Dear Miranda Hart,

I would like a job. Oh right, I should probably introduce myself and tell you why I would be qualified for a job. That is how logical writing works, right? While my prose can be quite well-written, I know you have very little time, so I think a list of credentials and reasons would be much quicker for everyone. So here we go, on with the letter! (See what I did there?)

1. My name is Katie, I was an Arts Admin Theatre Major in College and blah, blah, blah, all the things on every other resume. I am qualified to work in Theatre/Performing Arts.

2. I just want to work in comedy in anyway. You can easily provide that. You're a comedian. You need help with things. I can help you with those things. Those things can be pretty much anything, barring anything illegal or dealing with heights. I don't do heights well. So if you are looking for a bungie jumping partner, you may have to look elsewhere. But I would probably try to do it anyways.

3. I have previous experience in working in the comedy field. I am doing it now in Chicago. So, you know that I know the ins and outs of the comedy world.

4. I watch a lot of TV. A good chunk of my life has been spent with TV. It's like we are good friends, especially comedy TV. Comedy TV and I are best friends. So, I know what is good, what is bad, and what is good but the public just sadly never responds to. I've got it down.

5. You're kinda my comedian Idol right now. I found out about Miranda about two months ago and have already watched all the episodes at least 4 times and some more than that. It's funny every time. I would like to learn from you. Now, obviously that seems like more of a reason for me to want to work for you, but look at it this way. If I respect your work that much, you know I will give you more dedication than anyone else. I will go above and beyond, and that applies even if I am just the coffee/errand girl. I don't know care. All that matters is I am working for you.

6. I love London. I currently live in Chicago with my mom and you know how that can be. One wrong, little thing said and you are a ball of rage. So, I will happily (oh so happily!) move anywhere you may need me, which I really hope is London area. If it's not, I am little confused, but I will take it.

7. Please. I asked nicely and that should count for something. Right?

8. It isn't just you. I could probably help you navigate those tricky life situations because I could at least equal some of your embarrassing moments, if not surpass them. My boss just told me today, "Maybe you're chemically unbalanced." He also calls me "sassy" a lot. So standing next to me, you can look like a well poised and elegant person.

9. I will work for practically nothing. I just graduated from university. I am not expecting much from life, money-wise, right now. I just need enough to live and pay a few small student loans. That's all. I have survived on a bag of pretzels for a week. I can handle the small wage, you could provide.

10. I am patient (sort of, it depends on what I am waiting for. If I am waiting for someone driving to take a right turn, not patient. For you to give me a job, super patient). Perseverance , I think, pays off in the long run. So, I am willing to wait for this as long as you need. If you see this a year from now, If the date is December 2014, still contact me. I will accept whatever job you have to offer at any time.

Well, I hope those reasons have given you something to think about, and that you will consider me for the next open position you have available. Regardless of how this goes for me, I can't wait to watch the next season of Miranda. I hope all is well with you and you also keep laughing. I know I am laughing at myself right now.

Cheers,

#The Trainwrecks

Improv of Chicago: PBFs at Studio Be

No, the title does not mean Peanut Butter and Friends even though it totally looks like it does. It means something so much better, Potential Boyfriends. No, this is not a weird dating thing like many of our "friends" thought when we proposed to go and see them. They are an Improv Troupe in Chicago. They perform at Studio Be on Sheffield on Tuesday nights at 8pm for $7, but don't worry fellow broke people that $7 gets you a free beer at the Karaoke bar down the street. Where you get to drink and sing with them and possibly, if you're lucky, hang out with us.

Now, you're probably wondering why we are talking about this random Chicago Improv Group. What do you care, you live in Germany. But seriously people need to know about these guys and come down and see them. So we thought we would share our experience of seeing them with you.  So let's go back a few weeks to our first time with the Potential Boyfriends.

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012. It is just after Thanksgiving; (in America, sorry again Germany. We do like you.) and what does a person need more after a week with family than a good laugh? So after my friend Shannon (another friend! They do exist. Sorta) introduced me to this show, and I thought, Nora needs to see this and Dan can come. You'll hear more about Dan. Now I am passing the computer to Nora because she got there first and has a fun story,

I actually have many fun stories. But I'll just share this one with you, have to keep you coming back for more. Right, so Dan and I leave pretty early to head down there because we are taking mass transit, and I trust nothing to get me anywhere on time. PBFs is a BYOB (I know right, awesome) so we walk into the Studio Be with our wine and say hello, introduce ourselves, and then belatedly realize that in order to open the bottles of wine, one must have a corkscrew (Katie chimed in with "One must not be an idiot." I know, so mean.). A PBF, Pete, offers to go retrieve their corkscrew for us, and while he does, we chat and mention that our friend told us about their show and she should be coming too.  All of a sudden we hear a CRASH BANG BOOM and some sort of yell that I took as triumphant. I call back "That sounds promising." Turns out, it was. Pete returned with a corkscrew, and we were able to drink our wine. Or, we would have been had we brought cups. Poor Pete was sent on another adventure to go find us cups. (I will cut in on myself with the fun fact that we have never brought cups and last night I just looked at Pete and said in a vaguely pathetic "Pete? Cups?" His so appropriate response was "I should just hand them to you when you walk in the door." See? They are the best.) We stay to chat for a little bit longer and then as more people arrive go in to take our seats. Annd back to Katie. Oh but first, I will tell you that I had texted her "We made friends!"


