Gag Reflex's Reading Week Show

Mary Lauran Hall '10 sends in some info about the tomorrow night's GR show:

Gag Reflex is once again having a reading week show, which should maybe be called a "reading two days and then two days of exams and then reading weekend then more exams" show. Come on down to the science center lobby at 9:30 on Tuesday night! There will be improvisation, there will be laughing, there will be a battle about who has the most stuff to do. And the most work-laden audience member wins a bottle of SoCo. What more could you ask for?

What: Gag Reflex reading "week" show
Where: Science Center lobby
When: Tuesday night, 9:30 PM
Why: 'Cause we all need a little Southern Comfort
How: Swimmingly

Desperate Measures on Monday

Arie Levine '11 sends in some info about a Desperate Measures event:

Join us, Desperate Measures, as we tackle the biggest holiday of the year! Christmannika. There will be laughs, santa claus, jewish people, and a partridge in a pear tree.

When: Monday, December 8 @ 8 PM
Where: Nic Lounge

Gag Reflex: Thanksgiving Show

GAG REFLEX IMPROV COMEDY is putting on a Thanksgiving Show this Saturday. I imagine that they improvise comedy better than I improvise event write-ups, so I'm done here. Look below for what you need to know.

Date: Saturday, November 22
Time: 9pm
Place: World Music Hall, Free*
_{*Laughter is the greatest form of thanks.}

Improv, McCain-Palin style

Desperate Measures is holding its first show of the year Thursday night in the Nic lounge. Arielle Levine '11 writes:

Desperate Measures presents our first show of the year... and our scrumtrulescent newbies!

Come in costume... or nothing... GET PUMPED for some delicious short-form action... a smorgasbord of hilarity... and a whole lot of VA-JAY-JAY!

Date: Thursday, Oct. 30
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 PM
Place: Nic lounge

The Human Mirror (with Stone & Stone again)

Hilarious experiment: get a bunch of identical twins together and have them fill a subway car, each across from the other. What do you get? That's right, a human mirror!

Well, Improv Everywhere enacted this concept in real life NYC. Check out improveverywhere.com for the fantastic video (and a full report of the creation process), featuring Todd & Adam Stone '05 (above, foreground) as well as other seriously awesome twins.

Speaking of the Stones (comedian duo, on this season's Last Comic Standing), go to their website for some more of their videos.

[edit] Video of said experiment:

[edit by Sheek]
Thanks to both Liz & Rachel for the tip!

Desperate Measures Wants You to Cum

Need a place to stick your prefrosh? Want some delicious improv comedy to start your Wesfest weekend? Come to the Desperate Measures (improv(e) comedy) Pre Cum show!!!

When? Midnight on Friday, April 18 (well technically Saturday... but who's counting?)
Where? West Co Cafe

It will be gooey.

Gag Reflex show

Mary Lauren Hall '10 and the rest of Gag Reflex would like to kick off your break with a laugh:

I'm sure we all know that Aristotle once said, "Comedy is the best form of study break." And I know we have all read the most recent American Bureau of Adolescent Science study that decisively proved that endorphins released during laughter provide exponential benefits to the studying, paper-writing student.

So...

Come to Gag Reflex's pre-break show, tomorrow night (Thursday) at 8 PM in the Nicholson lounge! It'll be an hour of hilarious improv comedy, all completely free of charge and devoid of trans-fat.

What?: Gag Reflex improv comedy show
Where?: Nicholson Lounge
When?: Thursday (tomorrow!), 8PM

Gag Reflex Show!

Mary Lauran Hall '10 brings us science! Sort of:

Researchers at the American University in Cairo recently published a study in which it was found that humans aged 18-25 experienced drastically improved study skills (heightened concentration, increased brain activity, especially acute memory) for up to seven days when exposed to moderate to high levels of long-form improvisational comedy. Researchers determined that the study group with the most benefits had witnessed long-form type improvisational comedy in an environment with two elevators and a marble floor and then experienced prolonged exposure to short-form improvisational comedy (also known in some English vernacular as "improv").

Clearly, in order to improve performance during exam time, everyone should come to the GAG REFLEX READING WEEK SHOW TONIGHT, at 8 PM, in the SCIENCE CENTER LOBBY. The person who is most fucked with work to do wins a bottle of Southern Comfort!

Date: Tuesday, Dec. 11 (Also known as tonight!)
Time: 8:00 PM
Location: Science Center Lobby

The Daguerreotype Starring Half of Wesleyan...

Katey Rich '06 sends in this heads up for those of yous stationed for the summer in the New York area:

Students past and present, is making its New York theater debut this weekend. Their new play, "Daguerreotype," was written by Stephen Aubrey '06 and is directed by Jess Chayes '07. Edward Bauer '08, Hayley Stokar '06, and Zach LeClair '10 star.

"Daguerreotype" tells the story of Mathew Brady, a photographer from the Civil War era who became famous for his portraits of the great men of his time (Abraham Lincoln, George Custer, Ulysses S. Grant and many others) as well as the most graphic battleground images the country had ever seen. In "Daguerreotype," Mathew is at the twilight of his life, and he must choose between the life he has built and the legacy he wants to leave behind. Haunted by the ghosts of the past and the spirit of his dying, catatonic wife Juliette, Mathew must revisit his past and consider his future, as a forgotten legend from another era.

