Post Show Ramblings: Show #3 PICTURES

We had one wife and one girlfriend in the audience Friday night with camera phones, and the results are pictures!

Artsy, am I right?

For posterity purposes, the running order for our first Grafitti show at the playground was:

Full Circle on Film

In My Shed (Song)

Reaching Out

The Haircut

Guitar Song

A good five scene line up, that's a decent chunk of show, right?  Combined with two other groups, we made it an evening.

Full Circle, Reaching Out and the Guitar Song have all been done previously at SketchTest.  Still, it was fun to pull some of those back out and try them for another audience.  The Guitar Song hit for the second consecutive time, so I think we have a keeper there with an idea or two to make it a little tighter.

The new sketches were In My Shed and The Haircut, both of which did pretty well.  I personally felt a little constricted when singing In My Shed, which I think might have been a result of doing this particular song for the first time in front of the audience and the fact that I was still flubbing some lines while practicing.  I think this will be a case of the song sounding better the more times I perform it for people.



The Haircut was a lot of fun.  It's a weird little piece and Geoff does a great job with the eccentric character, which makes it much easier to play the straightman.  Plus, I got to wear a wig:

We have another show on Tuesday at Fizz Bar.  Y'all should come out.

Look!  Love!

SHOWSPLOSION!!

CRASSUS AT GRAFITTI!!

The Playground

3209 N Halsted

Chicago

This Friday, 7/16 at 10:00 PM

Tix are $10

Come see us and some other sketch groups try out some new wacky nonsense!  Hooray nonsense!

Added Show - GRAFITTI

Geoff and I have another showcase in July - Friday July 16th at the Playground!  We'll be doing a couple of minutes for their Grafitti show at 10:00 PM.  More info as we get closer, but here's the link to the Playground.

Yay shows!

Upcoming Shows!

Hey hepcats!

Geoff and I will return to the stage (at least) two more times in July for SketchTest!

Shows will be 7/20 and 7/27

The Pub Theater's Sketch Test

Fizz Bar @ 7:30 PM

3220 N Lincoln,

Chicago IL

FREE as a damn bird

We'll have new stuff and possibly some reworked older stuff.  Fun times will be had by all, and more info to come as we get closer to the shows.

Neglect...

... this blog has a bit. But it don't mean the boys of Crassus don't care. We just got other blogs to blog on and it's tough to blog on all blogs at all times. Plus we ain't been doing much lately. We recently opened up our most recent Robot vs. Dinosaur show plus we were a part of the Joe Janes 365 Project, so there was plenty going on. But we got a couple more showcase shows coming up in July and we will be writing more and more material in the coming weeks. Not sure why I bothered to hyperlink earlier, cause nobody comes to this place... yet.

Lost Finale!

I sort of got it....

Post Show Ramblings: Show #2, SketchTest

In keeping with long established CRASSUS tradition (meaning, of course, that we did it last time), here are some thoughts for this last show.


I’m Nat by the way. I’m one of the two guys.  Hi.

For the sake of posterity, here was the running order for the show:

1) Warm up exercises
2) Homeless Prop Comic
3) Soap People
4) Winnifield Lindsay, Literary Pervert

The show was part of SketchTest, which is like an open mic for sketch groups, hosted by the good folks of Jablonski at the Pub Theatre. It’s the perfect set up for trying out new stuff and really just an all around good time for anyone who likes sketch and is interested in seeing works in progress. I would highly recommend the show, even when CRASSUS isn’t performing. Plus, it’s free for everyone involved.

It’s always fun performing something for the first time in front of an audience. As a performer, you can really feel what works and what needs more work based on the audience reaction. I would say the stuff that we tried this week was a little less like your standard sketch – homeless prop comic is more of a standup spoof; Winnifield Lindsay is very presentational in style; Soap People, while structured like a traditional sketch, has a pretty complex premise – so it was interesting to see what hit and where.

Overall, I’d say all three scenes went over pretty well, prop comic coming in at best received in my opinion and Winnifield Lindsay bringing up the rear but still having its moments of obscenely comic glory. Geoff and I now have an idea of what gets kept and what needs work as we continue to rewrite and refine.

A couple of the other groups cancelled at the last minute, so there was some extra time laying around. Geoff and I used some of that time to mess around with some warm up exercises on stage, which was actually a lot of fun. I think there’s a place for that kind of silliness in future shows.

Plus, one of the other performers played the saw. I have never seen that before.

MORE SHOWS TO COME!! Check back soon and huzzah for comedy!

Show the Second: Fizz Bar

OH DAMN.

You didn't think we were done, did you?

CRASSUS appears again at SketchTest on Tuesday 5/18.

The Pub Theater's Sketch Test

Fizz Bar @ 7:30 PM

3220 N Lincoln,

Chicago IL

FREE

Twelve minutes of new comedy that's EVEN NEWER than our last twelve minutes of new comedy.

Cherry Broken!

So it happened.

The first time Geoff Crump and Nat Topping performed their two man brilliance, deemed Crassus, was tonight - approximately 4 hours ago. It was also the first time ever they flubbed their lines on stage. It started with Geoff Crump, no less then 15 seconds into their very first sketch. Luckily the brilliant performers called out the screw ups and moved on, and the rest of the evening went pretty smoothly.

For the sake of record keeping, this is how it went down:

1) Full Circle on Film
2) Reaching Out
3) Sex and Waffles
4) Guitarman

The sketches were well received and, besides getting some pacing issues in control, the sketches will probably stay as is. I say the night was a success.

It was strange to realize that me and Nat, although working in sketch comedy together for a few years now, had not actually performed together since Robot vs. Dinosaur's production of "The Greatest Stories Never Told... Told!", which was RvD's first production, back in 2008. And I (Crump) have not been in a scripted show of any kind since then either. It's amazing how tough it is to get back into the swing of things. And I didn't feel nervous or anything, but I still fudged up and fudged some lines. Shaking off the cobwebs I guess.

Regardless, Nat and myself will start taking this city by storm. Indeed yes we will. Or at the very least we will make ourselves laugh by making others laugh at our dick jokes and overly analytical and mind bending dick jokes that are masked as thought provoking logic and fine art. Fun will be had. I ask you to witness it. Stay posted.

CRASSUS ANNOUNCES THEIR OWN EXISTANCE

KABOOM!!!

CRASSUS appears at SketchTest on Tuesday 5/11. 

Fizz Bar @ 7:30 PM

3220 N Lincoln,

Chicago IL

FREE

We try twelve minutes of new comedy.  Come watch and bring friends.

KABOOM AGAIN!!

Oh yeah, baby.  That's some Big Bang right there.