Philadelphia City Paper :: Agenda Lead

Agenda Lead: Fountains of 'Ween

[ spooky, scary ]

In Philadelphia, you could easily celebrate Halloween every weekend in October. And if you wanted, you could bank on staples like Eastern State Penitentiary's Terror Behind the Walls and the Halloween Festival in Fitler Square to fill up your calendar. But it's fun to step outside the box, so we've gathered a cauldron full of haps that could've easily slipped under your spook-dar. Now all you need is a costume.

Captain Fishsticker's Ship of Horrors

We've all lost our wits in a haunted house or two, but not many of us can say we've been aboard a ship occupied by zombies and anxiety-wreaking mermaids. Based on a tale by Revival Burlesque regular Max Guerin, Big Ship of Horrors revolves around the ghost of Captain Fishsticker — with a little strip-tease action thrown in for good measure. Guests will be ushered around the 177-foot-long horror craft by Lara Croftish: Ghost Hunter, who'll try to protect you with her fierce burlesque skills as you cross the bow, galley and pilothouse full of all kinds of scary-ass shit. You better hope the ghouls have an affinity for boo-bies. Oct. 27-31, 8-10 p.m., $20, Tall Ship Gazela, Columbus Boulevard and Market Street, 800-838-3006, gazela.org.

Haunted Museum Masquerade

Travel back to the 1920s at the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Jazz Age masquerade party, a festive take on its weekly Art After 5 Series. Performances include vintage jazz and swing by Drew Nugent & the Midnight Society, tap dancing by Gin Minsky and a decadent, days-gone-by dance party with Dances of Vice. When you're not fox-trotting in Great Stair Hall, peruse some of the museum's eerier paintings, like Rousseau's Carnival Evening or Salvador Dali's Soft Constr...

Agenda Lead: God Sometimes

Doug Seymour

CROSSED SWORDS: Lipke calls religion "the defining conflict of our age," and takes a two-pillared approach to it in his new songs.

[ songs of revelation ]
"If I do it right, this song could probably get picked up by churches," Andrew Lipke muses. "Well, up to a point at least."

Surrounded by mics, mixers and the maroon walls of his Kensington home studio, Lipke plays some rough cuts from his forthcoming album. The music in queue is an interpretation of the Sunday School hymn "This Is the Day"; it's respite from the apocalyptic vignettes on The Plague.

"There are two religiously fueled pillars of this work. One is more optimistic," the songwriter explains as a jovial church basement piano builds into a rollicking full band. "And one is cynical."

The band peaks and fades. The piano slips into a funereal minor key. Lipke talks of dissonance and spooky children's choirs. "It descends into a very uncomfortable-feeling place."

Finding beauty in discomfort is no foreign territory for Lipke. His 2008 album Mother Pearl and Dynamite had "Flesh and Bone," a sweeping, serene song about drowning. In concert, his rendition of Neil Young's free-associative bad trip "After the Gold Rush" is sublime. And The Plague ponders existence and mortality in a cycle of songs set at the end of the world, a place where blind faith has proven useless and the meaning of life is revealed to be, well, living (this stuff is much more Thus Spake Zarathustra than Left Behind).

The project has taken two years of preparation, from drawing up the themes and building out his basement studio to drafting sheet music. This Saturday, Lipke premières the songs (though not in sequen...

Agenda Lead: Mighty Jungle

temple university libraries

GANG STARS: With the help of Temple social worker Harold Haskins, a group of black gang members created a film that, 43 years after its creation, is being honored alongside Michael Jackson's Thriller.

[ found films ]
When the Library of Congress announced the list of films that would be preserved as part of its 2009 National Film Registry, alongside such landmark titles as Michael Jackson's Thriller, Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West and Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon sat a little-known 1967 short titled The Jungle. Created by a group of African-American gang members in North Philly under the supervision of Temple social worker Harold Haskins, the gritty, remarkable 22-minute film circulated on the educational market for years, but re-emerged when Secret Cinema's Jay Schwartz discovered a print several years ago. This Saturday's reprise screening, with Haskins in attendance, will celebrate the Registry induction and headline Secret Cinema's "From Philadelphia With Love 2010" program. Scribe Video Center will also show the film later this month.
City Paper: Were you surprised at the film's induction into the Library of Congress?
Harold Haskins: Can you imagine? Our names will be in some archive forever with Michael Jackson. ... I never thought that we'd eve...

