CRUMBS in Hamburg

The suggestions were = sword & advertising illustrator

We start with Dennis Franklin carries on his father's rat trap business but business is slow and needs some new advertising.

Then we go to the museum of "Really Old Stuff", it holds as its central exhibit, a half sword. The other half is lodged in the heart of a warrior killed in battle hundreds of years ago. He rises from his unmarked grave and seeks the other half of the sword.

The rat trap execs go to advertising firm “Joe's Advertising” (after jokes about computers and porn). The advertising firm riffs on slogans. (A sample slogan for diet coffee “on a diet? Try it”)

We meet the two old security guards of the museum, they have worked together for years but have never really hung out and decide to take lunch together. It turns out that they both go to the same place “Frank's Italian Restaurant” and also always order the same thing “spaghetti and red wine”. The alarm goes off at the museum while they are becoming best friends.

We meet Sally/Margharita and Donny, who are cool kids at school who also love the latest trendy rat traps from Japan. They make a date to go down to the ravine together to trap rats, which is where teenagers go to make out.

Joe, with the help of the old janitor Charlie, comes up with a campaign that involves a cartoon rat that is so cute and wants to be caught by a Franklin rat trap.

The kids meet the warrior at the ravine and Margharita falls for the warrior and helps him find the owner of the sword, which has Franklin engraved on the hilt. (Jokes about how to pronounce sword)

The two old guards (Hank with a wife and kids + Georgee and his ugly dog) realize that one of them has to take the fall, Georgee makes the sacrifice. But upon getting home to his dog realizes his dog can track the swords whereabouts.

The warrior confronts Franklin and an epic battle ensues between sword and rat trap. In the final clash, sword and trap are fused in a burst...

This then transforms into part of the pitch for the ad campaign selling the rat traps. A movie... the best kind of commercial in the world.

Here is some fan art of the final print ad that Franklin's Rat Traps made. (hooray for fan art)

CRUMBS prays for CANADA

And when I say "pray" I mean hope and wish and plead that Canada doesn't hand Harper a majority government (and for that matter, I hope we don't give him a minority one either). I don't mean "pray" as in the activity that actually does no good at all.

The election approaches and the polls keep pointing at a Harper majority, though the polls cannot be trusted as they are land line phone polls and:
1) Who has a land line anymore?
2)Who even answers the questions that they ask?

There is some mobilization to get the youth out to vote, the best so far is:

ShitHarperDid
Oh yeah, you can better use your vote to defeat Harper by using this handy-dandy voting tool. Just click on the link HERE. It lets you know what best to vote against Conservative in your riding.

Thank you,
CRUMBS

CRUMBS show in the style of Walker Part 2

An accountant (suggestion #1) who has stolen money and he evades the gangsters who are after him. He leaves behind his wife a child. He travels in classic "stealing a bunch of money" style, with a suitcase stuffed with cash.

We meet his son who allergic to bees and has an epipen. Epipen is suggestion #2 and we actually get an epipen from someone in the audience (who is allergic to bee stings, we of course tell him that any time during the show, if he gets stung to just grab the epipen). Oh oh, Dad accidentally brought the epipen with him when he left... Oops.

We meet the gangsters (one tall, one small) follow him to a hotel he is hiding out in.

His son falls for a school girl who makes him pick flowers. Flowers means bees, bees mean bee stings... Oops. He gets stung by a bee.

The gangsters catch up with dad but then he kills gangster by stabbing the epipen in the gangsters back.

Visits wife and son at hospital, but then he must continue to live in hiding. Another tragic ending for CRUMBS and Walker.

CRUMBS show in the style of Walker Part 1

The Festival in Berlin had a theme this year, and it was improv performances in the style of... CRUMBS were asked to choose a Canadian playwright and after researching the topic we discovered that Canada indeed had some playwrights. We then chose George F. Walker. It then turned out that Walker was the only living playwright included in the Berlin Festival. This is the first show we did.

It started out with a cop who had gone bad (police was one of the suggestions). He has turned in his badge and gun and misses them badly. His partner is still crooked and is still dealing drugs.

He visits a mob boss at a cafe (lee has little no coffee knowledge) to try and get some more drugs and keep working in the criminal underworld. His wife is pregnant and he doesn't know. He becomes a mall cop to make ends meet (of course all his cop buddies make fun of him).

He is instructed to deliver a mysterious stuffed bunny (which is the other suggestion from the audience, but actually in the form of an actual stuffed bunny). He is also instructed to kill the chief of police. His wife thinks the stuffed bunny is for her and keeps it.

So, he fucks up, kills police chief, his partner dies... It doesn't end well for this crooked cop.

CRUMBS takes pictures

CRUMBS on tour in Europe (yet again) and taking a ton of photos (yet again). Here are some of those photos for your eyeballs. The above photo is Lee and myself in the Crazy Horst bar, our local bar whenever we are in Hamburg.

This is Germany's most famous hand model showing off his talents with our CRUMBS flyer.

















And this is a poster of Horst advertising a book he is in that has famous words from famous Hamburg pub owners. He is saying something about peacocks... translate it.






















Backstage at our show in Hamburg at the Motte.

















Crazy Balloon?

CRUMBS makes a short film

CRUMBS makes a short film in a couple of hours and then waits years to finally share it with people?

This was shot in 2006 on a 16mm Bolex on one roll of film in one shot as part of the WNDX One Shot Festival. It was shot using "in camera" editing and "in the moment" acting. The music was mixed by Dj Hunnicutt. The camera was operated by Darren Wall. The film was directed by Stephen Sim and stars Stephen Sim and Lee White.


Next post will be an update about the CRUMBS shows we have done. Someone came up to me after the CRUMBS show in Hamburg and told me that he appreciates the updates where the shows are summarized. He said it reminded him of when he used to keep a dream journal. So for those that have seen the shows or cannot see the shows, I will try my darndest to update with pictures and details from each show.

Thank you for reading this.