What We Did Last Summer

Jane Morris directs Cloris Leachman

Whew! We finished up the first leg of the Hot Flash Road Show for Poise with Sherrie Shepherd and Cloris Leachman. The show will be posted online in a week or two, so we'll happily show you the wonderful results. We loved working with Mo Gaffney, both as the writer of the whole show and on stage with her. What a gal!

We are keeping our fingers crossed that there will be a second leg to the show. We had such a beautiful trip doing the show at a fancy theatre in Midtown Manhattan and right here in LA at the lovely Brentwood Theater. We especially would like to thank the staff and crew at the Brentwood, who make doing live theater a real pleasure.

Every single person who walked out of that show walked out laughing and happy. Us, too! Because, boy, that was a ton of work! Thanks also to Lee Costello, our stage manager and to Fred Kaz, for being Fred Kaz and the glue that held the whole show together.

Looking forward to our next opportunity to do sketch shows and industrials.

The All Girl Revue!

Featuring Jane Morris, Ruth Rudnick, Mary Wachtel, Edie McClurg, Maureen Kelly, Dee Ryan,  Kathleen Campbell and Jill Tally, an all women improvisational comedy troupe based in Los Angeles that is composed of professional film and television actresses who are alumni of The Second City, The Annoyance Theater in Chicago and the Groundlings Theater.  THE ALL GIRL REVUE has been together for five years and performs a monthly show at the Fanatic Salon in Culver City. Most recetly they mounted a large stage show for POISE and performed in New York for POISE and the BLOGHER convention and again in Los Angeles. The show featured the All Girl Revue starring with Cloris Leachman, Sherrie Sheperd and Mo Gaffney. They have appeared at the Boston Women in Comedy Festival at Improv Boston twice and won the Friars Club Audience Award.  They’ve performed at The Los Angeles Improv Festival at the Improv Olympic, The Second City 50th Anniversary, and this spring at The Chicago Improv Festival at The Second City E.T.C., a theater that Jane Morris helped found 30 years ago. 

Each month the All Girl Revue gathers some of LA's best women writers and performers to present their solo work and music followed by the jaw droppingly funny improvisation of the All Girl Revue. The All Girl Revue takes the stage on the third Friday of every month at the fanaticSalon, 3815 Sawtelle. Blvd in Culver City. For further information about the show, please call 310 622 2046.

The Hot Flash Road Show

Sherri Sheperd

We've been really busy lately. We're pals on and off stage, so busy for us basically means laughing a lot. Besides our travels this year to the Boston Women in Comedy Festival and the Chicago Improv Festival, we went to New York this summer to work for Poise and got raves from the women at the Blogher convention where we were commissioned to entertain.  New York was hot as hell and so were we.

Mo Gaffney

We're in rehearsal now for the Hot Flash Road Show, once again for Poise, written by Mo Gaffney and starring Kathleen Campbell, Mary Wachtel, Ruth Rudnick, Mo Gaffney and Maureen Kelly, along side Cloris Leachman and Sherri Sheperd. Jane Morris is directing.

Cloris Leachman

Our regular monthly show is going to be held a week late as a result. Instead of the third Friday of the month, we're drinking playing on the last Friday of the month on Sept. 28th. This month's guests are Victoria Delaney, Carla Snowden and Christine Schoenwald.

The All Girl Revue in Review!

Meet the players of the All Girl Revue!

Jane Morris, a founder of the Second City ETC in Chicago, Jane has been a writer, performer and director for the Second City and in her own venues for the past 20 years. Dubbed "The Harriet Tubman of Comedy" by friends, Jane and her husband, Jeff Michalski have owned and operated UpFront Comedy and the Comedy Underground in Santa Monica and is currently the managing director of the fanaticSalon in Culver City. Jane had numerous television credits, most recently "Behind the Candlabra" with Matt Damon for HBO.  For a full list of Jane's television and movie credits visit her IMDB page.

Edie McClurg was operations manager of NPR affiliate in Kansas City MO and taught Radio/ TV production and performance at U of MO/KC.  She produced and voiced many segments for the award-winning NPR program “All Things Considered”. Then she became an improvisa­tional comedian in Los Angeles .  What?  Many years with the Groundlings, now with The Spolin Players and the ALL GIRL REVUE playing at the Fanatic Salon in Venice CA . Edie has an extensive list of film credits including Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Little Mermaid, A River Runs Through It and Natural Born Killers.  On television Edie has appeaed on Depearate Housewives, Rules of Engagement, CSI, Malcolm in the Middle and the Hogan Family.

Edie is now the voice of Minnie Van in "Pixar's CARS 1 & 2" movies, Bea's Mom in "FISH HOOKS", and Polite Voice Woman in HBO's "CRASHBOX".

For a complete list of Edie's credits visit her IMDB page.

