The Strike Show. Friday, December 14, 2007
Aw man, you guys. I was literally 3 feet from Emily Deschanel last night and neither Sarah nor myself had the guts to talk to her. I'm kicking myself! But she's so pretty. And tall! And it was awesome just to be in the same room as her (along with all of the other people in the show. Michael Urie! Jessie Tyler Ferguson!) Below is my recount of the show (with details of all the skits) and some horrible pictures I took on the not so down low. It's long and there are probably lost of typos 'cause I'm rushing and I'm tired.
The Strike Show
I got there insanely early and circled the block a few times before parking. I wasn't sure if we could park in the lot behind the center so I parked down the street. When I walked over to the place I figured out you could park there, but I didn't want to go move my car. It was fine. I called supiegirl to tell her I was there, and told afrocurl and her friend to call me when they were on their way. Then I just sat around and waited for a while. Sarah arrived around 9 and we went into the theater to use the restroom, before being sent back outside. I guess we snuck in, lol. We'd gone in the door while a guy was doing something with the lock. Right in that door there was a little landing and stairs going up and down. We asked if the show was up and down and he told us the green room was upstairs, the theater down. We probably could've snuck upstairs if we hadn't said we were just audience members.
But anyway, we went back outside and waited some more. We were standing up on the sidewalk instead of going down to the door where they were going to let people in. More and more people were arriving. Roz and tiguhgirl arrived and we moved down to where people were gathering. Some more friends of Roz showed up and we waited for them to open up the doors. When they did, everyone crammed together and pushed towards the little door. We weren't too far back in the pack, so we stole most of the 6th row for our group. Sat and visited until the show started. And it started late. The last time Roz remarked on the time it was 10:15 or so.
Here's the program:
Strike Show Theme Song - The first scene was a musical number about the strike. 3 picketers were trudging along in a circle, tired and sore. They sang about walking in a circle all day, getting more excercise than they ever have, having a tan for the first time in their life, etc. At one point someone off stage shouts out that Eva Longoria brought them Sprinkles cupcakes and they all jumped up and got energized and continued with the song and circling. Very entertaining.
Opening remarks - After that scene Kat Foster and Nick Kroll came out and talked about the show, joking about planning the strike a year and a half ago just so they could have the show. They shared a snippet of a scene prodcuced by their own writing abilities. (Something like, "I hate you!" "I hate you!" "There's a part of me inside of you." "You put this inside of me so I could have an abortion." Aaaaand scene.) There was a joke in there that flubbed and instead of going on Nick was all, "Lets just take a moment to recognize that that joke didn't work." Then they brought out two guest writers from Robot Chicken who were going to make up a scene that would be cold read later in the show, using words provided by the audience. Some of the words were donkey punch, australia, Tolstoy, hamburger, and Roz's contricution: platypus. Then it was on with the show.
Asses to Ashes - A scene from Melrose Place. Overly dramatized of course. It was a lot of stage direction, so it was actually a narrater reading the script's stage direction, with the actors throwing in the few lines of dialogue. There was a car crash (oh no!) and people coming to rescue the victims. This is the best descriptin I could find of the scene from the episode (first paragraph). Emily Deschanel played Megan. She arrived with another character, pretending they were in a car, then making exaggerated leaps out of said car. They rescued the one actress, then Emily was towards the front of the stage holding her and petting her hair. She had two lines, one of which was in this video and wearing this white jacket outfit (that's Jessica St. Clair dressed for the Saved by the Bell sketch).
Fabrice Fabrice Video - He was dressed in hot pink and interviewing people about the strike, namely comfused people and signs of the performers in Las Vegas. Hee.
The New Season - The Ben Silverman (played by Glenn Howerton) sketch. He was at the podium presenting at the 2008 upfronts. Totally hyped up on the white powder he kept sniffing and excited about the fact that he's 37, running his own network and has a plan was to use old scripts for the new season. So the "clip" was from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. It was a scene where the two sons (played by Michael Urie and Nick Kroll) are arguing about whistling by an elevator, complete with a laugh track. Emily played the mother, working behind the boys and interjecting a comment here and there in an accent. Brad Garrett came on as the dad for a few lines.
