Doughplane / Vancouver / Auditions

Ricki S. sent in this picture of a real-life doughplane! (Photo credit: Tim Walker.)

In two weeks I’ll be in Vancouver for the first-ever Vancouver Comic Arts Festival! I hope you’ll come say hello. We’ll be doing a Machine of Death game panel (similar to this one we did in Toronto last year) and it should be tons of fun. If you’re a Vancouver local and interested in volunteering at the show, you can check out the VanCAF forums.

I haven’t been to Vancouver since I was five years old, I look forward to remembering anything at all about it this time around!

NOTE: Due to a conflicting engagement, I will not be at the Bay Area Maker Faire this year. I know! I’m bummed too. But I will be at Jesse Thorn’s MaxFunCon in June, leading a seminar called “Victorian Portraiture the Easy Way!” If you’re a registered MaxFunCon attendee, activity signup is open now.

Zachary Bernstein (whom you may remember from his performance at the Machine of Death Half-Birthday Party & Talent Show) is putting on a comedy musical here in Los Angeles, and he’s holding auditions. Here’s Zachary:

“Disasteroid!” is an original musical comedy about a man who mistakenly believes that the world is going to end, and acts accordingly.

This is a NON-UNION theater show. No Pay. Will be performed at the Sacred Fools Theater in Hollywood, August 10th, 11th, 12th, 17th, 18th, and 19th. Rehearsals start the first week in July.

We’re looking for comedic actors, who can sing just well enough or better. There will also be some dancing, but nothing too ambitious. The original songs have diverse styles. Actors auditioning for roles should be prepared to sing “Moon River,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Aquarius,” or a Beatles song.

Note: Ages of the characters DO NOT mean those must be the ages of the actors. This is theater, after all.

ALFRED EDGLEY (early 30s): Tax auditor pining to be a professional astronomer, timid at the office, but more daring in his spare time (Lead, 7 songs.)

MABEL BELLCOAT (early 30s): Wealthy philanthropist with low self-esteem, coquettish but doe-eyed and easily worried about what others think of her (Lead, 6 songs)

MITZI STERN (40s): Edgley’s unapologetic, tough, sadistic boss. She rules with an iron fist, and is constantly irritated by her subordinates and everyone else pretty much. This is a very meaty comedic villain role (Supporting, 1 1/2 songs.)

PETE PETTY (Any age): Edgley’s co-worker. A nice, harmless guy, but odd. (Supporting, 2 1/2 songs.)

To put your name in the hat, please submit to our breakdown on Actor’s Access. If you do not have Actor’s Access, please send a headshot and resume to: ztsbernstein [at] gmail.com. Thanks!

BONUS LINK: Last 24 Hour Comics Day, the French cartoonist “Boulet” drew a 24-page comic called “Darkness” that’s incredible. Do yourself a favor and read it immediately, it’s just great.

Dig Dug 30th Anniversary

It’s the 30th anniversary of the video game Dig Dug and Namco/Bandai has commissioned a bunch of webcomics authors to do special comics to mark the occasion! I’m on deck to do one, as are tons more of your favorite webcomics pals. There’s more general info here, and while the comics haven’t been released yet, I’ll be sure and link to them once they are!

Some shows to check out!

Are you in Calgary, Los Angeles, Nashville, Newport Beach, or Baltimore? WELL I GOT STUFF FOR YOU TO DO.

Calgary

I’ll be at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo next weekend, April 27-29! I’ll be signing books and stuff at the TopatoCo table! That’s pretty cool!

Los Angeles

Thursday, April 26, at the Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, there’s an improv comedy show called The Grind. They play every Thursday night (and they’re super great and you should go see them and it’s free besides), but on the 26th in particular, opening for them will be the fantastic MC Mr. Napkins, a musician I’ve mentioned before but who deserves another mention. Here he is performing a rap about moustaches.

I can’t wait to see him live again — if he does his song about vegetables, you will be in for quite a treat. (It’s no party hit of the summer, but what is?) Also I perform improv at this theater every other Monday with my team “Battlesocks” but that is neither here nor there.

Other Places

My friend and filmmaker Michael Mohan is bringing his feature comedy Save the Date to film festivals around the country! It’s co-written by (and based on work by, and featuring art by) cartoonist Jeffrey Brown, it stars Lizzy Caplan (Party Down), Alison Brie (Community), Geoffrey Arend (Super Troopers), and Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks), and it’s great. Some upcoming screenings are:

NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL
April 21 – 5:30pm – Regal Green Hills Stadium 16*
April 24 – 2:15pm – Regal Green Hills Stadium 16
Tickets & Info

NEWPORT BEACH FILM FESTIVAL
April 28 – 8:15pm – Triangle Square 5**
May 3 – 7:45pm – Island Cinema 3
Tickets & Info

MARYLAND FILM FESTIVAL (BALTIMORE)
May 4 – 8:00pm – Charles Theatre***
May 6 – 2:00pm – Charles Theatre
Tickets & Info

* Actor Lizzy Caplan and director Michael Mohan will be in attendance for a Q+A.
** Director Michael Mohan will be in attendance for a Q+A.
*** Co-writer Egan Reich and director Michael Mohan will be in attendance for a Q+A.

You can read reviews of the film here (the Onion AV Club gave it an A-!). In addition to these particular festivals, there’ll be more info on future screenings in other cities posted to the Save the Date Facebook page, here.

The film premiered at Sundance this year and it’s currently being shopped around to distributors, so I’d like to give it all the support it can get! If it’s coming to a town near you, you might say you should…SAVE THE DATE

for the screening

Piled Higher & Deeper — a movie about academia

My friend Jorge Cham, author of the long-running grad-school-themed comic Piled Higher & Deeper, has just released an independent feature film adaptation of his comic strip!

Here’s the trailer…

This is…huge. Making a movie is an arduous task (and I know)! Congrats are due to Jorge and his team, who have been screening the film at college campuses around the country.

Now Jorge has made the movie available to watch online! For ten bucks, you can stream or download the film in its entirety.

BUT WAIT — because I begged and pleaded, Jorge has given Wondermark fans a coupon code. Visit the official movie site via this link and you’ll get half off the price. Just five bucks to watch the movie!

Jorge Cham, ladies and gentlemen. Builder of empires. So proud of that dude.

UPDATE: Jorge’s site is getting hammered by release-day traffic! If it doesn’t load, try back in a bit? THE PRICE OF SUCCESS