Friday, June 28, 2013

Kevin McDonald of the Kids in the Hall visits National Comedy Theatre for 2 Day Improv into Sketch Workshop & an Evening of Comedy

Ok. Lets start with the facts and then I will ramble a bit about how personally excited I am to share this news...

Kevin McDonald of the Kids in the Hall will be visiting us at National Comedy Theatre as we host a 2 day Improv into Sketch Workshop and then An Evening of Stand Up and Improv Comedy with Kevin McDonald and the cast of National Comedy Theatre.

Kevin McDonald Improv into Sketch Workshop
$300 for two full days
Saturday August 31 & Sunday September 1, 10:00am- 5:00pm

Join Kevin McDonald of the Kids in the Hall for a two day, 12 hour workshop to improve your acting and writing skills. You will learn how to write comedy through performance, and use improv as a writing tool.

The workshop will warm up with improv games to help sharpen storytelling skills, and evolve until students are doing their own improvised scenes in small groups. Kevin will go from group to group, helping and guiding with the "writing" of each scene. Each group will then have the opportunity to present their sketch.

After getting notes, revising and presenting the scenes again, the workshop will end with the groups going away and actually finalizing their scenes. The now fully written scenes will be performed one last time for everyone.

This workshop will improve your acting and writing skills, and will teach you how both skills work in unison to create great scenes and hilarious comedy. And if you ask him, ther'es a good chance Kevin will answer any questions about the Kids in the Hall. You might have to ask him to shut up.

Space is limited. Call 602-374-5638 or email workshops@nctphoenix.com

Kevin McDonald is an accomplished stand-up comedian, actor, voice artist, writer, director and improviser. He is best known as a member of the legendary sketch comedy team The Kids in the Hall. He has appeared in films such as Epic Movie, Sky High and Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy and more. Television appearances include Arrested Development, Friends, Seinfeld, that 70’s Show and tons and tons more. His voice work includes Lilo & Stitch, Invader Zim and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends and tons and tons and tons more….


An Evening of Stand Up & Improv Comedy
Sunday September 1, 7:00pm, $20
(likely R rated, no Brown Bag Foul)

Kevin McDonald of the Kids in the Hall is joining the cast of National Comedy Theatre for an Evening of Stand-Up and Improv Comedy.
Kevin McDonald is best known as a legend of sketch comedy but he is also a hilarious and accomplished performer of film, television, voice acting, stand-up and improv.

Get your tickets now for this exciting event online here.
(this is a special engagement, discounts, vouchers and red tickets do not apply)

So thats the facts.
Personally, I'm so excited about this event that its hard to keep my arms and hands from fluttering uncontrollably, as they did when I sat down to read an email that began, "Hi I'm Kevin McDonald from the Kids in the Hall (the one with curly hair and glasses)..." as I read on I got more and more excited and the fluttering made it extraordinarily difficult to type out a reply.

I grew up on the Kids in the Hall. I literally wore out my VHS of Brain Candy and I very often still confuse people by offering them double A batteries and land in Montana.
I am really excited to host Mr. McDonald. I hope you guys are excited too!

Here he is discussing a great Kids in the Hall sketch with Chris Hardwick for the Nerdist Channel:

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Mom Squad: App Chat



Krissy Lenz visits with the Mom Squad and Lisa Haffner of Your Life A to Z discuss the ever changing landscape of social media and what Mom's need to know.

Though we only covered SnapChat and the impossibility of keeping your lovely little faces off of the interwebs forever, there is so much more to explore!

tumblr, reddit, buzzfeed, mashable... maybe we will get to revisit it again. By then there will probably be a big stack of new sites and apps to learn about!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Gadzooks- its YOU (The Audience!) March & April Edition

3/2/13

3/22

3/29

3/30

3/30

4/12

4/20

4/26

4/27

5/3

5/10

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Mom Squad: Too Much Gaming?

This Wednesday was my first actual segment on Your Life A to Z's Mom Squad. The topic- video games and electronic entertainment... has it gone too far?

I know that Im probably still ahead of the bend in the road whereby children inevitably succumb to the digital under toe, but right now electronics do us no harm. Zoe and Rocket will sometimes play with their innotab, vsmile, or with my kindle or ipod- but I can't recall a time they ever spent more than 15 minutes gaming before moving on to the next activity. Right at this moment, as I sit at my desk working away, they are playing "Super Babies vs. Ninja Turtles" together.

Suzy, one of my fellow Squadders, has trouble with her older kids playing too much and staying up all night.
Janet didn't allow her kids to have video games at all growing up.

What do you guys think?

It was a lot of fun to be at the studio again, in the fancy room with the kitchen and the adorable Italian chef. I'm looking forward to the next taping on the 25th. No idea what the topic will be but I'll be sure to let you know!

Here's the video of our introductory appearance.