Harold Night Blog

So, I have a confession to make.

In the haroldnight.com blog post from last week, I falsely stated that two members of Rich Uncle had contracted the dreaded norovirus. I was not dissembling, I was misinformed. They were sick, but with something unrelated to the evil expulsatory disease that has cut through the countryside like a burning scythe through crop grain in a Dokken video.

But we have tempted fate, and now one of our members actually has the norovirus. And for that, I can't help but feel sorry and think it is somehow my fault for writing in this blog.

It's time to come clean.

See, we try to fill out this blog with details from time to time of what it is like to try to survive and hold on to your dignity and sanity in the fast-paced, high-flying world of unpaid nonprofit New England improv comedy. But sometimes there's the need, deep down, to feel exciting -- to feel important -- to feel controversial -- to feel Kardashian-like -- to have the kind of brash conflict and ascendant yet meaningless drama associated with the star lifestyle.

But make no mistake, no matter how exciting we make it sound with our accounts of fighting deadly diseases or traveling coach on regional airlines at our own expense, in truth, improv comedy is about the grimy, grindy, dirty work that gets in between shows - when you take down the padlock and chain at the old warehouse, push open those grand, creaky doors, and start doing mirroring exercises and three-line scenes.

Improv is work. Tough work. Not fun, exciting things like noroviruses. Norovirii.

Well, exciting for the bloggers - not for the person actually with the noroviria.

At any rate, you'll see a new tone from me on this blog now -- gritty realism. All hand-held cameras and in your face reality. The real story. Like The Shield, The Wire, The Blair Witch Project or Cloverfield. The real deal. The story on the streets. Like in Homicide: Life on the Streets, or Original Pirate Material, by The Streets.

So, tonight, I did my laundry. What did you do?

THAT SH** IS TOO REAL!

I know, I know, but that's how we roll right now. We tell the true story. Or else a vengeful Old Testament God will strike more of us down with oral and bowelular incontinence.

Truth in comedy, people.

-Pete, Rich Uncle

Liam learned storytelling from his Irish Catholic mother, who begins every exaggerated tale with 'now this is a true story.'  He hails from Oakland and still reps west coast unless confronted by a gang of east coast gangsters.

Ladies and gentlemen of Harold Night, as well as friends, allies, and the Harold-curious - IB Harold Team Rich Uncle has been compromised... by the NOROVIRUS.

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNNN....

Two Chuncles so far have fallen ill (of a dashing and debonair cast of eight) with the day or two-day affliction - an invasion of pseudo-life in vast quantity producing effusive and expulsatory response - waging war on the very body of the Chuncle her (or him) self.

Thankfully, Rich Uncle has a couple of weeks off performing with which to dispatch the invaders, so Harold Night shows are safe from this scourge.

But as you sit and wonder why we are the way we are, in our battle against the hordes of single-stranded RNA interlopers, remember.

You want us on that wall!

You need us on that wall!

I assure you, the immune systems of Rich Uncle are more than up to the task. We will fight them in the bloodstream, we will fight them in the lymph nodes, we will never surrender. We will defend Harold Night, whatever the cost may be.

Even if it means a couple of our members are throwing up.

Frowntown.

Wish them well, and see y'all in the theatre soon!

-PF, Rich Uncle

Last Thursday, one of our new Harold teams, the Buskers, had a great debut show.  And at this Thursday's Harold Night our three other brand new teams (Birthday Milk, Ginsburg and Respectable Gentlemen) will have their very first shows. 

And as if that wasn't enough, the awesome ImprovBoston Mainstage cast will be performing a Harold!  That's right, Ginsburg, Birthday Milk and ImprovBoston Mainstage will be rocking the 8pm show and then Respectable Gentlemen and Mister Diplomat will wow you at the 10pm show.  You don't want to miss this show!  Get your tickets now.

Harold Nighters use some weird words sometimes - it's a natural consequence of tangling your brains up with the same group of people for a while. "Harold Night Wordz" is going to go into some of these terms for the sake of information, amusement, as a form of therapy, and mostly so you knowz 'em if you seez 'em.

