It was roughly around this time last year that the Philadelphia sketch duo Meg & Rob formed for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. Since then, they’ve performed at Bedtime Stories at the Shubin Theatre, as part of the sketch comedy extravaganza Welcome To The Terrordome and on their own shows across the city. And this Fringe Fest, they will be teaming up with local improv group Rare Bird Show in Improv and Sketch Comedy from Rare Bird Show & Meg and Rob, Respectively at The Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.); Fri. 8/29 10PM, Sun. 8/31 9PM, Wed. 9/3 8:30PM, Thurs. 9/11 8:30PM, Sat. 9/13 10:30PM, $10

Your decision to do comedy together is something of a myth now (“while sitting at lunch, Meg said, ‘Does anyone want to start a sketch comedy troupe?’ And Rob said, ‘Yes.’”). How well did you know each other at that point?

Meg: We knew each other for about a year.

Rob: Yeah, before anything came up. We got along because I first went to find out if Meg was single.

M: The first time he introduced himself to me, he came over trying to be really friendly and speak on my terms and he said “say, do you like indie rock?” (laughs)

R: (laughs) Because that’s the most ridiculous thing you can say to somebody.

M: “You know, I just guessed because of your hair and your glasses.” (laughs) And he had been kind of getting a little bit close, so finally one day I went “you don’t have a crush on me, do you?”

R: By then I already knew, so it was already off limits.

M: But he did walk away immediately after I asked that.

R: Yeah, it’s an awkward question to be asked by anybody.

M: It was great too because we had the turning chairs, so I just turned around and asked it. But yeah, we knew each other for at least a year before we started.

Did you talk about comedy?

R: A little bit. We first bonded over Arrested Development because that was still going on at the time.

M: And with two of our other friends at QVC we had done entries to The Office promo contest.

R: Yeah, it was like the advent of a lot of those Youtube competitions where you make a promo for The Office. So we did and we were proud of what we did, they were good.

So what did you expect when you first started working together?

R: Well, we knew each other really well, so we both knew that we were really creative people striving to have some kind of creative outlet. My films were more towards the comedic and weird sort of thing, and her writing was more towards the weird and comedic realm.

M: And it was kind of a slow process too because it was true that I said once at lunch “does anyone want to start a sketch comedy group?” and Rob said “yes”, but it was a lot slower than that. Because we first doing a group with all of the guys who we had done The Office promos with and that wasn’t really working out…

R: It was more of their trepidation towards during live stuff, which Meg and I wanted to do.

M: So it was about time to sign up for the Fringe Festival and I had a show that I had been working on since college, which was the [“Reviving The Lecture Circuit] show. I really needed someone else to do with me, so I just said, “hey, let’s do this.” So we did that and then started doing more traditional sketch stuff.

R: Yeah, that was pretty much the beginning of the consistent working.

So you, Meg, we working on that first show as just something you would do yourself?

M: No, I knew I wanted to do it with someone else. I had talked to with a friend of a friend about doing it with me, but he was flaky, so I had just put it aside.

R: So it could’ve been Meg & A Friend of a Friend.

Where did the idea for “Reviving The Lecture Circuit” come from?

M: I was a writing major in college and every writing major as to take a senior seminar class and mine was “Writer as Performer”, which seemed perfect to me, but it was awful. The professor just didn’t teach anything except “if you’re given a time limit when you perform, you better stick within that time limit.” But the one good thing I got out of it was I wrote a paper on lecture circuit comedians of the mid to late 1800s which I got really into because it seemed like kind of intersection between what I saw as stand-up as one person talking about things and sketch as character work. But those two things are really nebulous, but these people were doing stand-up things but under personas and I was really into that especially because they would do it in the same venues that people would do serious lectures.

Can you give me an example?

M: Mark Twain did it. Then there were other guys like Petroleum Nasby, that wasn’t his real name. Josh Billings, Bill Nye, yes, there was a guy named Bill Nye. They were humorists of the day that would go around on the lecture circuit. I think it was Petroleum Nasby who purported that you would see a live animal show, they built it up as this big spectacle. It was just something about that that really attracted me, so I started writing character monologues in a similar style.

