Jet Eveleth @ TNM NOLA

Study with Jet Eveleth

If you don’t know about Jet Eveleth, you should.

In short, she’s an improv titan out of Chicago.  She’s taught at Second City and iO, she performs with The Reckoning, and has done a ton of other notable awesome things including this pilot.

Right.  So this badass is coming down to New Orleans this weekend (Feb 3-4) to perform and teach workshops at our theater, The New Movement.  It all goes down on Saturday, Feb 4th

• 12:00pm – 2:00pm @ The New Movement: Playing Honest Improv Workshop
• 2:30pm – 4:30pm @ The New Movement: Physical Improv Workshop
• 10:30pm – 11:30pm @ The Shadwbox: Show featuring Jet and TNM all-stars

As a theater, we try to find moments when we can expose our students  to some of the brightest minds in improv from across the country.  This is one of those times.  Whether you’re a current student, an actor too busy to take regular classes, or just some stranger, you should get in on this.

More info here.

STM @SF Sketchfest: Reviewed by Spinning Platters.com

Review of our SF Sketchfest Show at the Dark Room

Bay Area music/comedy-philes Spinning Platters reviewed our set at the SF Sketchfest.  This is what they said on their fancy internet website:

“From the depths of the Louisiana Bayou, Stupid Time Machine surfaced in the bowels of the Dark Room. The New Orleans-based sketch troupe made complete use of space and time to produce a show of hilariously juvenile imagination. Sharp writing, pitch perfect performances, goofy, and unfiltered: Stupid Time Machine were ‘rimming’ with ambitious, crass, tongue-in-cheek humor. Every character, while appropriately idiotic, was thoroughly three-dimensional, gliding through taboos without a clue or conscious. The entire group impressed but CJ Hunt particularly shined, performing with guttural convention and passion that put many scenes on edge.” – OJ Patterson 1/25/12

For full text of the review click here.  The article also covers our new friends/talented sketch duo Charles.   It is surprisingly difficult to find people who write about comedy without reducing it to just a list of what happened in each sketch;  Spinning Platters nails it with their concise well-written coverage of the whole Sketchfest .  There.  Take that Spinning Platters; we just reviewed YOU!!

Something wonderful on its way

What a month.

While STM was off representing at two big sketch festivals, our theater, The New Movement, has been staging the epic Raising NOLA Comedy Awareness Campaign.  Performing 19 shows in 19 days in 19 venues across the city,  this public service campaign was waged to let the people of New Orleans know what a badass comedy city they live in.  Drawing on this momentum, The New Movement will have the grand opening of our new theater space at 1919 Burgundy on March 2nd.  Until then, you can still catch STM on Tuesdays at the Den.  And you can enjoy repeatedly watching these PSAs.

 

 

STM on the road

STM heads to San Francisco and Chicago Sketchest

Fresh off of performing and leading workshops at the Improv Wins conference in Austin, Stupid Time Machine is hitting the road once again to perform at two of the country’s best sketch comedy festivals.

This weekend, Stupid Time Machine is at Chicago Sketchfest.
We’re playing at stage 733 at the following times:
• Fri, Jan 12th – 8pm @ The Box
• Sat Jan 13th – 8pm @ The Box

Next weekend, we’re at San Francisco Sketchfest playing at
• Fri, Jan 20th, 10pm @ The Dark Room Theater
• Sat Jan 21st , 8:00pm @ The Dark Room Theater 

If you are watching us and want to know more about what we do, check out our theater The New Movement at tnmcomedy.com.  With locations in New Orleans, Austin, and Houston we aim to transform the gulf coast into the next great comedy frontier outside of NY, Chicago, and LA.  Here’s a sample of  two badass upcoming TNM events:

• Megaphone Marathons (July)  – an open improv marathon held over three consecutive weekends in all three New Movement cities.
• The Megaphone Marathons Training Camp (July) – a one-week summer improv intensive with a rigorous focus on stage time.  Spending their days in classes and nights performing for paying audiences, training camp participants end the week with a festival performance at the Megaphone Marathons. Email TNMcjhunt@gmail.com for more info.