Agenda Lead: Flights of Fancy

Mark Stehle

GREEN MONSTER: The Phlyin' Phanatics pose with their Flugtag craft.

[ by the horns ]
It took only 19 years of competitive flying triumphs and swan dives in cities around the world, but the famed Red Bull Flugtag, German for "flight day," — at the end of a multi-city tour — will finally land in the 215 this Saturday.

Expect an afternoon of awkward hilarity when various DIY objects-turned-aircrafts fly — or flop — off a 30-foot pier and plummet into the Delaware River, all in the name of caffeinated glory.

Hailing from New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and, of course, Pennsylvania, nearly 32 teams of five have spent the summer toiling away in garages, basements and backyards to create the greatest and most innovative aircrafts (imagine the Kensington Kinetic Sculpture Derby, airborne and with a wicked last step). Aerodynamics here aren't key in this competition. Beating the U.S. record for farthest Flugtag flight — 207 feet — couldn't hurt, but distance doesn't make or break a team's chances. Judges, including WMMR's Preston & Steve, will also take creativity and showmanship into account.

As part of the application, each team was required to provide an introductory online profile; charisma there certainly won't hurt competitors' chances. The members of Grease Lightning, for instance, will be sending a 10-foot cheesesteak wit Whiz off the pier, while the clever School of Rock team has fashioned a Flying V guitar.

The Phlyin' Phanatics hope to tug on hometown heartstrings with their enormous, airborne Phillie Phanatic. "We're all huge Phillies fans," says member Julie Jones. "P...

Agenda Lead: The Jazz Age

[ silence is golden ]

It would've been enough if director/screenwriter Dan Pritzker had just made Louis, a sparklingly psychedelic sepia-toned silent and bloodlust-y mythological take on the young life of trumpeter Armstrong. But he had to throw in flickeringly sensual cinematography courtesy of Vilmos Zsigmond (The Deer Hunter) a delightfully Chaplin-esque spin by comeback kid Jackie Earle Haley (Shutter Island, 2010's A Nightmare on Elm Street) and a sexy turn-of-the-century period score composed and played by Wynton Marsalis, who'll repeat the favor August 31 at the Keswick with an all-star lineup — including classical pianist Cecile Licad — as accompanists. Then he had to throw his back story at you: Pritzker, the son of late Hyatt Hotels owner Jay Pritzker and member of the band Sonia Dada, had never made a film before, and he's got another on the 2011 docket — Bolden! about the legendary Buddy Bolden, who arguably invented jazz.
City Paper: So, here you are with a boldly unique silent homage to Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin, brothels and the birth of jazz in New Orleans. What came first in the process, your love of jazz or film?
Dan Pritzker: I wouldn't say either. I've always been musical and I've always loved jazz, though I wouldn't consider myself a snob. I like film. I see them reasonably often. Maybe six times a year. For me, the real impetus to do [Bolden!] was the notion that there may have been one guy who invented jazz and we've largely never heard of him. That to me is an emotional wrenching and compelling story. The storyteller side of me came out; I just had to tell it, so I made two films.
CP: So it's a perso...

Agenda Lead: Murder, He Wrote

Jessica Kourkounis

BOOK CLUB: Writer Michael Capuzzo profiles a group of Philadelphia crime fighters who work to solve the unsolvable.