What you done since that first Fringe run?

M: Well, that show was a learning experience. After that show we agreed that we wanted to do more traditional sketches. Because that show is six 10-minute monologues, which is good and fun, but the other thing about that show is that I wrote most of it and then Rob helped me edit and punch up the jokes. But now we are totally 50-50 on writing and we’ll write and toss back and forth. And now we are trying to do a lot more movement and interaction.

How was performing in Chicago and Minnesota this summer?

R: Chicago is a great town.

M: Chicago was fantastic.

R: And it was definitely an audience of people we didn’t know, so it felt good to not have the Philly thing where, especially now, we are all going to each others shows. It’s sometimes easier than you’d like it to be, so it’s good to get out of our shell and win. Where as Minnesota was the opposite.

So Chicago went well overall?

R: People stood up and went “Bravo!” Who says that? That happens in the 1800s. Whereas Minnesota was more of a theater crowd, so they weren’t necessarily looking for comedy.

M: And it was a much different event, because in Chicago we were there to do Snubfest, which is a comedy festival. In Minnesota, it was a fringe festival. So I think that had a lot to do with it.

R: And also in Minnesota we did win over the audience, but there were also some really rough shows where people walked out and people read newspaper.

M: Yep, and one guy ripped paper into little pieces during the show.

R: And he was reading the guide to the festival, but then after the show waited around to ask us what the next show was going to be.

M: We did “Reviving The Lecture Circuit” out there and in one of the pieces I eat cake and I didn’t realize until I got out there that the cake had gone bad. So that added to the joy of the experience.

Your Fringe show this year is with Rare Bird Show. How did that happen?

M: Well, they invited us, which is a huge honor because they’re fantastic and so energetic and spastic. Part of the reasoning behind it is very practical because if you do a double-bill it costs less to mount a show. But also it’s a nice pairing to see two bits of comedy because sometimes in Philly I feel like improv gets too separated from everything else. I like the idea of putting improv and sketch together.

What does the future hold for Meg & Rob past the Fringe Fest?

M: Well, we are applying to festivals that we may or may not get into. So far, not. (laughs) We’re maybe going to work on a web series promo.

R: Because the Internet is the future.

M: Yeah, we have a vague pilot script.

R: And we’d like to do an East Coast tour, a legitimate tour with some of our friends locally.M: And one of the things that’s really exciting about this show is that we are working with Don Montrey as a director and I’m hoping to do more of that in the future. We had one two-hour session where we just did three sketches. And it was so helpful to have someone watching and having someone pull out the bits of movement that can make things pop. So I’m definitely hoping to do more of that.

So is this show all new live material?

R: All new.

M: It’s all new, not all live, but the one thing that is very exciting that we are 90% sure is going to happen is that everything is going to have video background.

R: Oh, don’t put that on the record.

M: I know, but it’s such a selling point for the show.

R: I know but…yes, everything is going to have a video background-

M: Whether it’s a still image or video that we are interacting with, which I am really really excited about.

(A pigeon loiters nearby)

R: Do you remember The Goodfeathers on Animaniacs?

No.

Things just seem to happen to Gregg Gethard. After telling a few stories at comedy shows in New York City, he created his own monthly show in Philly, BEDTIME STORIES, to tell a few more. Over the past year the show has grown in audience and features some of the best comics in the city.

Gregg is also a member of the Philadelphia sketch group The Sixth Borough, which will be performing their new sketch show “World Crisis” at the Adrienne Theater during the upcoming Philadelphia Fringe Fest – Fri. 8/29 8:30PM, Sat. 8/30 10:30PM, Tues. 9/2 8:30PM, Thurs. 9/4 10PM.

A lot of people are ashamed to admit when they’ve been fired. Not me. I’m usually pretty cool when it happens which, in my life, has been quite a lot. It’s a great way to leave a job. This way you don’t have to have the squirminess of a work “going away” party with a cake and a stupid greeting card. You’re just gone. This, or just leaving a job and simply never come back, are easily the most effective ways to terminate an employment situation.

