C E L E B R A T I N G T H E P R E C I O U S H U M A N TA P E S T R Y
V O L . I I I , N O. V I I
OCTOBER 17, 2008
BTV shows bring Brandeis spirit to screen BY JASON WONG Staff
After watching reports of our economy recede from the crashing stock market, watching BTV introduce a new sitcom, STANJY, as well as the season premiere of Slice and ’Deis was a perfect way to ease my mind out of the red. As I entered the Shapiro Atrium for the premieres, I was greeted by three loons wearing those mask-like, mustached-nosed glasses. The loony trio later introduced themselves to the audience as STeve, ANdy, and BenJY; or as they and others refer to them collectively as, STANJY. The three-for-one packaged group of sophomores met as roommates in their forced triple freshman year. Through BTV, they saw a demand for their unscripted, unabashed style of humor and decided to supply. In producing their show STANJY, the three strive for nothing more than to showcase their true-to-life humor by editing-in the best of their improvised lines into a twenty-five minute sitcom— quite a time-efficient and costeffective way to provide laughs. Their first episode “Burned at the Stake” starts off slow with a scene of them sitting on toilets and talking about dragonflies and gibberish. The audience immediately caught on to the strong bonds among STANJY, but the humor was harder to grasp. After this pricey startup, the show gathered gradual gains in chuckles as the plot progressed and introduced new characters. The plot starts with Steve (played by Steve Ragno ’11) burning his hand on a steak he was grilling.
This burn scratches his chances of winning the handwriting contest he entered; and so, he, Andy, (played by Andy Glynn ’11) and Benjy (played by Benjy Cooper ’11) search for a skilled handwriter to replace his seat in the contest. The simple plotline and character structure lent this episode the freedom to explore STANJY’s improvisational skills—not a bad trade in the humor market. The offset is that their unscripted lines are just okay. It is hit or miss with most of them, but they fire a lot, so the misses are almost overlooked. The show really hits the bullseyes with its transitions, which feature quirky filming effects to create some hilarious moments. The show’s obvious low-budgeted props and sets, along with some ridiculous extra characters—namely “Stone cold mothafucka” as credited—also add to its comedy. Although the cast of STANJY had no prior experience to acting, filming, or producing, they still manage a decent show. The few lines that are scripted are blatantly so and break the continuity of some conversations. Also, it is hard to distinguish the different personality types of the STANJY group; each member gives a carefree vibe but you cannot tell what makes them distinct. Overall, a half hour’s time is a fairly small opportunity cost to pay for the laughs that STANJY provides. When the Dow drops another three-hundred points, STANJY will likely succeed in lifting your spirits and making you laugh. After premiering STANJY, BTV faced some technical difficulties when trying to play Slice
and ’Deis and had to leave the audience sliceless for the night. Slice and ’Deis Producer, Arun Narayanan ’10, explained to the audience that the burned DVD of the episode did not work. He also explained that a backup that BTV was burning had frozen before reaching 100% completion. “It works on the computer,” said Narayanan in an interview with the Hoot. “We still want to show [the episode] so we’ll try to reschedule [a showing] for next week, assuming we can figure out the problem.” Although BTV had no bail-out plan for the majority of the audience, a couple of close friends of the show’s cast and I were able to sneak a peak at an early showing of the episode by watching it on the computer in the BTV office. Always creative in the opening credits, Slice and ’Deis’ fourth episode, “Drunk in ’Deis,” parodies the opening from Chappelle’s Show by featuring Gdaly Berlin ’10 on the guitar and Narayanan strutting by and throwing money into a trashcan (how economically fitting). Resourceful with its time, “Drunk in ’Deis” jumps right into the plot about parties at Brandeis from the get go. It starts with six friends; Ed (played by Berlin), Brendon (played by Alex Gaman ’09), Ronnie (played by Ted Levin ’10), Walter (played by Josh Reuss ’10), Nicole (played by Diana Benlevy ’09), and Lindsay (played by Larissa Liebmann ’10) deciding how to get alcohol for the party they want to throw in Walter’s suite. Ed, Brendon, Ronnie, and Nicole decide to steal alcohol See BTV p. 11
IMAGES COURTESY OF BTV
TRUE-TO-LIFE HUMOR: Pictured are screenshots from the new BTV sitcom, STANJY.
Bands on display at Worcester Rock and Shock festival BY DANIEL ORTNER Special to Diverse City
The Rock and Shock festival in Worcester is an annual three-day celebration of horror films and heavy metal. Just as horror films run the gamut from silly satire to dark brooding scare fest and from gorexploitation to sublime psychological masterpiece, so to did the range of bands and musical performances offered at this festival. I choose to only attend on day of the festival, because Sunday night was headlined by a band I had no interest in seeing (Insane Clown Posse) and I had already seen Saturday nights headliner, the violent and hilarious Gwar, several times lacked interest in any of the other bands playing
that day. Friday night on the other hand offered something for all metal palettes. From the genius progressive explorations of Between the Buried and me to the lead driven smashing sound of Children Of Bodom and the heavy plodding death metal of the legendary Obituary. I missed the first two opening bands in the process of trying to get my Press Pass for the show, Interviewing JB Brubaker one of the guitarists of August Burns red, and as I went over to the next door horror convention to meet Between the Buried. The members Between the Buried and Me were modest and down to earth and it was a pleasure to get to talk to them about their music and influences. This was a pretty lame convention overall, with lots
of no name celebrities trying to charge 20 dollars a pop for a signed picture. I got to meet, Chris Sarandon who plays the voice of Jack Skellington in Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas as well as Brian O'Halloran who plays one of the Clerks in Kevin Smith’s iconic films, which was pretty exciting. However, the festival lacked interesting give-aways, events or a feeling of excitement and happening which makes for a truly worthwhile festival. By the time I got back to the Palladium, August Burns Red had just gotten on stage. Their aggressive metal core styling carried pretty well. As promised, there were no singing parts and the sings were focused on the metal and very aggressive end of the spectrum. The crowd was responsive
IN THIS EDITION:
and the pit had a lot of momentum and energy. Though this audience was far from the typical one that would attend one of their shows, August Burns Red probably won over quite a few new fans with a very solid performance. There were a couple of nagging weaknesses however. While lead singer, Jake Luhrs, put on a pretty solid performance he was lacking in crowd interaction and didn’t really engage the audience very much. Moreover, he asked the audience to sign along if they knew the words to parts of songs but never turned over the microphone to actually capture the crowd’s singing. He lacked real gravitas or presence and didn’t elevate the material to a higher level of quality. See BANDS p. 11
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