teenage sports parade vs. the reader

[roger lodge]

i can't believe what the chicago reader said about teenage sports parade:

"If I had one wish on this earth, it would be to quietly sneak into the Teenage Sports Parade clubhouse and beat each of their heads into a bloody, unrecognizable pulp with my U-lock. I hate them all equally. One day they will be murdered by me." - Jack Helbig

what a violent statement.
i will never buy another reader again.

 

[Rkozlowski]

Ahhh, give Jack a break!

 

[Rachel]

i find the statement so ultra violent that quite frankly it's funny . . . obviously not serious . . . unless your a lawyer.

 

[Megan]

Roger,

Stop buying your copies of the Reader. They're free.

Jack was kind to the one show I did that he came out to review. But he was writing for the Daily Herald at the time, so those "I have to be an asshole and pan everything except dance troupes that nobody actually sees" requirements weren't in place I guess.

 

[funnyerik9]

It's good to know that even though I've been away from Chicago for three years Jack Heblig is still terrorizing the Theater Community. That's funny. The Reader always was notorious for hating most theatrical productions.

-Erik:up:

 

[Jigglin Bones]

Has anyone actually seen this review in print or is it just a hoax?

i mean, it sounds a bit harsh even for this guy

 

[Gwyn]

In fact

it doesn't sound like him at all, to me.

 

[Rkozlowski]

It is a hoax. Teenage Sports Parade looks to have avoided being reviewed by the Reader at all, which from what I've heard, is a good thing.

 

[DanIzzo]

Who you slammin?

Rob,

Are you slamming the Reader with that post or TSP?

I am assuming the Reader. Please clarify

(btw, the Reader reviewed the last TSP show and gave it Highly Recommended status)

Iz

 

[DanIzzo]

Here's the old review

Review from Chicago Reader, January 18, 2001:

An inescapable harmlessness dooms most efforts to introduce some danger into the increasingly quaint sketch-comedy form. Meanwhile more anarchic improv troupes have bled blue and shock humor nearly dry. The five-man Teenage Sports Parade consciously brings together the worst of both worlds, but thanks to an unfailingly smart script and swaggeringly deadpan, limber actors, the results are excellent -- and unpredictable.

According to the program this is "unresponsible memorized comedy," not improv, but the show has Annoyance"s aggressive, wiseass stamp all over it. It starts four or five abortive times, with coy references to jokes and conventions somehow ineradicable despite never having really worked, like the baffling interpretive dance/brainstorming of a Harold opening. Eventually the group"s "manager" (a doll head attached to some skates) rolls out, dismisses the cast, and instructs a disbelieving new guy to pepper his speech with three hot guaranteed-laugh references: "zesty," "who let the dogs out," and "dude, where"s my chad?" Then the non sequitur parodies of commercials kick in ("Mounds: When you"re about to beat your son," and "Mounds: When you"re Joseph Stalin"). Once chaos has been well established, the group starts daring the kind of black humor that makes laughter strictly incidental. Giving a veritable clinic on material so off, stupid, or sick it"s hilarious, the ensemble brings a casual, almost Python-esque polish to even the crudest caricatures, slipping from coolly bizarre to precisely awful in this ironic tour of "hip, edgy, rule-breaking" shtick (sic). -Brian Nemtusak

 

[Megan]

Rob

Dan -

Rob was referring to the Reader and their reviewers.

 

[DanIzzo]

M&R

I figured as much. Just stepping up for my boys.:angel:

 

[Craig Cackowski]

Uh...you realize who the director of Teenage Sports Parade is, right? That may give you some idea as to the veracity of the original post.

 

[DanIzzo]

For clarification:

I am the director of TSP's current show "TSP: Summertime Damp Explosion", and their next revue "TSP Goes to College".

Joe Canale directed the last show (the reviewed one).

Mervyn Burnett directed their first show.

None of that lends any measure of credibility to anything they do, so Craig's right on the mark.:flip:

 

[Rkozlowski]

I'm very impressed that the Reader gave a "Highly Recommended" status to the Teenage Sports Parade show, since I assume that show was in English...

For example, in order to make good with them, the Playground is going to do a stage adaptation of all of Abbas Kiarostami's films in one show.

Actually, I don't have a problem with -all- the Reader's reviewers, just the ones I don't like.

 

[DanIzzo]

Rob,

In the future please consult with me before revealing the secret ingredients in my director's series show. Now I guess we'll have to do that stage salute to the phone book.

Iz

 

[risaroo]

Not So Fast, Izzo

I am already directing John Malkovich in my original musical adaptation called "Phone Book!" at Steppenwolf for the 2001-2002 season. This is my concept, and mine alone. It was widely reported in notable director's periodicals last year, and has been much touted on the Usenet newsgroup alt.pickupyourcues.hack -- so don't try and be coy about it either, you thieving bastard. Stop this at once.

And stay out of my undie drawer, too.

Lewis

 

[Rkozlowski]

Sorry, Izzo.

I also have to usurp the "Karl Marx and His Magic Flute" concept as well.

Rob

 

[JackHelbig]

It's funny, in a kind of sad way, how many people seemed to have been fooled by this awful imitation of my reviews.

But I shouldn't be surprised. Theater people seem to think we critics only come in two varieties: saints and demons. Saints save shows. Demons kill them. If we criticize a show it must be because we are evil or mean or blind or stupid or all four.

Sometimes we pan a show because it wasn't any good. Sometimes we praise a show because it was.

Jack Helbig

Oh, and by the way, "Megan", I praised your work because you were good and not because I was writing for a different paper.

 

[DanIzzo]

Jack Speaks!

Jack,

Thanks for reading this thread and posting up on it.

Hoping that you'll continue to do so, I'd like to praise you for your continued attention and coverage of the improv and sketch comedy scene in Chicago. The sign of a true artform is the presence of a true critic with thoughts and insights into the art itself. Thank you. :up:

That being said, I wonder why the Reader, and other papers, are not as active in reviewing shows as they should be. Even a bad review is exposure, to the public as well as the critical community. The process by which shows are selected for review seems random and arbitrary.

By way of example, let's look at Teenage Sports Parade, an Annoyance based sketch comedy troupe. Their first show at the Annoyance wasn't reviewed at all. Their second show was highly recommended by the Reader, being described as "Python-esque". Their current show: no review. Each show had a different director, with all new material, at a different venue. You'd think the one glowing review would encourage the Reader to review subsequent offerings.

It seems the institutions which need the attention of reviews the least (I/O, Second City, Schadenfreude), get a consistent series of reviews, whereas up and coming groups, who could use the critcism and publicity aspects thereof, get reviewed sporadically at best.

Any thoughts you would have into this would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dan