Before I write more about the show, I offer you the description put forth by Shaeffer himself: "Check out this one-man show of irreverent rhymes about garrulous giants, pot-smoking amputees, goal-oriented zombies, cussing circus clowns, and (consensual) dolphin sex.
Be naughty! Stay up past your bedtime with the show that puts the effin' funny."
Irreverent rhymes... Rhymes... That implies poetry...
Yep... Poetry. "Slam"-style poetry to be exact. I don't normally care for poetry readings of this ilk. In fact, due to the fact that one of my friends, Ari Hoptman, is closely affiliated with Balls Cabaret, I have seen my fair share of frumpy girls with bad self-esteem rapping out rhythmic rhymes about love and sex that I'm sure they've never had, all the while holding certain syllables out for far too long. Yes, that's my image of a "slam" poet. Throw in a bit of side-to-side action with the head, a conducting sort of action with one hand, and a bunch of rapidly rhyme words that all end with the "-ate" suffix, and you've got yourself almost every slam poem I've ever heard.
Now, I go back to the description above (and mind you, I've got the entire script of the show thanks to the graciousness of Sir Shaeffer), and I find that my image of what to expect from a slam poet is not contained therein. Nope. There's a reason this show is offered late night. It IS irreverent, and funny, and although it is made of slam-style poetry, it is more llike the spoofs of the style that Ari Hoptman's album Dang! features. I obviously haven't seen it on stage yet, but I love it on the page. Very good stuff.
Now, over the next few weeks I will be doing interviews with Michael about his process of writing this show, about getting ready for the Fringe Festival as one of only two late-night productions. And, I'll be throwing in little snippets of the script as well, so you can get an idea of the wit, wisdom, and general twistedness that you can enjoy nightly at the Theatre Garage once the Festival gets rolling.
Whilst I still have your attention, I thought I'd print a bit of Michael's biography, too, so you have some idea about the fella that I'll be featuring herein on Mondays:
"Originally from South Dakota, Michael has taught high-school English and theatre in Alaska since 1999. His previous Fringe experience includes 2002's Cramming Cassandra and Give Me the Good Stuff as well as 2004's The Cat in the Coffin or 28 Days in Pet-Loss Therapy. His play, Godot and the Ho, premieres at the Bryant Lake Bowl this summer. Michael has performed in Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Nevada, South Dakota, and Alaska. Locally, he has enjoyed the open mic poetry nights at Kieran's Irish Pub, E.P. Atelier's, The Blue Nile, and The Artists' Quarter. He's included some of his prize-winning poems for this summer's Fringe."
There's all that! Time to get chaos oriented...randomness, please:
- My daughter's wish for her birthday this year was for "peace for all the boys and girls in the world." That's pretty cool and quite noble for a 6-year old. It sure beats her first wish she ever made at a wishing fountain (when she was three). She said, "I wish for cheese!" I do have to admit that it was much easier, as a parent, to make that first wish come true, though.
- Trivia bit from www.hookedonfacts.com: "The odds of being killed by falling out of bed are one in two million." -- I'm not sure how that compares to the odds of other ways of dying, but I do remember that I saw a documentary once that said that the main cause of houshold injuries is falling. That makes me wonder exactly what the odds are of just getting seriously injured from falling out of bed.
- I'm late for going to sign my daughter up for her new ballet classes... got to boogie, so that's it for today's randomness. More tomorrow!
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