If you haven’t – please share this blog and click over and like The Cheats Movement on Facebook! WE SEE IT!

Joey on the set with the camera.

It was really cool seeing how Shawn improved some of the script on site.

Joey and Aaron – someone is telling a joke.

Check out my improv classmate Rachel slapping some bass.

Patrick and Katie with a great sport from NO BS.

The great comedy continues tonight as the Richmond Comedy Coalition is presenting  their 3 year anniversary show at Gallery 5. Trust me…they are not the best comedy group in RVA for nothing. Make sure you check it out.

Sara Schaefer crashed Midnight Suggestion at Steady Sounds.

Jeff Kelly, The Check Out Girl, Kenny Wingle, and Sara at Midnight Suggestion.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE CHEATS MOVEMENT PHOTOS FROM RICHMOND FAMOUS: RUMORS BOUTIQUE 

I kicked off my holiday weekend in a big way. Here is an inside look at my Grind Date Friday: Dropped The Passion of (The) Sleaze video trailer. I’m so excited to be shooting, directing, and editing a video from start to finish. I could not be working with better brothers than The Honorable Sleaze and Brad Ohbliv. S/O Just Plain Sounds. Check out the trailer and let me know what you think.

After the trailer dropped, I headed out to The Shop to meet Sleaze and Ohbliv to finish the video. It’s not done yet but we got most of the work done. Watch out for the full video in June!

7:00 PM It was time to hit West Coast Kix in Carytown to see more Cheats Movement Fam, the very talented Hamilton Glass AKA HAM?. HAM? was kicking off his Last Friday Art Show. I’d been looking forward to the show for about a month and it was great to see RVA come out to support. I also met the lovely Shannon Santiago. Shannon is a photographer extraordinaire that collaborated with HAM? for the show. She also comes with a very funny bodyguard – S/O Cindy (JRT).  S/O to the amazing Glass family – Taekia and Sanaa I see you. And my man Distant Dee!

8:30 PM Off to Gallery 5 to catch the Richmond Comedy Coalition (Voted Best Comedy Group in RVA for the 2nd year in a row). Richmond Famous is one of my favorite shows because the RCC takes great stories from some of RVA’s most interesting peeps and do improv motivated by the stories. Last night’s featured guest were the ladies from Rumors Boutique. I’ve always been  a huge fan of Casey Longyear and Marshe Wyche since I heard their story years ago. I met them both before but I’ve haven’t been able to land a  The Cheats Movement profile with them just yet… but I have not given up hope . The show was great – The RCC is always awesome.  S/O to Dirty Richmond and Bree El – spoiler alert: the much missed (by me) Sunday Cypher will return! And word on the street…there will be a great comedy night coming up a Pie (on Lombardy). S/O to Kristen – Have fun in France.

11:00 PM Final stop of the night was at Belly Timber to meet up with Bar Codez and J. Bryant from Photosynthesizers. Photos had just played Friday Night Cheers earlier in the evening.  I also caught up with the lovely Maat Free (2011 Vegi Iron Chief)…big plans in the works! All this and not to mention, I just spoke with Black Liquid and he said another great Face Melt Friday went down last night

RVA has some crazy energy right night now. And it’s all love. Go out and see it all – WE SEE IT! Enjoy your holiday weekend.

RVA HOT SAUCE is how “we” see RVA. Our town is filled with creative talent and positive people. HOT SAUCE had some of the most gifted Richmonders in one room, in-front of a live audience, performing for free. Please support this series. Episode 1 will be the first of at least 3 videos in this series.

Well, I know that I’ve been stalling on the release of the first RVA HOT SAUCE videos and stalling even more on the plans for the next RVA HOT SAUCE.  Full disclosure time – The task is a bit more challenging than I ever thought it would be – The first HOT SAUCE was such a great event for anyone that was there or watched online.  Coming back for  a squeal really gave me some hesitation BUT fear not -  the wait is over – RVA HOT SAUCE will return in April 2012 and it will be bigger and better than every before. I’ve been in talks with my dudes Jason Moore (The Shop) and James Dangle (JPS) and we already have some really crazy ideas for something real special for RVA.

In regards to the short vids from the first HOT SAUCE — I’m currently working on 2 major projects right now — and I’m posting this as much to motivate me as to notify you. Project 1 is a Cheats Movement Zine Project – highlighting all the work of the blog’s first year through photos and interviews. Project 2 is the HOT  SAUCE short vids. I will be working on both of these projects at the same time and hope to have something to show everyone very soon. If you have no idea what I’m talking about — check out the 1st trailer from RVA HOT SAUCE below.

