Ep 2.06 - IST - Japanese Gameshow

Rejoice! James, Tim, Tony, Erik, Ify and his loveable sidekick Weldon are back with a lean and mean podcast episode for your thinkmeat. And just in time to hype the crap out of their show in Long Beach this Saturday, too!

VISUAL INTAKE ENGAGE!













Episode 2.06 - Japanese Gameshow

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Music Buffers:
Another One Bites The Dust by 8-Bit Queen
Fingerbang by Fingerbang
Я очень рад, ведь я, наконец, возвращаюсь домой by Edward Gil
Dancing With Myself by Billy Idol

Ep 2.05 - IST - Power Bottom Rangers

In today’s episode, James, Tony, Erik, Tim and Black Rob congregate at Thundergoat Studios to discuss their upcoming cage match against Orpheus Roy, which leads to talks about angry bartenders, status updates on the original Power Rangers, sexual asthma and chicken-fish. Then finally, we reveal what’s REALLY going on in the much feared Blackstar Canyon. Oh yeah, and it was Valentine’s Day… or something.

VISUAL PROPAGANDA: ENGAGE!!

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Musical Buffers:
Feel Good Inc. by 8-Bit Gorillaz
I Still Believe by Tim Capello
Power Rangers Theme by Buckethead
I Touch Myself covered by Jack Off Jill
Astronomy by Blackstar
Nobody Loves The Hulk by The Traits


Episode 2.05: Power Bottom Rangers

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION: GO!

Pass it `round!

Ep 2.04 - D-House - A Flock of Robins

Hey kats and kittens. Hope you're enjoying your sportsball superbowl contest of champions. Lars here, giving you a sweet little post of podcast goodness to wrap up your weekend into a fine package.

In this installment of the Spitz, Erik, Tim, Blaire, James, Tony, Tyler and myself invade the airwaves with talk of our upcoming shows (IO Cagematch on 2/18 and Found Theatre Show 2/27). In other topics: James calls Blaire a She-hulk, Tyler cusses out everyone, hipsters continue to suck, Dreamworks executives are fucking intense, and Facebook doppleganger week has us all worked up.

Also there's this stirring performance from Academy Award winning legend Morgan Freeman:



and....



Get in on all the funny right here- A Flock of Robins

Be sure to mark your calendar for our big big show at the Found Theatre on Feb 27th. And If you can stay up late, come see us fight in a brutal cage match of chuckles at the Improv Olympic on Feb. 18th. Check out our "live show" posts!!!

Cheers,

Lars

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Hello Marshall...

Marshall Givens is it? You may not know me, but I know you. You see, there is only room for one black guy in this thing we like to call improv comedy extravaganza, and I hate to break it to you, but your time is up. I will rise from the deepest depths of hellfire and brimstone, fuming with the deep dark stench of your fears and many other unsettling matters of which cannot be described in the small time frame I have to post. I will flourish into a black ball of hate and strike you down upon the shame and agony of hateful defeat, leaving you gasping for air and breathless hoping only for the sweet release of death only to find out the only thing keeping you alive is my hate for you, which comes in full supply. Full of agony wrenching down on your very existence clenching every nerve in your body, you will beg for mercy and forgiveness, only to be met with dark laughter reigniting the pain and agony , which only sets you right at the beginning of this hell cycle only to be repeated for eternity till my hate burns out into a flicker of content, which will only remind me of you thus stringing you back into your dark torture into which you will be swallowed by my almighty hate. This is what awaits you Marshall, this is what awaits you...

-Ify
-AND IN NO WAY THE REST OF THE CHERRY SPITZ COMEDY GROUP

The Return of Cherry Spitz - 2 Live Shows!

Ladies and gentlemen... Boys and girls... Children of all ages...

I am happy to announce the best news ever: Cherry Spitz is doing live shows again. At long last. Cherry Spitz is back.

We've got two shows lined up at the moment. That's right. We're not just back, we're coming back guns a'blazing.

Thursday Night Feb. 18th @ The IO West in Hollywood: IO West Cage Match
Every week the world famous Improv Olympic hosts a weekly improv cage match where two teams enter and only one leaves... victorious. The other team is obviously then killed. The winning team will then go on to challenge a new team the next week, and so on. Cherry Spitz enters rotation on Thursday Feb 18th when we get our first shot at whatever team has survived the previous week. The show starts at 11:30pm and is a 21-and-over event because of the bar in the theater lobby. I know, and I'm sorry to all of our drunk children fans. The show is FREE. As in no money to get in. All you gotta do is get there and you can see Cherry Spitz perform in one of Hollywood's best improv theaters.