But what I am about to tell you is probably the only time I truly, desperately wished I could have been struck by lightning to escape the brutal uncomfortable situation I was enduring.

This is the story about the third time I had been fired.

(The second part of the story is a somewhat sentimental tale of my struggles as an inner city after school program teacher. Feel free to skip it and get to the getting fired part which is after it. I know you’re going to do that anyway, Bryce Remsburg.)***

I moved up to Boston without giving it much thought. I met Ilana (now my wife), she was living up there, I wasn’t, and two weeks later I packed my bags.

She found me my job. When she was at Northeaster studying to become a teacher, she worked part-time at a place called Citizens Schools, a non-profit which provides after school activities for students who live in Beantown’s shadier neighborhoods. I always wanted to try teaching, the place had a good mission statement and it seemed like a good thing to try.

Within the first few hours, I knew I had made yet another in a long-running streak of poor personal decisions. I went for orientation and immediately recognized whom I was surrounded by – NPR donors, people needless wearing hair beads, guys wearing corduroy pants with sandals, people in acoustic jam bands, so-called “visceral progressive visual artists” and people who, generally, enjoy trying to make this world a better place.

These are the exact type of people I loathe most in the world.

The orientation was led by Tulaine, Citizen Schools’ program director who thought it fashionably sensible to wear exquisite shawls purchased from Chico’s despite being 35-years-old. When not talking about her visual arts project, she kept on saying things like this repeatedly:

“What you’re doing is very important. You’re trying to bring a smile to a child. A child who may have grown up in difficult circumstances. And now you, you get to play a role in this person’s life. I firmly believe it takes a village to raise a child. And now you are part of that global village.”

This was essentially our training. For one week, us new “associates” of Citizen Schools essentially had one of Hilary Clinton’s 1996-era stump speeches repeated to us. After this, we were expected to know how to tutor, supervise and lead a group of 45 middle school students who lived in places where their parents had to color coordinate their outfits based on whichever Salvadorian street gang controlled their neighborhood that week.

The next few months were a blur. There were four other “teaching associates” in our program. Our supervisor was Teri, who was fairly nice despite attending – no joke—the same prep school Dubya went to, followed by a stint at one of those kinda Ivy League colleges in New England that have a lot of lesbians. (Teri was not.) The four of us associates were thrown to the wolves. The first day of the program, we were supervising a tutoring session in the library.

About 30 kids were in the room. The obvious leader was Lexuss. He was in 7th grade, he had a very stylish baby ‘fro (think Stanford-era Josh Childress) and came strutting into the classroom with a cellphone to his ear, saying to someone, “Yo, let me call you back in a bit, I have this after school thing I have to do for a while.”

The three of us introduced ourselves, and then tried to tell them about our study rules. Lexuss immediately raised his hand. I called on him.

“I’m out,” he said, walking out of the room. Soon, almost the rest of the class – except for the two comic book reading nerds in the back – also just walked out despite our protests.

On top of tutoring kids in group settings, we were all given our individual classes where we’d teach in an area of our “expertise” three times a week to a group of about seven students, one of whom was Lexuss. I was going to teach the kids about journalism and, by the end of the semester, was going to have them create their own newspaper. I handed each of them a Boston Globe, where I planned on teaching them the inverted pyramid style of writing. I began my lecture. Each of them, on Lexxus order, started ripping pages from the newspaper and throwing balled up remains at each other.

I struggled all semester long. Teri was constantly supervising me in my room, since I obviously had the least control over my classroom. And then, one day, in the middle of my attempt at a lecture, she stood up.

“Gregg, sit down in the back. You’re not being an effective leader. I’ll take it the rest of the way. Take notes and watch what I do.”

I’ve been dumped by girls in public. I was once kicked out of a college classroom. I was the victim of many depantsing incidents. But I never, not once, felt this embarrassed about myself in my life. My boss thought I was so bad at this, she decided her only recourse was to undercut me in front of the students I was supposed to teach. I planned on just never coming back ever again.

However, I was just about completely out of money. I needed at least one more paycheck to get by. I went to work that day, just planning on saying nothing, letting the kids do whatever they wanted, trying to avoid Teri, and then going home.