[ society thrill ]
Most dinner clubs don't take cold cases with their coffee. The Vidocq Society (VS), a nonprofit, pro-bono club of the world's foremost crime fighters and forensic experts, has been mulling over unsolved murders since 1990. The group is, by nature, secretive; luckily, former Inquirer reporter Michael Capuzzo has cracked the case in The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases (Gotham, Aug. 10), his nonfiction account of this exclusive 82-person society of criminologists. For seven years, Capuzzo tagged along with three VS luminaries who comprise the backbone of this Holmesian enterprise: Richard Walter, renowned forensic psychologist and wispy eccentric; Frank Bender, macho forensic sculptor with a preternatural insight into the criminal face; and William Fleisher, former FBI agent and no-nonsense VS president.
City Paper: What are the Philadelphia origins of the Vidocq Society?
Michael Capuzzo: It's uniquely Philadelphian in several ways. Eugène François Vidocq was the legendary French detective in the 19th century who inspired the character of Sherlock Holmes. But as far as its Philly roots, the VS meets once a month in the Public Ledger Building to solve murders over lunch.
The founder, Bill Fleisher, is Philadelphia-born and -bred and has worked ar...

Agenda Lead: Spored to Death

Neal Santos
NICKELS ON THE DIME: Local writer Thom Nickels goes sci-fi with his seventh novel, Spore.

[ the spore-ing life ]

Thom Nickels has had a grip on the crotch of Philly's gay literary scene since the early '70s. His contributions range from authoring one of the city's first queer columns for the Welcomat to currently writing for the Gay and Lesbian Review. But in his seventh novel, Spore (StarBooks, July 6), he taps into his penchant for the bizarre to take readers on a sci-fi journey. In anticipation of his talk this week at the Lippincott House, Nickels sat down with us to reveal the supernatural experiences that led him to create this twisted but thoughtful tale that's ripe with political innuendo, sexual liberation and a disease that'll change the way you think of broccoli.
City Paper: How would you explain Spore to someone who's not read it?
Thom Nickels: It's magic realism. The main character, Dennis, is a gay guy who gets married to a woman. His wife leaves him during their honeymoon because she reads his diary. From that point the novel turns into a play on what's true and what's not true about life. He becomes a kind of trans-medium, so he picks up messages. He's told that repressed sexual desires lead to the growth of the "Broccoli Spore Syndrome." But what he doesn't know is that his own repressed desires lead to diseases, too. He thinks the whole message is about sexual liberation. That's only part of the message. By the end of the book, he discovers that he's not really a successful prophet.
CP: What in the world is the Broccoli Spore Syndrome? Should we be worried?
TN: [Laughs] They're completely unreal. This is where an element of science fiction enters the...

Agenda Lead: Great Trash

A WRINKLE IN TIME: Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers doesn't have a point. But if you ask if there is one, you've missed it entirely.

[ in harmony ]
[ CITY PAPER GRADE: B+ ]
Moments after the lights came up on the première of Harmony Korine's Trash Humpers at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, a twentysomething in a jaunty chapeau jumped to his feet and asked, "So, like, what was the point of the movie?"

Without missing a beat, Korine shot back, "What's the point of your hat?"

In practice, Korine vacillates between letting his art speak for itself and explaining it ad nauseam — not only the point of his hat, but why it represents a new frontier in hat-making and renders all previous hats obsolete.

Trash Humpers does best without explanation. Shot on smeared, lo-fi VHS tape, the film (so to speak) is styled as a faux found object, the kind of thing that might be discovered in a pile of junk stacked by the curb. As if its smudged, underlit images weren't enough of an affront, it was edited on a pair of daisy-chained VCRs, adding layers of degradation to its already unsightly tableaux. The image wobbles and the sound warps as the decks whir up to speed, marred by blue-screen static and the telltale "auto-tracking" indicator.

The movie plunges us into the world of three misshapen malcontents — four if you count the largely unseen figure wi...

Agenda Lead: Video Drones

Ashley Macknica

HERE, THERE BE MONSTERS: Everything is Terrible! is a blog composed of seven friends with a penchant for VHS treasures.

[ too terrible ]

Sifting through bins of VHS tapes in thrift stores and yard sales is exactly how the folks of the blog Everything is Terrible! (everythingisterrible.com) choose to spend a Saturday. After one of these outings — where they search for infomercials and workout tapes from the '80s — they scavenge the footage for the funniest parts and start editing.

For the past year, the EIT! bloggers have mastered their editing skills and experimented with psychedelic visuals to present a feature-length mash-up of their best clips called 2Everything2Terrible2: Tokyo Drift, which the seven friends have taken on a tour dubbed The Quest for the Magick Crystal. Oh yeah, and before they screen the movie, the bloggers waddle out on stage dressed as big-headed monsters.