Hell Yes Fest Comes to New Orleans

HELL YES FEST: New Orleans Comedy Week (11/9 – 11/12)

It’s here, folks.  Hell Yes Fest has touched down in New Orleans.

Beginning on Weds, Nov 9th, Hell Yes Fest will bring New Orleans four days of non-stop comedy including local talent and national fame from NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Austin, Houston, The New Movement, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and iO.   Held each year in Austin in April and New Orleans in November, Hell Yes Fest seeks out some of the nations most talented comedians, improvisers, and sketch groups, and brings them to our respective badass cities for four days of greatness.  The concept is simple: There is no call for submissions. There is no selection committee. There is only awesome comedy shows and parties. Hell Yes.
For more info on performers, visit: http://www.hellyesfest.com

You can catch Stupid Time Machine performing in Hell Yes Fest’s Thursday night improv mini-marathons.  8pm @ The Shadowbox Theater.

Just Plane Fun (Thanksgiving Edition)

 

With the holiday travel season approaching, many of us anxiously await those dreaded travel days filled with impossibly long airport lines, invasive pat downs, exorbitant airline fees, and so much else that has stolen the joy from the flying experience.  In an effort to brighten up the many hours wasted in transit, we bring you this edition of

JUST PLANE FUN  

When on airplane, here are some fun things you can do to make your fellow passengers…

1.) …Terrified

After the plane reaches a comfortable cruising altitude and the peanuts/pretzels have been handed out, stand up from your seat suddenly.  With a shriek, hold your backpack over your head.  While nervously fumbling with the zipper to open the bag, proclaim “attention infidels, prepare to die.”

• Variation:
  Continue the sentence, “prepare to die…of laughter.”  At this point, produce from your bag a pair of comically large novelty glasses. Put them on and stumble about the cabin, groping the air in front of you as if you cannot see well in these glasses.  The audience will quickly come to love this and may even begin chiming in “it’s the glasses; take off the glasses; they are too big for you.”  Also you won’t get arrested.

2.) …Uncomfortable   

After the plane has reached a comfortable cruising altitude and the cabin has grown incredibly quiet, pull your legs up to your chest so that you are bunched into the fetal position in your seat.  Turning away from the neighboring passengers in your row (preferably towards the window) announce in a soft quivering voice just loud enough be clearly audible in the silence of the cabin: “I’m going to cum.”  Then maintain 100% eye contact with anyone who turns to look at you.

• Variation:
  Add a hooded sweatshirt

3.) …Excited

After the plane has reached a comfortable cruising altitude and the passengers have enjoyed their complementary in-flight beverage service, stand up suddenly in the main aisle of the plane.  In one grand motion, throw into the air a handful of one-dollar-bills that you have taken from your wallet, and in your best game-show-announcer voice, declare, “ladies and gentlemen, welcome to money plane!!” (be sure to stretch out the vowel sound in the last word so it is more like “plaaaaaaaane”)  Then sit down.  While people may be confused about what is happening, they are guaranteed to be excited.  It is the confusion itself that will excite them the most.  “Am I going to get money on this plane?  Is the plane made of money?  Whatever it is, I love it!!”

• Variation:
  After throwing the money into the air and making your announcement, remain in the isle and begin to clap.
  Continue clapping until 70-85 percent of the other passengers are clapping.
  Then put on the glasses. 

Enjoy your flight.

Love,

Stupid Time Machine

Coming Home

Dear STM/TNM Family,

This is a big week.  Our good friends Chris Trew and Tami Nelson have just moved back to New Orleans.  In addition to being our friends, they are badass improvisors and the genius brains who started The New Movement.   Having built TNM up into an improv juggernaut in Austin, they have returned to their home city to join us in building the comedy theater this city deserves.  It is ON in NOLA.  And, boy, have we got a packed week for you.

