Stand Up vs. Theatre - it's a whole new ball game

From the desk of Jeff Love:

So I'm five hours away from making my sophomore performance as a stand up comic. Somebody asked me the other day if it was any different than doing theater. I'm hard pressed to think of anything MORE different from doing theater. I mean sure, there are certain characteristics that are the same. In both you're "performing" in front of an audience, timing and words and sometimes props are involved...but comedy is far less forgiving than theater. In theater, an audience, even if they are going to see a comedy, is open to anything. Stand up audiences, on the other hand, expect to laugh...period. It doesn't necessarily matter why, or when, or how...but if you tell a joke, do a bit, or tell a story during a stand up set and there isn't a laugh, you've failed. Period.

The thing that makes stand up both thrilling and absolutely petrifying is that you only have yourself to rely on. Even if you do an act that relies on exact wording, chances are you're still doing material you've written, and again, if no one laughs, they know exactly who to blame.

Even my act, that doesn't have a typical setup-punchline delivery and is about a guy on stage who's petrified, won't be funny if the wording and timing is off. And it's a very funny thing about comedy, not everyone has the same opinion as to what's good comedy, but truly bad comedy is something that most people agree on. I've been to clubs where nothing but strangers from all walks of life sit there and watch some poor schmuck get up on stage - something they all admit they could never do - and tells something he thinks is a joke, and nothing but crickets.... While sometimes there'll be comedians who say something that some people don't respond to, but others will.

It's that definite freeze of time...when a joke doesn't land...that is the performance equivalent to getting the wrong chamber in a game of Russian Roulette.

Hopefully tonight I won't be reminded of that silence before my five minutes are up.

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!

We're Baaaack!

Happy New Year everyone! POY hopes 2009 has wonderful things in store for you.

We are developing new work for the new year and to help us fund these productions, we bring you another fun-filled variety hour (which truthfully will run closer to 90 minutes).

We’re back with more comedy, more music and lots of entertainment...

POINT OF YOU VARIETY HOUR 2
Thursday, February 19 @ 7pm
GOTHAM CITY IMPROV
48 West 21st St, 8th Flr
New York, NY 10010
(btw 5th and 6th Avenues)

Tickets: $20
Includes one drink and free eats!

Reservations: 212-613-6138

Our Ensemble and guest artists perform like you’ve never seen them before...

Jeff and Johnny perform their song and dance sequel, G lets his inner gangster out and Lizzie fills us in on what it’s like to be so “boobalicious.”

It’ll be a fun night to remember. Seating is limited, so please reserve soon!

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/

Announcing the first ever POY Variety hour!

This is a first for POY. We are letting it all hang out and hosting a variety hour on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 7:30pm. This concept is a little hard for me because I am what some would call a control freak and the concept of this variety hour is fast and loose (and fun)!

We will have a WIDE range of acts from singing and dancing to stand up to monologues to scene work. We've involved a great group of guest artists as well... it's going to be hard to pack it all in to just one hour.

There's free food and prizes, so you'll get A LOT out of your $25 ticket.

Please call 212-613-6138 if you are interested in attending. The official press release is below:

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Point of You is putting on this POY-pourri of comedy, music and entertainment to help raise money for our next show SUNSET MOTEL, opening October 9th! Our Ensemble and guest artists perform like you’ve never seen them before... Johnny (that would be Johnny Blaze Leavitt of BlackRock) and Jeff sing and dance... Chris plays with projectors... Paul rocks the guitar...Melanie swears, for Pete’s sake! It’ll be a fun night to remember.

Thursday, August 21st @ 7:30pm

GOTHAM CITY IMPROV
48 West 21st Street, 8th Floor
New York, New York 10010
(btw 5th and 6th Avenues)

Tickets: $25
Includes one drink and free eats!

Seating is limited, so please reserve your tickets now. Call 212-613-6138.

Featuring: Lizzie Czerner*, Jessie J. Fahay, Chris Keating, Melanie Kuchinski Rodriguez, Johnny Blaze Leavitt, Jeff Love, Alyssa Mann, Leslie Marseglia, Monica Russell*, Gerard J. Savoy, Andrea Scannell*, Jason Spiewak*, Tina Trimble, Felicia Eugenia Velasco, Paul Weissman and hosted by the one and only Marc Adam Smith.

* Guest Artists

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!