The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Arts & Entertainment => Topic started by: jay-ell on November 25, 2003, 06:05:52 am
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Yes, I went tonight. Yes, I sang. (Bon Jovi, Bed of Roses.) It was a blast. Pedro, however, sang Tenacious D's Tribute, and brought the house down. Hi-frikkin-larious.
So...who has karaoke stories?
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The Romantics, What I Like About You at a work retreat with 12 other lawyers plus my boss.
I made it worth their while.
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The Romantics, What I Like About You at a work retreat with 12 other lawyers plus my boss.
I made it worth their while.
My spouse did that with his brother once. Aforementioned Brother whipped out a harmonica at the appropriate time, and proceeded to wail. It was awesome.
I can only imaging AugustWest's interpretation, in front of a bunch of lawyers. Wow. Talk about having balls.
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I once karaoke'd JBB's (http://www.johnorama.com) "Red *****" as a duet with The SO at a mini-nerd-conclave. (It was his idea.) Blitheringly horrible, yet strangely amusing.
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The Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." Realized about halfway through that I wasn't going to be able to hit the high note near the end ("I-I-I NEEEEE-ee-heed your love," that one). Tried anyway. Butchered it really badly.
In college, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." I was Willie, my buddy Chris was Julio. With no prior discussion, we managed to sing the chorus in harmony. We left 'em standing.
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I'm totally with you on the high notes. Last night, the DJ put my song in "C," thinking I was a guy (since my first name is gender-neutral) and when he realized that I am in fact a lady he moved it up to "F." Well, I am a lady, but I guess I have a deeper voice than most (definitely an alto; often a tenor). I like to compare myself to Eartha Kitt. Except, you know, more white and less talented. So I had to shift into a lower register for the first chorus and just stayed down there for the rest of the song, much to the amusement of the DJ and much to the delight of my screaming throngs of fans. (There were about 20 of us friends there.)
I should have told him specifically not to mess with the key. Ah, well. Next time.
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I'm tone deaf, so that entire post made absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
That is all.
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Me and a few other guys from an improv comedy troupe I was part of wound up at a karaoke place.
Never go to a karaoke bar with guys from an improv comedy troupe. It gets ugly.
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I suggest never going ANYWHERE with people from an improv comedy troupe. They tend to be the least fun people on the planet, and not funny at all when not doing one of their little "skits."
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Maybe you just have shitty improv troupes there in Alphaville.
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No, they're pretty bad all over.
I saw the Upright Citizen's Brigade and they were pretty good. They weren't really improv, though, since they scripted everything out.
And the Kids in the Hall travelling show was pretty good, but again, not improv. Just live sketch comedy.
I think the problem with comedy improv is that even the funniest people are not funny 90% of the time. So during a ninety minute show, you're only going to laugh for about ten minutes total. The rest of the time you just sit their uncomfortably, embarrassed for the performers and wishing you'd spent your $20 on something like porno.
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Watching an improv show which never takes off is horrible, I agree, though not as horrible as actually taking part in one.
But if all the non-scripted improv you've seen is 90% crap, then I have to reiterate my claim that you've got some shitty troupes there in Alphaville. Dead spots happen in almost every show, that's just the nature of trying to invent something entertaining off the top of your head in front of an audience. But I've never seen a night at our theatre that was 90% dead spot.
I'll also concede that some improv comedians can be humorless choads when they're offstage. But I've made friends with some amazing people while doing this, and had an absolute blast being with them onstage and off.
Different strokes.
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I didn't want to have to come out and say this, but here goes:
People who do improv almost always think that they're funnier than they are. Trust me. They're not. You're not. You just have to come to accept that. I've seen shows all over the country, even two out of the country, and I know people who do improv. They're lame.
It's all lame. It's nearly always lame. It's just the nature of improv comedy troupes.
Seriously, ladies, if you're on a first date with a guy and he tells you he's part of an improv group - RUN!
RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!
And fellas, if you're on a date with a girl who tells you she's part of an improv group - SLEEP WITH HER!
THEN
RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!
But don't forget to leave her money on the dresser.
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I didn't want to come out and say this, but here goes:
Fuck you, Jough. You've insulted me twice today because we differ over an aesthetic issue, which I've never seen you do to anyone else on these boards since you started them.
I don't know what the hell your problem is, but if this is the level of disrespect I can expect from you from here on out, well, I don't need it.
I'd like to say a quick thanks to everyone else on the board, I had fun posting here. See ya.
Block away.
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My disagreeing with someone on an aesthetic issue is hardly "insulting" them.
I guess I hit a nerve by saying that Improv is not often very funny and/or entertaining.
You can take it personally if you'd like, but I think you're over-reacting.
Anyway, you're kinda helping to make my point. People who do improv tend to have no sense of humour whatsoever.
Or is this outburst a "bit" and I just don't get it?
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Er, to sort of get the thread back on topic...
The only thing worse than improv troupes at karaoke is high-school debaters or public speakers at karaoke. Trust me on this.
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Hey! Stop!
Limmo, Jough isn't singling you out. He's an asshole to everyone. Just ask Ferocious J.
