“What is this new-fangled blog thing?” asks old-time Monkey Roger, who is back doing a Barrel of Monkeys show for the first time since 2005! Many of you were younger back then.
Okay, so it’s me, Roger. Having lived in Los Angeles acting in film & television for the last five years, I am back in Chicago and rehearsing the latest Monkey show that will be at Loyola Park this Monday! I’m very excited about it! We have had four rehearsals and have adapted some amazing stories. Some favorites include “The Orb of Light,” “The Time I Broke the Superhero Code,” and “Untitled (Meat Ribs),” in which I play Zeus, the son of the Titans. He is a charismatic and powerful character so I understand why they cast me.
Also, I have written my first monkey song in a very long time, based on the story “The Day Cheeseburgers Were Made!!!’ by Diamond J. It’s a great story about some lovely vampires who only wanted to have tacos for dinner, but after their mother mistakenly made the first cheeseburger ever, which they hated, they developed a taste for blood. As Diamond writes, “That’s why vampires drink blood and how cheeseburgers were made.” Now you know.
I have to confess I was very nervous about writing music for the monkeys again after being away for so long. I wasn’t sure if it would come back to me. Fortunately, it is like riding a bike—a superfun, slightly stressful, and exhilarating bike. It mostly just felt great to be creative and contribute to a group again. In Los Angeles, I loved doing screenwork—being on set is really fun—but I felt like the sense of collaboration and imagination that makes Barrel of Monkeys so wonderful is lacking out west. I know that may sound like I’m being superior and perhaps you think this kind of self-congratulation has no place in a high-class website like this one (there I go again), but I really feel like I have been gone for so long that I have an outsider’s perspective and that this is in fact an honest point of view from a fan. There are plenty of talented, wonderful people in L.A. who do sometimes work together and create some great work, but a lot of the focus, especially for people low down on the Hollywood ladder (which is most everybody), is on individual achievement. Switching from that to creating for something greater than myself feels fantastic.
Ba-vroom!
It is difficult for me to decide which of the new stories going into TWG on Monday is my favorite. We have the incredible Dancing Donut Trilogy musically adapted by Jason Sperling. We have a story where Hannah Montana is actually a monster and terrorizes other celebrities. Also, we have The Shopping Habit, where two girls seek the counsel of their grandmother, a recovering shop-a-holic.
Wow. Then there is the silent, funny and somewhat touching piece Two Grampas in Paris.
For all this greatness, the show this week is called The Mind Blow. I mean, it’s still called That’s Weird, Grandma. Phew, that was almost a really expensive and stressful marketing makeover. The show is only called The Mind Blow on our runlist and among insiders like you.
Okay.
Get $2 off your ticket simply by saying “Shopping Habit” at the b.o. while you’re shellin’ out your dough.
Below is the order in which we will perform the stories.
Be at it!!!
Oh friends, what a grand ol’ time we are having at the Loyola Park After-School Program this year. We have fabulous students, many returning, many new, and they do so many great things each Monday that a couple of years ago we developed a system to reward awesomeness with a little thing we like to call Monkey Bucks. Each Monkey Buck that goes into a special piggy bank of good deeds reflects such actions as respecting yourself or others, offering up a kind word to someone else, following directions, especially if it was hard to follow directions earlier, being ready to work and play, presenting a fantastic, ingenious and splendid idea to the group, the list goes on. Each student can earn monkey bucks, but all the monkey bucks earned go towards special rewards that the whole group can enjoy. Each of our age groups earned enough monkey bucks so fast, that we got to have a collective paper airplane throw (net value: 50 monkey bucks) in only our second week! I told you, there is so much awesome that happens each week, we can’t even keep up!
All three groups moved up in their earnings around the same time, thus it was time for a class parade (net value: 100 monkey bucks). The monkey teachers wrestled with ideas as to how to make the class parade as celebratory as possible, within the time constraints of 10 minutes before class ended. The answer came to us like it has come to us in many instances past when we weren’t sure how to make something ridiculously celebratory:
Silly hats and streamers. Obvi!