AIRSEX
Tue, July 12th (10pm – 1am)
@ One Eyed Jack’s (615 Toulouse Street) 

Airsex: Shhhh....its a secret

After the weekly Stupid Time Machine show at the Howling Wolf Den, head on over to One Eye’d Jacks for Airsex.
What is Airsex, you ask?  Well, it’s a lot like Air Guitar, but instead of rocking out with an imaginary guitar, you’re making sweet and/or filthy love with an imaginary sex partner. You choose a clip of music, you show up in whatever sort of wardrobe you like, and you come up on stage and show everyone how you do it. Or how you wish you could do it. Or how you once had it done to you, and oh my god was that a bad idea and while it’s embarrassing to show that act to a room of strangers, you know that you need to do it now in order to make sure that no one else falls down the same rabbit hole you got stuck inside. Or, you know, just do it however you want.  The night will be hosted by Chris Trew, and will feature a half-time act by New Orleans native and nationally touring comedian Sean Patton.

• Find out more about the rules here.
• See some video of airsex athletes here.

MEGAPHONE NIGHT
Wed, July 13th (7pm – 10pm)
@ The Shadowbox Theater  (2400 St. Claude Ave) 

Every month we host Megaphone Night – an opportunity to check out the classes, shows, and community at The New Movement.  It’s like a one night stand with improv that will leave you feeling wonderful the next morning.

7:00p: Improv Zero – Free
Our free intro-to-improv class. No experience or RSVP necessary – just show up and we’ll show you our style of improv!

8:00p: The Shootaround – Free
Our open-to-anyone improv show featuring performers from The New Movement and people who have never performed before. Seriously, just jump up and play with us!

9:30p: The Megaphone Show – $5 (or FREE if you participate in Improv Zero)
Our flagship event takes the monologues of a local celebrity and spins them into live comedy. Featuring members of Stupid Time Machine, Chris and Tami and more.

This month’s guest storyteller is Lauren Thom from Fleurty Girl!

For more info on The New Movement, visit http://nolaimprov.com/. We teach improv comedy classes and are building a full time comedy theater in NOLA.  We’re now registering summer  classes (Weds 7:00pm ) and (Sun 12:00pm).  To register or find out more, contact Tami Nelson at: tami@newmovementtheater.com or (504) 302 8264

CHRIS AND TAMI DEBUT IN NEW ORLEANS
Sat, July 16th (8:30 – 9:30)
@ The Shadowbox Theater (2400 Saint Claude Ave)

Chris and Tami are New Orleans natives who have spent the last 5 years touring the country, headlining comedy festivals and starting The New Movement in Austin, Tx. They are officially back to join the Movement already in progress in New Orleans.

This is their debut show as Nola residents. They are very excited and hope to see you there.

“A fiercely enjoyable brain warp of a time” – The Austin Chronicle

The show is $5 (free for TNM students)

STM Goes to L.A.

We are proud to announce that later this month we will be traveling to L.A. to do a run of our sketch revue All Beepers Go to Heaven on the mainstage at iO West.

After touring this show throughout the south, and bringing it to the Chicago Sketchfest and the invitation-only Hell Yes Fest, we couldn’t be more excited to deliver our latest sketch show to the smart hungry audience of iO West.  Should you be in LA or have people there who would enjoy the show, direct them here to access tickets and more info about the show.  Part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival, the show will run June 22nd, 23rd, 23th, and 26th at iO West with a special Midnight performance at The Complex Theaters on June 24th.

Get a Sneak Peek (Thu, June 9th) 

Can’t make it to L.A.? No worries.  For our friends and fans in New Orleans, we will stage a sneak peek performance of All Beepers at 9pm this Thursday, June 9th at the Shadowbox Theater.   For more info, click here.

Help us get to L.A.

In order to pay for travel, renting theater space, and the various other costs associated with the tour, the members of Stupid Time Machine have been taking turns doing “odd jobs” around town. These jobs have included participating in various underground “fighting rings,” selling our blood to a number of official and unofficial “blood houses”, and allowing our teammate Mike to be filmed in a  “modeling video” .  If you’d like to help us preserve our dignity and get to LA, and win some sweet “prizes” for yourself at the same time, click here.

The Marathons Come to Town

If you are wondering what we are building here in New Orleans, we strongly recommend you check out the following two things:

1.) The Megaphone Marathons
Friday, June 3rd – Saturday, June 4th (10pm – 2am)
Shadowbox Theater (2400 St. Claude Ave) 

It starts with a question.

