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Cinematic Titanic in York, PA [message #184188] Sat, 21 January 2012 00:03 Go to next message
eichlerSPAMBGONE2 is currently offline  eichlerSPAMBGONE2
Messages: 26
Registered: November 2012
Karma: 0
Junior Member
I just got back from the Cinematic Titanic show in York, PA, and
it was great. My first time seeing a live MST3K-style show, so
I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be even better
than I was hoping for.

It was just a 45 minute or so drive to the theater, so I'm glad I
happened to see a commercial for it on TV about a week ago or I
wouldn't have even known about it. The show was actually really
well promoted - I saw the TV commercial a few times, and they had
a cover story about CT in the local freebie entertainment newspaper.

Tickets were almost sold out by the time I found out about the
show, but I managed to snag 3 pretty good seats up in the second
row of the balcony. The theater seemed filled to capacity by
showtime - if it wasn't a sell out, it was close.

The evening started with a comedian coming out and telling a bunch
of jokes about York. So I figured it must be a local guy, but he
looked so familiar...eventually one of the CT crew identified him
as Gruber from the old Comedy Central show The Higgins Boys and
Gruber. An unexpected bonus.

I also didn't know that each of the Cinematic Titanic folks was
going to come out and do a solo bit before the show. Mary Jo read
a few excerpts from her new book (literally a word from this page,
a word from that page, etc). Frank came out and did stand-up for
a while, and then Gruber came out and joined him for a bunch of
jokes about the Vietnamese new year or something like that. It
kind of bombed, but just watching TV's Frank kind of force his
way through it while simultaneously acknowledging that it wasn't
working was funny.

Josh had a bass guitar set up on stage and would come out and
play a little music behind each of the other performers, with
the highlight being a solo performance of the MST3K theme song.
He also played a duet of "Year of the Cat" with Gruber,
who changed the lyrics around and made comments about them.

Trace read a couple poems from a new illustrated book of poems
for children that he's written. Finally Joel came out and did
a magic trick where he tore up a newspaper and then restored it
to one piece right before our eyes. Even though I know how the
trick is done, he's so smooth with it that it caught me by
surprise.

After that the lights went down, the CT crew took their spots
at the sides of the stage and we were treated to first class
riffing of a really lame 70s "horror" movie called Rattlers.
I was laughing almost non-stop for an hour and a half, but I'm
having trouble remembering very many specific riffs. I know
at one point a couple boys go out to play and as their
fathers watch them run off someone said "You kids stay away
from the Sandusky place!", which was risky (this being Penn
State territory and all) but got lots of laughs.

The movie was about a bunch of snakes that get driven into a
homicidal frenzy by a chemical weapon dumped in the desert by
the military. During a scene where the main characters were
wandering in the desert, someone (I'm thinking it was Josh)
yelled "Watch out for snakes!", prompting one of the others
to say "How did you know about that?"

My only complaint is that it's often hard to tell who is
saying what on stage. It seemed like Frank and Josh hardly
talked at all, but I'm sure they did and I just didn't
recognize their voices and attributed their lines to Joel
and Trace. On the other hand, it was easy to tell Mary Jo's
lines (as the only female voice), and Joel sounded like Joel
and Trace often sounded like Crow, so they weren't hard to
pick out. And really, it didn't really matter who was
saying the lines most of the time - it was still funny.

After the movie the members of CT all came out to the lobby
to sign autographs and shake hands. I was kind of surprised
that about half of the crowd left right away, but the line
to meet the cast still snaked all around the lobby. While
waiting half an hour or so in line, I thought of witty things
to say to each one of them, but then when my time came and
I'm suddenly standing in front of Joel, I got so star-struck
that all I could do was hand him my Amazing Colossal Episode
Guide and mumbled something stupid like "good show". At
least I got to shake hands with Joel, Mary Jo, Josh, Frank
and Trace and got all their autographs on the book to go
along with the Mike and Kevin autographs I got at Exoticon
in New Orleans 13 years ago (wow, it hardly seems possible
that it was so long ago).

Oh, and when Josh came out for his bit at the beginning of
the show, he introduced himself as "Everyone's least favorite
Tom Servo...I read the internet, I know." So I really wanted
to tell him in person that I've always preferred his Servo
to Kevin's (of course they're both great, but for some
reason I just like Josh's droll take on the character more
than Kevin's somewhat manic in-your-face style). But when
I was actually standing across the table from him, it
completely slipped my mind. So Josh, if you really do read
the internet - hope you see this.

