Tuesday, September 29, 2009

10 years!

NCT phoenix is about 5 months away from our two year anniversary. i know, i still count the time like we're a baby.... NCT is 19 months old today! soon we will be potty trained.
two years. it seems like a big deal... to us.

but ten years? holy cow. my ten year high school reunion is this year, gross. i KNOW thats a long time. my nephew is 10 years old, and even though he cant tie his shoes, he's still pretty old. ten years.

something else you might have heard us mention is our roots in NCT san diego. have we told you that once or twice? maybe. i might have said something about it.
NCT SD is our comedy theatre equivalent of a hero. we hope to grow up to be just like them someday and NCT san diego is ten. years. old.
for serious.
longest running comedy show in san diego. (take that, tripple espresso!)

in the month of october they shall celebrate, and rightly so.
some of that celebration is going to float on over to you! so dont tune out just because youre not one of those people who is happy for other peoples good fortune, you'll get some too.

October 9/10 NCT San Diego will welcome back some of their original players who have been part of the team for the last decade as well as beloved veterans who have gone on to other things... like Dorian and Krissy Lenz!

October 10 NCT PHX will congratulate our sea-side sister team by helping YOU (the audience) save money! 10/10 EVERYONE can get tickets for $10!

October 16/17 NCT San Diego will put their best players up against visiting teams from NCT Phoenix and NCT New York. Yep, we're sending a team out there!

very exciting. and we're happy to be part of the hubub. and im still not going to my high school reunion.


Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Theres no place like HomePage!

well. wouldnt you know it, one of our videos, "Two Guys at the end of Grease" is currently nominated in a facebook poll put up by the Funny or Die guys.

so.... if we win this poll they are going to put our "Guys from the end of Grease" on the HOME PAGE at funnyordie.com as a featured video. which is AWESOME and will go a long way towards helping us win the competition.
voting is actually pretty intense and we are, currently, neck and neck with one of the other videos.

what can you do? please go online to www.facebook.com/funnyordie and vote for "guys at the end of grease" in the poll on the left side of the page.
voting ends tomorrow!

Thank you, as ever, for your support.
oh, and if you decide to watch the video be advised it is Brown Bag language heavy.

-NCT

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

half price workshop offer

National Comedy Theatre is offering a limited time class:

Level 1 & 2 Accelerated Combo Improv Comedy Workshop

This class will combine the beginners level 1 and 2 workshops into one 6 week session. Its like taking two workshops in half the time for about half the cost.
At the completion of the session participants will be eligible to join our Minor League Team program.

Open for a limited time:
Mondays 7:30-9:30pm at NCT (1111 S Longmore Mesa, AZ 85202)
$200 Class Fee

Call us 602-374-5638 or email info@nctphoenix.com

Monday, September 21, 2009

Funny or Die

Funnyordie.com is a pretty awesome website. i recomend it, if you like to laugh at funny things.

FOD is hosting a Viral Video contest and the winner gets to make a video with Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Judd Apatow... i know, right?

( i actually wonder if i could just meet Leslie Mann, because i love her ) ((shes judd apatow's wife... in case you didnt make the connection))

NCT is getting in on this action by entering videos made by some of our cast and crew.
you can help the cause by viewing, voting "funny" using the little dial at the bottom when the video completes, making our video a favorite or sharing it online with your friends.

Neil Diamond Sings Songs about Movies he Likes Neil Diamond likes movies, he likes to sing about movies, and he doesnt care.

*warning, An Open Letter to Schick contains possibly risque material but very subtley and with no bad language*
An Open Letter to Schick: A woman has issues with confusing advertisement

**warning, the "Two Guys" videos contain bad language, total Brown Bag territory, so dont click to view if you dont like bad words...**

Two Guys at the End of Grease: What was everyone else doing while Sandy, Danny and the gang danced away?

Two Guys from the end of Grease in Terminator: The Two guys are back and this time they're stuck in a scary situation with Kyle, Sarah Connor and the Terminator.