If John and Sherry were nervous – I could not tell at all. They did an amazing job telling personal stories and providing the RCC with plenty of improv ammunition. John even join the RCC team on stage for one of the funniest bits of the night, “knit cop.”  After some hesitation, Sherry told the best (and most embarrassing) story of the night, “The carebear underwear” story. If you weren’t there, I’ll just say, “it was kind of a joke she had with herself.”  I will also add, after the show Sherry and John met every fan waiting in line to meet them and were amazingly nice to everyone. And some inside scoop – Sherry is a hugger

The Richmond Comedy Coalition is the best improv troupe in the city. If you have never been to a RCC show — trust me — it’s worth the “cheap” price to attend.

I REALLY NEED YOUR SUPPORT – CLICK HERE TO LIKE THE CHEATS MOVEMENT ON FACEBOOK!

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL OF THE PHOTOS FROM RICHMOND FAMOUS FT YOUNG HOUSE LOVE!

Young House Love: Sherry and John Petersik

RCC’s Patrick, Katie, and Blue

John “Knit Cop” in action

Raise your hand if this is your first improv show

FAKING IT [Kristin Kirkley, Rachel Weatherly, Emilie Tweeddale & Townsend - not pictured]  Side note: Faking it are four of the funniest girls I know — I was lucky enough to be in an RCC improv class with them last year — so proud of y0u!

College for Bears: Steve Howze & Josh Blubaugh. Both Steve and Josh are what I call duel threats — the are great at improv and also very funny stand-up comics. Laugh at Josh and Steve at Cafe Diem’s Open Mic Comedy Night.

The night ended with a open improv jam. My buddy John volunteer for a short form game — just for fun. S/O to Katie Holcomb for hosting the night.

Local comedy troupe the Richmond Comedy Coalition capitalized on this last Thursday, Jan. 20 with their presentation of “The Craigslist Show” at Gallery5.

]]> http://thecheatsmovement.com/2011/08/29/richmond-comedy-overload-karate-practice-manly-man-laugh-track-2/ Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:20:57 +0000 The Cheats Movement http://thecheatsmovement.com/2011/08/29/richmond-comedy-overload-karate-practice-manly-man-laugh-track-2/ As you know, I’m a huge supporter of the Richmond Comedy Coalition. RCC performs at least two shows a month and last Thursday they presented one of their strongest shows to date. I say that selfishly but I think I can back it up. On the selfish point, my intro improv class, Roman Love, taught by David Pijor (along with another advance class), performed a free show before the RCC house show. I must say, we did awesome! Great job Roman Love!  Following Class Action, the pros took to the stage. Starting the night off was ManlyMan (pictured), a musical comedy duo, created and performed by Caitlin Carbone and Erin Adelman. They were fantastic! A mix between Flight of the Conchords and the famous SNL skit, The Culp Family. They really put on a hilarious performance. They were followed by the newest RCC house team, Karate Practice. You can really see KP coming together as a team. They get stronger every time out. The night ended with the elder RCC House team performing Laugh Track. Inspired by music from my classmate Kristen Kirkley’s ipod. The RCC house team is legit (and really funny). I must give a sad so long to Mandy Butler, who is moving away from RVA. If you missed her perform with the RCC, you missed improv talent at its best. Hopefully, she we perform again on return trips to RVA. All in all, a great night – I have a feeling that the talent of the RCC is just gong to keep getting stronger….So go check them out! Click Here to see all my pictures from a great night.

The 1981 original followed Perseus, son of Zeus, as he battled his way through mythical creatures to save his love Princess Andromeda. This is not that movie, not even close. The 2010 “re-imagining”, was more like a redo. We still follow the actions of Perseus (Sam Worthington), but this time around he is seeking revenge in a world where man has rebelled against the gods. Hades (Ralph Fiennes), god of the underworld, escapes to teach man a lesson for their disobedience. In the cross fire Perseus and his family are capsized, Perseus is the only survivor. Because of man’s rebellion Zeus (Liam Neeson) permits Hades to do whatever is necessary to control the resistance and keep man inline. This includes releasing his infamous Kraken to destroy the city of Argos. With revenge in his heart Perseus leads the soldiers of Argos on a journey to find out how the Kraken can be killed, in turn, saving Argos and giving Perseus his shot at Hades.

