Magic Meathands: Our First April Show Will Feature More Making $#!& Up
I’m writing about our first post-Bill show and I’m already cartoon swearing. And the show is Family-Friendly! Oh, we’re doomed.
Come on out and see us completely make… stuff up based on your suggestions. (There, is that better?)
Every second Saturday of the month, the Magic Meathands (that’s us!) and Beach Cities’ Jump Start Improv put on a full night of improv comedy appropriate for the whole family. While staying sharp we offer a night for grownups where they can feel comfortable bringing the youngsters along.
A portion of ticket sales is donated to the Mary Pickford Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating awareness of film pioneer Mary Pickford’s life, preserving her work, furthering her philanthropic legacy and honoring her creativity. Part of the organization’s outreach includes the Mobile Film Classroom, which brings cutting edge digital film technology and the opportunity to learn to children throughout Los Angeles.
Tickets: $7 ($3 for kids 12 & under)
Mary Pickford Studio
8885 Venice Blvd. Ste 102
Los Angeles, CA 90034-3242
Plenty of parking in the lot right there at 8885 Venice Blvd. (cross street National Blvd.).
The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.
What Are Your 10 Songs About Trains
Or somehow inspired by trains. Something to do with trains in some way.
My father’s favorite mode of transportation is this month’s Ten on the Tenth. It just kicked off about an hour ago, so click on that link, compile your list of 10 songs and post away!
Can’t wait to see what people come up with this time.
Magic Meathands: Goodbye to Our Director, Hello to Our Future
Bill Johnson sees something he has to go do. Shane doesn't like it, Marshall ignores it.
Sunday’s rehearsal was our final with director Bill Johnson. He was the original founder, teacher and director of the Magic Meathands improv comedy ensemble.
After 8 years of guiding us, he is leaving us behind to let us grow to the next level while he pursues his own opportunities.
Bill taught most of us for years and encouraged us to explore the absurd, the silly and the joyful. Because of that influence, the Magic Meathands have developed a dynamic, high energy that is unique among most improv groups. He also brought his focus to community outreach, making the Magic Meathands the only improv group in Los Angeles that regularly brings live comedy to the very people most in need of joy and laughter. Just this past Saturday, we played to an enthusiastic crowd at the Ocean Park Community Center, a facility in Santa Monica that serves the homeless and mentally ill. Next month, we’ll return to our friends at the Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services facility in Altadena, where they house over 40 boys aged 10 to 18. We first performed for them in early 2008 and continue to visit them several times a year. And finally, because of the variety of our audiences and venues, Bill developed a team of performers comfortable with audiences of different age groups and content preferences. Not too many improv groups have their own rating system for their shows, but the Meathands do to make sure audiences know what they’re getting into.
So yes, Bill created a pretty magnificent thing but the time has come for him to go. So now what?
Always passionate about reaching out to the community and helping children, Bill is pursuing a teaching career at a school in the Coachella Valley where he’s teaching math to struggling kids. Yes, math. We don’t get it either.
We also expect him to continue his writing. Bill’s first novel, The Dark Province: The Son of Duprin, debuted last year to great reviews. We’re told a sequel and another novel are in the works.
Meanwhile, the Magic Meathands have been preparing for this day for some time. Over the last year, we became a self-directed performing group. That means we all share the responsibility of running different parts of the show, instead of Bill serving as sole director and emcee every show. In turn, our shows have been evolving into a completely new format that is bringing out the best in our cast. Simply put, if you haven’t seen the Meathands in the last 4 months or more, you haven’t seen the Meathands!
Your next chance is the popular Family Friendly Show with Jump Start Comedy Improv at the Mary Pickford Studio on Saturday, April 14, at 8 PM! See you there!
The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.
Resume Running Red Lights, LA
Found on Flickr (taken by puck90)
Good news, Los Angeles! Those automated cameras at certain intersections will no longer flicker that annoying white flash to let you know you just ran a red light and can expect to get a nice present in the mail. So if you’re looking for photographic evidence that you were driving somewhere at a specific time, you’re just going to have to ask someone to use their camera phone or something. Maybe they’ll even take a more flattering picture, and for free.
The 32 red light cameras throughout the city have documented an average of 45,000 traffic violations each year. The downside is they were also more expensive than the revenue they generated, and the tickets issued from those pictures were difficult to enforce (“That’s not my blurry, pixelated face! That’s not even my car! Plus I was in Denver that weekend and have a friend who can back me up.”) and caused an increase in rear-end collisions (some drivers slammed on their breaks hoping it was the car in front of them that got caught, much to the chagrin of the car behind them). Fortunately that’s all behind us now. We’re once again able to run red lights to our heart’s content! Let’s go forth and endanger people’s lives, everyone!
