Improv Resource Center - Forums
Hello, IRC.
Chris Kula of Police Chief Rumble here with the first post of what will hopefully be a decent little journal documenting the making-of process for Police Chief Rumble's new sketch show. Or rather, the first post of what will hopefully be a decent little knock-off of such time-honored revue-in-progess journals as:
Mick Napier on CITIZEN GATES (Second City Mainstage)
http://www.annoyanceproductions.com/mainstage.html
Craig Cackowski on SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5, CATTLE O (Second City Mainstage)
http://members.tripod.com/jethronolen/craig.html
Jack McBrayer on BETTER LATE THAN NADER (Second City etc.)
http://www.argosagency.com/journals/justjack.html
Ideally, everyone in the group - myself, Katie Dippold, Angeliki George, Jeff Hiller, David Martin, Will McLaughlin, Bobby Moynihan, and Charlie Sanders - and our director, Jake Fogelnest, will be able to post periodic updates on the show as it grows and changes during the course of our midnight run the next month and a half.
(Though of course we all know that it will more than likely devolve into everyone taking turns identifying themselves as "Dave Martin" and posting incriminating things like "Hey, Dave Martin here - I seem to have lost my wedding ring all up inside a Culkin." See? Hilarious slander, and totally untraceable back to me, Chris Kula.)
Some back story on PCR as a sketch group...
The group was put together through Harold team auditions in August of 2002, and we've been lucky enough to have our lineup remain stable and unchanged since then. Dallas BBQ, folks - it's group mind in a Texas-sized mug.
We decided at some point this past summer that we wanted to be doing sketch as well as improv. How we came to this decision, I can't really remember, as it was less a group vote than a shrug and a "Yeahhh, we just ... should." Oh, also: the fact that one day we'd all really, really like to get paid.
Charlie'd had a scene called TRUTH that he'd written with PCR in mind, and Rob Lathan and Will Hines were kind enough to let us put it up at Osgood-Schlatter the first week of August. We rehearsed and performed it pretty much verbatim to Charlie's original script, it went over well (even despite our tacked-on ending of Bobby doing a walkon as Kobe Bryant ... "Hello, I'm Kobe Bryant - y'all know I'm goin' through some dark clouds right now..."), and we got jazzed on doing more sketch.
So we started having weekly writing meetings, put up three scenes in the August edition of Sketch Show, three more in the September edition, and started readying stuff for our October Spank date.
Chad Carter, having overseen all of our stuff at Sketch Show, helped us get our Spank show together, and the end result went over well enough that Owen gave us this current Friday midnight slot as this great opportunity to keep working out new scenes, strengthen existing stuff, and to build and shape a full show over time.
Jake caught our Spank show and gave us some notes on it; we dug everything he had to say, so we asked him to direct. Lucky for us, he was available and interested in working with us.
End back story, segue into present story...
Our current weekly schedule looks a little something like this:
TUESDAY
Writing meeting (on those Tuesdays we're up at Harold Night, we meet with Jake either before or after our shows)
WEDNESDAY
Sketch rehearsal, 10 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Tech rehearsal, 12:30 a.m. - late
THURSDAY
Regular improv rehearsal, 6-9 p.m.
FRIDAY
Sketch performance, midnight to 1 a.m.
Encore performance, 1:03 a.m. to last call at McManus
SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY
Enjoy quality time with anyone but members of PCR, all day and all of the night.
More to come on the writing process, the evolution of a scene, the aim of the improv set, and, I guess, whatever shit we can think up about Dave Martin.
Chris Kula of Police Chief Rumble here with the first post of what will hopefully be a decent little journal documenting the making-of process for Police Chief Rumble's new sketch show. Or rather, the first post of what will hopefully be a decent little knock-off of such time-honored revue-in-progess journals as:
Mick Napier on CITIZEN GATES (Second City Mainstage)
http://www.annoyanceproductions.com/mainstage.html
Craig Cackowski on SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5, CATTLE O (Second City Mainstage)
http://members.tripod.com/jethronolen/craig.html
Jack McBrayer on BETTER LATE THAN NADER (Second City etc.)
http://www.argosagency.com/journals/justjack.html
Ideally, everyone in the group - myself, Katie Dippold, Angeliki George, Jeff Hiller, David Martin, Will McLaughlin, Bobby Moynihan, and Charlie Sanders - and our director, Jake Fogelnest, will be able to post periodic updates on the show as it grows and changes during the course of our midnight run the next month and a half.
(Though of course we all know that it will more than likely devolve into everyone taking turns identifying themselves as "Dave Martin" and posting incriminating things like "Hey, Dave Martin here - I seem to have lost my wedding ring all up inside a Culkin." See? Hilarious slander, and totally untraceable back to me, Chris Kula.)
Some back story on PCR as a sketch group...
The group was put together through Harold team auditions in August of 2002, and we've been lucky enough to have our lineup remain stable and unchanged since then. Dallas BBQ, folks - it's group mind in a Texas-sized mug.
We decided at some point this past summer that we wanted to be doing sketch as well as improv. How we came to this decision, I can't really remember, as it was less a group vote than a shrug and a "Yeahhh, we just ... should." Oh, also: the fact that one day we'd all really, really like to get paid.
Charlie'd had a scene called TRUTH that he'd written with PCR in mind, and Rob Lathan and Will Hines were kind enough to let us put it up at Osgood-Schlatter the first week of August. We rehearsed and performed it pretty much verbatim to Charlie's original script, it went over well (even despite our tacked-on ending of Bobby doing a walkon as Kobe Bryant ... "Hello, I'm Kobe Bryant - y'all know I'm goin' through some dark clouds right now..."), and we got jazzed on doing more sketch.
So we started having weekly writing meetings, put up three scenes in the August edition of Sketch Show, three more in the September edition, and started readying stuff for our October Spank date.
Chad Carter, having overseen all of our stuff at Sketch Show, helped us get our Spank show together, and the end result went over well enough that Owen gave us this current Friday midnight slot as this great opportunity to keep working out new scenes, strengthen existing stuff, and to build and shape a full show over time.
Jake caught our Spank show and gave us some notes on it; we dug everything he had to say, so we asked him to direct. Lucky for us, he was available and interested in working with us.
End back story, segue into present story...
Our current weekly schedule looks a little something like this:
TUESDAY
Writing meeting (on those Tuesdays we're up at Harold Night, we meet with Jake either before or after our shows)
WEDNESDAY
Sketch rehearsal, 10 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Tech rehearsal, 12:30 a.m. - late
THURSDAY
Regular improv rehearsal, 6-9 p.m.
FRIDAY
Sketch performance, midnight to 1 a.m.
Encore performance, 1:03 a.m. to last call at McManus
SATURDAY, SUNDAY, MONDAY
Enjoy quality time with anyone but members of PCR, all day and all of the night.
More to come on the writing process, the evolution of a scene, the aim of the improv set, and, I guess, whatever shit we can think up about Dave Martin.