CRUMBS still away

 CRUMBS continues the tour in Europe. CRUMBS continues to bring Canadian improv to the "Old World". CRUMBS continues to lead master classes in the art of improvisation. CRUMBS still have some European shows left. 

You still have a chance to see CRUMBS live in Europe.

Oct 30th Marburg KFZ – Kulturladen
Oct 31st Berlin Ratibor Theater
Nov 1st Hamburg Motte
Nov 4th Graz Orpheum
Nov 6th Vienna TAG
Nov 12th Baden Kulturlokal Merkker
Nov 15th Amsterdam Polanentheater

Nov 16th The Hague Venue tba

But if, let's say, you're not in Europe and you need your improv fix. You could always go to the King's Head Pub on a Tuesday and catch the comedy and improv shows there. Outside Joke is filling in for CRUMBS while the tour is on. In fact, Outside Joke is even putting on their own season of improv shows at the Gas Station Arts Centre throughout the year. They have some amazing guests coming in to town to do shows with and do workshops with. You should probably check that out... if you have money left over after buying plane tickets to Europe to catch our shows.

So CRUMBS continues to do our shows and teach our workshops...

We also go to Carnivals

We play pinball

And take strange pictures in Panorama mode

When CRUMBS were in Bremen and Munich

We then made some stops on our tour. Our CRUMBs tour is sometimes a whirlwind, sometimes even a worldwind.

Bremen

Bremen is a nice town. Known most being the home of Beck's beer. Most German's consider it to be like the McDonald's of beer...

This time in Bremen was one of those times where CRUMBS splits in two and "double teams" Europe. Stephen teaches in one town and Lee teaches in another. In this case it was Stephen in Bremen and Lee in Karlsruhe. All I can say is that the workshops and the good times in Bremen were had (and from what we know, the good times were had in Karlsruhe too). 

P.S. I had the most wonderful Schnapps in Bremen. Lee had some horrible Schnapps in Karlsruhe.

Munich

Now Munich is always nice. It's always nice to us because we have the lovely folks at Isar 148 to take care of us. We ended up doing a show in a big tent (not our first tent mind you). The show was wonderful, as the crowds in Munich are always so pumped to have us in their town.

The show: Inspirations: "tweezers" and "love (butterflies in the stomach)"

The story followed two medical students at "The Best God Damn" Medical School. One of the students would faint at the sight of blood, so the other decided to help cure him of this most unfortunate affliction. The best idea he had for this was of course, forcing him to stab him in the eye. Bad idea, his eye goo all oozed out and he was blinded. As a result, they were kicked out of the school. The get reinstated they realized their best chance was to find a cure for an eye being stabbed. Let's just say that after stabbing the other eye, eventually both eyes were cured. Happy ending right?

The other story followed two roommates. One having the best day, the other having the worst day. The best day guy, let's call him Josh, had just met a girl and it was love at first sight. The worst day guy, let's call him Dave, had just realized his life was shit, his job was shit and he had nothing to live for. It gets kind of complicated, but, Josh almost loses his girl, she was choosing her career over love. She eventually gets to climb the corporate ladder in the calculator redistributing business and have love too. In fact, it was love that melted the heart of the "asshole" client who won her the promotion. Dave finds music and realizes that maybe life is worth living. More happy endings.

P.S. "tweezers" while not directly mentioned in the show, inspired the medical school story thread… really… it did.

CRUMBS in Bremen

CRUMBS again had a stop in Bremen on our tour. Last time we were here we had the amazing time at a 1200 year old fair. It was like a better version of the Red River Ex. We ate great food (corn on the cob, fried mushrooms, crepes, potato pancakes) we won prizes (for shooting guns at targets. Lee happens to be a sharpshooter). This year however, there was no fair while we were there. So we had to just do a show and not have the fun of a 1200 year old fair. Good thing our hosts Gunter and Nicole are so nice. Next time though, we're gonna try and make sure there's a fair going on.

The show was inspired by “Washroom Attendant” (AKA Toilet Lady) and “Wedding Ring” (AKA Marriage Hole... Just kidding, that's a totally different thing that I should probably not even mention).