Better news: If you have an outstanding ticket from a red light camera, throw that sucker away! The city is no longer collecting money from them. See? Procrastinating pays off!
(Just be careful. There are still cities around LA proper that have cameras just waiting to get us.)
Nahleen.com shares the journey of life with chronic health challenges
Uh oh. The blogging bug has spread to my wife. Our cat might be next.
Yes, Nahleen has started blogging at Nahleen.com, where she’s writing about her experiences living with multiple sclerosis and lupus. Emphasis on living and trying to live better.
What’s amazing about this for me is that I’m learning new things about what she’s going through or gaining a deeper understanding, even though we talk a lot about it and even though I see her go through it every day. I guess that’s why we humans developed different ways to express ourselves.
Anyway, I hope you’ll stop by Nahleen.com, subscribe, and share it with your friends if one or more posts resonate with you. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.
The Comedy Outreach Project of the Magic Meathands
We just completed a thrilling run of shows, as we teamed up with Jump Start and Danger Pants! (formerly known as The Callbacks), but we’re not done yet! We’re revving up for a special show at a homeless shelter in Santa Monica as part of our Comedy Outreach Project. We’re also in talks to help out fundraising for an elementary school and seeing about returning to some of our regular partners.
The Comedy Outreach Project is all about us taking live improvised comedy out to the community. Whether it’s a boys’ home, transitional housing for women, a halfway house, senior centers, or local schools, we bring our funny to them. For some, this is their first experience with live theater and improvised comedy, and the discovery of joy and laughter is powerful to behold. It’s not always easy to get through to them to share that joy and laughter, but after a few hundred shows of doing just that, the Magic Meathands understand how to use high energy and audience-appropriate material that involves them and encourages creativity in diverse settings.
Do you know of a group of people that could use some laughter? Check out our Comedy Outreach Project page and get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.
My Face on Funny Or Die, and 2 Film Festivals Like Web-Series I Was In
I don’t know if it’s still up this morning, but since Friday or Saturday, my face has been on the front page of Funny Or Die for a political satire video I acted in, Mayer For Mayor, Pt. 1. Craziness.
Here’s a screen capture from writer/director Sam Sero for proof, because as the internet has taught us, pics or didn’t happen.
There I am, right under Stephen Lang. (How many people get to write that sentence?)
Please go watch the video on Funny Or Die and vote ‘Funny’ so we can… win Internet points or something, I guess.
I would embed the video here but apparently Funny or Die and WordPress are rival gangs. If you can’t bear the thought of leaving CoreyBlake.com, fortunately the Poopdog Entertainment team posted the video on YouTube so you can watch it right here:
My fellow Magic Meathands improviser Seth Rotkin is in this too. Yes, there are plans for a Mayer for Mayor, Pt. 2 and possibly more. It seems like maybe there’s some sort of political thing going on for the next 9 months or so that might make this timely. So if you like what you see, please let us know in the comments, share with your friends, and watch it over and over until you’ve memorized the entire thing backwards and forwards. There will be a test.
In other news about me and my face, two film festivals specializing in web-series and online content are particularly fond of a web-series that I appeared in called The Starmind Record. I originally wrote about my appearance in episode 6 and the project here. The Starmind Record is an official selection of both the LA Web Series Festival and the Hollyweb Festival.
If you’re in the LA area and want to check out The Starmind Record on the big screen, the LA Web Series Festival is running the weekend of April 6-8 at the LAX Raddison Hotel (exact screening details to be announced March 20). The Hollyweb Festival will begin screenings on March 9th (exact details should be announced any second now) with an award show on March 31 at the Dim Mak Studios (formerly Cinespace) in Hollywood. Check out the festivals’ websites for more details.
Here’s the episode I’m in, if you missed it the first time around:
Dunkin’ Donuts approaches!
After years of rumors, the Massachusetts-based doughnut and coffee chain Dunkin’ Donuts might finally arrive in Los Angeles!
It’s been theorized that there was some kind of unspoken or unknown agreement between the predominantly east coast Dunkin’ Donuts and North Carolina’s Krispy Kreme chain that they wouldn’t step on each others’ toes. The sugar-dense Krispy Kreme has held California and other west coast areas for years. But it appears Dunkin’ Donuts may instead consider Starbucks their true competitor due to the majority of DD sales coming from coffee instead of donuts, and they are planning on ramping up their store count. And that the real reason they’ve avoided California is because it’s widely considered a largely impenetrable stronghold of independent coffee shops (which doesn’t really explain the obscene proliferation of Starbucks or the reasonably health of Coffee Bean, an LA-based chain). Whatever the case, it appears the lay of the land is about to change.
