For all the comedy and improv lovers out there, Second City is coming to The Ark again this year, guaranteeing a night filled with quick wit and hearty laughter. As the first ever on-going improvisational theater troupe based in Chicago in 1959, the Second City enterprise continues to produce high quality, satirical sketches with its cutting edge artists on tour. With notable alumni like Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Stephen Colbert, come out to The Ark on September 14 or 15 at 8pm to watch the next comedic hit. Tickets can be purchased at theark.org.
Tag: Comedy
PREVIEW: First Date
We’ve all been there — first dates. The first date that brings dread or butterflies to your stomach. The first date that is either endless torture or an instant click. The first date that has you already setting up your next blind date or planning your wedding. And then there’s the first date that is perfectly average and leaves the future completely uncertain.
Meet Aaron and Casey, chronic singles meeting for their arranged blind date. Featuring characters such as Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, this original comedy musical set in the modern technological age explores the possibilities of love and chemistry at a certain point in life between two people and all the doubting voices carried along the way. Do the sparks fly? Is love in the air?
A2CT is putting this production on at the Arthur Miller Theatre March 8-11 with showtimes at 7:30pm on Thursday, 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 2pm on Sunday. Student tickets are $14 and can be bought online at www.a2ct.org or at the door. This event is also FREE with a Passport to the Arts voucher!
REVIEW: M-agination Film Festival
After sixteen years of existence, the M-agination Film Festival has only improved with time. Being at the Michigan Theater, the event felt more like a night at the Ann Arbor Film Festival than an evening of student-made films.
Actu
ally, I think M-agination’s festival was better. Before the festival started, I noticed the number of small touches that made it feel like a full event. Not only was there free popcorn and T-shirts and the obligatory programs, but I also saw a photo op area with the M-agination logo and posters of each movie set on the a table in front of the theater. 
Of course, the most important part about a film festival are the films. I was impressed at the level of production of each film. Several that I saw, such as Millenia and Anna Garcia Does a One Woman Play looked pretty darn close to something I might see on TV or at a regular movie theater.
The very first film, Cheater, was admittedly pretty superficial. One boy’s goal to cheat on an assignment any way possible, with the action escalating, until the very end when we find that the assignment was to write five things about himself. Simple, yet I was nevertheless laughing throughout the film.
Foodie Daddy was a fresh take on the concept of a sugar daddy, but with food. Innuendo played to everyone’s predilection for sexual humor. The Little Grebe was an adorable animated children’s story about a bird with a message in search of a recipient.
Like many student films, however, the M-agination docket lacked the depth that you would see in award-winning films. The Ladies Room was a “drunkumentary” that capitalized on the novelty of following girls as they prepped themselves before and after a party. I really enjoyed the idea of the film, but I would have liked to see a little more of a cohesive story there. Perhaps if the filmmakers did a genuine documentary shot in a ladies room, there could be some filmmaking gold.
Low Expectations, an honors thesis in the form of a sitcom pilot and the last film of the night, followed three girls as they struggled through the trials of college. It was a good film, but it was also the kind of film that is almost frustrating because it could have been much better with a few tweaks here and there. As most student films go, Low Expectations was color-corrected like a Marvel Movie (desaturated and flat). There were several wonderful jokes and ideas throughout the pilot, but they felt too far apart. Alas, it’s still worth a watch.
I highly recommend watching a few of this year’s films. Hopefully they will be uploaded to the M-agination Vimeo Page soon.
REVIEW: PMS I love you- Comco
The room was just as packed as the last time I had gone to a Comco improv show, thankfully this time my friend and I had arrived a good half hour early and managed to find ourselves decent seats near the front. The show apparently had 364 people in attendance, so you can only imagine how packed the lecture hall ended up being, but that only added to the lively atmosphere. The show opened with a short video clip detailing a meeting of the fictional “hookup culture club.” The video quality was extremely impressive, very reminiscent of the pre-recorded SNL skits that air in between live ones, and it got quite a few laughs from the crowd. You can watch the the full clip below.
After the video set the mood for the night’s performance, they started with a relatively simple “freeze”-like game, where the actors run in and replace their fellow actors in scenes, changing the scene as they do so. Very quickly a running gag appeared that would end up resurfacing several times throughout the night. The joke was that “double frappuchinos” needed to be made with two people. Once again, I was struck with how quick witted and versatile the entire cast is, being able to play off that relatively simple joke in a wide variety of ways.
Another one of my favorite games was where a selection of cast members came up to play various “radio stations,” either real or fictional, all derived from audience suggestions. For this game the lights are turned off and a single cast member shines a flashlight onto each one of the cast members when it was their turn to speak. We had a variety of radio stations such as “NPR pets” where a cast member droned on in a dry tone of voice about the various antics of a dog “fluffy,” or the charming musings of “Grandma radio” played by one of the male cast members.