Therein lies the difference between EIT! and other blogs devoted to editing found footage: full-body, foam-rubber suits. "The whole shtick is that we are weird creatures from the Internet who fell out into this world and we don't understand it at all," says Katie Rife, one of EIT!'s founders. "To us, Everything is Terrible! is the world so now we have no idea what's going on." But the performance aspect isn't about focusing attention on EIT! writers, Rife says; it's about further highlighting the videos and the forgotte...

Agenda Lead: Jam and Slam

Erika Vonie

STARS AND STRIPES: Grand Slam competitor Leah Walton weaves a yarn at a previous StorySlam.

[ storytellers ]

During show and tell, what you had to say about your Pog collection, pet rock or family heirloom was ostensibly as important, if not more so, than the item you shared. Perhaps that's what the folks at First Person Arts had in mind when they selected "Show and Tell" as the theme for their next StorySlam.

But this is no ordinary slam. It's a Grand Slam, wherein winners of past events will duke it out for the enviable title "Best Storyteller in Philadelphia." For the past three years, First Person Arts has incorporated Grand Slams into its annual fall First Person Festival, but the Summer Grand Slam and Block Party will be a standalone over-sharing extravaganza complete with barbecue, beer and music.

The festivities begin with some edibles donated by Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse, Narragansett Beer, Art in the Age ROOT liquor and Herr's, with Brooklyn band Peculiar Gentleman providing the soundtrack. "Part of the reason we wanted to have a party beforehand was so that the audience will get a chance to tell stories and maybe, who knows, create a situation where stories will be born," says First Person Arts' managing director, Dan Gasiewski.

The slam itself kicks off at 8 p.m. inside the Painted Bride's main theater, where competitors will weave their best five-minute stories before three judges mommy blogger Cecily Kellogg (uppercasewoman.com), StorySlam superfan Eduardo ...

Agenda Lead: Turning Tricks

[ they just seem a little weird ]

In the early '70s, friends Tom Petersson and Rick Nielsen moved to Philly. Sometimes, they called themselves the Nazz with Stewkey, sometimes they were Fuse and eventually they were Sick Man of Europe. But Petersson and Nielsen figured out like everybody did in the '70s that Philly was nowhere, so they left, hooked up with singer Robin Zander and drummer Bun E. Carlos and became critical power pop darlings Cheap Trick. This week? Petersson and Nielsen are back, screening Cheap Trick at Budokan at the Piazza and playing with Squeeze at the Mann. Oh Tom.
City Paper: It's 1971 and you're in Philly. What's wrong with that picture?
Tom Petersson: We were working with our singer named Stewkey and he got some sort-of-a deal. He wanted Rick and I to come out there so we did.
CP: That's trusting.
TP: We knew him. Trusted him. Hell, even if we didn't there wasn't much for us to lose. I loved it there. We lived in Center City. I had just turned 21. I had a blast.
CP: Why some 28 to 29 years later did you come to write "Sick Man of Europe" for your most recent album The Latest?
TP: That's the ballad of Cheap Trick, a joke really. The short version of our life story.
CP: Do you feel like the shorthand that exists with a band that's been together so long is a blessing or a curse?
TP: Knowing people so long you get to know when to stay out of people's way. It's one big long compromise — like being married to several different wives.
CP: Let's talk Budokan. What do you remember about filming and taping those few days?
TP: T...

Agenda Lead: Second Sight

[ funny ha-ha ]

JUMP AROUND: Second City reaches its golden anniversary and sends (from left) Rob Belushi, Brooke Bagnall, Tim Ryder, Abby McEnany and Rachel Miller to party.