Anyway, if the show comes anywhere near you, make every
effort to go see it. I dragged my wife and daughter along,
and they both loved it too even though they're not big
MST3K geeks like me. After I came out of the handshake
line, my daughter commented that she's never seen a bigger
goofy grin on my face.

Oh, and take lots of money. I dropped $40 at the merchandise
table and was wishing I had brought more cash.

-- Bob "Bice" Eichler, ex-r.a.t.m.m poster and long-time lurker
Re: Cinematic Titanic in York, PA [message #184189 is a reply to message #184188] Sat, 21 January 2012 00:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Jim Ellwanger is currently offline  Jim Ellwanger
Messages: 40
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
Member
In article <4f1a3cb7.1886736448@news.eternal-september.org>,
eichlerSPAMBGONE2@comcastsucksbecausetheydontsupportuse.net (Bice)
wrote:

> My only complaint is that it's often hard to tell who is
> saying what on stage. It seemed like Frank and Josh hardly
> talked at all, but I'm sure they did and I just didn't
> recognize their voices and attributed their lines to Joel
> and Trace.

I've gotten to sit up close for a couple of CT live shows in Los
Angeles, so I can assure you that Frank and Josh do tend to have just as
many lines as the other three.

Good to "see" you back here in RATMM, if only temporarily!

--
Jim Ellwanger <usenet@ellwanger.tv>
<http://www.ellwanger.tv> welcomes you daily.
"The days turn into nights; at night, you hear the trains."
Re: Cinematic Titanic in York, PA [message #184291 is a reply to message #184188] Sat, 21 January 2012 11:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Reaper G is currently offline  Reaper G
Messages: 39
Registered: November 2012
Karma: 0
Member
On Jan 20, 9:03 pm,
eichlerSPAMBGO...@comcastsucksbecausetheydontsupportuse.net (Bice)
wrote:
> I just got back from the Cinematic Titanic show in York, PA, and
> it was great.  My first time seeing a live MST3K-style show, so
> I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be even better
> than I was hoping for.
>
> It was just a 45 minute or so drive to the theater, so I'm glad I
> happened to see a commercial for it on TV about a week ago or I
> wouldn't have even known about it.  The show was actually really
> well promoted - I saw the TV commercial a few times, and they had
> a cover story about CT in the local freebie entertainment newspaper.
>
> Tickets were almost sold out by the time I found out about the
> show, but I managed to snag 3 pretty good seats up in the second
> row of the balcony.  The theater seemed filled to capacity by
> showtime - if it wasn't a sell out, it was close.
>
> The evening started with a comedian coming out and telling a bunch
> of jokes about York.  So I figured it must be a local guy, but he
> looked so familiar...eventually one of the CT crew identified him
> as Gruber from the old Comedy Central show The Higgins Boys and
> Gruber.  An unexpected bonus.
>
> I also didn't know that each of the Cinematic Titanic folks was
> going to come out and do a solo bit before the show.  Mary Jo read
> a few excerpts from her new book (literally a word from this page,
> a word from that page, etc).  Frank came out and did stand-up for
> a while, and then Gruber came out and joined him for a bunch of
> jokes about the Vietnamese new year or something like that.  It
> kind of bombed, but just watching TV's Frank kind of force his
> way through it while simultaneously acknowledging that it wasn't
> working was funny.
>
> Josh had a bass guitar set up on stage and would come out and
> play a little music behind each of the other performers, with
> the highlight being a solo performance of the MST3K theme song.
> He also played a duet of "Year of the Cat" with Gruber,
> who changed the lyrics around and made comments about them.
>
> Trace read a couple poems from a new illustrated book of poems
> for children that he's written.  Finally Joel came out and did
> a magic trick where he tore up a newspaper and then restored it
> to one piece right before our eyes.  Even though I know how the
> trick is done, he's so smooth with it that it caught me by
> surprise.
>
> After that the lights went down, the CT crew took their spots
> at the sides of the stage and we were treated to first class
> riffing of a really lame 70s "horror" movie called Rattlers.
> I was laughing almost non-stop for an hour and a half, but I'm
> having trouble remembering very many specific riffs.  I know
> at one point a couple boys go out to play and as their
> fathers watch them run off someone said "You kids stay away
> from the Sandusky place!", which was risky (this being Penn
> State territory and all) but got lots of laughs.
>
> The movie was about a bunch of snakes that get driven into a
> homicidal frenzy by a chemical weapon dumped in the desert by
> the military.  During a scene where the main characters were
> wandering in the desert, someone (I'm thinking it was Josh)
> yelled "Watch out for snakes!", prompting one of the others
> to say "How did you know about that?"
>
> My only complaint is that it's often hard to tell who is
> saying what on stage.  It seemed like Frank and Josh hardly
> talked at all, but I'm sure they did and I just didn't
> recognize their voices and attributed their lines to Joel
> and Trace.  On the other hand, it was easy to tell Mary Jo's
> lines (as the only female voice), and Joel sounded like Joel
> and Trace often sounded like Crow, so they weren't hard to
> pick out.  And really, it didn't really matter who was
> saying the lines most of the time - it was still funny.
>
> After the movie the members of CT all came out to the lobby
> to sign autographs and shake hands.  I was kind of surprised
> that about half of the crowd left right away, but the line
> to meet the cast still snaked all around the lobby.  While
> waiting half an hour or so in line, I thought of witty things
> to say to each one of them, but then when my time came and
> I'm suddenly standing in front of Joel, I got so star-struck
> that all I could do was hand him my Amazing Colossal Episode
> Guide and mumbled something stupid like "good show".  At
> least I got to shake hands with Joel, Mary Jo, Josh, Frank
> and Trace and got all their autographs on the book to go
> along with the Mike and Kevin autographs I got at Exoticon
> in New Orleans 13 years ago (wow, it hardly seems possible
> that it was so long ago).
>
> Oh, and when Josh came out for his bit at the beginning of
> the show, he introduced himself as "Everyone's least favorite
> Tom Servo...I read the internet, I know."  So I really wanted
> to tell him in person that I've always preferred his Servo
> to Kevin's (of course they're both great, but for some
> reason I just like Josh's droll take on the character more
> than Kevin's somewhat manic in-your-face style).  But when
> I was actually standing across the table from him, it
> completely slipped my mind.  So Josh, if you really do read
> the internet - hope you see this.
>
> Anyway, if the show comes anywhere near you, make every
> effort to go see it.  I dragged my wife and daughter along,
> and they both loved it too even though they're not big
> MST3K geeks like me.  After I came out of the handshake
> line, my daughter commented that she's never seen a bigger
> goofy grin on my face.
>
> Oh, and take lots of money.  I dropped $40 at the merchandise
> table and was wishing I had brought more cash.
>
>   -- Bob "Bice" Eichler, ex-r.a.t.m.m poster and long-time lurker

