Hi Everybody,
This is Max and Alan of Frowny Face. We want to say thank you to all of you for coming out to our insane show last Saturday at the Westside Eclectic Theatre!
Word of the original show we were planning spread like wildfire and we wound up selling out the house. People who weren't very early or made reservations were forced to stand in the back.
Even before the show began, we could tell the crowd loved the party-like atmosphere. We got way into it ourselves, tossing beer cans out to the audience from stage. The noise from music and conversation was so intense that we had to shout in each other's ears just to be heard.
When the lights went down, the excitement only built and we took the stage to a crazy applause. The audience immediately knew this was a different kind of show when we pulled up a computer feed on the big screen and asked our live blogger to say hi. The blogger, possibly drunk, typed a few ramblings before we cut out the projector to protect everybody from his web-rage. (Thanks to Sean Conroy for writing a hilarious show blog that you can read on our MySpace site: myspace.com/frownyfaceshow).
Now just minutes into the show, the audience went wild as we called up our first surprise guest of the night: Drevon Cooks—better known as the Midget from R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet! Burping, swearing, and chugging a bottle of rum, the midget shocked all of the world when he explained to Max that he is not Max's real father. Max was heartbroken, but tragedy quickly turned into triumph when we discovered his real father was in fact sitting in the audience. Something we all learned last Saturday evening is that Max's real father is a 7-foot-tall black man! (Special thanks to comedian and actor Jon Dixon for being Max's real father).
After we dragged the midget from the stage, the first video of the night began. Eric Schwartz's hit YouTube video "Kosha Boy" destroyed and it was followed by an original video in which Eric addresses the Frowny Face audience directly.
Next Max and I brought up our first stand-up comedian of the night, the head writer for MTV's Wild'n Out, Hugh Moore. Hugh killed as always (does he ever do any wrong?) and enjoyed the opportunity to connect with the audience for a full 10 minute set.
Our next act of the evening was a special discovery that we recently made. We were pleased to have found the young Seattle transplant John Sanders who absolutely destroyed with his unique blend of guitar riffs, whip smart cracks, and soaring confidence. John relished the opportunity to shut down a heckler (played by himself) by handing him a guitar and asking the heckler to entertain the audience. Nice work John! (We think).
Although Maria Bamford couldn't perform on our show in person, Frowny Face loves her and knew we had to involve her somehow! We tracked down a new, never-before-seen video from Maria's upcoming web series and even played a hilarious original introduction where Maria personally introduces the video to the Frowny Face crowd. No one will ever see that intro segment again! We go out of our way to make sure each show is a unique experience.
Next was the moment that we, and most of the audience, were really waiting for. We announced the big screen debut of our hit viral video "Fuck Planet Earth." We humbly uploaded it to YouTube just one week ago and within the first 3 days it received over 50,000 hits. On day 4 it was featured on FunnyOrDie.com's front page, and eBaum's World described it as, "possibly the best video of the year" (Easy fellas! We haven't even released our next video yet!). The appeal of "Fuck Planet Earth" was so universal that even The Atlantic Monthly's political columnist Andrew Sullivan enthusiastically wrote about it in his blog. Well over 1,400,000 hits later, we finally got to play it on the big screen, and it was great. You could hear the laughter all the way in Beverly Hills.
After the high of "Fuck Planet Earth," everyone was treated to a tender moment where we invited body language expert Laura Karlin on stage to give Alan a lesson in courting the fairer sex. Laura showed Alan a few much-needed pointers such as "how to stand so you don't look like you need to pee," "how to make eye contact with a girl," and the dreaded "how to slow-dance." Alan almost succeeded in each of these tasks, and apologizes to Laura profusely for dropping her during the dance.
Finally it was time to introduce our headliner act. We both love Ben Covette and were pleased to get him for the show. Ben stormed the stage and immediately attempted to make out with Max (Max didn't let him get far). Ben then launched into his patented speaking style that's unlike anything else being done in stand-up comedy right now. We love Ben's style and knew it would challenge the audience. That's what Frowny Face is all about. Having fun, taking risks, and letting the talented people we know do something different on stage.
Interesting note: Ben had a heckler who we ejected from the theatre. Because the show was so crazy, with audience plants, multimedia bits, and surprise guests, we later found out that most of the audience thought Ben's heckler was a skit! Sorry guys, you can't make this stuff up!
Ben finished to a giant applause and we came out to join him on stage. Alan was so thrilled by Ben's performance that he suddenly remembered his lessons with the body language expert and took Ben for an impromptu dance, complete with a dip and a kiss on the lips (Max was jealous).
Thank you everybody for a wonderful show!
Be sure to read all about it on the live blog that's posted on our MySpace site: myspace.com/frownyfaceshow. We'll have clips from the show up, and info on our next even bigger show coming in March!
Love,
Alan Lebetkin &
Max Goldberg of
frowny face
myspace.com/frownyfaceshow