“A Cat Video,” starring Gloria DuBois Berru France — shown at Josh Fadem’s Acid Reflux Hour last Sunday — is certainly not the last Hollywood will ever see of said pet. Unfortunately.
Infamous for her laziness and stupidity, Gloria has been making the rounds among comedy scenesters in hopes of friendship-based bookings. The Coming was treated to a behind-the-scenes look at this anti-wunderkind’s body of work.
Profiles thecoming 07 Jun 2007 3 Comments
by M. Berru
Popular comedy troupe Kasper Hauser is infinitely more entertaining than an omelette, even one from the tasty Alcove Café in Los Feliz. I discovered this last week, when we met for an early breakfast interview before their flight back to San Francisco. The group had performed at the Comedy Central Stage in Hollywood the previous night, delighting the audience with Powerpoint presentations, fake pregnancies, monks, and ill-fated karate kicks. John Reichmuth — who wore sunglasses for the duration of the morning, distinguishing him from his twin brother, James — suggested I turn to fellow groupmates Dan Klein or Rob Baedeker if dealing with the four of them got overwhelming.
“We promise if we ever tell you something that’s not true,” says Dan, sensing my difficulty in assessing John’s dry sarcasm, “someone will say ‘that’s not true.’”
“That’s not true,” John quips, and the table laughs.
Kasper Hauser are a well-known sketch troupe based in San Francisco and have participated in such acclaimed events as San Francisco Sketch Fest and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. They published their first book, SkyMaul: Happy Crap You Can Buy From a Plane, in October 2006, and their popular podcast was an iTunes staff favorite last year. Though at first glance they may appear to be your average sketch troupe, I got the distinct sense from the group that Kasper Hauser haven’t gotten to where they are — or where they’re going — by any traditional comedy model.
The foursome met at a Stanford University summer camp in Lake Tahoe. James and John, inevitable performers who grew up in Ashland, Oregon — a place they describe as being “funky and thespian” — soon drew the attention of Rob and Dan (who both hailed from Southern California).
“The first time [Dan] saw us perform he came up to me afterwards and said that he wanted to be my agent,” says John.
“There was a lot of alcohol,” Dan responds.
“At camp?” I ask.
“It was an alcohol camp,” says John. “For heroin addicts.” They immediately began performing together at the camp.
After a couple of “false starts,” as James puts it (including a paying college dorm show, whose profits went to the always-reliable causes of pizza and beer), the timing wasn’t quite right. In the next five years, Dan, James, John, and Rob would collaborate in various forms creatively while each pursued his own career. It’s here that the comedy troupe’s path deviates sharply from the norm.
Interviews & Profiles thecoming 03 May 2007 No Comments
by M. Berru
Jazz, playing the role of Center Shadow, watches her favorite show. Photo by m. berru, 2006.
Jazz Ponce wants you to know that she loves you. You’re a performer, right? She’s seen you at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, or in the basement of the Ramada Inn on Vermont? Yeah, she loves you forever.
I met with Jazz at the Steve Allen Theater, home to some of L.A.’s “most alternative” alternative comedy. The setting was more than appropriate; the Tomorrow Show at the Steve Allen—a live variety show every Saturday night at midnight, hosted by Craig Anton, Ron Lynch, and Brendon Small—was where Jazz first experienced “the scene.”
The 25 year-old is usually accompanied by her best friend, Fermin, and mother, Melinda. Jazz has joked with Fermin that they are “the Will and Grace of our time.” Melinda finds that comedy shows are helpful for stress relief. The trio have been affectionately dubbed “The Lynch Mob,” after co-host Ron Lynch, and have been recognized regular attendees at comedy shows since October of 2005.
Profiles thecoming 05 Apr 2007 5 Comments
by M. Berru
“A really nice lady” is how Jesse Thorn—the 25 year-old producer and voice of popular radio show and podcast The Sound of Young America—described me on-air, a day after this interview. I may or may not live up to the bespectacled, tweed-wearing, briefcase-toting image that “really nice lady” brings to mind, but then, what exactly did I picture when I planned my Saturday afternoon with a man who semi-ironically calls himself “America’s Radio Sweetheart”? It certainly wasn’t what happened—boba tea in a Koreatown coffeeshop, where “This Ain’t a Scene, It’s an Arms Race” by Fall Out Boy played not once, but twice, in the background. Musical backdrop aside, what I did expect from our discussion was provided by Mr. Thorn in spades; we two comedy nerds had a stimulating intellectual conversation about the alternative comedy scene, the internet, our favorite idols, podcasts, and Thorn’s own ambitions and shortcomings. Self-conscious of “the myth that interviews are about anything other than self-promotion in a very uncomfortable way,” as Thorn puts it, his existence is also simply one that contributes to the collage of unique personalities found in the L.A. comedy community.
Interviews & Profiles thecoming 27 Mar 2007 2 Comments
