Are You Famous, Yet?

We discuss our low numbers and cost/benefit ratio. Download numbers are revealed. Laura and Jake talk about stopping regular production of the podcast. As is fitting, the sound would not work (curse you dongles) so we are using a MacPro mic and it sounds as bad as you'd expect.

See https://jakescruggs.com/blog/2019/01/01/the-truth-about-my-podcast for the data we discuss.

Stay subscribed if you like: We may do updates of our lives as events progress.

Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

Bryn W Packard and Nilsa Reyna join us from New York City, update us on their lives, and introduce us to Lauren Sowa.

Lauren Sowa is an actor and independent filmmaker. In 2016, she co-founded Form & Pressure Films to tell stories that inspire and provoke thought, while encouraging diversity and equality on set and on screen. Their first film, Marisol, is currently beginning its festival journey. As an actor, Lauren has been featured in the films Café Artist, The Devil’s Well, 42 Seconds of Happiness, which won multiple awards on the festival circuit and is now available on Amazon Prime, and The Rainbow Experiment, which premiered at Slamdance and was just picked up for distribution. She is on the board of NYC Women Filmmakers, an organization in the city devoted to cultivating the careers of women filmmakers through education and community. Her interview series Women in Film Portraits can be found on Instagram. Lauren received her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and is proud member of Actor’s Equity and SAG-AFTRA. 

Links: Website - https://www.laurensowa.com/ Form & Pressure Films - http://formandpressurefilms.com/ Women in Film Portraits - http://independent-magazine.org/authors/lauren-sowa/

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

This week's episode is the audio of the Friday September 14th, 2018 Three Cat Theater's Cabaret on the Lake hosted by Rob Dorn and produced by Laura Force-Scruggs. The performers were: Judy Parker (Storyteller), Matthew Lee Amyx (Storyteller), Danii Gallegos (Comedian), Bob Lawrence (Author/Reader), and Willa Moore (Musician/Poet). Willa Moore's guitar wasn't behaving so she asked us not to record her but gave us two recorded songs to insert.

As always the Berger Park Cultural Center was wonderful to inhabit and the staff helpful. There is video of this event (along with 2 videos that Willa Moore provided) online here: https://youtu.be/Hz1Yokz3Pcg

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

Daniela Thome is an actor, and recently writer, who has traveled from New York city for just a few months to be a part of the play "Not For Sale" which just recently opened and is Jeff Recommended. She's acted in Fru Mary, The Surprise , The Addicts, Elvira, One Minute Play Festival, Patience, Fortitude, & Other Antidepresants, Three Sisters, Cinderella, Life Without Joey, In The Shadow, and Oh de Sea! And that's just the theater. She has been in the films: God I Miss You, Fat Guy, Saudade?, and Hispanacea.

Not For Sale By Guadalis Del Carmen, Directed by Sara Carranza http://urbantheaterchicago.org/not-for-sale Produced by Urban Theater Company in Chicago 9/18- 10/20 2018 Part of Destinos Festival http://www.clata.org/destinos-main   A bunch of links to things we discussed in the podcast: Childrens Theater of Madison CTM - https://ctmtheater.org/ Maduka Steady - https://vimeo.com/51212982 Young Shakespeare Players - http://www.youngshakespeareplayers.org/ West High School, in Madison WI - https://www.facebook.com/WestHighDrama1/ Jay Hoggard - http://jayhoggard.com/ https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/jhoggard/profile.html AmeriCorps -https://www.nationalservice.gov/programs/americorps Northwestern University Settlement House - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwestern_University_Settlement_House  The Three Arts Club - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Arts_Club_of_Chicago  Janet Bentley - https://newplayexchange.org/users/1319/janet-bentley Dreamwell Theatre https://www.dreamwell.com/

The Young Lords - http://www.youngpatriots-rainbowcoalition.org/ylo-introduction/

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

David Holcombe returns for his 3rd appearance and updates us about projects that were just a gleam in his eye when we last talked... For instance: The 3 part "Anthropology Anthology" is now finished and plans are in the works to release it as a single unit. A big part of the discussion is about "Blacksite: The Musical!" A musical that David has filmed but not finished because he needs your help to finish production. There's an IndieGoGo campaign https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/blacksite-the-musical#/ that only has 3 days left so please go there now if you'd like to help make this musical. The film is about an illegal detention/interrogation building run by the Chicago police with no accountability. The Guardian released a series of articles detailing the crimes committed by the Chicago police force a few years ago - they can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/homan-square

http://daholcombe.com http://www.softcagefilms.com https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/blacksite-the-musical#/

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

Thom Britton and Jonathan Pritchard join us to discuss "The Seance" which is best described by this quote from their recent press release: A 'spook-house' show for the smart set; The Seance is an original stage show that recreates an authentic Victorian-era seance. We will investigate the history of the seance, tell stories of the participants and demonstrate the exact techniques used by psychics and mediums who claimed to contact the dead. You will learn exactly how a seance was performed in a theatrical environment.

