"Live" blogging the Spirits of AshEVILle Masquerade

2:26 pm update

Live from the Haywood Park Hotel Ballroom, stealing internet from the Bier Garden, it's the Spirits of AshEVILle Live Blog! We're 6 hours away from the event. Dress and tech rehearsal was supposed to start 20 minutes ago, but less than half the performers are here so everything is off to the usual Asheville start. And now most of the performers who are here have gone to Bier Garden for a drink. I guess that compensates for me using their interweeb.

The setup of the place is pretty nice, Halloween Express have put decorations out and on the table, and the Urban Peasantry people are putting up panels. There's a full lighting panel, and a sound check has just started. Beer is yet to arrive, but that's probably a good idea, with us having six hours until showtime.

Hey blog, how have you been doing without me?

The past few weeks have been a blur and I haven't been keeping up with the bloggy world (and if you're a friend who whom I owe an email, that goes for you as well).

Tomorrow is Halloween and the Spirits of ashEVILle Masquerade. The Feral Chihuahuas will be performing a bunch of sketches - I've got pretty limited participation in this one, but I will be reprising my turn as Bruce, the Ghost of Halloween Past.

Tickets are $20 online, but if you go to either location of Asheville Brewing Co, and mention the facebook ad (this counts as a facebook ad, I guess), then you can get them at a discount.

I was planning on going to the BlogAsheville party tonight, but I've come down with some lurgy - I hope it's a fun party, the last two were awesome fun.

Look for more regular updates starting next week!

Recent and upcoming bastardries

Last night was a good night for the Oxymorons at Razcals - one of the biggest crowds yet, most people stayed for the whole show, some really funny moments, and at the end there were were so many cries for more that the rest of us (I wasn't in the cast last night) got up to do a special show-ender. I got to pretend to be Carrot Top. Some days I wish I was Carrot Top.

Wednesday night - that's tomorrow is another special show, one of our new "Feral Chihuahuas Presents" shows. Katie, Sarah and I are going to be providing some entertainment at the Martini Wednesday event at The Venue. We have a few more of these "Feral Chihuahuas Presents" where a few of us will be doing our thing in an intimate venue.

Now for the big news - on Halloween Night the Feral Chihuahuas will be part of the biggest show and party Asheville has seen in a long time. The venue is the Haywood Park Hotel Ballroom, and here's what is on tap...

• Sketches from the Feral Chihuahuas
• Sideshow entertainment from Arts2People
• Beer from Asheville Brewers Alliance
• Costume Contest
• DJs
• And...

The debut of the second Feral Chihuahuas Musical! Tommy has taken perennial favorite "The Halloween Carol" and ramped it up with new jokes and songs. I'm a terrible singer, but I'm going to work my ass off on getting this right.

Come back here for ticket details and a full line-up soon.

No-shows and yes-shows

Didn't get to perform on the weekend, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I heard that people who went to the show at Coxe Ave on the weekend had a good time and a creepy time. Which I think was the intention all along.

Unexpectedly, it looks like I'm in the show tonight at Razcals. So come out at 8pm for a free show with the OxyMorons - it's going to be a really intriguing lineup of morons tonight, possibly someone I've never performed before with (does that sentence make sense?). Free show - keep Razcals happy by buying drinks and food.

Get your Monday on!

I'll be doing improv with the OxyMorons tonight at Razcal's bar - Old Fairview Road in East Asheville (Fairview represent!). I'm looking forward to tonight's show, should be an all-star lineup out there. Show is free, just buy enough food and drinks to keep yourself slinging outrageous suggestions at me.

There's some new videos up at the Feral Chihuahuas YouTube from this season...



Man Douche. Yes, we were using Axe cans as the spray and we all smelled like Cinjades at the end. Adam was the true trooper of this shoot, he took a full face of body spray to the face in that end shot and didn't flinch. You can also see a reason as to why I went with the short hair this year, check out the mane underneath the wig in that first scene.



The Intro for "King of Kings" - I love the intro, was never too big on the sketch (though it gave me a chance to eat cheetos on stage). I love my poking my tongue out in disgust at the end, we don't do many profile shots.

Wyman did some amazing work on these, even after we showed them during our shows this year. Way to go Wyman!

Inglorious misspellings

Went to see "Inglourious Basterds" on the weekend. Brilliant from start to finish, and Christoph Waltz is the perfect villain!!!! The every syllable dripping sarcasm works through the whole film, and kudos to that first scene being stretched to breaking point to set the scene for what a prick he is going to be to everyone.

Tonight is the OxyMorons show at Razcals - if you're looking to laugh tonight I can't recommend this more highly. Come down and challenge the Bastard! It's an interesting venue, personally I love trying to win over the crowd who come not realising there's an improv show on. If I can get a laugh out of them, it's a victory. Takes me way back to two bad early stand-up experiences, both in Australia.

One was at a bar in Melbourne that ran comedy regularly, but most of the time it was just the comedians in the crowd. I was trying to do my set, and there were a bunch of guys playing pool who were way louder than the few actually listening. I was trying to time punchlines to after one of them making a shot, so at least there would be some reaction.

The other was in Hobart, Tasmania. A bar that had never done comedy before decided to try a comedy night, and it was a one-and-done situation. There weren't a lot of people there, but of the few who were there to listen to the comedy, two of them were kids writing a report for their High School (and since they had to have an adult with them - in bars in Australia anyone can come in provided they're with an adult), their mother was there sitting with them... and her knitting. She sat there alternating being appalled and pretending not to listen, and smacking the kids if they laughed - it didn't help that of the three comedians, I was doing the filthy stuff, we had one guy doing mostly drug-related material, and a goth kid doing monologues about being suicidal. To cap it off, the bar didn't turn off the jukebox - so particularly during the goth kid's set, he was getting drowned out by the singing.

I love me a hostile crowd! But I also love a bar full of people who want to laugh - so here's hoping tonight is more of the latter than the former. Bring it on, Razcals!

Back in Asheville and Back in Action!

Been gone for a while, didn't get any official performing in while I was gone, sadly, but now I'm back and ready to get back into it.

LAAFF is coming up over Labor Day weekend - it seems to be year on/year off that I do something at LAAFF and this is an "on" year. If you take the LaZoom shuttle bus to and from LAAFF, there's a chance that you'll get some Bastard or some Feral Chihuahuas entertainment while you're being shuttled.

The OxyMorons are still going strong at Razcals on Monday night - and karaoke comes straight after us! Come see the show and then challenge me to sing something. I'm a really terrible singer!