Performance Piece by Paul Rust - This was awesome, but only after you realized what was going on. At first, he came out and said he wanted to do this performance piece that he'd planned to do in an IFC thing, but couldn't now because of the strike. It was called "Redemption by Ringing". So he goes and sits on a stool and does these random motions and actions, moving to another stool, then back to the middle. I don't think most of us knew what it was about. Then when he's done, he remembers that he forgot one thing and asks if he can do it again. This time it's exactly the same, except for the music that's added: the Saved by the Bell theme song. Aha! He was acting out the entire theme song. With the music it all made sense and was awesome. So funny. After the fact we're all, "Redemtion by ringing...Duh!"
Saved by the Bell scene - Which lead us to the best scene ever. Saved by the Bell, when Jessie is addicted to caffeine pills. Jesse Tyler Ferguson played Zack, Jessica St. Clair was Jessie. They had the pills in a big white bottle with "Caffeine Pills" written on it. The scene picks up when Zack comes to get Jessie for the performance and she's asleep. Watch the original here. So they go through the whole thing, her being confused and running around looking for clothes and wanting to wash her hair. "There's never any time!" And her saying everything will be ok and running to the big bottle, clutching it like a microphone as she sings the infamous line. Watching it all get played out, all extra melodramatic, was awesome.
Life on Strike video - A video showing how the out of work writers, actors, musicians, and make-up artists are coping. A man comes up to a shop and starts narrating himself like he's in a scene, complete with him saying the stage direction and parenthetical mood of the characters.
"Exterior shop, Day.
Interior shop, Day.
The door slams behind him. He walks to the counter.
Greg: I'd like a blah blah blah.
Counter person: 'What?'
Greg (frustrated): I'd like a blah blah blah.
Counter person (confused): 'Why are you talking like that'"
Then it was an actress picking up her car, desperate for something to do. The guy tells her it's ready and she goes into this scene where she thinks he's breaking up with her and goes into this dramatic moment and drops to her knees crying out. Meanwhile there's a dude with a keyboard providing the music right next to her. Ha. The last part of the video was Ana Ortiz as a make-up artist dropping her son off at school. She had put him in all of this Antoinette-ish make-up complete with a big wig. The kid doesn't want to get out of the car and she tells him he can take off the make-up after the scene. Kid: "What scene? I'm going to school." As he gets out and puts on his wig there's the musician again, providing a soundtrack. Ha, it was definitely funny.
The Negotiating Room - The one with the puppets. Playing the AMPTP lawyers. They know they're puppets, with puppeteers up their asses, but insist they are lawyers. Negotiating is had. So strange and oddly hilarious.
Mary-Kate and Ashley - Jason and Randy Sklar playing the twins, in their hobo looking outfits, giant purses, big glasses, etc. They talk about how they support the writers 'cause they've had writers since before they could talk. And losing the writer that usually tells them what to say to the strike, and have come up with a list of things they would never say. Like, "Mm, what's for breakfast?" or "Do you think we're getting too much respect?" Heh. There was also a small shout-out to Dave Coulier.
Dramatic Presentation by Jesse Tyler Ferguson - He was unhappy with the scene chosen for him being the only showcase of his talent, so he wanted to do a monologue. From Designing Women. As Julia Sugarbaker. This one. Complete with southern accent. It was so fabulous. I laugh just thinking about it.
Ronna and Beverly - Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo play two old friends of David Kroll's mother. Talking about the strike, their families, the book they wrote about second marriages. I can't even remember specific lines, but it was hilarious. So good.
Cold Read - The scene ended up being network executives trying to figure out what to put on the air. Thinking up reality shows, and trying to come up with a script. It can't be that hard, right? They throw something together with a joke about 2 platypuses walking into a bar (and that's where the joke ends) and are about to film it on a camera phone when the scene ends. Ha.
Suddenly Teamsters - The grand finale musical number. One lone picketer walks across the stage, asking cars to honk. When he gets to respone he puts his sign down and gets out his phone, giving up. Suddenly a large man in grungy jeans and a t-shirt walks out with a megaphone and starts singing. Telling him to throw out that Starbucks, put away his iPhone and hold up his sign, the teamsters are with him. Then Emily, Kat, and Jessica St. Clair come out with a SAG sign, singing about actor solidarity, supporting the writers unless there's an audition. The whole cast comes back to the stage with signs and t-shirts while continuing to sing the "Suddenly Teamsters" song. Haha, it was awesome.