It's killing me that they haven't played Vegas yet. I did go to a show
in the Hollywood Hills a few years ago, though. Needless to say, it
was great.

And yes, I'm still here, too.

--
Reaper G
Pest, Foodie, MSTie, G-fan, Wrestlemaniac, and geek-at-large
http://reaper_g.livejournal.com
http://www.facebook.com/jay.grymyr
Re: Cinematic Titanic in York, PA [message #184292 is a reply to message #184188] Mon, 23 January 2012 11:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
nebusj- is currently offline  nebusj-
Messages: 623
Registered: September 2012
Karma: 0
Senior Member
In <4f1a3cb7.1886736448@news.eternal-september.org> eichlerSPAMBGONE2@comcastsucksbecausetheydontsupportuse.net (Bice) writes:


> I just got back from the Cinematic Titanic show in York, PA, and
> it was great. My first time seeing a live MST3K-style show, so
> I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turned out to be even better
> than I was hoping for.

I'm glad you went, and also glad you reported on it. I've
been to several Cinematic Titanic shows in Princeton and Manhattan,
and hope to make Newark come March.


> The evening started with a comedian coming out and telling a bunch
> of jokes about York. So I figured it must be a local guy, but he
> looked so familiar...eventually one of the CT crew identified him
> as Gruber from the old Comedy Central show The Higgins Boys and
> Gruber. An unexpected bonus.

Gruber's participation surprised me the first time around,
but I didn't have Comedy Central until after the Higgins Boys And
Gruber was off-air, so I went in without knowing much of anything
about him.

I understand the value of having him around as warm-up act,
but I'm also a bit surprised he's not brought in as one of the
riffers. He's certainly funny enough, and I can't imagine fans
protesting him riffing. Maybe he just doesn't want to.


