Posted by Lacy on December 2, 2008
That's Weird Grandma
On behalf of Barrel of Monkeys, the core group of sports fans IN Barrel of Monkeys, and pretty much anyone who enjoys encouraging anyone anywhere, I want to send out a huge shoutout to 16-year-old Eri Yoshida. That girl just became the first female professional baseball player ever. And I think that is totally rad.
Speaking of rad and baseball, there’s a pretty rad baseball story in That’s Weird, Grandma right now (see how I tied those together? That’s a college degree at work there, friends) about a kid going to see a White Sox game and meeting the players. We’re always in a sticky situation when we have to present actual well-known celebrities on stage, but I think we did a pretty good job with this one.
For instance, the kid met Jermaine Dye (played by Donnell):
He met Bobby Jenks (played by Curtis):
and he also met Frank Thomas (naturally, played by Tai):
Hey, Monkeys? Next year, when all the kids are writing about her, I’m calling all the Eri Yoshida parts RIGHT NOW.
Posted by Heidi on December 1, 2008
That's Weird Grandma
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with lots of good cheer!
It’s December now, which means TWG is getting into full holiday mode. We’ve added two stories this week, both holiday favorites. First, of course, the song “The Time I At a Christmas Ball” which we trust is more dramatic than any of your holidays. We’ve also put in “A House”—you’ll want to keep track of all those elves!!
Full running order after the jump.
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Posted by Heidi on November 23, 2008
That's Weird Grandma
I know monkey fan, I know. It’s been a hard three weeks without “That’s Weird, Grandma” to spice up your Monday nights. But never fear! The show is back, and we’re not taking another break for months and months.
There’s a great runlist for this week’s show, as you can see we’re starting to work some holiday stories into the mix. By the time we get to the special holiday matinee (December 20th, buy your tickets early!) all your favorites should be back.
Buy your tickets online for this or any other week. As a special welcome back from hiatus, use the secret code “Hans the turkey” for a two-for-one discount.
In other news, this week we welcome back our former House Manager Jon Quinn, who spent the last six months working on a campaign. Luckily his efforts paid off, and we’re thrilled he’s back in Chicago for a while and promise not to make him fold too many programs.
Full running order after the jump.
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Posted by Elizabeth on November 20, 2008
That's Weird Grandma
Barrel of Monkeys Monday night show “That’s Weird, Grandma” has been lauded by Time Out Chicago as “The best reason [...] to live in Chicago on a Monday.”
Well, thank you, that’s very kind.
In recent weeks, there have been many reasons why it’s good to live in Chicago. I mean, seeing so many of our fellow Chicagoans in the news, how can you not feel a tremendous sense of pride? Barack Obama. Michelle Obama. Every single person who went to the rally in Grant Park on Election Night. Not to mention our very own Congressman, Rahm Emanuel, the next White House Chief of Staff.
Minus most of the people at the rally, I don’t know any of these people personally; but here they go, off to be even more important than they already were. From now on they will be surrounded by guards and armored vehicles and other protective devices. But for awhile, they were just ours. If you say “I live off the Berwyn red line stop”—they would know what that meant. If you say “I went to Stockton Elementary School,” they would probably know where that was. If you say “I just saw a great show full of stories written by kids and performed by adults in Andersonville,” Rahm Emanuel would know what you were talking about. Because he came to see “That’s Weird, Grandma.” He brought his lovely family, and I even went up to him afterwards and handed him one of our CDs and DVDs and thanked him for coming to the show (because another member of our staff, who shall remain nameless, was too starstruck to do it herself. Ahem.)
I am continually excited to be a part of “That’s Weird, Grandma” because it continues the lives of our students’ stories, and shares them with people who live all over Chicago. I like that on one cold night in December, one of the people who came to hear these stories will now go (back) to the White House.
So while Rahm Emanuel helps to make history in the halls of that house, I know in the back of my mind that he will remember the story of another house. A house built for 100 elves, 1 bathroom, and a whole mess of trouble.
Posted by Heidi on November 17, 2008
That's Weird Grandma
I know Monkey Fan, I know. It’s been a long couple of weeks without “That’s Weird, Grandma” in your life.
We’re sorry about that, but our performers need a break and the Neos need a chance to tech their upcoming holiday show (which is going to be awesome). So we’re on hiatus for one more week.
We’ll be back next week and you’ll see some holiday stories start to work their way in pretty quickly. Just what is Santa’s favorite game?
