Last month, we sadly said goodbye to our director Bill Johnson but that doesn’t mean the end of the Magic Meathands striving to get better and better. We’re now pulling from a number of experienced improvisers to serve as temporary coaches during our rehearsals.

Our first is Chris Ellis, a longtime member of the The Trans4merz, an improv group playing regularly at Fanatic Salon and originally directed by improvisation innovator Stan Wells. He is also co-creator/director of the hit web-series Fresh Hell, the comedy/tragedy starring Brent Spiner as himself in a world where a mysterious incident has destroyed his career. As you might expect, guest appearances and cameos abound, among them Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star LeVar Burton and The Guild‘s Jeff Lewis and Sandheep Parikh. The series was created with Spiner and writer/fellow Trans4merz Harry Hannigan (According to Jim). Meathands alum Heather Brumley can be seen in the opening credits of each Season 1 episode, and cameos as a Trekkie Nerd in Season 2, now playing on YouTube.

Oh and Chris Ellis is also British. So if you notice an inordinate amount of terrible British accents in our shows, now you know why.

Here’s a Fresh Hell promo:

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

Show tonight! We’ve got a ton of comedic performers – stand-up comics, improvisers – all teaming up for a big night for you!

Meanwhile at The Comics Observer:

• 3 recommendations of brand new graphic novels
• Comics symposium to be held at college

There’s a great energy to the show thanks to the able hosting of Benjamin Crutcher, and all of the players are supportive, and skilled enough to do fun and funny mini-shows. Usually with this kind of format, there’s that guy or that team that’s just kinda painful, but that hasn’t happened yet. (Maybe I’ve just lucked out on the nights I’ve gone. Or… maybe I’m that guy!)

It starts at 9 PM every Wednesday night and runs about two hours. And yes, it’s FREE.

Improv group Jump Start first to perform at Heyler’s, our new venue

This Saturday, the Magic Meathands Tag Team Comedy Show will be bursting with more funny people than ever before!

We had a great debut at Heyler’s last Saturday with our Family Friendly Show. Thank you to all who came out to help us celebrate our new home! We’ll be there again this Saturday night with our biggest Tag Team Comedy Show yet! Before you know it, Heyler’s will be known as the biggest comedy spot in LA! Or at least, the biggest on Pico Blvd. Surely somewhere between those two benchmarks.

We’re very happy to have three stand-up comics help us kick off the first Tag Team Comedy Show at Heyler’s:

• John Vargas made his debut at The Comedy Store and has been performing regularly at comedy clubs in and around LA.
• Vance Sanders is a Groundlings graduate who works the local comedy club circuit and is the host for the Scoomies, the award show celebrating stand-up comedy in LA.
• Pat Reilly is another regular of the LA comedy club scene, which helps him study sociology at UCLA.
• Ceci Noire came from Haiti to live the movie star lifestyle, and has unlocked the secrets of the universe.

A trio of comedians should be enough to pass the legal requirements of a comedy show, but that wasn’t enough for us! We’ve also got the improv group Distant Relatives! They perform every Friday night at The Improv Space, and now we’ve got them! All they need is one suggestion from the audience, and they turn it into a fully improvised long form show. The group includes former Meathand Eric Chad Ho, as well as Jason King, Tim Limbrick, Samir Forghani, and Stephen Perlstein.

To finish it all off, it’s the Magic Meathands! Yes, us! We perform a mixture of long form scenarios and short form games to create a lively and energetic show. So we’ll have you laughing one way or another!

See you Saturday at 8 PM!

Heyler’s
10659 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(one block east of Overland)

Tickets: $7

PARKING: The meters on Pico Blvd. do not need to eat after 6 PM. They’re on a special diet. Yes, that’s right, free street parking on Pico Blvd.! But look closely at the signs if you park on the side streets off Pico.

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

Ten on the Tenth is happening now! Post your 10 Drum Songs here!

I have a show tonight! Improv comedy by two groups, the Magic Meathands (with me!) and Jump Start, at our brand new location, Heyler’s!

