Historic comedy — Sidecar tackles Alaska history with humorous bent

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Alaska.

“State nickname: The Last Frontier. Not to be confused with the final frontier, which is definitely space.

“State bird: The Willow Ptarmigan. The ‘P’ is silent. The ‘X’ and the ‘Q’ are both silent and invisible.

“State fish: King salmon. When king crab found out, he waged an epic war on king salmon’s kingdom, which ended abruptly when someone reminded king crab that crab is not a fish.

“State gem: Jade. Runner-up: Jewel.

“State fossil: Mammoth. Runner-up: Ted Stevens.

“State mammal: Moose. Bears campaigned heavily for the position but lost after eating their speechwriters.”

Comedy commemorating Alaska’s 50th anniversary of statehood, including these Alaska factoids listed above: “Eight Stars of Comedy Gold.”

Triumvirate Theatre of the central Kenai Peninsula, the performing arm of the Alaska Children’s Institute of the Performing Arts, applied for a grant from the Alaska Humanities Forum last year to launch an ambitious project — create a show that would tackle 3,000 years of state history in a format that’s both factual and funny.

“This type of project is needed because the commencement of something as important as Alaska statehood should be a memorable event, and live theater, when done with the kind of professionalism as this show, will accomplish that,” said Joe Rizzo, president of Triumvirate Theatre.

Triumvirate enlisted the help of Sidecar, an improvisational acting troupe from New York City, comprised of Justin Tyler, Matt Fisher and Alden Ford, to write and perform the show. The project was a good fit for Sidecar, Ford said, because the group tries to create an original comedy sketch show a year, and “8 Stars” was a chance to expand their horizons without having to take too big a leap from the work they usually do.

Sidecar’s writing style typically involves coming up with a silly premise for a sketch and filling in random, obscure or detailed information.

“It works for us to come up with scenarios where we just fill in the jokes with specifics for Alaska history — with gold rush stuff and oil boom specifics. But it’s sort of the opposite direction we have to go in — start with specifics and then find a funny premise and plug those specifics in and it still makes sense. So it’s close to what we already do, but just far enough that we had to reverse engines on a bunch of processes to do it right. But I think it turned out really well,” Ford said.

To cover the Alaska purchase, Sidecar places William Seward in a car dealership, with a salesmen trying to talk him into the “roomy” and “gently used” Alaska model. Seward is skeptical at first.

“It’s a little remote,” he says.

“Salesman: Exotic!

“Seward: And it’s really cold, right?

“Salesman: Only for 11 months out of the year.

“Seward: Well, it sure is beautiful. Does it have gas in it already?

“Salesman: Oh, yeah. Lots. Oil’s good for a while too.”

For a show celebrating statehood, the material starts way, way before that event and ends beyond it. The first sketch is of weary nomads making their way across the land bridge from Russia to Alaska in the Pleistocene Era — “Are we there yet? But we been travelin’ for 4,000 years awready!”

Before that, Sidecar gets an admission out of the way — yes, the group is from New York, yet they’re doing a show about Alaska history. Tyler and Fisher take an uninformed stab at state knowledge:

Tyler: “During World War II, the land that would become Alaska was won from the Germans in a poker game on the deck of the Lusitania!”

Fisher: “And in 1996 a giant pipeline of oil was discovered built in ancient days, perhaps by sasquatches, no one truly knows!”

Ford, who’s from Alaska, comes onstage to correct them and get the show on track. The group is actually not a stranger to the state, having done improv performances and workshops on the peninsula before, and Ford having grown up in Nikiski. They researched state history in writing the show and got input from script contributors Rizzo and Carla Jenness, with Triumvirate, and Mario Bird, of Anchorage. But having an Outside perspective proved useful in writing the script, Ford said.

“When the other two guys write something that’s funny and interesting to them, it gives fresh perspective on things that are quirky and funny about Alaska that I never thought of. Then I can add an inside eye of things that Alaskans think are funny that wouldn’t occur to a lot of New York comedy writers,” Ford said.