> I also didn't know that each of the Cinematic Titanic folks was
> going to come out and do a solo bit before the show. Mary Jo read
> a few excerpts from her new book (literally a word from this page,
> a word from that page, etc).

Every show I've been at, Mary Jo's has been the killer bit.
I'm amazed by her comic presence. It's attenuated horribly by the
TV cameras.


> Frank came out and did stand-up for
> a while, and then Gruber came out and joined him for a bunch of
> jokes about the Vietnamese new year or something like that. It
> kind of bombed, but just watching TV's Frank kind of force his
> way through it while simultaneously acknowledging that it wasn't
> working was funny.

I've seen Frank do other ``bad standup'' bits in shows. In
the Princeton shows they tend to run towards jokes about the weight
of Governor Chris Christie, which ... yeah, I get that they're self-
consciously bad jokes, but they're made up of bad jokes. I think
he doesn't quite manage the twist that makes them gleefully bad.



> Finally Joel came out and did
> a magic trick where he tore up a newspaper and then restored it
> to one piece right before our eyes. Even though I know how the
> trick is done, he's so smooth with it that it caught me by
> surprise.

I've never understood how the newspaper trick is done. I've
seen it explained some, but the explanations clearly have nothing to
do with how they're done because I can't even see how that would work.
I have to accept simply that Joel has magical powers which transcend
natural law, and that they're mostly based around restoring torn-up
newspapers.


> After that the lights went down, the CT crew took their spots
> at the sides of the stage and we were treated to first class
> riffing of a really lame 70s "horror" movie called Rattlers.

I haven't seen this one, but I'm looking forward to it.


> My only complaint is that it's often hard to tell who is
> saying what on stage. It seemed like Frank and Josh hardly
> talked at all, but I'm sure they did and I just didn't
> recognize their voices and attributed their lines to Joel
> and Trace. On the other hand, it was easy to tell Mary Jo's
> lines (as the only female voice), and Joel sounded like Joel
> and Trace often sounded like Crow, so they weren't hard to
> pick out. And really, it didn't really matter who was
> saying the lines most of the time - it was still funny.

At the Princeton theater I found the balcony seats are
really great: it's easy to see who's saying what from that vantage
point.


> After the movie the members of CT all came out to the lobby
> to sign autographs and shake hands. I was kind of surprised
> that about half of the crowd left right away, but the line
> to meet the cast still snaked all around the lobby.

This, I admit, I've never done. The lines are just so
horribly long that I don't feel tempted to join them, so, I'm
missing the chance to have autographed copies of my Amazing Colossal
Episode Guide. It's got a broken spine anyway, since they all do.


> Oh, and take lots of money. I dropped $40 at the merchandise
> table and was wishing I had brought more cash.

I have that problem too. I mostly go in for the DVDs, and
they always seem to have about eight more than I even knew existed.


> -- Bob "Bice" Eichler, ex-r.a.t.m.m poster and long-time lurker

I kinda miss the ones with the subterranean lair framing
device, though. The DVDs of the live shows are a lot of fun, but
the Time Tube Project was intriguing.

--
http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: A Simple Demonstration Which Does Not Clarify
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------
Re: Cinematic Titanic in York, PA [message #184294 is a reply to message #184292] Tue, 24 January 2012 17:01 Go to previous message
eichlerSPAMBGONE2 is currently offline  eichlerSPAMBGONE2
Messages: 26
Registered: November 2012
Karma: 0
Junior Member
On Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:19:01 +0000 (UTC), nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph
Nebus) wrote:

> In <4f1a3cb7.1886736448@news.eternal-september.org> eichlerSPAMBGONE2@comcastsucksbecausetheydontsupportuse.net (Bice) writes:
>
>> The evening started with a comedian coming out and telling a bunch
>> of jokes about York. So I figured it must be a local guy, but he
>> looked so familiar...eventually one of the CT crew identified him
>> as Gruber from the old Comedy Central show The Higgins Boys and
>> Gruber. An unexpected bonus.
>
> Gruber's participation surprised me the first time around,
> but I didn't have Comedy Central until after the Higgins Boys And
> Gruber was off-air, so I went in without knowing much of anything
> about him.