Ruth Rudnick, a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and an alumni of The Second City Theater in Chicago, is an actress,  writer and improviser. Her career began in Boston at WZOU  FM where she laughed for a living on the air as “the girl” on  the Boston Morning Zoo, doing impressions, and making up the traffic reports. Next came Chicago where she co-wrote and performed in over fifteen reviews with other alumni that included  Jane Morris, Steven Colbert and Steve Carell. Ruth can be seen as  Nurse Wanda in the Disney film While You Were Sleeping and since  moving to Los Angeles has been the lead of a network pilot (you’ve  never seen it) and has guest starred on numerous television shows including Curb Your Enthusiasm and NCIS. She is a founding member of  the All Girl Review and is currently near completion of her first book- a  childhood memoir. Ruth is the founder of Lead With Your Art an organization dedicated to fostering and making available, her love of improvisation and the  arts to teenagers and young adults. Mary Wachtel honed her acting/comedy chops in Chicago before moving to Los Ange­les.  While in Chicago she studied improvisation at the Second City and was an active mem­ber of the Annoyance Theater.  She created and performed in a plethora of original plays & musicals using her improv skills.  In L.A. she has performed at improv/sketch theaters all over the city and has appeared in many national commercials, as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm, independent film Fully Loaded, and The Party (which recently screened at "The Sexy Interna­tional Film Festival" in Melbourne, Australia).  Kathleen Campbell is an actress, improviser and poet.  She grew up in Wayland, MA. She graduated from Syracuse University with a BFA in Acting.  She has toured with THE SECOND CITY in Chicago.  She's a member of SAG, AFTRA and AEA.  Some TV credits are; THE DREW CAREY SHOW, STILL STANDING and ZOEY 101.  She recently played Mrs. Paroo in THE MUSIC MAN with The Stepping Stone Players. She lives in Glendale, CA with her family that she loves.  It’s her great pleasure to improvise and tour with the ladies of THE ALL GIRL REVUE, which she has done for the last five years. Dee Ryan had appeared onThe Office, United States of Tara, 10 Items or Less and as a lead in the short-lived micro-series Carpool Confidential. She plays a bartender in the UCB Movie Wild Girls Gone. Presently, she is working on a graphic novel adaptation of her one-woman show DeeConstruction. Dee is also working on a screen adaptation of the Newberry Award winning children’s book the higher power of lucky for Tamterra productions. Dee hails from Tewksbury and began her improvisational career at IIMPROBOSTON.

Frequent Flyers

Each month we round up a few great writer/performers to drink with us kick off our show with a bang. Here are just a few of the talented broads who have just about killed us with their humor and made us jealous with everything else about them.

Brett Paesel is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller, "Mommies Who Drink; Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom". She has been published in numerous national publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and Salon.com. Brett has been a contributing editor to Wondertime and Parents Magazine. She has also developed shows for HBO, ABC, Fox, Comedy Central, WB, Lifetime, and Nick at Nite. In her spare time, she teaches English and Creative Writing to 6th Graders. You can read her blog at lastofthebohemians.blogspot.com.

Johanna Stein is a writer/director/comedian/forward/slash/abuser whose work has been seen in The NY Times, Parents Magazine, CBS, Comedy Central, Disney, PBS, Nickelodeon, The Oxygen Network, The Movie Network, VH-1, CBC and all over the Worldwide Internets. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, their daughter, and a dog who once ate a couch. 

 www.johannastein.com

Marcia Wilkie has written for television talk shows, reality shows, game shows and nationally syndicated radio shows, and authored two New York Times best-selling books “Behind the Smile,” and “Might As Well Laugh About it Now” for Marie Osmond. Her own solo shows (“Are You Happy?,” “This Girl I Knew,” and “Duck, Duck, Goose”) toured the U.S. and played to critical acclaim in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Her two-act play, a dark comedy titled “Living Room” was a semi-finalist in the Eileen Heckart Drama Awards. Her articles have been published in Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Ladies' Home Journal and Prevention magazine. 

Clara York is playwright-performer and has appeared in numerous episodic television, film and web series including the 2011 Cannes web series Bollywood To Hollywood. She has also appeared in theater in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago and was a member of Jeff Doucette’s Over The Edge Players Improv Group. As a member of Paula Killen’s Write Club she has written and performed over 30 comedic pieces at IO West, Comedy Central, Bang, Fanatic Salon and The Celebration Theater.

Apocalypse, Not Now, a hilarious solo play written by Clara and directed by Jane Morris has garnered critical acclaim at the Hollywood Fringe Festival as well as the fanatic Salon. The next show is at the world famous Ice House on October 18. Tickets are limited. 

Kathryn Gallagher is from Chicago, but has been in Los Angeles since 2000. This year, on St. Patrick’s Day, she celebrated her 10^th anniversary performing as Sister in Late Nite Catechism. While in Chicago, she had an 18 year career as both an actress and a singer. Notable highlights there include the world premiers of Lynda Barry’s  The Good Times are Killing Me and Oliver Sack’s Awakenings. In Los Angeles, you can see her in five different versions of Late Nite Catechism. She has performed some form of this play at numerous locations, including (NYC) Off-Broadway at Sofia’s and (CA) at the Pasadena Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, North Coast Repertory, Coronet Theatre, Welk Theatre in Escondido, Hermosa Beach Playhouse and Second City (LA). Kathryn is also a member of Vanguard Rep/La Cañada Flintridge Shakespeare Festival, and most recently co-authored music for their most recent production of “Twelfth Night”.

 
 

Becky Thyre is a character actress who's been on Mr. Show, Weeds, Arrested Development, Curb Your Enthusiasm, True Blood, Six Feet Under, and other shows.  She tells stories about her checkered past sometimes at the Fanatic Salon with the funny ladies.

Erika Schickel is an essayist, humorist, book critic, playwright, solo performer, teacher, columnist and the author of, “You’re Not the Boss of Me: Adventures of a Modern Mom”. Her writing has appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The LA Weekly and LA City Beat and Bust Magazine has been collected into several literary anthologies. Her 1997 radio drama “Wild Amerika” was produced by LA Theatre Works for “The Play’s the Thing” and Erika continues to perform one-woman shows and readings around Los Angeles. She currently writes the “I On LA” column for LA Observed.com.