(Our friends in Respectable Gentlemen assure us that any boring or mundane thing is made hilariouz by adding a "z" to it. We're wouldn't dare to question them, of courz. Comedy goldz!!!)

Now that Harold Team Rich Uncle has played for more than half a year, you may have heard the term "Chuncle" from time to time. If you haven't, you should hear it anyway; it's a good term. Really speaks to the universal human condition, and, you know, not to our individual pseudo-cliquey improv team. I may be lying, but hey, you're in this deep, might as well see it through, right? Sink that cost!!

"Chuncle" comes from founding and sadly no longer active Rich Uncle player Andy Mendillo, who rehearsed and performed with Rich Uncle for our first six months, and, among other excellent contributions, signed us up for the thrilling and heavily trafficked website: http://boston.improvteams.com.

Andy was one of two Rich Uncle team members who trekked in every week from Rhode Island to play with us (the other shall remain nameless, but if you go to Live Alive any time of day or night, there's even money you'll find her there), so he jokingly submitted the group's name - using the abbreviation of his homeland - as"RI Chuncle."

It was a declaration of territory. Andy peed on us like a wolf - which of course was fine, because it was done with affection.

Upon discovering this choice of Andy's in rehearsal, the members of the mischristened "RI Chuncle" were immediately struck by how creepy "Chuncle" sounds.

Roll it around a bit. "Chuncle." Grunt it. "Chuncle." See what I mean?

Upon further discovery of our playstyle and senses of humor - and despite being generally nice upstanding people in our civilian lives - RI Chuncle also found we can be creepy too.

So, through that connection, "Chuncle" came to refer informally to the group, "Chuncles" came to refer collectively to the members of the group, and "very Chuncle" or "Chuncly" or similar came to refer to the sorts of scenes we perform from time to time that hit the very distinct creepy side of our playstyle.

You may hear us chant it during warmups. We do that sometimes.

Also, if anybody knows how to edit a profile on http://boston.improvteams.com without having the password for it, let us know. We haven't been able to fix it.

-Pete, RI Chuncle

Tonight at Harold Night is Plan B's final show.  Since forming in April 2009, Plan B has put on hilarious show after hilarious show.  They are the only winners of the ImprovBoston Harold Night Tournament, winning in 2010 and 2011. 

Though Plan B may be ending it's run as a Harold Night cast, you'll still be able to see the cast of Plan B as they've been cast on three brand new Harold teams that will debut at the January 19 Harold Night.

But for now, get your tickets to tonight's Harold Night to catch one last hurrah from Plan B and help send them off in style.  You don't want to miss this farewell show!

Check out this review of Harold Night as part of Rachel Kossman's "BostoNite" column on Boston.com.

Thanks Rachel!

For the next two weeks (December 15 and 22) Harold Night will not be having our regular 8pm show, but we will still be having our 10pm show.  In the 8pm time slot for the next two weeks at ImprovBoston will be the holiday musical, "What the Dickens?! A Charlie Brown Christmas Carol."  Definitely make a point to see this hilarious, original holiday musical!

And then stick around for the 10pm Harold Night!  This week we have Maxitor and Mister Diplomat with special guest Sam Benjamin, the author of American Gangbang: A Love Story.  Then next week at 10pm we'll have Rich Uncle and Mister Diplomat. 

Also prepare for some awesome upcoming shows including the Harold Night Holiday Extravaganza on December 29, Plan B's farewell show on January 5 and special guests 10£ Ally from NYC on January 12. Plus we'll also be rolling out our brand new teams soon.  Stay tuned.

Get your tickets while you still can!

Harold Night had auditions this past Sunday and we are incredibly excited to announce the results.  Check out this announcement on ImprovBoston.com to see what our 2012 lineup is going to look like!

We want to give a special thanks to everyone who auditioned and to all of you for supporting Harold Night!  Viva La Revolución!!!