So there it was. I think I said awesome 20 times. But I really did enjoy the show. It was a lot of fun.
It was crowded as everyone got up and started heading out. Roz and her entourage took off, but Sarah and I wanted to stay. We kept saying we wanted to talk to Emily (and Michael Urie). Kat Foster was out talking to people near us and we could see Emily further away. We were hanging out by the wall talking when Michael came by. Sarah was in the middle of talking about something and had he hand up pointing to illustrate the story when he came right by us and stopped to talk to someone near us. I was nudging her and we thought it was funny how she'd been flailing when he happened to walk by. He went more towards the entrance of the theater and then Jessie Tyler Ferguson walked by us and got a drink at the counter we were standing by (I really liked The Class, so that's why I keep mentioning him. Heh).
We were still hanging when Emily started getting closer. She'd changed into these high-wasted jeans and a blue long sleeved shirt with litte white ruffle running vertically down the front. She had all of her stuff packed up and was walking with one of the guys who'd been in the show (and who was carrying a green totebag just like the one Sarah had in her car). They stopped and were talking to Kat who ended up being 2 feet from us. She was right there! No people in between us or anything. Sarah and I just stood there not staring and trying to not act like dorks (at least I was). Neither of us could work up the nerve to go talk to her when she moved past us and went up by the entrance of the theater, too. We were going to walk by everyone as we left, but they were filming something right there, so we doubled back and ended up sitting down for a while, which gave me the opportunity to do some stalker shots. Good ol' Sarah, humoring me and being my decoy photography subject. Hee. Love you, Sarah! The pictures aren't great since we were a couple of rows from where people were standing and it was dark, but it's something! I left them big so you can zoom in an see a little better.
Sarah being awesome. And the theater and stage.
A labeled example of my photos for reference. Emily over by the door, Jessica St. Clair joining a group, Jessie is in purple, Michael in orange, and Sarah, of course.
The rest. All of the above players in various forms.
I wish I had more guts, but for my first Bones related fangirling event, it wasn't too bad. Hee. Had fun hanging out with friends, got to laugh a lot, and I saw people, even if I didn't talk to any of them. Good times! Now I have to go get ready for the Heroes thing tonight. Leaving soon! It's a whirlwind weekend.
The Strike Show
I got there insanely early and circled the block a few times before parking. I wasn't sure if we could park in the lot behind the center so I parked down the street. When I walked over to the place I figured out you could park there, but I didn't want to go move my car. It was fine. I called supiegirl to tell her I was there, and told afrocurl and her friend to call me when they were on their way. Then I just sat around and waited for a while. Sarah arrived around 9 and we went into the theater to use the restroom, before being sent back outside. I guess we snuck in, lol. We'd gone in the door while a guy was doing something with the lock. Right in that door there was a little landing and stairs going up and down. We asked if the show was up and down and he told us the green room was upstairs, the theater down. We probably could've snuck upstairs if we hadn't said we were just audience members.
But anyway, we went back outside and waited some more. We were standing up on the sidewalk instead of going down to the door where they were going to let people in. More and more people were arriving. Roz and tiguhgirl arrived and we moved down to where people were gathering. Some more friends of Roz showed up and we waited for them to open up the doors. When they did, everyone crammed together and pushed towards the little door. We weren't too far back in the pack, so we stole most of the 6th row for our group. Sat and visited until the show started. And it started late. The last time Roz remarked on the time it was 10:15 or so.
Here's the program:
Strike Show Theme Song - The first scene was a musical number about the strike. 3 picketers were trudging along in a circle, tired and sore. They sang about walking in a circle all day, getting more excercise than they ever have, having a tan for the first time in their life, etc. At one point someone off stage shouts out that Eva Longoria brought them Sprinkles cupcakes and they all jumped up and got energized and continued with the song and circling. Very entertaining.
