A Note From the Church Basement Guys, About Tonight's Show

Hello All and Happy Holidays,

Cold weather getting you down? Sick and tired of all the crowds and shopping? Laid off from your job as a mall Santa and forced to choose between buying food and prescription medication? Us too. Well, there's only one cure for those holiday blues: Church Basement's Final Show of 2005/Holiday Extravaganza!! That's right, this Monday at Church Basement we'll be freaking bursting with cheer. We'll also be giving away cookies and candy canes. And the bar will be serving HOME MADE EGG NOG with.....FRESH NUTMEG! Plus, we'll have our usual lineup of stellar guests. This week we welcome:

Kurt Braunohler- Co-host of the wildly popular and critically acclaimed variety show Hot Tub, as well as the co-creator of the amazing guerrilla street theatre that is Chengwin.

We've also got Seth Herzog, downtown favorite and host of Sweet. You've also seen him on VH1, the TV show Stella, and the movies Prime and The Baxter. He'll rock you good.

And we're welcoming back Basement favorite Dan McCoy. A writer for Jest and NPR, Dan has been with us almost from the start and is actually more popular than the hosts.

And last only alphabetically, we're bringing you John Phillips, founding member of the Hi-larious sketch comedy group Trophy Dad and all around super guy.

All I can say is, "Wow." In fact, I can't say it. Much like Orthodox Jews who dare not utter the name of G_D, I fear that if I speak of this Basement out loud, its unimaginable power may very well strike me down.

But that's not all. As a special treat, Monday night's show will feature the return of everybody's favorite Robot Cater Waiter, Zeep Zorp singing a special holiday song with Matt Yeager on the guitar. And stick around after the show for more egg nog and all-around holiday carousing. It's gonna be a party. We'll see you Monday night at 8pm sharp.

Your Hosts,

Nick Higgins, Jack Kukoda, and Matt Yeager
--
http://www.churchbasement.com/

Church Basement Reading Series
@ Micky's Blue Room
Ave. C btw. 10th & 11th
8pm
Free!

Voluminous End-of-November Update

Hey kids...

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here. I apologize. Although I don't know why I'm apologizing to you, my few readers. I have no obligation to post on my blog. I should be apologizing to me. I'm only hurting myself, since I started this blog to let people know when and where I'd be performing, or if there was a bit of my writing that I wanted to draw your attention to, or whatever. So I've failed myself. Sorry Dan.

But now I'm back. And ready to write a long blog entry with lots and lots of parentheses.

Anyway, the reason why I haven't written anything in a while, is that I'm in a period of transition. As you probably know, Sara Schaefer is Obsessed With You ended on November 11 (you can read what Sara has to say about it here). It was an awesome last show, and it was an awesome show in general. Thanks to Sara, who is one of the sweetest, funniest, all-around-best people I know, for getting me involved with it. Still, having it end has been sad, and it's sort of made me wonder what I should do next. I'm at a crossroads, if you will (if you will allow me to be pretentious, that is).

What's next for me? That's what I'm trying to decide. Recently I contributed (for the first time) a bit to Andres Du Bouchet's excellent show Giant Tuesday Night of Amazing Inventions and Also There is a Game. It went over okay, I think (at least, it didn't stick out like a sore thumb), and I hope to contribute more material to that show, whenever they'll have me (although I won't have the sort of "official" involvement that I had with SSIOWY). Jest.com doesn't appear to be updating anymore, but I hope to be involved in an all-new comedy website soon-- although I can't yet give any details. My friend Fed is planning a series of comedy podcasts, a TV series in online form, and I'm going to be one of the writers for that (and I may show up in a guest spot or two). More news on that as it develops. I'm also planning to write a screenplay, just as soon as I can figure out what I want to write about. If anyone pitches an idea to me that I decide to use, I promise to give them 1% of any money I make from the sale of said theoretical script. 1% of a likely $0.00! You can't beat that, so send those ideas in! Maybe I'll do some more stand-up. There's been some vague discussion of a sketch group with some friends of mine. And I've been taking the "Writing for The Daily Show" class over at The P.I.T. So feel free to hire me, Daily Show. But as for a solid new direction, who knows?

Anyway, in the meantime, if you're jonesing for your Dan fix, you can see me at Church Basement on December the 19th at 8 PM. I'll be delivering a couple of my high-larious essays at this bi-monthly reading series, at Mickey's Blue Room on Avenue C between 10th and 1th Streets. Also, if you want to see me at a more social, but still comedy-related, function, you can come to the party to celebrate/ mourn the sad end of Juvie Hall. It's at Slainte (directions behind the link) starting at 7 PM on December 19. You'll recognize me. I'll be the one crying into my beer.

And now, to reward you for slogging through all of that text, here are some photographs of the final Sara Schaefer is Obsessed With You, courtesy of one of my SSIOWY co-writers, the inimitable Kara Lee Burk:









Oh, the misty watercolored memories...

Dan at Church Basement this Monday the 19th

Just a reminder that I will be reading something at Church Basement this Monday. What is this "something" I will be reading? I don't know. Come and see the ill-planned-ness.

And now, because I am lazy, I will post, nearly verbatim, the promotional email that the C.B. guys sent to remind me...

The Church Basement returns this Monday Sept. 19th at 8pm with a fantastic lineup. Our guests will be:

Roger Hailes - Comedian and Franz Ferdinand backup singer
James Stahl - Silky Smooth Poet and Quite a Lover
Dan McCoy - Writer for Saturday Night Rewritten and Sara Schaefer Is Obsessed With You
Mike Dunn - Blogger Extraordinaire and Budding Attorney

Plus other guests and your always fantastic hosts. 8pm start time, Beers are only 3 bucks! See you there. -Your Hosts: Nick Higgins, Jack Kukoda, & Matt Yeager

Church Basement Reading Series
@ Micky's Blue Room
Ave. C, btw. 10th & 11th
8pm
Free!

Factory Approved

Congratulations to Sara Schaefer, my pseudo-late-night-talk-show-boss, who appeared on last week's Best Week Ever.

So if you see her on the street, be sure to walk right up and slap one of these stickers onto her:



Oh, and a reminder: I can be seen at Church Basement, tonight at 8.

June Newsletter - See Dan on the 6th, 12th, or 17th

I will be at the one Sara Schaefer is Obsessed With You this month, on Friday, June 17. Why only one show? Because this is a special "taping" show, utilizing heretofore unimagined (at least for SSIOWY) three-camera technology, personal microphones, and all sorts of other electronic geegaws, in order to produce an immaculate record of this event. I'm sure Sara has big plans for the tape, but I have no idea what they are. Still, you should come and be immortalized on the soundtrack as a faceless laugher. What higher calling could man or woman know?

Speaking of Sara Schaefer is Obsessed With You, was that fellow SSIOWY writer Patrick Stubbins, on Friday's "Late Night With Conan O'Brian," playing one of the victims of the dreaded "Paper-Cut Ninja"? Why, I believe it was!

All right, new paragraph, wherin-- unlike the previous paragraph-- I promise to NOT write in the breathless style of a tabloid gossip columnist. I will be appearing at the reading and comedy series "Church Basement" this coming Monday the 6th, at 8 PM. It's a bi-monthly show, hosted by Jack Kukoda, at Mickey's Blue Room, on Avenue C between 10th and 11th streets (check out churchbasement.com for more details). It's a new venue for me. Will I triumph, or will I suck it? Only time will tell.

Hope to see you sometime in June.