The show kicks off Friday and Saturday with 7 p.m. performances at Triumvirate in the Peninsula Center Mall in Soldotna. Shows are also planned for 7 p.m. April 3, 4, 10 and 11 at Triumvirate, a dinner theater performance at 7 p.m. April 9 at the Funky Monkey in Kenai, an Anchorage performance at Cyrano’s at 7 p.m. April 2, a Seward show at Seward Middle School at 7 p.m. March 30, and a Homer show at the Mariner Theatre in Homer High School at 7 p.m. April 1. Tickets for community shows are $7 for adults and $3 for children. In between the 90-minute community shows, Sidecar will do school visits around the peninsula, performing half-hour versions of the show.

“We really like performing a lot. We try to write in a way that makes it easy and fun to prepare. We try to keep things light by keeping characters pretty simple and fun. When we rehearse it’s less about trying to make sure we have really intricate characters and fabulous blocking (stage movements). It’s more just focusing on the timing and our relationships and what’s funny about the sketch,” Ford said. “It’s hard to know from here what will be funny. We’ll have to get up there and see what’s working and not. We’re looking forward to evolving the show and tweaking it and concentrating on the things we like about it and the audience likes about it.”

For more information on “Eight Stars of Comedy Gold,” visit Triumvirate’s Web site, www.triumviratetheatre.org. For more information on Sidecar, visit www.sidecarcomedy.com.

Spicing up the stage — ‘Hot Knights’ murder mystery liberally seasoned with laughs

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

In this year’s Kenai Performers murder mystery dinner theater show, “Hot Knights,” Mike Druce has brought back many of his familiar characters.

There’s the deceased, who had a pretty good idea someone was out to get him, but still wasn’t able to avoid getting got.

There’s the smooth talker out to be everybody’s friend, and the tough act who’s more bluff than bite. Then there’s the dumb one, the floozy and the naïve youth.
And don’t forget the one-eyed, ex-con, safe-cracking Mexican gardener.
Well, OK, that one’s new.

And so is the plot, set in the genteel South.

“It’s kind of like ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ meets ‘Dallas,’” Druce said.

“Meets ‘Airplane,’” added Allen Auxier, one of the actors.

Auxier plays Big Granddaddy Prescott Knight, patriarch of the extended, prosperous and dysfunctional Knight clan. He’s also the keeper of the secret recipe to Knight’s Hot Sauce, which is the source of the family fortune.

He is engaged to Pepper Devine, played by Bethany Thornton. What she lacks in fidelity she makes up for in youth and beauty. The family is sure she’s only with Prescott for the inheritance — although they’re no better in that department.

Granddaughter Shiloh Devereaux (Yvette Tappana) is as hot after Prescott’s money as she is any man she meets, including Fester N. Boyle (Cliff Bouchard), Prescott’s personal attorney.

Sue Rae DuKane (Charlissa Magen) is Prescott’s daughter, married to W.C. DuKane (Ken Duff). Magnolia DuKane (Tanya Marquis) is their idealistic, if somewhat dense, daughter.

She’s engaged, or hoping to be, to the only character dimmer than she is — Brick Tarmac (Gabe Segura).

“He runs the intelligence gamut from A to B,” Druce said.

Prescott’s ex-wife, Helen Knight (Mary Bailey) returns from her enthusiastic enjoyment of Italy — and Italians — just in time for Prescott’s death. Through it all, the family housekeeper, Sassy (Terri Zopf-Schoessler) checks that their whims are met and glasses kept full, even if she doesn’t keep her tongue in check.

There’s also Juan (Bob Mabrey), the aforementioned gardener, who is not to be confused with — but constantly is — the other hired help, “Juan two,” as he’s often called.

Rounding out the cast is Judge Titus A. Drumm (Jamie Nelson), who comes in during the second act to get to the bottom of the murder, with the audience’s help.

In the first scene Prescott reveals that there have been several attempts on his life, and he’s considering changing his will. Whoever is making the effort to kill him succeeds at Prescott’s annual birthday cookout, leaving the family and staff to point fingers and wonder what has become of the missing secret sauce recipe.
Druce said the characters in a sense write the play for him.

“The basic 10 characters are really the same people in every show. I change the names and put them in a different situation,” he said.

As for the names, he hasn’t run out of puns yet.

“Ask me a year from now when I’ve had writer’s block for about six months or so. They seem to just kind of suggest themselves,” he said.