And then I met Lexuss’ aunt.

After the program ended for the day, she came up and introduced herself to me. And, without prompt, she told me about Lexuss’ mom had pretty much abandoned him at birth, and that no one even knew who his father was. He bounced around to a few different homes until she adopted him. And he was a problem in classrooms, despite being frightfully smart for his age.

And then she said, “Lexuss can’t stop talking about you. He really likes it a lot.”

I couldn’t believe it. This kid pretty much had spent the past few months making my life a little more difficult than I wanted.

His aunt nudged him.

“Yeah, Gregg. I think you’re real cool. You’re the only teacher I’ve ever had who didn’t yell at me or anything,” he said, as he gave me a fistpound. “You let us have fun and you aren’t all up in our grill the entire day. Man, I think Teri’s a real bitch. Especially to you, man. She trifilin’. Keep your head up, biggie.”

I went home and thought about this, kind of like the weirdest episode of The Wonder Years ever. This kid with a lot of problems actually liked me. I mean, he didn’t respect me really, since I essentially let him do whatever he wanted because I gave up all hope with this job. But it still made me feel kind of proud. And it felt good because even though he was 13 years younger than me, he had a cellphone and I didn’t, and at the time people with cellphones didn’t really talk to me.

I came to a conclusion. I hated all the awful Citizen Schools “Make a Difference!” hippie crap, I hated all the shitheads who swallowed it all up with pride, I hated Teri for being overbearing… but if I sucked it up and took what I was doing a little more seriously, then maybe I could actually help really fucked up kids.

The first step in my new strategy was to screw writing “learning paths” for my kids to follow in the classroom. Instead, I brought in Stratego and Monopoly. I let them play the games in exchange for ten minutes of doing a little bit of what I was supposed to have them do. The second step was to actually try and have fun with them. Instead of supervising when they played basketball, I started posting up on 7th graders and trying to perfect my turnaround Patrick Ewing-style jumper. (I didn’t.) And the third step was just to go home and come up with more ways to make this job a little bit easier for me.

After a few days, the program’s worst troublemakers all started coming around to hang out with me before tutoring. I don’t think I helped any kids become better people. But they learned a little bit more about basketball and pro wrestling from me, and also maybe that sometimes a really shitty teacher might actually end up being kind of fun to hang out with.

Even Teri backed off. She started coming to my classroom less and never said anything to me about my new love of trying to make no-look passes to 7th grade power forwards.

At the end of the program, right before Christmas break, Lexuss and his aunt came up to me when the program ended. His aunt gave me a Christmas Present – a $24,000 Rolex watch. (Actually, it was a Christmas ornament.) And then Lexuss gave me one more fist pound.

***

I went home to visit my parents for a few weeks. When I returned to Boston, I had a message on my machine. It was from Teri. She asked me to come down to the office so I could talk with her about something.

I went down the next day. I didn’t know what to expect. Teri sat me down in the office.

She had some tears welled up in her eyes.

“I… I never had to say this before. Or do this before,” she said. “But… but I have to let you go.”

I started to ask Teri why I was being fired.

“I just don’t think you’ve improved much throughout the year. You’re not teaching these kids anything –”

I bit my lip. I’m pretty sure none of the kids in Citizens Schools were learning anything. At least with me they were having a little bit of fun.

“– So, I want to go in a direction where I find some people a little more serious about the position.”

I then started getting angry. I started explaining to Teri about what I actually did during the year, how I hung out with the troublemakers in the program and they all liked me which, while it certainly didn’t make me Jamie Escalante, it made me something else.

“Gregg, stop yelling,” Teri said. “This is really hard for me.”

Hard for you? I’m the one being fired! I mean, it’s not like it never happened to me. I was kind of used to getting fired. But those times were at places I didn’t care about and wanted to leave immediately.

So I stood up and pounded my fists on Teri’s desk.

“Hard for you?” I screamed. “You’re a c-nt.”

I then took my right hand and swept every single thing that wasn’t nailed down to the table off of her desk. Pencils, calendars, folders. Everything ended up in a big pile on the floor.