Jough, stop jerking Limmo's chain. While I'm sure you sincerely disagree with him, I'm also certain that you're pursuing this argument out of a combination of competitiveness and sheer perversity. Quit it.
And, for the record, as someone who's married to a guy who's done improv and also happens to be the funniest guy in any room about 75% of the time, I can tell you that nobody, no matter how funny, has had his best moment ever on an improv stage. That said, the beauty of improv isn't the quality of the jokes, it's seeing what comes out of peoples mouths when you throw them in front of a crowd and demand humour. Basically, the audience is screaming, "Dance for me, Monkey Boy," and that's never going to get Swan Lake. But it might get the Moonwalk.
So you're both wrong. Yeah, I said it.
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Limmo, he's singling you out.
Jough has never said a cross word to me the whole time I've been here. He's been nothing if not kind, understanding and downright flattering to me and everyone else.
I suggest pistols at dawn.
Or a swift kick in the nads.
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No, it’s not a bit. But while we’re on the subject of things you “don’t get”:
They tend to be the least fun people on the planet, and not funny at all when not doing one of their little "skits."
When I read that, I thought Hmm, maybe he failed to infer from the first sentence of my post that I do improv and I’m friends with people who do as well, and that by saying that he’s kind of being an insulting prick.
People who do improv almost always think that they're funnier than they are. Trust me. They're not. You're not.
I’m not? Really? Thank you for clearing that up, Arbiter of All That Is Funny! What the hell was I thinking?
Do you “get” what’s insulting about your statement? If you don’t, you’re being completely disingenuous. It goes beyond being an aesthetic disagreement from that point on. I don’t know if you were inappropriately fondled by a Groundling when you were young, but the level of scorn seems a bit, I don’t know, off the scale? You’d think I was a mime. Or Onstad.
In any event, thank you JL and August for weighing in.
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I thought you said you were leaving?
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Actually, in a perverse way, I'm starting to enjoy this.
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...The rest of the time you just sit their uncomfortably, embarrassed for the performers and wishing you'd spent your $20 on something like porno.
The rest of this discussion's improbable emotional level notwithstanding (Limmo, I have a lot of respect for anyone who can get up on stage w/o a script and hit good spots 80% of the time, and I've done plenty of stage work) I think Jough may have inadvertently hit on something else here:
Let's start an Improv Porno group! Audience shouts out ideas and we do it! Really attractive members of the audience welcome to do guest spots!
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Let's start an Improv Porno group! Audience shouts out ideas and we do it! Really attractive members of the audience welcome to do guest spots!
We'd need to make sure only really attractive members of the improv porno group got to do any spots.
I know I wouldn't want to see me in porno, though maybe that's some new level of self-respect I've developed over night.
This is probably the second most fun thread on the forum at the moment!
But then I've just quit smoking so I like the bitchiness!
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Include me out of the improv porno. I suspect I wouldn't be any good at it anyway.
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From the audience we need a profession, a food item, and an orifice!
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In my life, all sex is basically improv porno. Except with a much smaller audience. :boobies:
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protologist, bannana, ear
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I've seen shows all over the country, even two out of the country, and I know people who do improv. They're lame.
If improv is so lame why do you keep attending the shows? I mean, I actually agree with you, it is lame, but I didn't have to tour the country watching improv shows to figure it out.
~Paul
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I've seen some great improv, but I've also seen horrible, horrible improv. Being a loudmouth doesn't mean your funny.
But why are we talking about improv?
The best kareoke I've ever seen is a bunch of my drunk friends doing "Benny and the Jets"
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Actually, in a perverse way, I'm starting to enjoy this.
Does this mean there's not going to be any nad kicking?
Damn!
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Does this mean there's not going to be any nad kicking?
Nope. I actually love Jough, and regret that I won't be able to engage in improv porno with him this holiday season.
Anytime anyone does Minnie Riperton's "Loving You" karaoke-style, life is beautiful.
Happy Holidays everyone!
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Include me out of the improv porno. I suspect I wouldn't be any good at it anyway.
We will be auditioning backstage fluffers and Pube Stylists as well, so there will be something for everyone!
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I've seen various improv groups because I know a lot of people who do improv. They're always the least funny people I know.
It's odd, because I loved "Whose Line is it, Anyway?" but again, it followed the 90/10 rule where only every tenth joke/gag was actually funny.
But man, that Greg Proops cracked me up all the time, and not just because of that name.
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It's weird watching the british Whose Line vs. Drew Carey's. On the british one somebody's quirk would be "series of holiday snaps." On our's it would be "vampire who is turning into a lemming with ADD."
I miss those simpler times.
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It's weird watching the british Whose Line vs. Drew Carey's. On the british one somebody's quirk would be "series of holiday snaps." On our's it would be "vampire who is turning into a lemming with ADD."
I miss those simpler times.
I have actually seen this come up in real-life improv theater games -- long arguments about "but, but, but... you couldn't possibly have reasonably expected me to guess 'Gimli with gravity-intensifying superpowers and a full vocabularity of Bulgarian profanity' as a quirk!"