On the surface this movie looks incredible. It has all the right ingredients for an amazing flick. Amazing actors, decent director, and great action, but it fails to meet expectations. Its major fault lies in its story line. There is always a thin line to walk when doing a remake. You want to keep enough of the original story to please fans, but also create a different experience to give the audience something to look forward to. In doing this, it is easy to lose track of a coherent story line. Clash of the Titans seemed rushed to get to the major action sequences by quickly dropping character names from the original, but never really developing strong bonds between them. The mechanical owl, and Pegasus, only make minor appearances. Pegasus is really only in the movie to poorly bring the movie to its resolution. They decided to throw in a random character by the name of Lo to be the love interest of Perseus. This pushes out the classic love story of Perseus and Andromeda, and just adds another character with no purpose, or use in the story. The character list is cluttered and proves to be detrimental to the plot. Even still, the parts are well acted. You can never go wrong with Liam Neeson. And Sam Worthington continues to prove himself as a big name actor. It is obvious they put most of their time and money into the action because it proved to be the only entertaining part of the film.

Director Louis Leterrier has a few action adventures under his belt including Transporter 2 and The Incredible Hulk; so it is no surprise that his next film would be a kick ass, in your face adventure. Clash of the Titans has amazing action and battle scenes. Perseus fights everything from giant scorpions to some burnt up beast thing. The fight scenes from the original, including Medusa and the Kraken, are newly renovated with cutting edge CGI. This adds a level of entertainment to the remake that the original was just unable to provide. Which in hind sight maybe that was a good thing because they had to focus more on the story (am I complaining too much yet?).  If you are going to see this movie anytime soon do not waste your money on the 3D. Even though the action was exciting and fun, a lot of the cinematography was lost in the poor 3D production. It did not provide a lot of the same amazing visuals as other films recently released in 3D. The movie does not seem very 3D at all. I found myself wondering if my glasses were not working. Nothing really jumps off the screen. It only adds minor depth to the movie if anything.

Clash of the Titans was ok at best. It has amazing actors and some exhilarating action sequences, but it is hollow and may leave a lot of fans of the original disappointed. Do not expect some deep meaningful story about mythology because this movie just does not have that. But if you enjoy action then you may be able to over look the plot holes. Do yourself a favor though and watch it in 2D, the 3D just is not worth the extra money on this one.

Check out this new video from Zach and Aaron. Enjoy!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH

Yes I know, it is a scary tale, but together we can survive it!

Any good gym provides its patrons with adequate changing facilities.  A few lockers, toilets, showers, and occasionally a sweet sauna room, but there are certain individuals who constantly abuse these amenities. A demographic who assume that the men’s locker room should have a “make yourself at home” policy.  You all know who I’m talking about! That’s right, the old men. The guys who are always butt ass naked. There is no logical or scientific explanation as to why these elderly males deem it necessary to always be stark nude. Any time you enter a men’s locker room at your local gym, you are guaranteed to see a pale, wrinkled apparition.

I have been going to the gym long enough that I have gotten use to these images. I am no longer bothered by what looks like an old naked big foot sitting on the bench next to me. It has now become part of the gym experience. But what I saw the other day, would make Hiroshima look like a botanical garden.

I had entered the locker room expecting to see the normal amount of old man ass. Of course when I first walk in, there are two gentlemen carrying on a conversation while naked. This didn’t really surprise me so I continued looking for an empty locker. I placed my things in the locker and began to change. Another older gentlemen exits the shower and takes off his towel as he reaches the locker containing his belongings. Again, this isn’t anything new, so I continued about my business, lacing up my sneakers. As I was finishing the change, I noticed the plump, elder had retrieved his socks from his Nike gym bag. I thought this a bit odd considering the man was just standing in the middle of the locker room without any cloths on. In my mind, the underoos are the first clothing item any man should reach for. It is only polite to cover your twig and berries as soon as humanly possibly. But for some reason old men love being naked. I’m telling you, its a science oddity!

As I get up to exit the men’s locker room, the elderly fellow goes over to put on his socks. Bent over full moon, I get a sneak preview at this man’s backdoor entrance, along with tickle whistle, and shriveled prunes. For that split second I felt like I was about to give this man his yearly prostate exam.

I still wake up from nightmares.

-AG