What would happen if we took some of the best improv teams from the Megaphone family of theaters (TNM NOLA, TNM Austin, and our cousin theater the Dallas Comedy House), combined them with great teams from throughout the country, and had one big non-stop improv festival that would take place not simply in one city, but would travel to multiple cities for three consecutive weekends?

The Megaphone Marathons is the answer to that question.  The most ambitious improv festival in the history of improv festivals, the Megaphone Marathons features nearly 100 shows in 4 cities over 3 consecutive weekends.   Presented by The New Movement, Improv Wins and Studio8.net. The Marathons come to New Orleans this weekend.  Running from 10pm -2am on Friday and Saturday, the Marathons will give birth to 33 different shows right there on the floor of the Shadowbox Theater.  You better be ready for this.

• A $10 pass gets you into all shows for the night.
• Be sure to join us for the afterparty both nights at the Lost Love Lounge.

2.) Stupid Time Machine – Live at the Howlin’ Wolf
(Featuring: Level 2 Student Showcase)
Tuesday, June 7th (8:30pm)
The Howlin’ Wolf Den (907 S. Peters Street)

Join us Tuesday, June 7th for our new weekly show at the Howlin’ Wolf Den.  Performing every Tuesday at 8:30pm, we kick off the night with a new opening act each week.

On this night the show will be opened by our newest batch of level two graduates from the TNM Nola Training Center.

They will be performing under the team name ‘The Philosophers’.  We hope to god they will be wearing pants.

The Philosophers

Moving on up

Dear peoples,

Back from a great weekend at the Dallas Comedy House, we are gearing up for a big week next week.  Here is some info on all the great goings-on.

1.) Our New Spot

For those of you long-time STM fans, you know that our weekly improv show has had many homes over the years: the Avenue Pub, the Factory, that burnt-out dining car down at the train yard, the underwater lego fortress, etc.  Next Tuesday, our weekly show moves on up to the Den at The Howlin’ Wolf.

With the mainstage of Howlin’ Wolf hosting some of the biggest music acts in the city, the Den is a more intimate venue inside the club, complete with a full bar, food, and now your favorite improv group.   So join us and lets get back to proving that Tuesday’s don’t have to be the second shittiest day of the week.

Tuesday 5/24  (8:30pm)
The Den at The Howlin’ Wolf
907 South Peters street| in the Warehouse District.
Doors open at 8:00pm (Tickets: $5)

2.) Megaphone Night and Classes in May

We are now registering spring and summer improv classes with The New Movement.  We are currently enrolling our next class set to begin in June, and for those of you who can’t wait until then, we may have a few spaces in a class set to begin on Saturday May 21st.  If you are interested in either of those, you can reserve your space in the class by contacting Tami Nelson: Tami@newmovementtheater.com or (504) 302 8264

Interest in trying improv? Well come on out and get a taste at:

Megaphone Night
Thursday, May 26th (7-10pm)
Shadowbox Theater (2400 St. Claude Ave)

Held once a month, Megaphone Night is a 3-hour improv extravaganza featuring

Improv Zero: a free improv class

The Shootaround: a free jam where anyone can play

The Megaphone Show: Our trademark show presented by an all star cast of TNM improvisers and a special guest storyteller.

This month our special guest storyteller is The Local Skank.  This all-girl (one guy) ska/pop/punk band has been burning it up in New Orleans and is just about to release a new calendar and feature-packed DVD before hitting the road on a tour of the east coast.   You will fall in love with them in a way that will linger with you long after you’ve moved on and started a happy new relationship.

Then join us for drinks, delicious Vietnamese food, and hushed suggestive conversation at the after party  at the Lost Love Lounge.

3.) Shawn Dugas is a genius

Props to our good friend and TNM NOLA student Shawn Dugas who just WON on last night’s episode of Wheel of Fortune.  Shawn is a genius and master of luck who has made us all feel like winners by association.  He will be at Megaphone Night dancing as he did on the final minutes of the broadcast.   It is the type of dancing that will make you want to rip off your shirt and have him right there.  Ladies, this is what he looks like.   And this is what he looks like through the keyhole of a department store dressing room.