We honestly don't know how long this show will last. We have been training a lot lately because we want to both kick ass AND take names in the IO Cage Match. WE WILL BE PERFORMING EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT IN HOLLYWOOD IF WE KEEP WINNING. We need our fans to come out and support us. We know we can beat whatever Hollywood can put in front of us, and we want you beautiful people to be there and see us do it. Thursday February 18th @ 11:30pm at the IO West in Hollywood.

iO West
6366 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
http://west.ioimprov.com/
Cage Match Info here


[NOTE: We've been scouting the teams competing in the Cage Match for the past few weeks, and the team of "Orpheus Roy" has won the past seven weeks in the cage. Not only that but last week they defeated the theater's Omega Champ team to become the new IO West Omega Champions. Tonight they go for 8 consecutive victories and possibly their first title defense. If they remain on their hot streak we may indeed be facing them when we go up. Could Cherry Spitz be getting a title shot straight out the gate? We will stay on top of this situation as it continues to develop. Also, Ify is now deeply entrenched in an imaginary bloodfeud with the black guy on Orpheus Roy (who I believe is actually this guy.)]


Pretty awesome stuff, I know. And that's only the first announcement!


Saturday Night Feb. 27th @ The Found Theater in Long Beach
We're back. Cherry Spitz returns to the stage in what will hopefully be our new home, The Found. We want to try and get as many people as we can at this show. If we make a good impression on the people at Found and the whole Long Beach community we will continue performing there. If we're not doing comedy we don't eat. And you don't want us to starve, do you? Of course you don't. That would make you a monster.

Tickets are only 5 BUCKS since this is our first show. It all goes down on Saturday February 27th at 8pm. We are in the process of putting the show together right now, and we will post more information as soon as we can. You can be sure we'll be performing some of the best comedy you'll ever see. Improv? Count on it. Sketch comedy? It's possible. Magic? I doubt it but we'll see. Ultimate fighting? That seems more likely. Erotic puppetry? Sure, why not.


We do know that DJ Poptart will be spinning at our show! That's right, friend of the Spitz and house music sorceress DJ Poptart will be running music for us and Djing the evening. One of California's best DJs performing with California's best comedy group, this show is going to kick ass! Lucky you.

The FOUND THEATRE
599 Long Beach Blvd. at 6th St.
Long Beach, CA 90802

Saturday February 27th at 8 o'clock. Tickets are only $5. Come get some.


See y'all there,
James



[I want that title belt.]

Geek Out: Lost Is Back!

So like a smoking hot, stir-crazy ex-girlfriend that just moved back into town, Lost is on the air again and I find myself falling back into old habits. Habits I forgot I had. Maybe not so much "habits" as an obsessive compulsive disorder brought about by what I can only describe as a "broadcast television anomaly."

Lost

I could break down what the two-hour season premiere episode meant, like every other blog, or I could just write about why I think it's one of the best shows to come out of the past decade.

Before Lost, the only television shows you'd ever catch me watching were either The Daily Show or South Park for their biting satire, or an HBO original series like Oz, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under or Carnivale, which all played out like visual novels, were commercial free and had REAL characters that are near impossible to develop in major motion motion pictures these days.

As far as I was concerned, CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX and the WB/UPN/CW were a wasteland of bland sitcoms, reality shows, "gritty" spin-offs of mediocre dramas and something vaguely resembling local news.

Then a friend who I was lending comics to lent me the first season of Lost in return. I was hooked immediately. IMMEDIATELY!! I was blazing through a four-episode disc per night. A week later, I was "buying" the remaining episodes online, catching up about halfway through the 2nd season. By this point, I was like a schizophrenic junkie: not sleeping, swatting away bugs that weren't really there and repeating the numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 over and over and over and over and over.



And numbers are just one of the many flailing conspiracy tentacles that Lost uses to keep a grip on it's audience. There are fresh spins on the cliched flashback technique, endless uses of symbolism and re-occurring characters who turn up in the most unexpected of places. On top of all that, the show is constantly nodding to other great works of literature, film and television. I say "noddng" because the show is by no means ripping off it's inspirations, but honoring them. Why do you think Sawyer reads on the beach so much? Usually it's because they're riffing on that particular story. And they keep doing that until you have this complex tapestry that works. In fact, they put books wherever they can fit them on that island. It's practically a library!

When you get down to it, the show is a combination of The Stand, The Prisoner, Watchmen, Lord of the Flies, Watership Down, Slaughterhouse Five, Of Mice & Men, The Twilight Zone, Fantasy Island and countless others while at the same time, completely original.

Having to adjust to watching one episode per week and putting up with excessively loud commercial interruptions was too much for me. I went into shock from withdrawals and filled that void by browsing websites that dissected the episodes. It's no wonder that the producers quickly took to releasing viral videos on YouTube between seasons. They even published a book of noir fiction by an author that only ever existed on the show.

With all this going on, this is a series that shines when the viewer is actively engaged. There's plenty of explosions and backstabbing and wet t-shirts and one-liners to make it enjoyable for passive viewing, but that's only half the fun. And you don't have to lurk through Lostpedia or play the latest Dharma game to be "active." (Although it helps)

Just pay attention to the details. Even the ones that probably don't mean anything. It's better that way.