Opening remarks - After that scene Kat Foster and Nick Kroll came out and talked about the show, joking about planning the strike a year and a half ago just so they could have the show. They shared a snippet of a scene prodcuced by their own writing abilities. (Something like, "I hate you!" "I hate you!" "There's a part of me inside of you." "You put this inside of me so I could have an abortion." Aaaaand scene.) There was a joke in there that flubbed and instead of going on Nick was all, "Lets just take a moment to recognize that that joke didn't work." Then they brought out two guest writers from Robot Chicken who were going to make up a scene that would be cold read later in the show, using words provided by the audience. Some of the words were donkey punch, australia, Tolstoy, hamburger, and Roz's contricution: platypus. Then it was on with the show.
Asses to Ashes - A scene from Melrose Place. Overly dramatized of course. It was a lot of stage direction, so it was actually a narrater reading the script's stage direction, with the actors throwing in the few lines of dialogue. There was a car crash (oh no!) and people coming to rescue the victims. This is the best descriptin I could find of the scene from the episode (first paragraph). Emily Deschanel played Megan. She arrived with another character, pretending they were in a car, then making exaggerated leaps out of said car. They rescued the one actress, then Emily was towards the front of the stage holding her and petting her hair. She had two lines, one of which was in this video and wearing this white jacket outfit (that's Jessica St. Clair dressed for the Saved by the Bell sketch).
Fabrice Fabrice Video - He was dressed in hot pink and interviewing people about the strike, namely comfused people and signs of the performers in Las Vegas. Hee.
The New Season - The Ben Silverman (played by Glenn Howerton) sketch. He was at the podium presenting at the 2008 upfronts. Totally hyped up on the white powder he kept sniffing and excited about the fact that he's 37, running his own network and has a plan was to use old scripts for the new season. So the "clip" was from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. It was a scene where the two sons (played by Michael Urie and Nick Kroll) are arguing about whistling by an elevator, complete with a laugh track. Emily played the mother, working behind the boys and interjecting a comment here and there in an accent. Brad Garrett came on as the dad for a few lines.
Performance Piece by Paul Rust - This was awesome, but only after you realized what was going on. At first, he came out and said he wanted to do this performance piece that he'd planned to do in an IFC thing, but couldn't now because of the strike. It was called "Redemption by Ringing". So he goes and sits on a stool and does these random motions and actions, moving to another stool, then back to the middle. I don't think most of us knew what it was about. Then when he's done, he remembers that he forgot one thing and asks if he can do it again. This time it's exactly the same, except for the music that's added: the Saved by the Bell theme song. Aha! He was acting out the entire theme song. With the music it all made sense and was awesome. So funny. After the fact we're all, "Redemtion by ringing...Duh!"
Saved by the Bell scene - Which lead us to the best scene ever. Saved by the Bell, when Jessie is addicted to caffeine pills. Jesse Tyler Ferguson played Zack, Jessica St. Clair was Jessie. They had the pills in a big white bottle with "Caffeine Pills" written on it. The scene picks up when Zack comes to get Jessie for the performance and she's asleep. Watch the original here. So they go through the whole thing, her being confused and running around looking for clothes and wanting to wash her hair. "There's never any time!" And her saying everything will be ok and running to the big bottle, clutching it like a microphone as she sings the infamous line. Watching it all get played out, all extra melodramatic, was awesome.
Life on Strike video - A video showing how the out of work writers, actors, musicians, and make-up artists are coping. A man comes up to a shop and starts narrating himself like he's in a scene, complete with him saying the stage direction and parenthetical mood of the characters.
"Exterior shop, Day.
Interior shop, Day.
The door slams behind him. He walks to the counter.
Greg: I'd like a blah blah blah.
Counter person: 'What?'
Greg (frustrated): I'd like a blah blah blah.
Counter person (confused): 'Why are you talking like that'"
Then it was an actress picking up her car, desperate for something to do. The guy tells her it's ready and she goes into this scene where she thinks he's breaking up with her and goes into this dramatic moment and drops to her knees crying out. Meanwhile there's a dude with a keyboard providing the music right next to her. Ha. The last part of the video was Ana Ortiz as a make-up artist dropping her son off at school. She had put him in all of this Antoinette-ish make-up complete with a big wig. The kid doesn't want to get out of the car and she tells him he can take off the make-up after the scene. Kid: "What scene? I'm going to school." As he gets out and puts on his wig there's the musician again, providing a soundtrack. Ha, it was definitely funny.