I did receive that text and promptly ignored it. So, my night begins on the train trying to find Shannon. I live a little farther South than her so she was waiting at a stop ahead of me. Now we weren't trying to take the same train, but I saw her and instantly jumped out of my seat to the door, which was a bit retarded since it takes a while for the train to stop and the doors to open, so everyone on the train looked at me like I was crazy. (Nothing new) I then ran out of train to Shannon, screaming her name only to find her standing next to one of my superiors from work. Now, I did get to find Shannon so win, but I also look like a moron in front of one of my bosses, so lose. We're even though, so the night is off to a great start. I then leave Shannon to go and get her drinks at Walgreens because I think I should get to Nora, since she has never been here before. She will just be alone with Dan. As I walk into Studio Be, I talk to Nick who is handling the money and say, "I have some friends here." He then responds "Oh, you know Nora and Dan." And I am just like, seriously, you guys have been here for 5 minutes. What could you have done to already have them know your names? I am truthfully not surprised but still. It happens every time. Why? We just make friends, awkwardly, every where we go. I just start laughing, and Nick is then confused. I finish paying and getting my stamp for the show and see Nora waving obnoxiously from the Theatre.

Now onto the show. Yes, that was just the pre-show! Now the show goes as follows. There are two opening acts that are anything from a sketch group to a stand- up comedian. This week there was one sketch group and one improv troupe. Both were quite good. We had lots of laughs. One of them was even from Second City's touring company, Nicole Hastings. We thoroughly enjoyed these groups, but they did not top the PBFs. The PBFs were in top form, mainly because of Dan. Dan had the improvisers dream suggestion. The question they asked to the audience was, "It was Thanksgiving last week, did anyone do anything weird or awkward? Dan waited a moment to see if anyone would say anything, but when they didn't, he offered this gem. "I broke up with my girlfriend in a 5 hour car ride. The beginning of the car ride." One of the PBFs, Pat,  went straight to shake the Dan's hand. This led to the way they structure their set, which is by telling personal stories based on the suggestion, and then acting out scenes based on their stories.

So they took the suggestion and ran. There were too many great bits to remember, but this one stuck out for it being utterly ridiculous and hilarious. Nick talked about his last girlfriend, who was on the heavier side and loved fireworks. Fireworks was actually why they broke up. He kept talking during the fireworks, which distracted her from watching the fireworks. (Really? How can talking disrupt the loudest form of boring entertainment.) That is also what Nick thought, which led to their fight and then their break up. So the scene was then based on killing fat chicks and luring those chicks into the basement with fireworks. Machetes were mentioned. It became complete chaos, but the best part was watching Nick, who was not in the scene, turn bright red, not be able to stand because he was laughing so hard imagining his friends luring and then brutally murdering his ex-girlfirend. No one in the audience could even handle the amount of laughter that was occurring. Yes, that bit was a bit darker than their usual...sometimes, but it was amazing.

The other bit we have to mention came from the second week we went. (Yes, we have gone for 3 or 4 weeks in a row. ) Nick and Pete are playing 2 mothers in a scene and the one mother (Pete) is looking to redecorate her child's room now that they have moved out. Pete suggests sex dungeon. Nick, also a mother, starts talking about all the different things one can do in a sex dungeon. He rattles off a few and then ends it with this,"Sometimes you just want to get punched in the butt by a garden gnome." (Do you know what that means? Neither do they.) So, then the rest of the scene is played with Pete trying to get Nick to describe what that euphemism actually means. Nick, obviously having no idea, spends the scene trying not to describe what the euphemism means. The battle between the two makes this scene unbelievably funny. Then right when Nick is backed into a corner and about to explain, Pat runs across the stage and stops the scene. Everyone in the audience laughs and groans because they wanted to know. Joey then runs out and actually explains. (But sorry guys, we don't remember the explaination. Maybe that's a good thing.)

The next part of the night is our time at the bar where we obviously become best friends with the PBFs and by "best friends" we mean, we talked/hung out with them a bit. They are really nice, personable guys. (They might deny that) Okay, if you are not a big improv fan (I don't understand why you wouldn't be but to each his/her own.) there is one other major reason to come out on Tuesday night, and that is to see Nick perform karaoke. There is no one that can beat his performance of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. So if you go, don't sing that song. Nick will kill you. He owns the stage. That alone should get you to come and see these guys and get a FREE beer.

