Piccolo Fringe Finale at Theatre 99

Another delightful back-to-back comedy feast at Theatre 99. It was the last one for THIS 17-day arts festival,2009.
The good news: Charleston improv comedy continues all year long.
Greg Tavares welcomed the sold out crowd Saturday night and proudly proclaimed his group
The Have Nots has been active now for 14 years and the insanity will continue. Hooray!
The first 90-minute show was
Upright Citizens Brigade. They announced they were the touring company of USB as opposed to the real people I guess you would see if you caught the show up in Boston.
A sweet volunteer came onstage and they rifled her purse, wallet, her several id badges as well as her Weight Watchers diary to gather fodder for the first half of their show. They ran with it and a great exaggerated image emerged.
Shouted actions and places came from the audience for the comedy flashpoints the rest of the evening.
The next show - the finale - was almost three hours of hilarity. Many of the performers from the last two weeks came back for the reprise and all the stops were pulled out. Rude words were heard. Lewd actions were pantomimed. In short, a good time was had by all and only one couple seemed to have disappeared.

The troupe
Cupid Has A Heart On offered a final salute to the applauding audience.
My stint as an ersatz Spoleto reporter has ended for another year. I hope I'm invited to play again next year.
Labels: Boston, Cupid Has A Heart On, improv, The Have Nots, UCB, United Citizen Brigade
LOL and All That Jazz...

The last Piccolo Spoleto Jazz Evening for 2008 upstairs at Mistral's ended on a high note. Literally.
Bobbie Storm sang up a storm as she has been doing in Charleston for the last four decades. She was one of the first jazz performers I enjoyed when I came back to Charleston in 1993.
Back then she sang at places like
Chef & Clef and
Acme Bar & Grill (Think global/Drink local). Very fitting that Mistral's fairly new upstairs setting was her venue.
Another music place I have found to be very enjoyable is
Mad River, the former Seaman's Chapel on Market at East Bay. The room is perfect with fine acoustics and a wait staff eager to make your visit a good one.

Jazz, Blues...and comedy. These are a few of my favorite things and the comedic Finale at
Theater 99 was, as always, a treat.
Upright Citizens Brigade, the touring group down from NYC, demonstrated there MIGHT be humor in a visit to the OB/GYN.

The UCB also observed during their stay that Charlestonians loved their city and loved to drink. Looking just on my row, I guess I'd have to agree.
The home team of
The Have Nots had fun "making sausage" on stage - in English and Spanish.
The script for all the shows there is blank paper and fertile minds. Wow.
I'm about to wrap up my stint as a
SpoJo (citizen journalist covering Spoleto Piccolo) and suggest you take a look at the home base w
ww.Spoletotoday.com for all the coverage by staff and we humble SpoJos. Thank you.
Labels: Acme, Chef and Clef, Mistral's, The Have Nots. Bobbie Storm, UCB, Upright Citizens Brigade