Another one my favorite games the whole night, and one I personally hadn’t seen before, was one where one comco actor was made to guess basic activities, and extreme strange details about those basic activities chosen by the audience, while three other actors who knew the details had to act out the scenes using only non human language. It was interesting to see how the four actors ended up coming up with a similar sounding nonsensical babble that resembled a real language, even coming up with a few words for certain established objects and meanings throughout the course of the game. While not getting all of the answers right the actor doing the guessing was able to figure out she was doing wild things such as doing laundry with keys instead of detergent with the pope and water skiing in a wedding dress.
At this point a previous cast member who had been sitting in the audience was invited to join them on stage. Judging by the rousing chorus of cheers from the audience he was well known among the crowd. After a quick game, they finished the night with what apparently is a Comco tradition, “I like my men like I like my ___.” for this game the audience would shout out random words and the cast members would have to come up with witty one liners beginning the the aforementioned phrase. By the time the night was over my cheeks hurt from smiling and I was ready to begin my weekend on the right foot.
Comco’s next performance is March 24th and you can find all the details on their Facebook page here.
PREVIEW: PMS I Love You – Comco
With a much anticipated spring break only a week away, I know I , like many of my peers, am ready to relax and let the stresses and worries of the winter semester be forgotten. What better way to find a moment of levity at the end of the week than attending Comco’s improv-comedy performance tomorrow, February 16th at 8:00 PM in Angell Hall’s Auditorium A. Tickets are $2 at the door. Plan to arrive 30-40 minutes early to avoid the rush and long lines and get yourself a prime seat.
REVIEW: TEDx UofM 2017
Before I begin, here’s a link to the full conference in case you want to see it in its entirety.
TEDx UofM 2017 was as busy as ever, adding to the disruption part of this year’s theme: Dreamer’s and Disruptors. The army of volunteers running the independent conference have by now created a finely-tuned machine with the perfect mix of emotional roller-coaster, thought-provoking ideas, and blissful entertainment.
A student jazz band played in the minutes before the conference started. Their grooving, polished performance was a reminder that so many students at this university are talented and sound like professionals even before they’ve graduated.
Then the first speaker took the stage. Koen Vanmechelen came all the way from Belgium to talk about chickens. Specifically, about how breeding various species of chickens can be used to teach us important lessons about human nature.
Next was Sophia Brueckner, a brilliant woman who was a preeminent software engineer at Google until she suffered an injury that prevented her from using computers for two years. She argued that we as a society have developed a dichotomy of looking at technology as either a complete disaster, or as completely awesome. Instead, she asserted, we need to approach technology with critical optimism.
Ironically, Sophia Brueckner pointed out that making an app to solve all our problems is a fallacious idea, but the 2017 TEDx prize went to a student that developed an app called FoodFind. Meant for low income families to find free food, you have to wonder how many families can actually afford and use the smartphones that the app runs on.
Caitlin Holman proposed three things we need to learn: autonomy, competency, and belonging. Videogames, she suggested, provide all of this. With that in mind, she founded GradeCraft with the purpose of making learning more “gameful.”
Erika Newman–a pediatric surgeon–talked about both clinical and personal experiences with cancer. She was introduced to the lack of information on neuroblastoma when one of her patients asked her about the disease and she realized how she didn’t have any answers. The only surprise here was that she was having trouble getting funding from the NIH to treat the cancer using DNA repair mechanisms.
Rollie Tussing and the Midwest Territory Band played during the break. Although they were a stereotypical band you’d hear in Ann Arbor (at least one instance of well-manicured beard, a cello, and music reminiscent of vintage records), they were entertaining. Their sound was both stripped down and full, and antique without feeling archaic.
Next was Abdul El-Sayed, the current Executive Director of the Detroit Health
Department. In case that didn’t already tell you what a monumental task that entails, he cited several facts about the city of 600,000+ people such as a life expectancy of 70, an asthma rate of three times that of the rest of the country, and vision and other problems that far surpass the rest of Michigan. His argument was to think about pathophysiology in the social realm so that we can help people prevent health problems from developing. Abdul was also one of the best speakers of the night and I highly recommend watching his talk at least.
Next was Jeffrey Veidlinger, a historian who went to Eastern Europe to interview survivors of the Holocaust as a way of preserving their culture via understanding Yiddish. He challenged the audience to “Ask your loved ones about their life. Ask them about their dreams. Ask them about what they cherish.”
The most heart-wrenching talk of the night came from Scott Matzka, who was a talented athlete and is now a husband and father battling ALS. This is another talk to watch, and to check out his organization MyTurn.
Documentary filmmaker Sophia Kruz was the last speaker of the evening. Showing clips from her latest documentary Little Stones, she showed how sharing individual stories is important, as well as using culture to address problems in society. 