Teri stared at me for one second.

“Jesus Chris, Gregg,” she said. “This isn’t my desk.”

I looked at the nameplate I just smashed. It said “Paul” something.

I then walked out of the door. A bunch of the hippie do-gooder Guster fan types heard the ruckus. One guy, who earlier in the program tried to get me to come to his open mic night, said to me, “Yo, bro, what’s with all the ruckus.”

I looked at everyone in the room. And then I started repeatedly grabbing my nutsack like I was Eminem.

“Fuck you, you hippies. Suck my dick. Suckkkk itttt.”

I then went to the elevator. And I realized I was on the 12th floor. And the elevator was on the first.

The adrenaline rush of calling my boss the most abusive word in the English language, followed by sweeping off someone’s desk, completed by acting like your average drunk Wildwood boardwalk visitor completely faded away.

And now I waited for the elevator as all these people started laughing at me.

I got on the elevator and never felt worse about myself.

And then I thought about Lexuss. And I realized that if he saw me do this, he’d give me a fistpound. Triflin’, indeed.

(Starring Johnny Goodtimes, Chip Chantry, Aaron Hertzog and Nat “The Truth” Jones)

Weather Or Not have a Myspace page now!

On Wednesdays we usually have Dave Terruso’s “Life of Letters”, but we’ve got something different this week.

Animosity Pierre’s Dave Terruso here. You may know me as a sketch comedian, a guy who raps about licking butts, a guy who makes alphabet cartoons. But my true passion is writing. I’m an aspiring novelist and screenwriter, currently working on a revision of my seventh novel.

My passion for writing started as a passion for typewriters. When I was eleven, I found this old ‘70s electric typewriter, a black monolith that weighed more than I did, in my basement. I plugged it in and listened to the whirring and the chugging and the chigawwwing. Slipping in a sheet of college-ruled paper, I typed ffffffff for fifteen minutes. Bored with typing for the sound, I decided to write a short story. My story was one page, single-spaced, about vampires, and awful. I read it to my parents. They clapped when I was done, and I knew that I had found my career.

I wrote a few more stories, all of them about vampires, until disaster struck: the old typewriter ran out of ribbon. No one sold replacement ribbon for this outdated machine. I begged my parents to buy me a new typewriter. My mother refused, reminding me that even though I desperately wanted to be a writer this month, last month I’d desperately wanted to be a lawyer, and the month before I’d desperately wanted to be a firefighter.

After languishing for weeks without a typewriter (why I didn’t just write longhand is beyond me), opportunity knocked: the Philadelphia Daily News started a short story contest for kids in their Yo! Kids section. I convinced a neighbor to let me borrow her typewriter, wrote a story, and submitted it to the contest.

I’m pretty sure every story submitted eventually got into the paper, because mine did, and it was a horrible story. But getting published in the Daily News at twelve convinced my mom to buy me a typewriter for Christmas, and I was back in business. Eventually I wrote for love of writing and not for love of typewriters. Seventeen years later, I’m still at it.

Here is the story from the Philadelphia Daily News, September 12, 1991. It’s about vampires, of course; I didn’t move on from that topic until I started writing my first novel the following spring. I hope it makes you laugh.

(Click to enlarge)

The Sony original web series THAT GUY starring 2008 Philly’s Phunniest Person Kent Haines continues. In this latest episode, That Guy has to…get ready.

This week’s flow chart from Doogie Horner deals with the things that you say during sex. C’mon, you know you do.

Doogie will be hosting his show THE MINISTRY OF SECRET JOKES this Wednesday at 9PM at Fergie’s Pub (1214 Sansom St). Steve Gerben, Ryan Carey, Brendan Kennedy, Aaron Hertzog, Jose Vega, and Dom DeLuise will be performing and it’s FREE.

The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe begins this Friday and we’ve got to admit: the sketch, stand-up and improv scenes are representin’. Thanksfully, in the midst of modern dances and off-the-wall plays, there will be some laughs to be had. Below is our carefully constructed and comprehensive list of comedy at the festival.

