My Vid of Bryan Bowden at Chicago Underground Comedy Feb. 2009

A few weeks ago we had some folks fall out sick from our show so I plugged in a local lad who teaches stand-up at Second City, has had jokes published in Time Out Chicago, performed all over the city...and happens to be my sweetie. He knocked it out of the park. (I played around with the annotations thing at the beginning of this clip, just for fun.)

Oh, and for those of you who are fans of Bryan's Timekeeper Willis character from Blewt!, he's going to be doing man on the street at the Lincoln Lodge this Thursday and Fridays nights...in character. That means a Mexican wrestling mask, no shirt, and a really bad attitude.

My Photos from Impress These Apes 3 Finale!

Impress These Apes is over? Yes, season three wrapped up last night. Scroll through these highlight photos to see who the winner was! It was an awesome night full of surprises. All pix by me, full set here.

Danielle Puterbaugh unleashes the Puterbaugh circus:


including Chip Aucoin (who I didn't recognize with the makeup and getup):


and a weird guitar-playing rabbit:


and her two-headed sister Tiffany:


and other special guests:


Alan Metoskie topped everyone's dedication with an Apes tattoo! (or did he?):


Becky Eldridge lets out her inner pop star:




Leigh Vandiver takes us on a trip down memory lane (an 8 week-long lane, that is):


Hollywood Ape gets fresh with season two winner Kristen Studard:


Eve Porcello and her semi-cooperative backup dancers:


James Asmus' magical efforts were satisfying, although not in a way you'd expect:


Seth Dodson becomes a human dance club:


...and wins the whole thing!


But wait! What if an alternate universe portal opened up and it was Please These Pigs?:


or Dazzle These Dogs?:


and then the cliffhanger! A shrouded figure leaps from backstage and shoots all three apes in cold blood!:


Impress These Apes winners Seth Dodson (season three), Kristen Studard (season two) and Jamie Buell (season one):

My Pix From Impress These Apes 3.0, Show #6 - TV Commercials

Pix by me, full set here. Last night's Impress These Apes featured tv commercials made by each of the contestants. Some were dirty, all were hilarious - two featured stock footage of lions having sex, which was an unexpected treat. Contestants' videos can be seen here.

Seth Dodson's Goth German Doing Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic"

It's just too amazing for you not to see yourselves. Bryan had to step backstage to help Seth get his costume on. I was picturing hoop skirts, or stage blood, or an opera costume. Nope.

As I said earlier in the photo post, Seth acknowledges not being a great singer. On top of that, he had to sing a song he'd never heard before (me neither, for that matter). But instead of being intimidated, he whipped up a crazy-ass costume, created a German death metal alter ego, and kicked ass.

Raise your hand if you've ever seen anything like this before. No one? Thought so. Seth Dodson = genius.

My Pix of Impress These Apes 3, Show #4 - Live Karaoke With a Band

All pix by me, entire set here. Videos of individual performances here.

Becky Eldridge doing her best Eddie Vedder:



She would really like you to consider Barack Obama as the "Better Man":



How can I explain this...Seth Dodson is not a natural singer. He was also saddled with a song he was totally unfamiliar with, Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic." So what did he do? He turned his five minutes onstage into sort of a piece of German performance art. It was really amazing, and incredibly creative:









Leigh Vandiver was moving around so much I didn't get as many good pictures of her as everyone else, but she rocked the hell out of "Sympathy for the Devil":





...and got all perfect tens for her trouble:



James Asmus threw us a curveball by singing Marvin Gay's "What's Going On" all sincere and stuff:







Danielle Puterbaugh is already a rock star in my mind, and she got to sing a song from one of her faves, Bob Dylan:





Then there was Peter Kremidas, who went from nervous nerd to sweaty rock god with "Cocaine":