Michael Brosilow

There's nothing funny about history. Unless it's the history of Second City. For its 50th anniversary, the legendary Chicago comedy troupe is diving deep into the archives to keep the audience laughing — and with archives like these, it doesn't look like they'll have any trouble.
Consider Second City the Holy Roman Empire of comedy. The enterprise opened its doors in the Windy City in 1959, and has been breeding comedic geniuses ever since — notable alumni include Peter Boyle, Gilda Radner, all of the Ghostbusters, Stephen Colbert and homegirl Tina Fey.
All who attend the troupe's two-week run at Suzanne Roberts Theatre will certainly leave with a greater understanding of Second City, but the show is more like a greatest-hits album than dusty old history lesson. Expect a miscellany of the company's most hilarious stuff (sketches, songs, improvisations) written for Second City's stage, by Second City's best and brightest.
Because some of the material was written before the turn of the century, each skit has been updated for freshness. To keep the political and social satire relevant, some subtle adjustments have been made to the older scenes and skits — because that AOL 6.0 joke just isn't as funny as it once was. (A sketch from 1959 called "Museum Piece," about a trendy culture snob, for example, has been updated to include the word "hipster." ) There will also be a few tweaks to give the show a dash of local color. The introductions for the skits and the transitions between them have been tailored specifically for the Philadelphia crowd.
The cast of the show will have a Philly bent, as well. Three Second City comedians — Edgar Blackmon, Rachel Miller and Katie Rich — are familiar...

Agenda Lead: Go Fourth

[ celebrate!]
In 1776, a bunch of sweaty guys wearing wigs holed up in a crowded room on Chestnut Street to sign a paper that created a country. They didn't choose Boston or New York or Charleston as ground zero for liberty. Nope, they chose Philadelphia — and we've got a giant cracked bell and an Independence Hall to prove it. The birthplace of American independence isn't just limited to a night of fireworks and "America the Beautiful" — expect multi-day celebrations including Speedo parties, Guinness world record attempts and lots of ol' fashioned fun.

Independence Day Parade: Life, Liberty & You
Forget that Miss America Caressa Cameron and Disney singer DaVonda Simmons are attending; this year will be record-breaking. Or at least Marine Colonel John Folsam of Nebraska hopes so. As official judges look on, he'll attempt 6,000 high-fives in order to break the Guinness World Record for most high-fives at an event. Sun., July 4, 11 a.m., free, begins at 5th and Chestnut streets, 215-683-2200.
First Friday at the Chemical Heritage Foundation
What better way to prepare for the Fourth than to learn the about the finer points of important holiday staples? The Chemical Heritage Foundation's First Friday hosts workshops on producing things like fireworks and a spark fountain. Fri., July 2, 1 p.m.-8 p.m., free, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut St., 215-925-2222, chemicalheritage.org.

Rainbow Mountain Resort: Fourth of July Weekend
Lucky gays. They can avoid the tourists and head to the Poconos, where on the Fourth, the less clothes the better. Speedos are recommended attire for the weekend. On the eve of the Big Day, head to the Black ...

Agenda Lead: Trapper Tom

Emily Wilson

SMOKE BOMB: Survivalist Tom Brown III talks about his skills out in the wild and how to get back to our collective roots.

[ when nature calls ]
Getting back to nature becomes badass when a guy dubbed T3 holds the key to survival via a lethal throwing stick called an Addle Addle. Founder of the Primitive Arts Collective, a school for basic technology and wilderness survival, Tom Brown III is a hardcore advocate of sustainable living, a stance cultivated during years of roving wooded expanses and mastering the ancient throwing arts (we’re talking tomahawks here). His lecture this week will plunge us into to his lifestyle — what Brown deems the height of reliable, efficient technology — and challenge the assumptions that we can’t have our iPods and take them into the woods, too.
City Paper: How would you sum up what you do?

Tom Brown: I basically teach all aspects of primitive living, what I call the primitive arts, because you are creating functional art that our ancestors used to survive for hundreds of years. And, when you look at our modern society, which has really only been around the last 200 years, the skills I teach were used far longer and more effectively. The tools are perfected; it’s technology that can’t be improved upon. Nowadays, our technology is constantly being updated and reworked.
I also teach components of wilderness survival, a word that I really hate and try not to use because when people hear it they automatically think that I have a bun...

Agenda Lead: 'Cast Party

Courtesy of Degy Entertainment

JERSEY BOYS: Scott Mosier (bottom) will record the next SModcast in Philly with his BFF, director Kevin Smith.