NOTE: The unOfficial Fringe Late Nite Cabaret 2008 will also be going on at the same time that includes some comedy shows, most notably a special edition of Die, Actor, Die

24 Hour Comedy MarathonWalking Fish Theatre (2509 Frankford Avenue)Sun. 8/31 11:59PM – Mon. 9/1 12:00AM, $5
This Labor Day, let the comics do all of the work.  Dozens upon dozens of local stand-up comedians will perform between midnight to midnight and the audience will have opportunities to go up on stage as well.

A Comedy With No MessageBest Western Independence Park Hotel (235 Chestnut St.)Fri. 8/5 8PM & 10PM, Sat. 9/5  7PM & 9PM, Fri. 9/12 8PM & 10PM, Sat. 9/13 7PM & 9PM, $10
Eric Van Wie, a twelve-year ComedySportz veteran, presents a comedy variety show with multiple characters in search of the funny. If you want touching stories, sentimental journeys, and personal pain, this is NOT the show for you.

The AuditionThe Old Academy Players (3540-3544 Indian Queen Lane in East Falls)Sat. 8/23 8PM, Fri. 8/29 8PM, Sat. 8/30 8PM, Sun. 8/31 2PM, $10
What happens when an aspiring actor tries to make it big? Who tries to help him? Who doesn’t? How does he confront the occasionally nagging flirtation with musicals, which he hates? Come see this physical comedy filled with bizarre characters and their zany ideas about the meaning of showbiz success.

Bedtime StoriesShubin Theatre (407 Bainbridge St.)Wed. 9/10, 8PM, $10
Although the monthly sketch and storytelling show Bedtime Stories is usually based around one specific topic, this special Fringe edition is more of a free-for-all highlighting the best bits from the past year. Check out our past Bedtime Stories coverage and an interview with host Gregg Gethard

Ben Affleck Judges YouThe Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival (2111 Sansom St.)Thurs. 8/28 9PM, Fri. 8/29 9PM, Sat. 8/30 9PM, Sun. 8/31 3PM, $15
An evening of sketch comedy brought to you by the unfiltered minds of Two For Flinching, a fledgling group whose comedic view of the world is more sharp than artistic, with a tone of contagious mockery.

Comic Energy Sketch Comedy Show2nd Stage at The Adrienne (2030 Sansom St.)Sat. 8/30 11PM, Sat. 9/6 11PM, Sat. 9/13 11PM, $10
Comic Energy, winner of the MyFox Philly Hot List for top comedy club in Philadelphia, presents award-winning sketch comedy to the Philly Fringe. Featuring parodies, impersonations, and starring a cast straight from Philly, the troupe brings it to the Fringe right before their ninth season debut.

Dangerous Fools2nd Stage at The Adrienne (2030 Sansom St.)Tues. 9/9 8:30PM, Wed. 9/10 8:30PM, Fri. 9/12 7PM, Sat. 9/13 7PM, $10
“Better than any improv group I’ve seen” (City Paper). A fool from LA… a fool from Philadelphia…no script. With nothing but a blank stage, a single suggestion, and two twisted minds, Thomas Fowler and Mary Carpenter take you on an improvised ride that is hilarious, unique, and dangerously unpredictable.

The Don and Julie Show!!!Upstairs at the KhyberThurs. 9/11 8PM, Fri. 9/12 8PM, Sat. 9/13 8PM, $10

The Don & Julie Show!!! is Philadelphia’s fifth best variety show. Part Mike Douglas Show, part Regis & Kelly, part “whatever they want it to be,” Don Montrey, Juliette Pryor, and pianist Alex Bechtel present a fun-filled extravaganza with music, comedy, and celebrity guests. Check out our interview with Don a few months back

God Can Help You With That Character DefectComedy Cabaret (11580 Roosevelt Blvd.)Fri. 9/5 9PM, Sat. 9/6 9PM, $15
Comedian Alan Marx shares a semi-autobiographical journey to the intersection of spirituality and real life. Be ready to laugh in this bizarre mash-up of stand-up comedy and faith in a language we can all understand.