Yeah, same here - I didn't have Comedy Central until long after they
cancelled MST3K, so I mostly know of the Higgens Boys and Gruber from
promos on some of the early MST3K tapes I traded for. I recognized
him from his appearances on Freaks and Geeks, Malcom in the Middle
and News Radio.


> He's certainly funny enough, and I can't imagine fans
> protesting him riffing. Maybe he just doesn't want to.

He was really funny, which is what tipped me off that he wasn't just
some local guy they hired to warm up the crowd. Someone should have
introduced him though - I think most of the audience thought he was
a stage hand until he started telling jokes.


> I've seen Frank do other ``bad standup'' bits in shows. In
> the Princeton shows they tend to run towards jokes about the weight
> of Governor Chris Christie,

Oh yeah, he did a whole bunch of Chris Christie jokes too, such as
"Sorry we're getting started late - we drove from New York and had
to take a 3 hour detour around Chris Christie".


>> Finally Joel came out and did
>> a magic trick where he tore up a newspaper and then restored it
>> to one piece right before our eyes. Even though I know how the
>> trick is done, he's so smooth with it that it caught me by
>> surprise.
>
> I've never understood how the newspaper trick is done.
> I have to accept simply that Joel has magical powers which transcend
> natural law, and that they're mostly based around restoring torn-up
> newspapers.

From my mis-spent youth when I actually learned a bunch of magic
tricks, I think the way it's done is that he has 2 copies of the same
newspaper page. One is folded up small and palmed. He tears the
other one up, and at one point drops a piece and has to pick it up.
That's just to distract the audience while he replaces the torn-up
copy and with the folded up whole copy, which he then unfolds and
amazes the crowd with. At least that's how I remember it being done,
but when he balled up the torn-up copy it seemed way too big to hide
in his palm, so...yeah, Joel does have mystical powers.


> At the Princeton theater I found the balcony seats are
> really great: it's easy to see who's saying what from that vantage
> point.

We were in the second row of the balcony, but my eyes are crap,
especially in the dark. So I could only see vaguely human-shaped
blurs on stage holding what appeared to be glowing pieces of paper
(which my wife later told me were iPads or something of the sort).


>> After the movie the members of CT all came out to the lobby
>> to sign autographs and shake hands. I was kind of surprised
>> that about half of the crowd left right away, but the line
>> to meet the cast still snaked all around the lobby.
>
> This, I admit, I've never done. The lines are just so
> horribly long that I don't feel tempted to join them, so, I'm
> missing the chance to have autographed copies of my Amazing Colossal
> Episode Guide. It's got a broken spine anyway, since they all do.

After having the chance to meet Mike and Kevin at Exoticon, I
wasn't leaving the theater until I met the rest of the gang. I
was about 3/4 of the way back in the line, but it still only took
about half an hour or so to get up to the autograph table - the
line moved pretty briskly. It was really surreal when Joel (who
was first in line at the table) turned to me and stuck his hand
out. After watching him on TV for 20+ years, suddenly being
confronted with an older-looking version was just...odd. Still
a thrill though.

The whole cast looked really tired, like they couldn't wait to get
back to the hotel and get some sleep. But they still did their best
to be friendly. I noticed Joel was having his wine glass refilled
on a fairly regular basis, so that was probably adding to his
usual sleepiness.

My favorite comment was from Trace. He was at the end of the line,
and by the time he signed my episode guide, it already had 6 other
signatures on it. So he looked at it for a while, signed it and
said "That's everyone I think. The curse is complete." I said
"Does that mean I have to watch another 20 years of movie riffing?"
and he answered "I hope so."


>> Oh, and take lots of money. I dropped $40 at the merchandise
>> table and was wishing I had brought more cash.
>
> I have that problem too. I mostly go in for the DVDs, and
> they always seem to have about eight more than I even knew existed.

Yeah, I had no idea they've released so many movies - I haven't
been keeping up. I think they had five or six available at the
show. I only had enough cash to buy two. I was going to get
Trace's new book, but it was the same price as the DVDs and I
went with a second movie instead. Next time I'll take more money.


> I kinda miss the ones with the subterranean lair framing
> device, though. The DVDs of the live shows are a lot of fun, but
> the Time Tube Project was intriguing.

I missed the Time Tube project entirely - what was that all about?

I wish they'd included the pre-show standup bits on the live DVDs I
bought. Even just sticking them on there as a DVD extra would be
nice. Oh well.

-- Bob
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