As a Massachusetts transplant now living in Los Angeles, I have considerable nostalgia for Dunkin’ Donuts. I remember my father coming home after getting the Sunday morning paper with a “surprise” box of donuts for all of us. Sunday comics and a donut or five are a great way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. My east coast friends on Facebook tell me Dunkin’ Donuts ain’t what it used to be. Truth be told, it was seldom amazing. But it was the right kind of good. Mix with a dash of homesick memories, and you’ve got success waiting to happen. And Los Angeles is full of transplants.
So where is Dunkin’ Donuts opening in California first? Los Angeles? San Francisco? How about… Camp Pendleton. Yes, that’s right. According to the Boston Business Journal, the Marine Corps base located in the northwestern corner of San Diego County is where it’ll all start. Or it could just be the first one we know about, because according to this interview, they are definitely eying California in their plan to double their store count and become a global fast food chain now that they’ve gone public.
Of course, usually that kind of expansion leads to a drop in quality. Nostalgia can only distort reality so much.
Too Many Ideas, Too Little Time
As I’m looking through the catalog of RiffTrax, the online continuation of the hilarious Mystery Science Theater 3000 TV show from the ’90s that so brilliantly snarked through bad movies, and wondering if I could set up regular private viewing parties, the title of this blog occurs to me. And not for the first time.
Having an idea doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a good idea, but it feels like a good idea for at least a little while. And regardless of the quality, random ideas of new projects are always imposing themselves on me. If I didn’t have a day job, three or four websites, and a few career aspirations on the side, I could probably do quite a few of them. But I know that I would just fill that new free time with more projects, and I’d be right back to where I am now.
Maybe my Rifftrax viewing party idea will be realized, maybe it’s the seed of a future idea, or maybe it dies here and now. That initial burst of an idea sure is exciting. It’s like that first blush of new love. It’s like the anticipation of Christmas morning. It’s the hope of a new beginning. It’s that feeling of untapped potential you feel when you hear an undiscovered band that you just know will be as big as The Beatles one day.
OK sure, the survival rate of sperm is higher than the odds of an idea coming to fruition, but creativity can’t be denied. It’s our most valuable commodity. So dream on! And even try to make a few of them come true.
Ideas racing to reality - which will survive?
Oh and let me know if you ever want to come over and watch Mike Nelson point out how a lot of movies are pretty ridiculous.
Oops… Things Change Fast on the Internet
So yesterday I teased the debut of a new column by Dig Comics director Miguel Cima at The Comics Observer. It’s still coming! But I decided to push it back to Friday so that a post could go up today about a comics conference (or colloquium, as they’re calling it) about race and comics that’s happening tomorrow.
Because my bandwidth is stretched pretty thin these days, I’m just not able to make The Comics Observer one of those high-volume sites with 5-10 posts a day. Maybe some day but not right now. So bear with me as I juggle when things come up.
It’ll be worth the wait. Miguel’s column should make for good weekend reading and debating.
Like this:
About Corey
Corey Blake does things on the Internet, and sometimes even in person.
As a comic book pundit, advocate and educator, he runs the web-magazine The Comics Observer, which covers the sequential art form and its place in our culture, both locally and internationally. It exists as a gateway to curious non-readers or new comics readers interested in the full spectrum of comics, as well as a place for longtime readers looking for a new perspective. He also advises for the award-winning documentary and comics advocacy movement Dig Comics.
As a comedic performer/actor, he specializes in being a goofball.
Corey is an active member of the Los Angeles-based improv comedy ensemble The Magic Meathands. He helped form the sketch comedy group Foe Pa following a memorable stint with The 3rd Floor: LA. Corey has been seen in online videos from The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour (Best Web Comedy-Episodic, Clicker.com), The Starmind Record (Best Direction and Editing, LA Web Series), and Poopdog Entertainment’s Mayer for Mayor (Funny or Die featured video), short films Tough Love (Official Selection, Festival de Cannes’ Short Film Corner) and Hattie Needs Rehab (Excellence in Performance, Extreme Filmmaker 48 Hour Film Festival), the feature film Chasing Happiness, and the pilot for the children’s show “Imagination Station”, as well as on stage in an award-winning Los Angeles production of Chekov’s Three Sisters and Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Corey Blake also has experience behind the camera. He writes comedy sketches and directs and produces videos for the Magic Meathands Originals sketch web-series. He wrote for the sketch comedy groups Foe Pa and The 3rd Floor: LA. He was a writer for the musical comedy Mission: Improbable, which he also helped produce. Additionally, he helped produce the award-winning documentary Dig Comics (Best Documentary, Comic-Con Int’l: Independent Film Festival; Official Selection, Festival de Cannes’ Short Film Corner) and demo trailer for Voices From Chornobyl.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Corey also runs the monthly Ten on the Tenth for music fans.
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