The Negotiating Room - The one with the puppets. Playing the AMPTP lawyers. They know they're puppets, with puppeteers up their asses, but insist they are lawyers. Negotiating is had. So strange and oddly hilarious.
Mary-Kate and Ashley - Jason and Randy Sklar playing the twins, in their hobo looking outfits, giant purses, big glasses, etc. They talk about how they support the writers 'cause they've had writers since before they could talk. And losing the writer that usually tells them what to say to the strike, and have come up with a list of things they would never say. Like, "Mm, what's for breakfast?" or "Do you think we're getting too much respect?" Heh. There was also a small shout-out to Dave Coulier.
Dramatic Presentation by Jesse Tyler Ferguson - He was unhappy with the scene chosen for him being the only showcase of his talent, so he wanted to do a monologue. From Designing Women. As Julia Sugarbaker. This one. Complete with southern accent. It was so fabulous. I laugh just thinking about it.
Ronna and Beverly - Jessica Chaffin and Jamie Denbo play two old friends of David Kroll's mother. Talking about the strike, their families, the book they wrote about second marriages. I can't even remember specific lines, but it was hilarious. So good.
Cold Read - The scene ended up being network executives trying to figure out what to put on the air. Thinking up reality shows, and trying to come up with a script. It can't be that hard, right? They throw something together with a joke about 2 platypuses walking into a bar (and that's where the joke ends) and are about to film it on a camera phone when the scene ends. Ha.
Suddenly Teamsters - The grand finale musical number. One lone picketer walks across the stage, asking cars to honk. When he gets to respone he puts his sign down and gets out his phone, giving up. Suddenly a large man in grungy jeans and a t-shirt walks out with a megaphone and starts singing. Telling him to throw out that Starbucks, put away his iPhone and hold up his sign, the teamsters are with him. Then Emily, Kat, and Jessica St. Clair come out with a SAG sign, singing about actor solidarity, supporting the writers unless there's an audition. The whole cast comes back to the stage with signs and t-shirts while continuing to sing the "Suddenly Teamsters" song. Haha, it was awesome.
So there it was. I think I said awesome 20 times. But I really did enjoy the show. It was a lot of fun.
It was crowded as everyone got up and started heading out. Roz and her entourage took off, but Sarah and I wanted to stay. We kept saying we wanted to talk to Emily (and Michael Urie). Kat Foster was out talking to people near us and we could see Emily further away. We were hanging out by the wall talking when Michael came by. Sarah was in the middle of talking about something and had he hand up pointing to illustrate the story when he came right by us and stopped to talk to someone near us. I was nudging her and we thought it was funny how she'd been flailing when he happened to walk by. He went more towards the entrance of the theater and then Jessie Tyler Ferguson walked by us and got a drink at the counter we were standing by (I really liked The Class, so that's why I keep mentioning him. Heh).
We were still hanging when Emily started getting closer. She'd changed into these high-wasted jeans and a blue long sleeved shirt with litte white ruffle running vertically down the front. She had all of her stuff packed up and was walking with one of the guys who'd been in the show (and who was carrying a green totebag just like the one Sarah had in her car). They stopped and were talking to Kat who ended up being 2 feet from us. She was right there! No people in between us or anything. Sarah and I just stood there not staring and trying to not act like dorks (at least I was). Neither of us could work up the nerve to go talk to her when she moved past us and went up by the entrance of the theater, too. We were going to walk by everyone as we left, but they were filming something right there, so we doubled back and ended up sitting down for a while, which gave me the opportunity to do some stalker shots. Good ol' Sarah, humoring me and being my decoy photography subject. Hee. Love you, Sarah! The pictures aren't great since we were a couple of rows from where people were standing and it was dark, but it's something! I left them big so you can zoom in an see a little better.
Sarah being awesome. And the theater and stage.
A labeled example of my photos for reference. Emily over by the door, Jessica St. Clair joining a group, Jessie is in purple, Michael in orange, and Sarah, of course.
The rest. All of the above players in various forms.
I wish I had more guts, but for my first Bones related fangirling event, it wasn't too bad. Hee. Had fun hanging out with friends, got to laugh a lot, and I saw people, even if I didn't talk to any of them. Good times! Now I have to go get ready for the Heroes thing tonight. Leaving soon! It's a whirlwind weekend.