Meanwhile, at The Comics Observer:

• What are Bizarro Depravity Comics? Miguel Cima explains in his latest Dig Comics column.
• What’s so special about Spider-Man? Wayne Rée explains in his latest The Journey, Man column.
• And 3 brand new graphic novels anyone can read.

Also, listen to my second appearance on the Part-Time Fanboy podcast, where we review The Avengers movie. I show up about halfway through.

I do Ten on the Tenth every month. So if you love music, check it out and post your own list.

(Yes, I really did use the term “dope beats”. I’m much too white to pull that kind of thing off. I’ll try not to let it happen again.)

Located on Pico Blvd. only one block east of the Westside Pavilion in West Los Angeles, Heyler is owned by Heyler Realty, one of the community’s oldest local businesses. They just recently moved to this great new location and with their interest in giving back to the community, we knew they’d be a great fit for us and our community outreach. Heyler can be easily accessed from the 10 and 405 freeways.

Straight from their Facebook page, below is a peak at Heyler’s spacious offices, which will be transformed into a fun and comfortable theater this Saturday night! Bring your friends and the whole family to witness the start of a new age of madcap mirth-making from the Magic Meathands!

Family Friendly Show featuring improv comedy with the Magic Meathands and Jump Start

Saturday, May 12
8:00 – 10:00 PM
$7 ($3 for kids 12 and under)

10659 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064
(map)

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

Hey, here’s me joining in on the latest episode of the Part-Time Fanboy podcast! We totally geek out talking about good Avengers comics (you know, because of that movie). I make an Impossible Man joke, just to give you an idea of how deep into the geek pool we go. I’ll also be joining them for a review/discussion of the movie, which we’re recording tomorrow. I lucked out to be able to go to the premiere last month and am going again tonight just to make sure I didn’t imagine enjoying it.

Speaking of comics, today is FREE COMIC BOOK DAY! The Comics Observer has details, as well as a rundown of how stores here in LA are celebrating.

Elizabeth Gill has been a Meathand for a number of years, but when she’s not improvising her butt off, she’s teaching screenwriting at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the John C. Hench School of Animation and Digital Arts, and winning some gold medals in the Senior Olympics for women’s soccer. She’s also a screenwriter (she wrote this episode of My So-Called Life, along with a number of TV movies) and a poet (Blue Woman: Poems and Drawings). And now she’s an author with her newly released audio book Open 24 Hours!

Find out more about Liz and her book in the first of our Meet a Meathand series:

See more of Liz performing with the Meathands by checking out our Show schedule.

Download Open 24 Hours by Elizabeth Gill.

The above was cross-posted on the Magic Meathands blog. I’ve been a member of the Magic Meathands for over 3 years, performing over 150 shows of improvised comedy. If you’re in the Los Angeles area, give yourself a treat and catch one of our shows.

I’ve been enjoying the show but I have to say things really hit a new level with episodes 6 and 7. [Note: I'm using the DVD box set's episode numbering, which counts the hour-long pilot episode as its own thing, and then the next episode as episode 1, and so on.] A lot of elements come together, characters take action, some questions are answered, more questions arise, and the sordid web of intrigue gets more and more tangled. And amid all the suspense and creepiness, a touch of comedy remains through the use of the show’s bizarre and awkward characters.

I don’t really want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil things, but my wife Nahleen usually live tweets when we watch and her wrap-up on Facebook was pretty great:

Hank has a lot to say, Hank is everywhere, Hank is trouble, Laura Palmer has serious issues, Leland Leland Leland, Josie arranged for her first husband’s murder?, Bobby’s still a dork, Shelly is naive as ever, Nadine continues to be miserable, Norma is nauseating, Lucy is pregnant?!?!–who’s the father?, where’s Laura Palmer’s mother, creepy cousin is still creepy, red drapes everywhere!, you’re only desirable if you shoot someone when you’re a cop, Katherine is fooled, lumberjack husband gets to play hero, James hears he’s dumb–or at least Laura thought so, AWKWARD!!–Audrey and Daddy?, the business guy is still evil and dealing with everyone and the mill starts to burn…it’s a bad night to be in Twin Peaks!