The Hoppers Hit the RoadThe Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.)Thurs. 8/28 8:30PM, Sat. 8/30 3PM & 7PM, Thurs. 9/4 8:30PM, Sat. 9/6 3 & 7PM, Sun. 9/7 7PM, $15
Follow Benny and Martin Hopper (The Hopper Brothers) as they search for a record contract, true love, and their Ocean City music pier gig. Similar in spirit to A Mighty Wind, Glenside’s most lovable home-schooled sibling folk duo star in this improv-to-script musical that proves Philadelphia’s top comedians can sing! Check out our interview with Philly Improv Theater’s Greg Maughan in which he talks about The Hopper Brothers

Illegal RefillThe Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.)Sun. 8/31 7PM, Tues. 9/2 7PM, Sat. 9/6 10:30PM, Mon. 9/8 8:30PM, $10
One of Philadelphia’s newest and most exciting long-form improvisational comedy troupes makes its Festival debut! Illegal Refill is barely one year old, but boasts thirty years of combined improv experience among its six young members. See daring long-form improv comedy sets, complete with special guest openers from around Philadelphia. Check out an Illegal Refill set we filmed

Improv and Sketch Comedy from Rare Bird Show & Meg and Rob, RespectivelyThe Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.)Fri. 8/29 10PM, Sun. 8/31 9PM, Wed. 9/3 8:30PM, Thurs. 9/11 8:30PM, Sat. 9/13 10:30PM, $10
Two Philadelphia’s top comedy groups, Meg and Rob and Rare Bird Show perform live comedy that you will love. Check back later this week for an interview with M&R.

LunchLady DorisThe Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.)Thurs. 9/11 7PM, Fri. 9/12 10PM, $10
LLD returns after eleven sold-out Fringes! LunchLady creates spontaneous theater that is funny, smart, strange, and utterly breathtaking. City Paper and Philadelphia Weekly say “these five improvisers are uncanny;” “the best of the bunch;” “satisfying and impressive.” Featuring veteran improvisors Bobbi Block, Kevin Dougherty, Karen Getz, Dave Jadico, and Kelly Jennings.

The Maguffin2nd Stage at The Adrienne (2030 Sansom St.)Sat. 8/30 7PM, Sun. 8/31 7PM, Mon. 9/1 4PM, Fri. 9/5 7PM, Sat. 9/6 4 & 7PM, $10
Stone Soup Theatre Arts’ riotous political comedy imagines the gay marriage movement is dead this election season. So why would right wing mastermind Cy Mason fight to resurrect it? Find out in the production that NYC’s Gay City News declared “what satire should be…shrewd, sassy, topical and just plain fun.”

Mister Mister Mister Mister and Others
The Urban Saloon (2120 Fairmount Ave.)
Thurs. 9/4 7 & 9PM, Fri. 9/5 7:30 & 9PM, Sat. 9/6 7:30 & 9PM
The Raven Lounge (1718 Sansom St.)
Thurs. 9/11 7:30 & 9PM, Fri. 9/12 7:30 & 9PM, Sat. 9/13 7:30 & 9PM
The best stand-up comedy show in the Fringe Festival returns for its second year! Come see four comedians who are teachers who are comedians. There will also be special guests, selected from among the funniest comics in the city!

The N Crowd Double FeatureThe Actors Center (257 North 3rd St.)Fri. 8/29 8 & 10PM, Fri. 9/5 8 & 10PM, Fri. 9/12 8 & 10PM, $10
The N Crowd is a short-form improv comedy troupe that has been performing weekly in Philadephia since 2005. Each hilarious scene starts with a suggestion from the audience. They promise you won’t legally have this much fun in ninety minutes for ten dollars.

One Funny Mother: I’m Not CrazySociety Hill Playhouse (507 South 8th St.)Fri. 9/12 9PM, Sat. 9/13 2:30PM, $20
Dena’s perspective on marriage, motherhood, and unrealistic perfection is hilarious! Through stand-up and videos, Dena describes a life you will swear is your own. If you’ve ever gone un-showered for days, stayed up with a sick kid, or had one pee on you, then this show is for you!!!