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

[ chit chat ]

Scott Mosier is asking people to pay to watch him sit around and shoot the shit with his buddy. Of course, Mosier's homeslice is director Kevin Smith, and their powers combine to form SModcast (smodcast.com), a weekly podcast that began as a way to help retain their personal relationship, despite familial and professional obligations, and touches on everything from movies to masturbation to Helen Keller. Mosier, who met Smith in film school and has worked with him since Clerks, talks with City Paper about throwing poop in Fargo, how the podcast has changed his relationship with Smith and the one, the only Fleshlight.

City Paper: You're the less famous of the duo, so I need you to explain yourself a little bit. Are you more Robin to Kevin's Batman, or Oates to his Hall?

Scott Mosier: I'm going to go Hall and Oates because Robin makes me feel like a preteen. I don't have the Daryl Hall voice, but I'm right next to him. And we can hang out and talk like men. With Batman and Robin, the age disparity makes it a little weird.

CP: Creepy?

SM: Yeah, and I don't think we're creepy.

CP: How long have you known each other?

SM: We met in '92 at the Vancouver Film School in Vancouver, British Columbia. We met in class and hung out and ...

Agenda Lead: Reunion

Patrick Hagerty | Courtesy of phillygaycalendar.com

BOYZONE: Hunks in colorful speedos? Check.

[ festival ]
Whether you identify as L, G, B, T or just plain ol' Q, we're all members of the same family. It's a chance for the entire community to congregate in celebration of the trait that binds us — magnificent gayness. We want you to get the most out of this time of togetherness, so we've put together the ultimate Pride itinerary. All we ask is that you wave your proudest rainbow flag and sing to the heavens, "We are fam-i-ly."

Mamma Mia Sing-Along
It wasn't Meryl's finest moment, but a good gay can't deny the magic of ABBA. Hosted by Chumley and Carlotta, this viewing/sing-along not only gives spectators an opportunity to flex their vocal prowess, it's also a way to escape the heat. Pride organizer Franny Price suggests bringing a water gun to squirt whenever water appears on the screen. This will also come in handy when it's time to douse that Christina wannabe trying to sing over the rest of the crowd. Sat., June 12, 8 p.m., free, Great Plaza at Penn's Landing, Front and Chestnut streets, phillypride.org.

Philly Dyke March
The name suggests otherwise, but the ladies of Philly Dyke March welcome anyone who wants to get fired up. This is a way to draw positive attention to the lesbian community and create a platform for social activism. When the rally dies down, the party will continue at the park; keep your eyes peeled for performances by the Liberty City Kings, LYFE Dance and spoken word divas Pens, Pussies and Politics. Sat., June 12, 3-6:30 p.m., free, Kahn Park, 11t...

Agenda Lead: Open Wide

Stefan Falk

TICKLED PINK: Laura Anderson Barbata's Scarlet Ibis spreads its wings across the Schuylkill.

[ astral pleins ]

How do you get people to go see art, especially people who don't go to galleries or museums? One option: Bring the people to the artists, like the annual Open Studio Tours.

But then there's a radical solution: Bring the artists to the people.

Enter Art in the Open Philadelphia, a new festival on the banks of the Schuylkill River. For four days, 36 artists will set up shop — from Fairmount Water Works down to Schuylkill River Park on the east bank, and in Bartram's Gardens on the west — and create work outdoors. Much of it will be informed by the river itself, as people walk by, perhaps stop to watch and, depending on the artist, even participate in the creative process.

The concept was inspired by en plein air, says Mary Salvante, Art in the Open co-founding producer and director of Rowan University Art Gallery. The term directly translates to "in the open" and is used to describe painting outdoors, long practiced by the Impressionists. But Art in the Open is a little different.

"We wanted to reframe this concept of plein air painting to be more relevant currently, in terms of what kind of art is being produced today," Salvante says. To that end, the festival's artists include photographers, bookmakers, sculptors, knitters, musicians, dancers and installation artists. San Francisco artist Valerie George is bringing her "Car Kit," a 1983 300TD Mercedes Benz Wagon modified to be a self...

