Trippy Alien Lunch Beast

Originally uploaded by macnab.

Kikioke.

I tell you what. Coming up with this stuff is more fun than you can imagine. And then people actually donate real prizes for the winners. People are actually encouraging this behavior.

From the official site:

Part game show. Part reality TV. And the possibility of pain.

If
you come to any of our shows in May, you will be treated to
the first public performance of the underground Japanese hit reality
game show, Kikioke, in which two contestants are chosen to compete
against one another in a cut-throat version of “Name That Tune”, only:
if you’re wrong, someone pays! But all in good fun. Fun like going
water skiing and busting your ass over and over as your maniacal uncle
refuses to “take it easy”.

Our past game show winners have
walked away with fabulous Kiki t-shirts, bottles of wine, and
“pre-owned” panties, but this time, we’re upping the ante! Come,
compete, and possibly win:

• a gift certificate to Sermet’s Corner, in Charleston, SC
• a gift certificate from Crushed Fine Wine, in Charleston
• a gift certificate from O’hara and Flynn’s Wine and Cheese, also in Charleston.

…and
more prizes may appear! This is real shit, y’all. Stuff you’d actually
want to have. Stuff worth embarrassing yourself and a number of your
closest companions by singing to a packed audience of people for.

How
do I sign up? 1. Get yourself some tickets to a Kiki show coming
up. 2. Come to the show. We’ll be set up in the lobby to
audition possible contestants. 3. Show us what you can do.

That’s it? Yes! That’s it! See you in May. And a hint: start brushing up on your classic 70s and 80s torch songs. KIKIOKE!!

I’m so lucky.

I need to get better about posting events that are happening in Charleston. Last night I saw a great show at the Map Room, a project that Evan put together with members of Slow Runner and Leslie. It was a Tom Petty tribute band, and they were great. Like, Tom Petty great. Lead Vocalist for the evening Sadler Vaden (yes, his real name) has all the moves, the looks, and the cheezy-but-perfect stage patter of a rock and roller age gone by, and the rest of the band was comprised of easily the best musicians in town (thanks, Biv,  If you’re like me, you don’t even know that you’re a Tom Petty fan until you’re sitting there listening to the songs and you find yourself singing along, because the far reaches of your sub-conscious are filling in the phrases for you, because almost every song he wrote in the 70s/80s was a hit. Try it.

Unless, of course, you weren’t born in the 70s or 80s. Which is completely fine. If so, check out this guy named Tom Petty. He was a huge star before you had to look like a model to be famous.

This is it. THE slowest light in Charleston.

Originally uploaded by macnab.

It’s been three years (!?) and our first Cabaret Kiki DVD, while a wonderful glimpse into the origins of the show, is looking a bit… dated. So an upgrade is in order, and this guy is going to do make a comprehensive Kiki documentary. An example of his sexpertise:

Sundance, here we come! Do you have your tickets yet? They tend to go quickly…

My friend Michael is having a grand party for friends and relations. Entitled “an evening of manual labor”, it will showcase Michael’s recent work, both art pieces and functional woodworking. It’s happening next Wednesday, April 30th, starts at 6pm, and should be a good time. I know what you’re thinking: what could possibly be a good time about going to a furniture-maker’s party? Well, I’ll just say this…1. Mike is incredibly talented, both as a woodworker, DJ, and break dancer, and 2. he’s pretty cute. For a boy.

For more information check it: here.

Cops had to kill a cougar moseying around Wilmette. Honestly, I ain’t afraid of no cougar (though I probably should be). I’m a little more afraid of those cops:

“At first, I’m thinking there’s a gun battle in the street,” said Greene, who owns a trucking company.

As the shots stopped, Greene heard the police yelling, “We got him! We
got him!” He ventured downstairs and moved on his knees to the front
door, where he saw police on his lawn. The officers had shot holes in
an air conditioning unit on the side of Greene’s house while aiming for
the tan cougar, which died in the alley near Greene’s garage.

Yikes! I mean, I’ve never fought a cougar before, but that seems a little extreme, doesn’t it?

“It was turning on the officers,” Ryan said, adding that no officers were hurt. “There was no way to take it into custody.”

No way at all? I believe that the poor freaked out thing was ready for some succulent Pig Meat, but seems to me that if we can taser the hell out of an obnoxious college kid, we could probably take down a wild cougar without resorting to a hail of gunfire that costs a man an air conditioning unit…I don’t know.

I have been listening to this new band that the kids are into these days, they’re called R.E.M., and are from Athens, GA. Their new album is called Accelerate and it’s pretty darned good. And I hear that the band members are over forty! Wow!

Joking aside, this is the best album I’ve heard from them in years. And not because there are a few songs where the band sounds like they’re doing R.E.M. covers. I haven’t been looking for “R.E.M. Classic” in the last three or four albums they’ve made, I’m not that kind of fan. I have just wanted to hear them be excited about taking the time to make an album, and I haven’t gotten that feeling in the last few years. But they sound fantastic; Stipe is energetic and poetic and it is fun to hear Peter Buck play guitar like he says he didn’t used to be able to.

I’m really glad to find that some of the bands I loved growing up still have something to say, musically. It’s inspiring. I certainly wouldn’t begrudge them if they didn’t. Life is hard enough to live without feeling like you have to mirror it with Art.

In similar news, I got to see Bain and Amanda’s new baby this weekend and boy is Basil cute. He’s like a little Buddha. Basil Buddha Mattox. Baby Basil Buddha Mattox. Compared to Jonny’s twins Zeb and Edge (yes, their real names), he looks like a freaking giant. Giant Baby Basil Buddha Mattox.

For those of you that enjoy improvised comedy, I’d like to mention that I’m performing both tomorrow night (Wednesday) at around 9pm at the Theatre 99 in Charleston, immediately following 99s excellent excellent improv group “Threeplay”, and also for the American Cancer Society’s Relay for the Cure, Saturday morning at 1am. Yep, 1am. I guess that’s why it’s a relay… it’s a day’s event of performances and such at the Citadel Field, on Fishburne Street here.

I’ve really enjoyed being an improviser this year. Something has sort of clicked in me, and I’m having way more fun than I used to. I can’t say that I’m always funny, but maybe I’m getting a little bit funnier in general. I’m really going to miss it when I move… I sure do wish Chicago had some improv classes. Oh well!