Recap of POY Variety Hour 2

I had this grand plan of recapping the Variety Hour for you WITH pictures, but time is just not on my side, so you'll have to settle for the verbal recap with pictures to follow soon:

Thank you for making the variety show so successful – I don’t know about you, but we had a GREAT time!

Since we don’t hand out programs for these one night only events, here is a run down of the performances:

Jeff Love & Johnny Blaze Leavitt – Dance routine. I use the word “dance” loosely, but this dynamic duo performed a modern ballet number to none other than Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”

Lizzie Czerner – Scene from her one woman show. Lizzie explored the wonder and release of embracing her… er, two biggest assets. Johnny Blaze Leavitt and Monica Russell helped out with costumed aplomb as “Lefty” and “Righty.”

Gerard J. Savoy, Paul Weissman, Marc Adam Smith and Jeff Love - Mob Sketch. If the mafia ever wanted to get into the modern age and recruit via infomercial, this would be it! G was able to tap into his inner gangster to hilarious effect.

Chris Keating and Amy Kersten – Personal Ad skit. Looking for that special someone? Real life couple, Chris and Amy laid out their lengthy and slightly wacky wants and needs as two singletons placing their personal ads.

Jeff Love - Stand Up routine. Have you ever stepped onstage and not known what to do? Imagine that, but with Jeff’s panicked inner monologue out there for the world to hear.

Paul Weissman and Andrea Scannell – Songs. Paul and Andrea performed beautiful duets.

Lee Solomon - 1-Man Star Trek. ”Khaaaan!” Lee focused on Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan as he acted out ALL the parts in this condensed and highly energetic version of the geektastic classic.

Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez - Snow White Monologue. Fairyland was never like this. A jaded, imprisoned and highly pregnant Snow White told her side of the “Happily Ever After” story.

Jessie J. Fahay, Lee Solomon and Johnny Blaze Leavitt – Improvisation. The three improv vets performed a game called “Styles” where they performed the same scene over and over as audience members shouted out movie and play genres to hilarious effect. The telenovela style was my personal favorite.

Alyssa Mann, Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez, Tina Trimble and Felicia Eugenia Velasco - Coochie Monologues. Alyssa played Jennifer, a modern women at one with her body, or so she thought until her coochie took a stand and spoke up for herself!

Gerard J. Savoy, Marc Adam Smith – Inside the Actor’s Studio Sketch. This was a sketch that truly was for the POY insider as Marc asked G questions about his career with Point of You.
Paul Weissman and Andrea Scannell – Song. Let me just say, no one in the company expected the two of them to perform THAT number – but they did so with such class!

Cedric Jones, Kenny – Men on Stage Sketch. Frequent guest artist Cedric Jones recruited his talented friend Kenny to create a fun take on cable access programming where the two dished on the men who were currently performing on stage – with a special shout out to none other than Johnny Blaze Leavitt!

Chris Keating – Monologue. More strange but true musings from our premier pontificator. This show’s installment involved spidergoats… yes, you read that right, spidergoats.

Johnny Blaze Leavitt – Song. Johnny completed the evening with a sweet love song. With assistance from Molly Blau and Jeff Love, the finale ended with an actual wedding proposal to Monica Russell!

Variety Show was a success!

Point of You Productions would like to thank everyone for their commitment and participation in our first ever Point of You Variety Hour. We are pleased to say that it was a quality production that helped us raise funds for our fall production Sunset Motel. The event was filmed and we hope to post video snippets on our website soon.

I know many audience members wanted to see a playbill for this event (sorry we didn't have one, we wanted to keep you on your toes!). To that end, here is a run down of the fabulous acts who performed… it truly was a POY-pourri of comedy, music and entertainment!

If you would like to participate in our next Variety Hour, please reach out to Marc Adam Smith (marcadam at pointofyou dot com – we are trying to avoid spam, so please change the “at” to “@” and the “dot” to “.” when emailing)

POINT OF YOU VARIETY HOUR – INAUGURAL SHOW

Jeff Love and Johnny Blaze Leavitt started the evening performing a song and dance routine – with a bit of improv thrown in. This number was originally supposed to be a Family Guy spoof, but in the end they developed their own composition.

Lizzie Czerner as Mistress Delia. In this comedic monologue, Lizzie’s dominatrix-to-the-stars revealed why she cannot “schnoogle.” Fun fact: This monologue was inspired by and developed during the run of our production Hurt So Good!

Paul Weissman – John Cazale Tribute 1, 2 and 3. Paul exploited his uncanny resemblance to the actor and re-enacted several of Cazale’s most famous roles to hilarious effect.

Monica Russell stand-up routine. Monica entertained us and made us squirm with her depiction of Southern cockroaches (aka water bugs).

Jason Spiewak set. Jason entertained and moved us with two original songs from his album coming out next year. http://www.notbillyjoel.com/

Johnny Blaze Leavitt stand-up routine. What fun to have an unintentional boyfriend-girlfriend stand-up routine. Much of the audience didn’t realize it, but Monica and Johnny are dating and their routines worked so well as a "he said, she said."

Jessie J. Fahay, Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez and Alyssa Mann in a scene from Glengarry Glenn Ross. A gender bending take on the foulmouthed salesman play.

Chris Keating monologue. Chris brought the house down with his humorous monologue about the impending extinction of the banana as we know it. Based on true events! http://sooperdelishus.com/

Andrea Scannell set. Andrea closed the evening with her soulful voice and performed two great numbers accompanied by her main squeeze Paul Weissman, on guitar.

Marc Adam Smith, MC Extraordinaire. Marc kept the night rolling and our audience rolling in the aisles with sharp wit in between performances. http://www.bearonfire.com/

Variety is the Spice of Life!!

And now a word from our friend, Marc Adam Smith:


When discussing fundraiser possibilities for Point of You Productions, one of the ideas that came up and that I jumped behind 100% was to do a Variety Show. And we are on - Thursday night August 21st!!

For those of you too young to remember, the variety show was a staple of prime time TV, shows like Ed Sullivan, Dean Martin, Tom Jones, Donny and Marie, just to name a few, all had huge followings in the 50's, 60's and 70's. 73 million people watched the Beatles on Sullivan in 1964. But by the 80's the concept faded away. Back then getting your music, comedy, dance, and magic all in one place for 90 minutes was what Americans wanted. Now-a-days, with more choices you can find a separate channel for all of those things. But for one night on a stage in NYC we will bring it back.

All of the folks in POY whom you have seen on stage for the past few years will get up and do stuff that you may have never seen before. Who would not like to see Gerard J. Savoy do some interpretive dance? He isn't for this show, but still who would not want to see that!? But Gerard, Johnny Blaze, Mel, Jeff, Chris Keating and more along with some very special guests will be there to entertain the crap out of you. Also booze and cheese will on hand, so what more could you ask for!

AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION BONUS: We at Point of You would like to give our Variety Show a title (other than "Variety Show"), so here's where you can directly participate in the fun. Post your show title ideas on this blog. We'll make our selections by July 9th!