Agenda Lead: All-Male Review

Neal Santos

CAT SCRATCH FEVER: Shmitten Kitten proprietor Anna Goldfarb (center) surrounds herself with the beefiest of cakes in preparation for her Mister America hosting duties.

[ hot dudes ]
Anna Goldfarb isn't hosting a Mr. America beauty pageant as some kind of radical feminist statement. She's doing it because she loves Philly dudes. Goldfarb's irreverent dating blog, Shmitten Kitten (shmittenkitten.com), is her way of supporting the good guys and berating the dating world's failures. With the pageant, her words are made flesh, local studs are beckoned to parade around Johnny Brenda's stage and maybe get named the coolest dude on the block.

These contestants aren't just playing for individual glory (though the prizes are pretty sweet; see below); they're reppin' their 'hoods, from South Philly to the Great Northeast. "I gotta find the party animal from each neighborhood," says Goldfarb, who coerced her buddies to participate as contestants — including man-about-town/Barbary karaoke host Eddie Austin and a cat photographer. Yeah, a cat photographer. Swoon!

Each beefcake is given three chances to please. In the first round, the boys share their first-date duds and where they would take one lucky lady out on the town, giving a glimpse into who's in it to win it and who will be couch-surfing next Friday. Round 2 looks to be the most titillating: the talent competition. "The guy's talent could be pla...

Agenda Lead: Gong Hits

Mark Stehle

GOING, GOING, GONG: Paul Kuhn (center) does his best Chuck Barris, with (from left), Erika Hicks, Newton Buchanan ("The Dancin' Creeper") and CJ Keller ("The Unknown Comic").

[ west philly's got talent ]
Canada. The majestic North. A place that brings to mind moose, the Mounties, half of a huge waterfall and boundless affection for The Gong Show? "I am from Canada and we only got, like, one channel, so this is the show I'd always end up watching," says Paul Kuhn, artistic director for Curio Theatre Co., about how the endless syndication and outrageous antics of the TV talent show sucked him in. He's hoping to create the same sense of fanaticism for Curio's first-ever Gong Show.

The Gong Show's original host and producer, Chuck Barris, is a Drexel grad, and Kuhn says he feels the West Philly tie. So Curio sent out the call for wacky acts, and teamed up with food and crafts vendors to help make the homage the same kind of zoo.

"Our first posting for acts got a hit almost instantaneously from a cordless drill ensemble. ... That's precisely the type of thing we are looking for," he says. "We've been asking for anything from belly dancing to pet tricks. Some guy called and asked if he could try to bore the audience to death."

Besides the West Philadelphia Cordless Drill Team's performance of "Music Through the Ages," patrons will watch comics, a sound-effects ensemble and more ambiguous acts like Fulzio: The Skinny Pavarotti. The winner will take home the $399.95 grand prize purse. "The joy is that every contestant has to have a sense...

Agenda Lead: Some Enchanted Evening

Katherine Fritz

THE SOUND OF MUSIC: The Philadelphia Joke Initiative will make up music, lyrics and jokes in Rodgers and Hammerstein are Dead, featuring (from left) Joe Sabatino, Olwyn Conway, Kristen Schier, Olivia R. Brubaker, Kelly Vrooman and more.
[ improvisational jazz hands! ]
Caution: Rodgers and Hammerstein are Dead could kill. That's an exaggeration. But there is peril aplenty in staging a full-length improv musical. "The performances are equally as dangerous and unpredictable as a trapeze act. We're never entirely sure what's going to happen," says director Jason Stockdale. "There is risk involved on a nightly basis."

In this live, completely on-the-spot musical, the comedians, along with pianist Joe Gribbin, will come up with songs based on an audience member's suggestions for a fantastical location or imagined title. Emulating the creators of beloved musicals such as Oklahoma!, South Pacific and The Sound of Music, the performances will revolve around a young couple as they fall in love, are torn apart and are then brought back together to live happily ever after. Every night will be an entirely different play that only one specific audience will ever witness.

Since November, the idea of marrying improv and musical theater had kicked around in the minds of Stockdale and artistic director Alexis Simp...