Two Guys from the end of Grease in Buffalo Bill's Well from Silence of the Lambs:
Uh oh, the Two Guys have been captured by a serial killer...

Thank you, hope you vote Funny and i promise to say hi to will, judd and adam for you.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Expo a-go-go

Saturday from 10-3 National Comedy Theatre will be at the GetOut Performing Arts Expo.

Its probably going to be pretty awesome and its FREE. you should come down and see us, as well as a whole bundle of other great arts groups and performances.

NCT will have discount tickets on sale, $30 gift card drawings and a bingo game to win: FREE tickets, $30 Gift Cards, $50 off Workshops, FREE popcorn and $2.00 off coupons.
fairly fantastic, i think.

also, you get to see our smilin mugs onstage at 11:15am to play 5 things!

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/144137

-nct

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

your last chance to be heard!

its down to the wire.

the next 4 days are the last 4 days for you to cast your vote and register your official opinion in the New Times Best of Phoenix Readers Poll.

i think it would be a worthwhile endeavor, particularly when you arrive at category #79: Best Place to see a Comedy Show. i think you might find that, among the choices you see there, your friends at National Comedy Theatre are indeed, the best place to see a comedy show.

act now, or the world may never know you think so.
and remember, NCT loves you and wishes you the best and, by the way, we think you look really nice today. love what you've done with your hair and gosh, doesnt it seem like you've lost weight?

#79: Best Place to see a Comedy Show

-nct

gives you wiiiiiiings.

so there i was, standing lazily behind the NCT concession counter discussing sign flippers and public service announcements with mark and george when, all of a sudden, two tiny blonde fairies appeared at our curb. they came in a little blue and grey car adorned with a giant blue and grey can. they came with blue and grey back packs full of cool and refreshing elixer of life. an offering they made to us of this magical potion, and asked, indeed, for nothing in return. yea, unto the evening sky we laughed and laughed at our merry good fortune as we floated away upon wings of free caffeine...

a dream, perhaps?
no, no. that. just. happened.

Red Bull is a staple at the National Comedy Theatre, at least for me. I have often done the math on how much money i could save just by forgoing my red bull habbit- a 4 pack is required on show nights and a 12 ouncer will do for rehearsals and workshops. honestly, the caffeine probably doesnt even effect me anymore. i think i have a proper immunity built up. but its like a ritual, like a baseball player never changing their lucky socks or something... except my little ritual isnt un-hygenic... and im not an actual athelete. still, i have to have that cold little can in my hand as i warm up for a show or i just dont feel ready.

so tonight, just as rehearsal was ending, the Red Bull girls pull up in their little Red Bull mobile with a giant Red Bull can affixed to the top. They reached into their Red Bull shaped backpacks and gave us each a free can of Red Bull and a fancy new Red Bull shot to try out. I was so excited to see them... people who show up and give you Red Bull for FREE? what a wonderful thing. what a kind and helpful public service to perform. only in America, the land of opportunity, would such an amazing and magical thing take place.
maybe im overdoing it a bit. but imagine you really like muffins and the one day, just as you are thinking to yourself about how a nice muffin would really hit the spot, a muffin truck pulls up with a giant muffin on top and two pretty girls hop out and lavish you with all the muffins you can carry. you'd be pleased, i imagine. well, i dont care for muffins. but i do like energy drinks.

so there i was, hopping up and down on the sidewalk like a kid on christmas waiting to see what the two little blonde santas would pull out of their magical sacks next... and i hadnt even had any Red Bull yet.

They came inside and took pictures with us on stage, hopefully that will turn up on facebook. i asked them to come by on Saturday night after the early show ended to spread more joy and jitters with us and our audience.
i hope they come. and i sincerely hope to become their best friend.

extra lucky for me is that most of the players who happened to be there at the time werent the Red Bull type, but the sneaky enough type to graciously accept their gifts and then turn their free Red Bull cans and shots over to me.
i happily drove home with a purse full of blue and grey canned happiness, singing a bit louder than was strictly necessary and shaking like an excited chihuahua.

