CRUMBS in Konstanz

I will post this backward. First, the post about the mixed show we did with Tmbh. Then I will post the show we did on our own in K-town. Why post it backwards? No reason.

So,the show with Tmbh was really nice, we played the Director's Cut and found great success with this form.

Director's Cut explained:
5 director's are chosen before the show and they each direct a chapter in their storyline. The audience then votes by applause and the weakest story is killed. This is good because the audience gets 5 different stories and they also get to choose their favourite. The second round has the remaining 4 directors continue with chapter 2. The show goes on, the stories go on and the voting goes on. In the end the audience only gets to see the last chapter of their very favourite story. Everybody wins, and us improv players get a peak into the mysterious minds of the audience.


The 5 stories that started the night were:

1- A classic Canadian tale of Hockey


2- A sci-fi thriller that had the two heroes killed in the first scene


3- A Film Noir involving a detective, a femme fatale and a missing pair of earings


4- An adventure with two competing knights hoping to slay an evil Monchichi


5- A classic love story about a girl in the clutches of her mean boss


What story was cut first? What stories moved on? What story was the only one to reach the end?

Next post: the first show in K-town, the CRUMBS show

CRUMBS in Freiburg

CRUMBS in Freiburg








The thing with Freiburg is the literal translation is “Free Castle” but if you ask to see the castle you walk up a hill that is practically a mountain and when you get there ther is no castle and when you ask where the castle is people will tell you that the castle was destroyed and taken apart many years ago by the people who made it... other than that Freiburg is very nice.

In Freiburg they have little canals that run throughout the old city. When I say little canals, I mean little little, as in gutters with running water, but I don't say gutters because gutters implies dirty and these are beautiful... beautiful little canals. It is left over from way back when, they used these canals as a way to have running water, water for animals to drink, to combat fire and to just have water running through the city all the time. Legend has it that if you accidentally step in the canal you will marry a local. As pretty as the town was, I did not get my feet wet.

The show you ask? We did the show with our good friends Theatre LUX. After some technical problems (one of the headset mics didn't think it was a mic at all) the show went underway.

Selling life insurance through the powers of seduction, a little boy who refused to go to church and ended up thinking he was Spiderman, a priest who swapped God for the Devil and then gave up both, falling in love with a Greek girl who didn't talk, and potions that make you a better man (and when I say potion I really mean the opposite of poison). If you think the show sounds crazy, you should have seen the encore... a mysterious cube from space then stolen by the military... mystery not solved!

Next stop: K-town AKA Konstanztanople AKA plain old Kontanz

CRUMBS in Kloten the show

The Kloten show was really fun, thank you to the host group Roseway.













The show had all the makings of a good show. It had a mystery as investigated by a couple of journalists who wanted to uncover a story involving the mayor (who just happened to own the newspaper) and a butcher who may or may not have cut humans into meat (hence the Soylent Green clip... obviously). We saw an old chocolatier fall in love and a girl have revenge upon the easter bunny. Oh yeah, one of the journalists was only really good at writing stories about cute and funny cats.

Oh improv shows, can you make any silly absurd situation seem to make perfect sense?
Yes, yes you can.

Okay, now the next stop is Freiburg!

CRUMBS in Kloten

Kloten? Where is Kloten? Don't worry, nobody else has heard of it either. It is just outside of Zurich and it is where they keep the airport, so it is pretty cleverly hidden.

But...

The show in Kloten was very fun AND I got to meet an actual relative that I actually have in actual Switzerland.

CRUMBS in Switerland

CRUMBS in Switzerland

Hey folks, everybody loves the Swiss right?



*thanks to Ryan Millar for reminding me of this

We again did our super fun CRUMBS show in Baden at the Ventil. We love playing at the Ventil, it just has the right vibe in the room for CRUMBS. Baden is just outside of Zurich where Romans used to have baths, we just shower there.






The show we did saw a poor depressed lonely guy on a cruise ship... a cruise ship for couples... you could even call it a relation-ship. It also had a coat that tries to eat your soul. We learned that Duck L'Orange isn't just raw duck painted orange, and that ship captains have way to much power. Thank goodness everything turned out in the end.



So hanging out in Zurich and Baden has reminded us of how beautiful Switzerland can be, and when I say beautiful I mean expensive. To truly enjoy oneself you must first trick yourself into believing that the Swiss frank is only worth ½ of a Canadian dollar.

