The Hammer

The Hammer = Hamburg
















CRUMBS are again in Hamburg, again in St Pauli and again at the Crazy Horst. We do our show tonight at the Motte and then return to Berlin.

St Pauli is the area of Hamburg we live the most and the home of Germany's best Football club. Not the nest because they play the best on the field, but the best because of their fans. It turns out that a lot of right wing fascists are fans of the other teams (not just fascist as an insult, but actual god fearing fascists) while the St Pauli fans are the only real team that the Left can call their own. We heard a story where a whole bunch of hooligans from across Germany showed up before a football match and decided to "cause a ruckus" in St Pauli. What ended up happening in the ensuing violence was all the apartment windows opening up and the residence making it rain bottles on the invading trouble makers. The cops eventually showed up and tear gas was used, but not before humans got hurt. Hurt over sports rivalry.












I am so glad that hockey is not treated the same ferociousness in Canada. Image if all the Harper fans loved the Maple Leafs and the Liberals loved the Habs? This is just plain crazy. You should be able to be a fan of whatever team you want, no matter what your politics. I call for a separation of Sport and State!















Speaking of crazy, The Crazy Horst is a bar in St Pauli run by a legend named Horst. I have written about the bar on this website before, so I won't go on and on about it. But it is nice (and more than a little strange) to have a regular bar in a city so far away from home.

CRUMBS in Berlin

CRUMBS is again in Berlin at the International Festival. The first time CRUMBS ever went to Europe was to this festival way back in 2001. So this trip and tour marks the 10th year anniversary of CRUMBS over in Europe. We are searching for our cake.

The Berlin International Impro Festival 2011 is the largest improvisation festival in Europe and hosts international improv groups showcasing their own unique shows as well as several festival ensembles that workshop together and collaborate on new forms. This year the theme of the festival was "In the Style of...". Groups brought with them a showcase show in the style of a playwright from their country as well as meeting during the festival to work deeper on a few select styles.

The styles that were worked on and presented during the festival?

Tennessee Williams (presented by Unexpected Productions, Seattle, USA)






















August Strindberg (presented by Stockholms Improvisationsteater, Sweden)








































Georg Buechner (presented by Die Gorillas, Berlin, Germany)






















George F. Walker (presented by CRUMBS, Canada)

















Eugene Ionesco (presented by Compagnie Combats Absurdes, France)















William Shakespeare (presented by the Festival Ensemble)






















It was so nice to crawl deep into some actual theatre and have that journey disrupt and affect our improvisation. As Randy Dixon has said we want the shows to taste like who we are being inspired by. It was also nice to work on George F. Walker as an inspiration for our CRUMBS show. This gave s just a little more freedom to allow breathing room in our shows.















The festival in Berlin is amazing, truly. It is when I truly stretch as in improviser and I also tend to use the word truly a lot too. We get the chance to work with players from France, Latvia, Czech, USA, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Slovenia and Austria. In some cases old friends we have worked with before, in other cases brand new humans with brand new ideas and brand new styles. We are truly lucky to be involved with this group of performers on the international stage. Truly.






















This is Dj Gorilla!

So then CRUMBS continues after the festival here in Berlin on to our Euro Touro 2011. Next stop Hamburg!

Improv!

Improv.
Where Acting and Writing and Directing intersect, lies Improvisation. And it isn't done alone in a smoked filled coffee shop, though smoked filled coffee shops that have fueled so many angst filled poems of the past, are themselves a thing of the past now. It is not done in private alone for nobody to judge. Nor in a boardroom with a committee to steer it towards appeasement. No. It is done live in front of the very audience that is there to see it. It is the art form that births the art with everyone in the delivery room. There to see the sticky mess, there to see if the baby is a boy or a girl or stillborn, like the good old days. There are no rehearsals, no re-writes, no second takes, everything that happens is a part of the artwork. The audience gets it all, mistakes and all. And that is why I love it (and hate it).
Improv.

CRUMBS is soon to be on tour!

UPDATE:
The CRUMBS "Berlin or Bust" improv comedy fundraiser is almost here! This is probably the best part of going away, the bon voyage show. This show is Saturday, March 12th at the Gas Station Theatre.

SERIOUSLY:
Call 284-9477 for your tickets today! Don't be the one who shows up and has no ticket because the show SOLD OUT, really do call the theatre NOW and reserve your ticket. DO IT!

PLUS:
We will be screening a short film we made back in 2006. It was only seen by those who attended the WNDX one shot film festival. We shot it with Darren Wall on 16mm black and white film in one continues shot. No editting except for the "in camera" editing. You will want to see the 2006 version of CRUMBS in a film.



The time is almost here when CRUMBS again departs on the annual Euro Touro. Getting everything done before we go is always stressful.

-Doing all our laundry and packing

-Finishing all our improv workshops (Prairie Theatre Exchange, in the High Schools, The Academy of Acting as well as other freelance workshops...)

-Finishing the CRUMBS shows at the King's Head as part of "The Free Laughs Comedy Show". (Our last show was March 1st and did in fact rock!)

-Clean and lock up the CRUMBS Mansion (and hopefully find someone to look after and feed all the animals in the CRUMBS Zoo)


And after making sure all of our "ducks are in a row" and all our "I's are dotted and our T's are crossed" we can then relax as we step aboard the CRUMBS private jet and fly to Europe for yet another tour. We start things off in Berlin at the biggest festival of improvisation in all of Europe. We then tour all over Europe doing our hilarious freestyle comedy show and our amazing improvisational workshops. We then end off our tour in Munich at a TED event where we will be doing a performance and a "talk". We might end up doing our talk on potential misinformation of the cyber media and the laziness of not fact checking before updating a website (click here to understand this joke).

All in all, you should be checking back here for tour updates and for clever and insightful observations, as I will be trying to keep myself sane by posting on this website/blog as often as possible.