PJ Party Comedy’s latest video and Talkback
38 Things You Can Do While Waiting on the Orange is the New Black Theme Song to End…
The Talkback
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*JUST ANNOUNCED*
Super stoked that I am invited to present at the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA)’s National Conference in St. Pete Beach, FL.
I’ll be teaching two workshops.
Stand up Comedy and Why We Laugh, which is about just that. What laughter is, and how as humans we use it to relate to one another.
And also Your [Naked] Body as a Costume, which is about using your physicality as a performer and also a look into the psychology of physicality as just people. What we’re saying with our bodies as we move around, walk around, or even just stand.
I’m a huge fan of the EdTA. They’re the people who run the Thespian Society, which I was a part of in high school. They do great things. They sponsor and develop creativity and novelty in students across the country and the world. They gave me my first taste at being on stage, telling a story, and what it feels like to connect with an audience. And they also give oddballs like myself a place to call home when I didn’t really fit in anywhere else in high school.
I’m extremely honored to present. I owe a great deal of debt to these people, and I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without them.
More about the Educational Theatre Association here at SchoolTheatre.org
For more about where I’ll be when click HERE!
Since Peter (my comrade in arms over at PJ Party Comedy) and I are self-producing* Doormen. The Award-Winning Webseries.
*Actually it’s not exactly, entirely self produced. The majority of the funding we have for Doormen came through an unbelievably generous group of supporters on Kickstarter, all of whom we are profoundly thankful for. See HERE.
But since our funds are limited and we are self-producing along with the help of many generous kickstarter backers, Peter and I have found ourselves in the position of asking this question a LOT.
“HOW MUCH DOES THIS JOKE COST?”
Seriously.
Actually tangibly how much does each joke cost. Financially.
With an actual dollar amount.
Most recently we found ourselves in this position. With the space that we’re using for Doormen. The Award-Winning Webseries. We needed to purchase a “front desk” that the Doormen would either sit or stand behind. But since there are two Doormen, and the thing about them is that they are exactly the same, (including having the same first name, “Matt”), if they were going to sit behind the front desk, we were going to have to purchase a chair that looks nice enough that it could conceivably be a chair that would be found in a fancy lobby, and we’d have to buy TWO of them.
So we thought about just not having them have chairs. Maybe be at a standing desk. But then we realized in one of the episodes we reference them sitting. And more specifically we reference for a joke the chairs they are sitting in.
Here’s the joke:
DOORMEN. THE AWARD-WINNING WEBSERIES.
Episode 103: The Social Networks (excerpt)
Matt and Matt discuss how they’re connected on every social network…
>>>
MATT A: Are you in my FourSquare… square…? Is that… um, what do you do on FourSquare?
MATT B: …become mayor?
MATT A: Oh yeah! Become mayor. Are you mayor of anything on FourSquare?
MATT B: Yes.
MATT A: What?
MATT B: (indicates chair he’s sitting on) This chair.
MATT A: Nice!
MATT B: You?
MATT A: Yes.
MATT B: What?
MATT A: (indicates chair he’s sitting on) This chair!
MATT B: NICE!
MATT A AND MATT B: Chair Mayors! NICE!
<<<
Which brings us to the point that if we cut the chairs. We’d have to cut that joke. Because honestly at no other point in the webseries do we reference them sitting, or chairs or anything like that. So basically that one joke costs us 2 chairs. Literally. or more matter-of-factly, $110.00 The chairs we are looking at are $55 each, so that’s $110 for chairs that are not technically needed for any other point in the webseries. We can obviously use them if we have them. But the only reason we would have to have them is for that specific joke that now has an actual price of $110.
I’m going to say that again because it’s just as surprising to me. Keeping that specific joke in the webseries will cost me $110.00.
I’m a fan of rhyming as a punchline as the next guy, but is it worth $110.
Leave your thoughts.
Should we keep it in?
Should they me mayors of something else? Perhaps Hair Mayors?
And catch the release of Doormen. The Award-Winning Webseries. this Fall and find out of this joke made the cut…
I just wanted to say thank you again to the Missouri Thespians for last weekend. I get to teach and perform at a lot of the state thespian festivals all across the country thanks to the International Thespian Society. And it’s always amazing. Honestly. You guys will always hold a special place in my heart. But I did want to say thank for making this past festival in Kansas City, MO really amazing.
I teach a class called Your [Naked] Body as a Costume. It’s an exploration into how we all walk, move, and carry ourselves differently. How there are 5 places we all lead from when we move through space (head, chest/shoulders, stomach, hips/pelvis, and heart). And then what our physicality and what we lead with out of those 5 things- what all that says about us, individually.
I use it as an acting class, but also to really to dive into our own human psyche. And with the students. we really explore the idea that we really are communicating so much information with just with our bodies and our physicality, and we’re not even aware of it.
On the surface it’s an acting class. (and a good one I might add ;-) But if the class is willing to go on the journey, we go somewhere deep. And we almost always go somewhere deep. Because the thespians are the most fearless students I’ve ever encountered… But this weekend at Missouri Thespians, not only did we go somewhere deep. We went somewhere profound. Somewhere where it was ok to be exactly what we are. We are all dynamic, powerful, multifaceted, multidimensional, amazing human beings. Those are the types of characters we as actors are trying to create. Because THOSE are the types of people we all are.
And all of this other stuff we were dealing with. That’s all it was. Just stuff.
It wasn’t who we are.
And we believed it.
And for a brief moment. We went there.
For a brief moment. We lead with our hearts.
And it was powerful.
And for the first time I’ve ever experienced in my years of teaching that class.
People cried.
Because we all witnessed something profoundly beautiful happen.
In the duration of an hour.
In an empty carpeted room with cheap lighting.
Because that’s the power of theatre.
Because that’s the power of humanity.
And that’s what we do in theatre. Reflect humanity back onto itself.
So thank you.
Thank you for your courage.
And for sharing that with me.
I will always hold that in my heart.
-Jason-
J Thomas Mayfield 