Me: How much is this cup of coffee?
Swiss: Seven franks.
Me: Seven franks, let me see that would be... three fifty... not bad I guess
Swiss: Seven franks is equal to seven Canadian dollars.
Me: Please don't.

We still have yet another show to do here before we travel on to Freiburg Germany. We are performing in Kloten, a little town that nobody knows about. It is actually where the airport is, so people just call it the airport. At the show I might actually meet a “long lost” relative. He isn't actually long lost, I have just never met him. It will be strange to meet this (great uncle?) on my mother's side from Northern Ireland because the show just happens to be on St Patrick's day (neat huh?). But it just makes me wonder why does the world celebrate a catholic saint who hated snakes by getting so wasted that the streets are filled with drunks? Are the Irish embarrassed at all?

Anyways,

Next stop: Freiburg Germany

CRUMBS in Wurzburg

CRUMBS Euro Touro 2010

So the tour has begun and we are knee deep in Europe and knocked out the Jet Lag in the first round... good job sleep good night Jet Lag!

Wurzburg was the first stop on the tour and success was found. We did a show at the Neueplatz theatre, we usually do a show with Die Kaktussen at the Cairo. So this was the First "classic" CRUMBS show in Wurzburg for awhile.

We explored the fear that people have of Dentists and the wonderful world of hot air ballooning. We understood a little more about why some crazy criminals kill and how they can change if given the chance. As well we found out some of the secrets to the life of a Butler (like for instance, did you know that when they die, they feel their end time coming and they sometimes just turn into a puff of smoke?). All in all, we learned a lot and we make some people laugh and feel good about this little glimmer of a life we have.

We will be coming back to Wurzburg at the end of April to play at the Cairo. I hope that the weather is again nice enough for us to play at the open air stage, this always rules the most. I also hope it will be a little warmer so we can again play some mini-golf.

Time for train rides to the Alps

Next stop: Switzerland

CRUMBS Euro Touro (the flight)

CRUMBS euro touro 2010

The plane ride over was of course really a couple plane rides, someday it would be nice to charter our own plane directly from Winnipeg to Berlin with first class seating and beds and entertainment, but until that day comes we have to deal with all the annoyances that everyone else has to deal with. Security was silly enough to let us through and after the obligatory stand in line, we were off.

Highlights:

-Randomly running into Jacob Banigan and his son Sam at the Toronto airport
-getting to watch “Up in the Air” on the plane (although they need to work out a system where they only give you the option to watch movies that will end before you land)
-the plane not crashing (the picture is not from our flight or anything we saw)

Lowlights:

-not getting to sleep
-the loud and selfish asshole ahead of us on the transatlantic flight who insisted on complaining that he was hungry while everyone was trying to sleep.
-not enough in flight movie options and no power for the laptops (what is up Luftansa)

We arrived in Frankfurt and were greeted by Nadine at the airport. We got into her car and had a road trip to Wurzburg, the sun was shining and we barreled down the autobahn blaring Chilliwack and April Wine. A nice beginning to what will no doubt be an amazing tour once again. The road trip we took sounded like this and this. Enjoy


But first, we must battle the Jet Lag!

Notes about Jet Lag:
-NASA claims that Jet Lag takes one full day for every time zone traveled
-Sun light is the most critical element to defeat your Jet Lag foe (getting sunlight that is)
-stay up the first day no matter how much the demons tempt you to bed
-punch Jet Lag right in the throat!

Next stop: Wurzburg

CRUMBS Euro Touro 2010

So the CRUMBS show at the King's Head rocked hard... if you were there then you understand all the inside jokes people will be dropping for the months we are gone, if you missed it you missed out.

We are doing a tour though, so you could jump on a plane and get your ass to Europe... or maybe you are lucky enough to already live in Europe.

Our first couple shows are in Germany, which should really just be called Deutschland. We perform in:

Wurzburg on March 10th
Baden Switzerland at the Ventil on March 13th
March 17th in Kloten
March 18th in Freiburg
March 20th and 21st in K-Town (also known as Konstanz or sometimes Konstanztanople)
We go to Oslo, Norway for a show on March 23rd

Then We jet back to Berlin to do the Berlin Improv Festival (this improv festival in Berlin does in fact rule!). After the Berlin festival our tour continues, but perhaps you want to check back here for updates, reports and future dates of CRUMBS.

If you want to check a link that gives you our whole tour just check this one out...
Here are the dates of the Euro Touro 2010

See y'all on the tour or right here on the internet!