-nct

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Show 63 Auditions: We Need Your Act!

National Comedy Theatre is excited to present (da da da dun...) Show 63, a comedy variety show with a $63 cash prize for the audience's favorite act!

We need YOUR 5-10 minute act.

NCT is looking for comedy acts of all types: Stand-up, sketch, comedy music acts, dramatic readings, one act plays, one man/woman shows... anything comedic is elligible to perform.

you MUST have an appointment to audition.

Auditions times between 12-6pm on Sunday September 27
call 602-374-5638 or email info@nctphoenix.com

Show 63 performance: Sunday October 18 6:00pm

Monday, September 7, 2009

NCT vs. The Room: The Revenge

so i found out that dorian found out a bit more about our alleged screening of The Room.
aparantly someone here in the valley IS screening The Room, at the MadCap Theatre in tempe. but, they DO have permission to screen it and, thankfully, arent infringing on mr.mumbles-mc-angry-pants's copyrights.
what IS slightly dissapointing is that our inside source said it probably wasnt tommy wisseau screaming at me in inaudible murmurings but rather his equally hard to understand agent whose name is still unknown to anyone, although he has probably said it a dozen times.

so there it is.

p.s. i would really really like to go see this film.

-nct

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Groupon and on and on and on

a while back we talked with a lady from groupon.com about featuring NCT sometime after their Phoenix site launched...

groupon.com is kind of like woot.com, every day they offer a different discount deal on something, usually entertainment related like restaurants, shows, spa treatments and the like. the deals are always really good, and they only last one day.

we discussed, deliberated, waffled and went back and fourth over what kind of deal we should offer and finally decided on a $6.00 ticket. the cheapest ticket ever.
we also got to decide on a minimum number (like, if we set the minimum at 10 and only 8 people wanted the tickets, the deal wouldnt go through) and a maximum.
really, there were alot of choices to make.

and finally the day came that our groupon would go live.
the minimum was set at 25 and, to be honest, i was wondering if we would top it by much. the maximum was 500, which i thought was a ridiculously high number. suzanne, from groupon, had warned me to stick close to the phones on the day our groupon went out for sale because people would be calling with questions.
the first call i got was at 8:00am, from her.
"good morning, this is suzanne with groupon.com, how is it going today?"
"good. everythings good. no problems, no calls yet."
"have you looked at the website?"
"yeah... i did. first thing this morning, it looks really good. we're very happy with the ad and the layout and the whole thing."
"you havent looked at it in a while."
"no." i said, now wondering if i should feel guilty for some reason?
"ok. no problem. right now you're at 68 tickets sold, so the deal is definitely going to go through. give me a call if you need anything!"

i think i actually said, holy cow.

there i was wondering if we would hit 25 the whole day and we were well over 60 after a few hours.

after that we were pretty much glued to the phone and the computer for the rest of the day. constantly hitting 'refresh' and delighting as the number went up and up. people started calling to make reservations with the groupons they had just purchased. we had to tell them to wait till the next day because we hadnt gotten any information back from groupon yet. man alive. it was kind of exciting, if you get excited about things that aren't really, on the whole, exciting... which i DO!

when the 24 hours of our groupon ended we were at 469 tickets sold.

the next day our phone started ringing at 8am with people wanting to make their reservations. i took over 40 reservations, just for groupon members, before 6:00pm.

and i took more than a few phone calls from people wanting to know how they could buy the $6.00 tickets... totally missing the general idea of the thing.

and i took a whole bunch of phone calls from people in a panic and a huff that the groupon expired on september 4... till i pointed out that they expire on september 4 2010.

and i took at least one call from someone looking for a guy named rodney, but i dont think that was anyhow related.

it seems like alot of groupons were used and in the audience this weekend, until i remind myself that there are still somewhere around 400 out there waiting for us.

viva la groupon.

-nct.