The first story involved two buddies (Hank and Darryl). Darryl goes on lot's of dates because of the internet dating sites and has recently met someone special after having a lot of dates that didn't work out.

 

Hank, feeling lonely, and never having been on a date asks for Darryl's help. In fact, he figures that because Darryl has had so much experience, he should just have a date with the lady that Darryl has just dated. Hank doesn't really understand how these things work. After some hilariously disastrous dates and some hilarious misunderstandings about a number of things (his fear of horses, his opinion about blind people) he and Darryl have a fight.

 

It turns out that Darryl actually has a fear of his own, a fear of numbers. He and his lady break up (her name is Princess) and he checks himself into a number rehabilitation facility. When he gets out, cured, he finds that Princess and Hank have gotten engaged... with a wedding ring... a WEDDING RING!

*Some audience members maight have complained before the encore that wedding ring, while hinted at, wasn't ACTUALLY mentioned. Well, we made up for that in the encore.

The second story followed a couple of Washroom Attendants. In Europe it is quite common for public washrooms to have attendants. It is quite common for you to have to pay 50 cents to use the facilities. And it is quite common that the washrooms are just as dirty as if there was no such attendant.

Anyways, the attendants (Maureen and Barry) are just starting to get to know each other, which it turns out is against the rules of the washroom attendant book of conduct. Maureen it turns out is a bit of a rebel and attends to the needs of the public at washrooms out of a natural and intuitive instinct. Barry it turns out is actually studying Micro-Nuclear-Physics, actually trying to develop really tiny nuclear bombs to fight against insects.

 

Barry turns down Maureen's obvious advances, but then when she is threatened with losing her job for not following the rules, he stands up for her and they both get fired. Barry and Maureen end up running away together. Him to start a nuclear program in a small Middle Eastern country, and her to open up her own washroom business there.

Bremen. Good times.

CRUMBS IN Bremen, Germany

We arrived in Bremen to a hot hot day. Spring had evaded Europe up until now, it seems that Spring is now invading Europe (but you know, not in a WW2 kinda way). It is great to have some beautiful weather finally, but beautiful weather makes it hard to convince people to escape the beauty to sit in a dark theatre to watch a couple of Canadians do some “make'em ups”. Thankfully, the theatre was full in Bremen.



The show suggestions were “Sex in the City” which I tried not to take (we used it anyways, though quite briefly), “Pencil” and “Camping”.

Cut to a couple of guys in the woods setting up camp, they are there for a manly weekend of “roughing it” and also to escape from the girl that broke one of their hearts. It turns out that one of them thought that roughing it included not bringing anything out to the woods and really surviving like the cavemen did. The other, who is the one with the broken heart, brought a tent, and food, and a lighter, and a need to express his grief.




We then jump to an art class where Ramone is learning to become an artist. He gets caught “cheating” by his art teacher when she sees him looking at other people's art. It turns out that Ramone has a gift for doodling amusing comics of people that annoy him. Later we see him with his buddy at a bar complaining about the art class, his buddy reassures him of his talent.


The two guys in the woods argue about what it means to be best friends and to “rough it”. Meanwhile, Tanya (the former girlfriend of broken-hearted guy in woods) is being hit on by a co-worker named Rocco. Rocco is the epitome of manly man, the perfect example of “meat head”, he is exactly what a “douche bag” is when not referring to it as a feminine hygiene product. She turns him down, as she is still having feeling for her freshly broken-hearted boy. Rocco decides to sneak into the woods to scare the boys, because that is what assholes like him do.


Now it turns out that everyone keeps talking about the woods and the mysterious murders that have taken place there. This freaks out the broken-hearted boy (who perhaps had a name, but jeez, I just can't remember it).


Ramone finds success with his doodles, sells a piece, and becomes a professional artist. This attracts the attention of one of the art students and they end up getting married even though she seems to be interested in Ramone for the art fame.


The boy and the girl get back together. Rocco and the other guy become friends (by hunting rabbits with their bare hands). They all four also end up finding and catching the “demon” that has been wandering the woods and murdering. This included Tanya's father, one the boy's uncle, and Rocco's aunt. The “demon” turned out to be the mayor of town who was trying to scare people out of the woods so he could buy it and make it into a mall... And he would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for those kids...