Now it is on a Tuesday, so that is hazardous for those of us who work because they might end up at work the next day covered with PBFs stamps all over their face and arms. The stamp ink does not come out easily and forced me (Katie) to wear long sleeves to the office in order to not have my boss ask questions. It also kinda looked like I got punched in the face because the ink smears just fine, so it looked like a little blue blotch on my face. It was very flattering.

So what should you be getting from this long convoluted post? If you are in the Chicago land area, make time on a Tuesday night to see some cheap funny theatre and get a free beer with The Potential Boyfriends. You will see us there, laughing our asses off. How will you know it's us. Just do the #trainwreck hand signal, which goes as follows. Put your arm straight out toward the person you believe is a fellow #trainwreck, and then with your palm facing them, move it in a circular motion. If they are a #trainwreck, they will respond by doing that same hand gesture but with the hand/palm facing themselves. Basically this is silently saying to them "#trainwreck" and them responding "obviously." We hope to see you there!

Check out PBFs Facebook Page Here: http://www.facebook.com/potentialbfs?fref=ts
If you like the page, you will know about all their shows and what not.

Make sure to follow us too on:

Twitter: Andimatrainwrec (Katie), npalmerco08 (Nora)

Tumblr: Aaannddimatrainwreck (official), kahildreth (Katie), stillnuttypony (Nora)

You Can't Stop Serenity or Joss Whedon

Dedication is something you see a lot of in the nerd world. We #trainwrecks love our shows/books/movies/etc to an immense to an even unhealthy degree. We do anything for our them like spend our whole paychecks to see a very tiny, very far away Joss Whedon at comic con. It's completely worth it to us every time too.

I specifically want to speak of who I think is the single most dedicated fan base in the nerd world and that is those of the Browncoats. The Firefly fans. First let's look at the facts

1. This show aired and was cancelled 10 years ago
2. It only had 14 episodes
3. At the time, the actors were not the most famous.
4. It aired out of order
5. It aired on Fox

And yet here we are 10 years later and there is a movie and the Science channel just aired a 10 year anniversary special with most of the cast. It's amazing to see that this show still lives, and it will still live. I can't see the fan base diminishing any time soon and there are many reasons for that.

One of those reasons is definitely the cast and crew. I  have never heard of a cast more bonded or more dedicated to a show than the firefly cast. None of them stayed in their trailers when they were not filming. They would all hang out on the ship like they really were the crew on Serenity. Nathan Fillion even said that he fell in love with this show and that Captain Mal was the best character he ever played and ever will play. When he found out the show was cancelled he could not sleep that night. He feared that the production would slow, and they would give up, but that obviously was not the case. He arrived the next morning, and everyone gave it everything they had. If they were going out, they were going out with the best show they could. They kept the mantra of "Whats the worst fox can do? Cancel us?" Even after they wrapped, all the cast remained in touch. Alan Tudyk even hosted a "we don't work for fox anymore" party. I mean they all came back to film the movie too. Nathan could not believe it was really happening. It took a few days of shooting for the surrealism that Joss pulled it off to wear off. The cast's love of the show projected into their performance and made us love the show even more.

The second thing that kept this going is Joss himself. "Don't bet against Joss" said Morena who plays Inara. Joss did not want to see this be the end of his vision. And when Joss decides something, that is it. He will get what he wants. Have you ever watch one of his shows after he has been told it is being cancelled? (Buffy season 7 and Angel season 5). It becomes more amazing. He makes everyone upstairs regret their decisions. Joss did have a lot of road blocks in getting the script to become a feature film. I mean who wants to produce a failed tv show and make it a movie? To most execs that is just throwing money away. Alan even gave him the button from Out of Gas and told Joss to press it when they "got their miracle." And they did.  In the end though, it was Joss' belief in his script that made others believe in it too. It was his effort that us Serenity.

And obviously third is the fans themselves. The ones that wait outside for days to get that glimpse of Nathan, Joss, Alan, Adam, Sean, Jewel, Morena, Summer, Ron and Gina. The people who buy and wear the funny looking Jayne hats. The people who watch Castle just hoping Nathan will throw in another reference. These people keep the show going by showing it to others, creating great fan art and writing blogs in dedication to it. Nathan said during last years comic con something to the effect of; the worst thing was not Firefly being cancelled, the worst thing was Firefly dying. But as everyone can see the show is not dying. You can't stop Serenity.

So this post is for all of you. All the people that believed in this little show and created something more out of it. We thank you!

Extra Post 2: Kate Nash Performs Buffy Musical "Once More With Feeling"

Here is the link to the website that has all the videos taken from the concert.

Kate Nash Performing "Once More with Feeling."

It is sadly not the whole concert. Hopefully, they did film it, and we can get it someday. However in the mean time, watch these great clips.

This proves that we are not the only crazies who still watch/sing this entire episode. It really does make me feel better. How about you?

ENJOY!