Here we all are, awaiting Joe’s (AKA Grand Marshall) instructions for the manner in which we would parade:
Everyone got into the parade spirit. Volunteers Aaron and Jenny wore their crowns with pride, and Aaron took it to the next level by wearing that Hamburger Hat with a crown on top. If that’s not celebratory, than, heck, what is?
Kassi brought her own bunny ears (sorry for the fuzzy images, my camera phone could not keep up with all the excitement)
Anthony provided the sweet jams on this boombox. Yes, that’s a very fuzzy Anthony. I’m tellin’ you, my camera phone could NOT keep up!
Here are the kids parading through the majestic stairwells of our beloved Loyola Park:
I regret not catching this on camera(phone), but wonderful members of the Loyola Park District staff met up with us along our parade route to cheer us on, only adding to our community Parade of Awesome.
I love Monkey Bucks because it reminds us all that there are so many things in life to celebrate and there are so many crazy ways to celebrate them. I remember sitting in my living room this summer with the Loyola Park teachers dreaming up these different rewards. I remember Anthony reading aloud some of his ideas. He paused before he read aloud his next one and said “I’m not sure if you all understand what I mean by this next one, or if you think it’s cool or not, but how about…Wizard Visit.”
My living room shook with laughter, because one, we knew exactly what he meant, and two, because we all thought it was incredibly awesome. I really loved my job right then.
Oh, the Very Special Lesson. The moral and the button to every family-friendly sitcom. Who did it better, more sickeningly, and more unapologetically than the late-80’s sitcom gem, Full House?
MAYBE ... Barrel of Monkeys. Just. May. Be.
“That’s Weird, Grandma” currently features a story called “I Remember,” where a father learns a Very Special Lesson about watching too much Full House, and then his daughter learns a Very Special Lesson about expressing opinions about others’ tv watching habits. Lessons abound, along with nostalgia. So I set off in search of some primo Full House clips to make us all remember why we loved Full House. Or hated it. Or whatever. Maybe Dave Coulier doing Bullwinkle voices or something. And instead, I found this:
WHAT.
THE.
BISCUITS.
Well, this gives us the opportunity to learn a Very Special Lesson. But what exactly is it?
a) Never, never put your child in show business
b) Stephanie has some pretty good moves in that later clip that takes place in the living room!
c) Youtube user “tvgirl9000”, aka “Linda,” has a lot of time on her hands. no. really. a lot.
d) You have now successfully identified the low point in Bob Saget’s career*, and it’s when he’s wearing a white tuxedo and singing backup to a little girl in an evening gown.
Ah, Avondale—that ol’ chestnut. We’ve been to Avondale a few times and the journals are always teeming with possibilities. The brilliant young minds of the Avondale School are responsible for stories such as the epic and transcendental “It Was a Cold Day,” an untitled story regarding puppies and Michael Jordan, and a tale that every American can relate to, “In Love With a Grill.” (Isn’t that a Roy Orbison song?)
Reading the journals, we found the students were particularly interested in the genre of “scary story” (Bonus points for any kids reading this: look up the definition of “genre” and put it in the comments section- always learning!). Some of the scary stories we’re adapting include a skull who is missing the bones of his body and a witch that flies to the top of the “Sears” Tower. One student described in grave detail a massive disease outbreak. And of course we have “demons and witches and vampires and werewolves, and ghosts.”
And judging from the first two rehearsals, this cast is really into props, mostly hand-crafted. Pens and paper and poster-board are going to be flying across the room. Puppets will represent mud, water, and farts. We will all win various theater awards for our efforts.
One last very special thing about this show: this is Zoe Schwartz’s very first school show as an official member of our Performing Ensemble! Zoe’s been teaching and performing with us a ton, but now she’s got the green light to call herself a Monkey. Three cheers for Zoe!
More later, and hopefully with more pictures of us in the action.
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