"Daguerreotype" is only one part of the Story Project's American Summer Theater Experience-- a festival with TASTE! There will also be readings of new plays-- including those by Anna Moench '06, David Haan '06, and Chris Kaminstein '05-- and performances by Wesleyan's own sketch comedy group Lunchbox. It's all happening at the Abingdon Theater in Manhattan, at 312 West 36th street.

The festival starts Thursday, August 2 and runs through Saturday, August 11 (with no shows on Monday the 6th).

Complete showtimes and dates are available here.

You can buy tickets for Daguerreotype here.

• Tickets for The Daguerreotype: $12 for students

• Tickets for Lunchbox (available at door): $5

• Tickets for the readings: Free!

There will be scores of Wesleyan students at all the shows, not to mention general New York theatergoers, who are always worth knowing. Come support some of your fellow students and alums (a full list of company members can be found here) and see historical, documentary theater that we absolutely promise is not boring or stuffy.

(*Photo by Toby Shaw '07)

The Jon and Jess Variety Show: Still in the Running

Congrats! WesAlums and former improv kids Jon Golbe '06 and Jess Lane '06 are making history. Well, they're making history for themselves or something. Their latest show The Jon and Jess Variety Hour on channel102.net is their longest running show to date, after two canceled shows Teen Homicide and Anne Frank: The Lost Pages. Despite the fact that The Jon and Jess Variety Hour isn't actually an hour, it managed to nab the 4th place prize and will now return for a fifth episode. While I'd still say that the third episode is my favorite, I have to give props for the "Wild Wild West" choreography and the shoutouts to Professor Richard Slotkin in the site's forums.

If for some strange reason you happen to be in NYC on Monday April 30th at 8PM, make sure to head over to the Anthology Film Archives to vote for the next episode and keep this show going.

New Teen Force

New Teen Force doing their newish, teenagerish forceness.

Date: Thursday, March 8
Time: 8:30 - 9:30 pm
Place: westco cafe

Gag Reflex Show this Friday

Gag Reflex will be having their first show of the semester this Friday. This will be a special show for two reasons:

1. It will be the first Gag Reflex show ever to have more females in the ensemble than males.

2. You can bring some dollars and cents to donate to Gag member, Jessalee Landfried '07's bike trip for Habitat for Humanity! (Clean out under your bed! Bring a sock full of nickels!).

Jessalee writes:

The show is free, but we'll be collecting voluntary donations to support my ride. I need to raise $2,000 to participate in the bike trip (the other riders need to raise $4,000, but as one of twelve student leaders I'm also charged with planning the entire trip, so my fundraising load is lessened). so far i've raised $1,100, and every little bit extra will help me SO much. Last year, we (the Habitat Bicycle Challenge, that is) raised $430,000 - enough to build eight homes in the new haven area - and we're hoping to do even better this year!

Date: Friday, February 23
Time: 8-9pm
Place: Nic Lounge
Bring: Moneyz for Jessalee (free admission regardless but you should bring the moneyz for Jessalee)

New Teen Force

New Teen Force is back in action this Saturday. Nick Pappadopoulos '08 is back, as you may have noticed as his face is currently plastered all over campus.

Date: Friday, January 26
Time: 9pm
Place: Nic Lounge

Reading Week Improv

Gag Reflex
Date: Wednesday, December 13th
Time: 8pm
Venue: Science Center lobby8 pm Gag

Desperate Measures' 24-hour Show
Date: Wednesday, December 13th -Thursday, December 14th
Time: 9pm-9pm
Venue: WestCo Cafe

New Teen Force
Date: Saturday, December 16th
Time: 8pm
Venue: Nic Lounge

& Lunchbox.

Gag Reunion

Gag Alum Jesse Young '06 has told me that it is of the utmost importance that you all attend the 15th anniversary reunion of Gag Reflex tomorrow night.

From the goat-herder himself:

Although anthropologists trace Gag Reflex's origins back to a small group of totally bored 17th century monks in the Basque region of Spain, Gag Reflex came into being on the Wesleyan campus some 15 years. It was the first improv group on campus, pre-dating DM by a few years (and New Teen Force, which sprung from DM). A celebratory fete is clearly in order, and thus was planned the Gag Reflex 15th Anniversary Improv-Spectacular for the Year of Our Lord 2006. OMG.

Basically, craploads of alums are coming up to campus for two days of wackiness and fun, capped off by an awesome Saturday-night show. Former gag alums have spread far and wide. Some write for TV shows like Weeds, some created TV shows ("How I Met Your Mother") some are big players at improv theaters (The Washington Improv), and some are members of the Blue Man Group (for serious). We are hell of talented folks. Except those that work in politics for no money like me. Um, crap.

The show will be, for lack of better word, mega-sweet-awesome-face. It'll be at 8:00 in the Chapel, and full of delicious improv from people who have actually, uh, had legitimate life experiences outside of collegiate education.

We had a 10-year show 5 years ago (you can find it the Argus archives somewhere), and it was apparently a huge blast. This is easily one of the biggest comedy events at Wesleyan this year, and possibly ever (with the exception of Ralph Nader's lecture last year).

COME. IT WILL RULE. WHOOO!

Date: Saturday, October 7
Time: 8pm
Place: Chapel

Gag Reflex Reunion Show

Gag Reflex is turning 15! Alums will return. Etc., etc., etc...

Date: Saturday, October 7
Time: 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Venue: Memorial Chapel