“We certainly are suggestive,” Tappana said.

In this version, Druce spiced up the who-dunnit with a Southern flair.

“I always had kind of fond memories of the ‘Dallas’ TV show,” he said. “I don’t know how the hot sauce came about. I think once I came up with the hot sauce the rest fell in place.”

Along with Prescott, two others are harmed in the making of this murder mystery, although they aren’t ever seen in the play, just referred to. One is Juan two. He’s shot, making for a hole in Juan.

“If you’re looking to be offended, you will be,” Druce said, referring to lines like that.

“Hot Knights” may not be brimming with good taste in that sense, but tasty Southern fare will be served for the dinner portion of the show. The show is a joint production of the Kenai Performers and Kenai Senior Citizens Center. Dinner is at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the senior center.

Tickets are $30 each, which includes dinner and the show. There’s also a no-host bar. Tickets are available at the senior center, Charlotte’s and Already Read Books in Kenai, and River City Books in Soldotna.

Druce doesn’t yet know what his characters will be up to in the future (other than no good), but one thing’s certain in this show — the secret’s in the sauce.

Cool performance — Comedian to heat up stage with standup show

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Andy Hendrickson’s standup comedy career got off to a cold start. Not in terms of response or success, just literally — it was North Dakota in January.

“It was freezing,” Hendrickson said.

That’s the coldest place his standup comedy career has taken him so far, although a trip to Alaska this weekend might break that record, if temperatures in Southcentral don’t rise above the below-zero mark they plummeted to this week. Nevertheless, he said he’s looking forward to the trip, which includes a performance Friday at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and one Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Kenai Peninsula College in Soldotna.

“I’ve been really excited to get up there, because I’ve always wanted to see Alaska,” Hendrickson said. “When I got the gig book I got real excited.”

Or he was, at least. Hendrickson said he was hoping to see the northern lights. He was also looking forward to the scenery between Anchorage and Soldotna, and had been told not to worry about the driving, unless there’s a storm. The aurora forecast is quiet this weekend, while the weather forecast is calling for snow.

“I’m not coming then,” he said.

If nothing else, the trip may provide him with new material. He said he sometimes works in observations from his location into his performance.

“Sometimes things strike me,” he said. “When I get there, if there’s something obvious, say in the airport in Anchorage or on the drive down, or if I stop on the way down, whatever things that happened to me on the way there, I’ll comment on that.”

Hendrickson is a Navy kid. We was born in California, moved to Hawaii and spent most of his time as a kid in Virginia. He graduated from Western Virginia University with a degree in advertising before moving to Atlanta.

He worked in graphics production for a while, at a sign company and for a company that made trade show exhibits. While in Atlanta he saw a news report about a guy who taught a standup comedy class and decided to give it a try.

“I kind of got the bug. Ever since then I slowly phased out my old job and became a full-time comedian,” Hendrickson said.

“It’s a fun job, obviously. It’s very rewarding getting feedback right off the bat. You say your joke, get the laughs and you know what’s working. Getting people to laugh is a good thing. It’s very addictive.”

Hendrickson said he enjoys the process of writing jokes and coming up with ways to relate something he’s noticed or that’s happened to him.

The lifestyle’s not bad, either.

“I just love the whole process,” he said. “It’s very creative and you only work an hour a night. There’s more to it than that, of course, but you get to be your own boss.”

Hendrickson has toured across the Lower 48, Hawaii and Europe in his 10.5 years doing standup, and recently returned to New York City from a stint in Canada. He performs at a lot of college campuses, and also has been part of the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo., the Boston Comedy Festival and D.C. Comedy Fest. His TV appearances include NBC’s “Night Shift,” the WB’s “Nite Laff-off” and Media One’s “Gonzo Comedy.” On national radio he’s been heard on the Bob and Tom Morning Show, XM Satellite Radio, Sirius Satellite Radio and National Lampoon Radio.

The KPC show starts with an opening live music performance by Diggin’ Roots, with Robb Justice, Dan Spencer and Dan Pascucci. Then Hendrickson takes the stage.

“I think it’s very rewarding to get that instant feedback from the crowd,” he said. “The only thing that might be cooler is to be in a rock band.”

Hopefully, “cooler” can be a figurative term this trip.