurse! All our Lizard Boys do is bob their heads and fight with each other. If you see sex in this skit, it's on you, because it's not there."

She started to answer, but I was at work and I'd spent too much time on this already, plus I was getting pissed that she was projecting her smut paranoya onto such and innocent, goofy skit. I interrupted. "Look, let's just not work together."

"Okay." she agreed.

WOW! I'm still boggled by this very strange woman.

Perhaps it was the tantilizing line, "The dominant male gets first choice of breedable females from the clutch." that pushed if over the pg-13 line eh? It is a hot line, straight out of Penthouse Forum.

Oh well. My lifelong dream of being on public access television will not be satisfied this week.

Shows doing well, website redesign coming

We sold out Friday and the early show Saturday, so it was a good weekend. Great audiences for the most part, but the early crowd on Saturday were all senior citizens, and very quiet. It's not easy talking about vaginas in front of a bunch of women who could be your grandmother. Oh well, my mom'll be at the show this coming weekend with my Aunt Peggy, so I better get used to talking about vaginas and all associated awkwardness.

I'm redesigning the website soon, to make it more geared toward content. Photos, video, audio, blogs, etc. I love the site design now but it's time to change. Time To Change is a great tune by The Brady Bunch by the way, with Peter's voice cracking as he sings. Good stuff.

Shows doing well, web redesign coming

We sold out Friday and the early show Saturday, so it was a good weekend. Great audiences for the most part, but the early crowd on Saturday were all senior citizens, and very quiet. It's not easy talking about vaginas in front of a bunch of women who could be your grandmother. Oh well, my mom'll be at the show this coming weekend with my Aunt Peggy, so I better get used to talking about vaginas and all associated awkwardness.

I'm redesigning the website soon, to make it more geared toward content. Photos, video, audio, blogs, etc. I love the site design now but it's time to change. Time To Change is a great tune by The Brady Bunch by the way, with Peter's voice cracking as he sings. Good stuff.

Rolling along, but what next

So the shows are doing great, selling out every night. The good review in the Bee certainly helped.
I love what we're doing in this show. It feels to me like a really god combination of the silly and the experimental, getting dark in places but coming back and getting talkie, leaning toward theater type pieces but then giving a quick breather afterwards with some purely physical stuff like the lizard boy pieces.
But, having stepped up into a larger run, ultimately being seen by a much larger group of people with a much, much larger advertising budget I have to wonder what we do next? I mean, this was a big step and there'd be no shame in repeating it next year. Putting another new show up for a long run.
Hopefully the success of the run and the good press means we can get into theaters like the Purple Onion in San Francisco or Upright Citizen's Brigade Theaters in LA and New York. That's the goal now for me. Well that and as always doing more film work.
Artistically where do we go now? I don't wan to torture myself and the cast with always having to do something brand new. I do believe and artist group of artists can do what they do well and just workt to perfect their craft and grow in it, but I get a sense that there is some new ground we could be covering. That we're off in a good direction. We're experimental in a more subtle way than some of the really out there troupes that have wowed me, but I'm happy with what we're doing. I like the Woody Allen like attention to dialogue and story even within the often preposterous scenarios of sketch comedy. And I like pieces like She, Rolita, The Talk, or the Unborny Billy Skits that are willing to go to places the audiences might be reluctant to go. The audience is beginning to trust us on these little trips. They know we'll respect the subjects we're dealing with.
Okay, that's enough post show rambling. I've got at least for more weeks of shows so plenty of time to meditate on this stuff. For now, the show keeps getting tighter, better, funnier everytime we run it.

What an opening night

The internet ate some of our reservations and so folks who had made reservations didn't get in, which sucks and I'm sure upset some folks, but having a packed house, to the point where people were sitting in the aisles was delightful.
The skits did well, pleny of laffs, the opening act Daisy Spot was enchanting and our house band Broken Home added so much to the show and were tons of fun.
We had a wine tasting after the show which was very cool and I look forward to two more shows tonight both of which are already sold out.
I'm anxious to see the review on Monday in The Bee.

Sid, Ben, Becca, KLJ, Amber

Yep. Six week run. That's a lot of ICBINC. It's very likely that we'll be reviewed opening weekend so we really want to pack the house, plus opening weekend Daisy Spot is opening for us, so that's exciting. You can go to www.sacactors.com to reserve tickets and mention that you read about it here to get a six pack of tickets for $60. That'll save you enough per person that you can all pitch in on some cheap beer before the show. And listen to us on KXJZ 88.9fm Friday at 2pm also.

In this show we're doing The Vagina Dialogues, the best send up of The Vagina Monologues ever cuz it's done with an understanding of and affection for the source. And Becca has a new piece, Rolita that's FANTASTIC and pretty dark and challenging and beautiful and I really love it. Ben as usual turns in a manic piece based on his every day dealings with the folks he's forced to share a planet with. I'm in there too somewhere.

Broken Home is our band this time around and we love them. They totally immersed themselves in the show and they rule. So now, I BEG YOU, please, please, come have a good night with us, help us get this long run kick started and we promise not to have a secret wrap party without you when it closes. THOUGH you should note, folks that wait until closing weekend will NOT be told about the party (unless they have a real good excuse, or a box of wine, or Sid thinks they're cute.)

Okay, the skits we're doing, High Flying Kung-Fu, The Vagina Hater, Lizard Boys Cruise For Chicks, Shiela Learns The Truth, Vaginas make you Gay, Rolita, Yawning, General Gina, Curing The Vaginaphobe. As you can see 'Ginas A-Plenty.