Something about Lucille Ball and a Wall
A poster from back in the day.
[Note: I have 18 different posters in my possession, I will try to post one every few days.]
[Note: I have 18 different posters in my possession, I will try to post one every few days.]
posted by (d)avid at 11/15/2004 01:25:00 PM
22 Comments:
Awesome. I hope we can get similar commentary on the other posters I have available. VH-1 Behind the Comedy.
Maybe we can get a complete digital (Z)archive of posters. Here are the ones I have:
Lucille Ball
Boneface
Comments?
3 Seniors
What the Hell Happened?
Who loves ya, baby?
What the hell else you gonna do?
Absolute Incompetence
Absolute Za
Combo Za got Back
Billy Joel
In Bloom
Wasn't such a good idea
Definition of comedy
I know I am missing a lot. Perhaps digital photography can save the day.
More notes -- the expression on Lucy's face comes from just barely being missed in a knife-throwing exhibition -- apt for what that show was like, if I recall...
Steve Ehrenberg used to print a dozen or so different 8.5 X 11 posters for shows. They typically had pithy/random phrases on them. So our advertising consisted of one big poster and lots of little posters. Steve, do you still have those posters on your computer?
What about one of the most radical Za posters ever, the 2001-esque monolith of Kierkegaard that graced the poster for Soren's Follies?
Or the hastily-drafted '92 broadsheet, "For God's Sake, Cover That Boy's Penis!"?
Or the long-forgotten, perhaps never posted handbill that featured a laser show landscape with the superimposed words "W.A.R.P.! You're a Bunch of Cheese-Eating Dorks!"
...And of course one of the earliest handbills which featured a photo of Randy and Dr. Dave making grilled cheese sandwiches with an iron in the Baxter mailroom.
omg! i touch myself/i honestly do, that is some funny decontextualized honest-man-comedy sloganeering.
dave didn't mention that steven's posters spawned a collect-them-all frenzy for their minimalist, enraged wit.
--uh, an anonymous guy who couldn't figure out how to create a blogdentity, certainly not steven
The reason you gave for Dibble being funny surprised me. I figured nothing is funnier than a good bean ball. Yup, hard projectile careening towards the old noggin' is frickin hilarious.
In contrast, "We're world champions -- of the world" is kinda sweet. It is almost as if he were so caught up in the experience that he couldn't fully comprehend the weight of his own words. I mean compared with the mangles syntax our President generates each day, Dibble sounds like Churchill.
Yet more details: 'twas the invite not the poster for the first Basement Tapes that Keith refers to for the simple reason that the first Basement Tapes --- wait for it -- HAD no poster, the idea of the event being that it was invite only (isn't it still, that is if it's still going?) And search Fear and Trembling all you like, you won't find the quote until you consult the companion volume "Repetition" (and the quote itself was supplied by resident genius and hopeless Za videographer Adam Burkey).
And while we're on the subject, all together now, "the wheel of dooo-oo-ooom, ba daba dap ba da..."
What was the result of the Comments poster? Any extant relics?
...and the "grasp the concept of infinity" remark was stolen from disgraced Lit Stud Paul Holdengraber...
Ben! Why the hell didn't you use that poster of the teat, if you actually didn't. That was awesome, especially in its detached clinicality.
Is there an era of the group when acapella groups weren't mocked? I seem to recall a story from Chris Green where the group was mistaken for a real acapella group at one of the 5 colleges.
We performed at the log in conjunction with several acapella groups. Our song of choice was "Man in the Box." I thought Sean Kelley did an excellent job singing lead. So did the next acapella group, who was pissed off, and began their set with "enough marginal comedy, we're going to provide real music." They probably sounded better, but we had better choreography.
Another year we decided to hold a show opposite the Streeters. The opening involved Sadru leaving to attend the Streeters concert. Throughout the show we provided "live" news updates from the Streeters concert. Amazing how much the audience will laugh when you say an acapella group sung "Brown Eyed Girl" and wore "knakis."
We did a "Clarence Thomas does 'Grrove Is In the Heart" dance routine at the Log, I recall...
I believe you are thinking of "11 seconds of US3" for the Wheel of Doom. Following in the storied tradition of "11 seconds of Snow" and "11 seconds of the Spice Girls."
What was the "11 seconds of" that started the ball rolling?
In reference to the unused boob poster Ben brought up: it just goes to show what I've always said: that all woman, and also some men, are useless.
The '11 seconds' bit came originally from '11 seconds of Eddy Grant' i.e "Good God, we're gonna...' (Electric Avenue being the place that, ostensibly we're gonna). A Randy special, I believe
...and if he couldn't think of what to do with a guy, there was always the trust last-minute addition of a railroad spike going through his chest.
And lets not forget his piece de resistance a man, in JJ's words, "tasting his own brain".
"Tusk" = wheel.
Let's not forget that Lucille Ball's visage was gruesomely re-animated, Terry Gilliam style, by cutting out her chin to open her mouth unnaturally wide- presumably to allow the brick texture to show through.
And the true Za moment in the Ball's to the Wall opening: after the crowd erupts in adoring hysteria at the lurid, larger-than-life shadows of the slowly descending dancing flower, Za siezes defeat from the jaws of victory by dancing through the aisles of Brooks-Rogers, carrying an underpowered boom-box scratching out the barely audible and certainly unregcognizable strains of the "I Love Lucy" theme.
Where the hell did we ever get a recording of the theme on such short notice? Or even a picture of Lucille Ball? And shut yer yaps, you young pups- this was back when the internet was used exclusively as a cheaper alternative to punchcards for relaying radiotelescope data from the New Mexican desert to the UniVac mainframe...
Backstory on Boniface- through my own procrastination, the only slot available for our major B-R show was during exam week. The text of the poster was intended to draw the audience out of study mode for a few hours.
Maybe I'm wrong, but the grilled cheese was never a poster- it was a live publicity stunt during ticket sales in Baxter (remember when thinking of your gimmick for each ticket-sales shift was a big opportunity for internal competition and oneupsmanship?). We offered a free grilled cheese with each ticket- until people started asking if they actually had to take the ticket. The picture did appear in the yearbook, however...
The "tradition" of visual artists certainly began after my day. We had lots of high concept and horrific technical execution.
I don't think I was responsible for the class times poster. the best of those came from the registrar's office itself- remember Dylan's visage on their "the times, they are a-changin'" poster?
Nursing poster is damn fine.
A capella has been mocked since the earliest days. Especially effective when on the road. Scoville did a mean "Black Dog," and I would cite Tim Haynes' "My Girl" as the start of it all.
Irony- "Good God- we gonna..." is far less than 11 seconds. Never actually triggered in show.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Despot has entered the building!
He sure has!
Post a Comment
<< Home