Wednesday, November 18

Adsit and Gausus

I need to geek out a moment here and talk about Adsit & Gausus. They're two people - Scott Adsit from 30 Rock and Christina Gausus - two veteran improvisers with some pretty palpable sexual tension (they've made out or boned in two out of the three shows I've seen) and a lot of training and they're fearless and so amazing to watch, always. The whole thing is about simplicity - they just do long, subtle scenes with drama and a bit of comedy, and they never pander to us or themselves. And the scenes never hinge on one pattern or one joke, it's just about them, doing this scene, figuring out who the people are together. When patterns emerge, you only notice because they're real, and you believe them, and it's never forced. Their show is so close to good theater in that way, making everything about the connection between them, starting with nothing except the way they're looking at each other, sizing themselves up at the top of the show.

But then they just blow your mind with the way they set up the last twenty minutes. At the last show I saw, this past Monday, they started with a scene of two people standing at a girl's doorstep after a bad date. By the end of the show, after many other scenes, all of which they intertwine in some way by the end, believably, always, they replayed the doorstep scene with a completely different ending, switching characters, changing it completely, but never having any doubt between them that this was the way it was going now. It's understanding and chemistry and comedy at its smartest and most moving.

So hey - go see them in December at UCB. Also Scott Adsit looks a lot like Peter Boyle.

Sunday, November 15

The Marketing Guys Really Don't Want You to Know Tobey Maguire is a Psychopath in this Movie

Hey guys look it's the trailer for 'Brothers.' I've been seeing posters all over the city and had no idea what the movie is about. Now I know it is a heartfelt romantic dramedy between Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman and that song by the Fray and her two chil---- Oh SHIT! Wait! Tobey Maguire is a crazy Manchurian Candidate-fucked-up zombie and he's coming to kill everyone and his eyes are exploding out of his FACE and--- Oh, wait. Phew. A U2 song. Oh, Sweet sigh of relief! Yeah, I think everything's gonna be alllllllllllllright.

Tuesday, November 10

G-Chatting with Friends


Jocelyn
: oh my face is bleeding
i'll see you later
me: oh good
Jocelyn: ok

Monday, November 9

Mine.

I'm in a play that opens this weekend. I play some songs and mess with some relationships and make some jokes and try not to be awkward. The other actors are wonderful and it should be a lovely little show...


BUY TICKETS! - Discount code MYFRND9 for $15 Tix.

Thursday, November 5

Shrimp Shack Shooters


There's something sad and eerily beautiful about wandering a beach town during the colder months of fall. While the lobster/shrimp/crab/general-seafood shacks are boarded up, there's some fine-ass foliage and a quiet hush and a wood-burning smell.

I'm here in Cape Cod doing a show called The Consequences (by Kyle Jarrow and Nathan Leigh) and we've got the entire Wellfleet Theatre building to ourselves, which has been kind of amazing. Also they put us up in a big, old rustic house where we can cook big dinners and make plans to watch shitty, leftover VHS tapes that have been stranded over the years.

It's nice to get outta NYC for a bit.

Sunday, November 1

I like some songs these days


If you've been reading Boxing Metropolis for a long time (and google analytics tells me 2.63 of you have!) you might say, "Hey Lucas - what happened to all the songs you used to post on here? There used to be a weekly feature with songs you like." To which I would respond, "Maybe I'm busier now and don't have as much time, did you ever think of that?" To which you would reply, "Jesus, calm down, it's not that big a deal," to which I would say, "I'm sorry, I overreacted." And then we'd drink McFlurries and enjoy this post where I list a few songs I like right now.

Surfer Blood - Floating Vibes
Extremely young and precocious Floridians (pictured above) who record their catchy, riff-laden songs on breaks from classes. Their debut album will be out in January.

The Dodos - Small Deaths
One of my favorite albums from last year was the Dodos' "Visiter." Their new one doesn't blow me away, but there's a couple true gems - this opening track included.

Joe Pug - Hymn 101
I'm performing a bunch of Joe Pug songs for a play I'm doing this month and have had to listen to him nonstop, but this one still sticks with me every time I hear it. The man's got a voice on him like no other guy in his mid-twenties I've ever heard and he can surely spin a yarn or two...

Friday, October 30

Has everyone seen this? Is this something everyone has seen? I'm late to the party. This is brilliant.

They locked their friend, tripping on acid, in a bathroom, and recorded what he said. UPDATE: They did not lock their friend in the bathroom. Apparently it's just Dan Deacon speaking "absurdist poetry," and he's not on any kind of narcotics.

Tuesday, October 27

Rise against the demon monoculture


I interviewed the Reverend Billy, a performance artist running for mayor of New York. Though he definitely has no chance of winning, everything he said made sense, and his thoughts on community and neighborhoods and taking the power away from phantom "planners" who have no stake in the areas they're building and re-building were really spot on. I liked him a lot.