"The Seance" is playing Oct. 13 at the Prop Theater in Chicago and in Detroit's  Hilton Garden Inn Southfield on Oct. 19 & Oct. 20th. Their website is: www.WePlayWithTheDead.com

We had a interesting discussion of mentalism, the origins of the seance and escape artistry, and how crazy popular mysticism was in the 1890-1910 era. Thom and Jonathan are complete pros at audience interaction so it should have come as no surprise to me that they were non-stop interesting and engaging with great story after story and yet I was almost intimidated by how smooth they were in the interview. Normally I get time to check my notes and the levels as a guest pauses or struggles to find a phrase but this was 'all killer no filler' so I think this episode will be a joy to listen to.

Links for Thom: https://freakshowtell.com/ www.WePlayWithTheDead.com

Links for Jonathan: https://www.likeamindreader.com/ http://www.jonnyzavant.com/

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

Classic episode from Apr 7, 2014

This week Laura brings Greg Ledger, storyteller and fellow podcaster! Greg's Podcast: A Dear School 0:01:30 Say hello to Greg! 0:02:20 Obamacare may be working for Bryn shortly 0:02:50 Nilsa already has Obamacare… because she's more organized than Bryn 0:06:00 Recorded some radio spots for Engine Lab of Tampa with Brian McKenna at BToven Studios 0:08:00 This Greg had an incredible guest on his podcast… our own Laura Scruggs. Drinking may have been involved. 0:10:30 Greg tells us how storytellers do it 0:12:25 Practicing storytelling in the shower 0:15:20 Greg took a 30 year moritorium on creativity 0:18:50 Early problems with drink and fleeing the country… to paint a guy's house 0:20:05 Calgary, The Stampede, and roving hoards of intellectuals 0:23:10 Deported by the RCMP and the road to sobriety 0:25:25 Moving to Chicago and the worst phone ever 0:29:00 Getting back into artistic stuff and getting nasty 0:29:55 Writing and breakdowns 0:33:30 Schwarzenegger 0:37:55 Masking your feelings with writing may be hazardous to your mental health 0:40:15 Bag A Bag A 'Begas- the latest snack food craze and other diversions 0:50:00 We love the origin story of our podcast, we're trying to figure out how to nurture it, too 0:53:55 According to Nilsa, Bryn loves reacting to things 0:58:40 What brought Greg to improv… 1:02:00 Favorite poems 1:10:00 A rejection of popular culture 1:13:00 Nilsa auditioned for the role of... Brynn (with two n's) 1:15:00 Bryn gets to shoot a movie with a previous podcast guest… who could it be?

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

Pete Blatchford has been an actor for 35 years. He has performed in Chicago, New York and Edinburgh. He has acted with Yippie Fest, On the Spot, Three Cat and many other Chicago theatre companies. Pete is an ensemble member of On the Spot theatre company. He wrote the book, "Wicked, Immoral, Utterly Bad!" an illustrated history of Chicago Theatre, 1837 - 1974. For more information about his book, visit wickedchicagostage.com. Pete is available for presentations about his book as well! He also co-wrote the play, The Night Chicago Died, with Tim Davis. It was produced by the Beowulf Theatre Company. His other scripts, The Warthogs of Wartonia, as well as adaptations of The Count of Monte Cristo and War of the Worlds, were performed by Pete’s theatre company, Pendragon Players. And he earned his Master of Fine Arts degree at Roosevelt University.

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

Super quick update about a new showing of "Uncle Fun: You're the One" (https://unclefunyouretheone.com) with some very interesting women at the American Visionary Art Museum (http://www.avam.org) in Baltimore. The show is September 23rd, 2018, is a benefit for the museum, and costs 100 smackers.

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz

01:12 - The Benefactor returns. Matt Shuemaker is Bryn’s high school friend and our first repeat guest (back from the 6th episode)! 02:18 - Yet another person comes in from out of town and paints the town red. A discussion of Rocky - the musical ensues. 05:22 - Guess which members of our crew have never seen "Rocky"? Surely not our star and focus of the show... 09:40 - "All the Way" the LBJ bio play with Bryan Cranston 13:30 - Jake tells a sports story! 20:22 - Uh... We explain the triangle offense. What happened to this podcast? 21:15 - A Death in the family http://t.co/vJGcXWf893 29:17 - Similarities between Nilsa's Dad and Bryn's Mom. 38:13 - Death chat ends with Jake transparently changing the topic to "Community." How 'bout the 2nd D&D episode, eh? 40:21 - Nilsa doesn't like one of Bryn's favorite movies: "House" the super artsy Japanese movie from 1977. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_%281977_film%29 44:44 - Matt, still lives in the "death sty" and has become "The Grain Elevator Specialist" 48:22 - Jake talks about the apprenticeship program he's starting at work 54:26 - The Benefactor's culinary good deeds are recounted. Steaks! 59:24 - The indecipherable and delightful video Jake saw in a Korean restaurant: http://youtu.be/3O9YceKnDo4 1:07:16 - Jake's review of the Veronica Mars movie.

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Intro Music: "Are You Famous, Yet?" - Laura Scruggs. Outro Music: "AYFY 1" - Christopher Kriz