Participant Awards CeremonyO’Neals Irish Pub (611 3rd St.)Wed. 9/10 8:15PM, Thurs. 9/11 8:15PM, Fri. 9/12 8:30 & 10PM, Sat. 9/13 8:30 & 10PM, $10
Great shows do come in small packages! Catch Philly Improv vetrans Rick Horner and Cubby Altobelli perform in their two-man long-form team: WhipSuit. A single suggestion from the audience will launch a full-length bonanza of comedy.

Rated-GWalking Fish Theatre (2509 Frankford Avenue)Fri. 8/29 9PM, Sat. 8/30 9PM, Thurs. 9/4 9PM, Sat. 9/6 9PM, $10
High Dramma will destroy your loins with our distinctive humor! Guaranteed to have you laughing for all the right reasons, but mostly the wrong ones! We’re sketch comedy, so you know we’re fugitives. High Dramma: Come for the sketch comedy, stay because we locked the doors and threatened your children!

The Sixth Borough presents: “World Crisis”The Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.)Fri. 8/29 8:30PM, Sat. 8/30 10:30PM, Tues. 9/2 8:30PM, Thurs. 9/4 10PM, $10
War in the Middle East. Disasters in Asia. Refugee crisis in Africa. Escalating food and energy prices worldwide. The rise of Tila Tequila in America. Sketch comedy group The Sixth Borough plans on making light of everything that makes life so absolutely shitty as they present World Crisis. Check out our interview with The Sixth Borough earlier this year

Tongue & GrooveThe Adrienne Mainstage (2030 Sansom St.)Wed. 9/3 7PM, Fri. 9/5 10PM, Sun. 9/7 5PM, Wed. 9/10 7PM, Fri. 9/12 8:30PM, $10
This unique realism-based improv ensemble is “emotionally charged…very physical…often hilarious!” (Philadelphia Weekly). Inspired by personal information anonymously shared by the audience, T&G “effortlessly riffs on all aspects of modern relationships, both comedic and dramatic,” (City Paper) creating one-of-a-kind productions that reflect the particular mood and spirit of each audience.

Vote Ninja in 2008!Lisa M. Reisman Gallery (1714 Rittenhouse Sq.)Thurs. 9/4 9PM, Fri. 9/5 8 & 9:30PM, Sat. 9/6 8 & 9:30PM, Sun. 9/7 7PM, Thurs. 9/11 9PM, Fri. 9/12 8 & 9:30PM, Sat. 9/13 8 & 9:30PM, $10
Join the Ninjas for an evening of Chicago-style improv based on audience suggestion. No scripts and no props, it’s a totally custom-made comedy show every performance! See the jazz of theater from the deadliest improv group in Philadelphia!

Waitstaff Wit’L’Etage Cabaret (625 Bainbridge St.)Tues. 9/2 9PM, Wed. 9/3 9PM, Thurs. 9/4 9PM, Sun. 9/7 9PM, Tues. 9/9 9PM, Wed. 9/10 9PM, $15
You like The Onion newspaper? Then you’ll love Waitstaff Wit’, because this year The Waitstaff serves up something deliciously different: monologues written by TWS in the style of The Onion newspaper read by your favorite Waitstaffers and surprise guest artists. Cher? Maybe. Charlton Heston? He’s dead. WHO? COME SEE!

Comic Vs. Audience would like to thank this week’s sponsors that have made all of this possible:

- Kanye West – hey, did you hear that he has a blog now?
- The John and Ethel McKeen Fund
- Hot Rockers, Inc. – Hip rocking chairs at affordable prices. “Let There Be Rock!”
- The Phil Spector Fan Club
- The Philadelphia Chapter of the Comedy Changes Lives Initiative
- The 1998 Winter Olympics Games Four-Man Bobsled Silver Medalists Representing Switzerland (Marcel Rohner, Markus Nüssli, Markus Wasser, Beat Seitz)

“Money piles high as my nieces” – Clipse

(Starring Johnny Goodtimes, Chip Chantry, Aaron Hertzog and Nat “The Truth” Jones)