Whoa! September flew by and was very, very busy! So busy, that the weekly show recaps kind of just got dropped completely. But we had some great shows and some stellar guest troupes! So let’s recap them!
Note: I’ve already forgotten most of what happened, so I’m gonna try to piece together the last month based on photos and messages.
9/8
On 9/8 we played with Big Fun Social. I do not remember what the set was about or what the suggestions were. Based on messages, it was a good set and we had a good crowd!
I did get some pics of Big Fun Social, I just made this one into a gif that cracks me up because of Jared’s leg movement
9/15
I was sick as a dog on the 15th so was not at this show, so I have no idea what happened. According to our spreadsheet, our guest on 9/15 was Chet Jetski. Here’s a picture of Da Bureau with Chet Jetski!
According to our group chat, the suggestion was elevator, and there was a really fun scene about a cheese tour. The crowd apparently was very small and the rhythm of the set suffered a bit as a result. But at least one part of one of the scenes got two thumbs up from Jared!
9/19
There was no show on 9/19 but according to our chats it was Berg’s birthday. Happy birthday Bergs!
9/22
Oh man, this show and night in general was spectacular! Instead of our usual 9pm slot we played at 8pm, before Jake Russell’s fantastic one-man show Birth of a Hoe Ass Nation. A lot of people came out for Jake’s show and came in to watch ours, so we ended up with a big ol’ crowd and had a really great set. Our guest troupe was Two Chicks, who also had a great set! Here’s a picture of our troupes together in the dark Ghostlight Bar!
Another very cool thing about that night was that old time friend and improviser Tim Lally came out to watch the show. If you know Tim, you know. Had a great time catching up with him!
Also while I’m here and looking at a picture of Jeff (who’s stage managed a lot of these shows), I’d love to give a big thanks to all the stage managers who’ve run these shows for us. Your work sometimes goes unseen but is greatly appreciated!
9/29
We definitely forgot to take a group pic for this show! Our guest was Patty and Patty and they did great!
The Bureau set was fellas only, there was some really strong parts but it was one of those sets where we sat around for like an hour afterwards trying to dissect what went wrong with it. I think part of it was we didn’t do the three patient scenes up top that we normally do and that threw us off. We also decided on this show that if the crowd seems like it’s going to be smaller to pull the back row of chairs out to force the audience closer to the stage.
During this show it was a smaller crowd and a lot of people gravitated towards the farther back row and were just spread out more, and it’s already a tough stage to work on because you’re elevated pretty high and the ceilings are quite high. So whatever we can do to push the audience closer, so we can feed off each others’ energy, is great. We also committed to a pre-show checklist to account for things like that. There’s a definite learning curve to having your own show that we’ve been going through but we’re getting better at it!
10/6
FOREVER 15!!!!
This show was really great! Our guest troupe was Forever Fifteen, who are such a staple of Detroit improv and always an absolute treat to watch play together.
They are also, I believe, the first people outside of our troupe to take part in our warmup, which is a very, very heavily modified form of “woosh-ball”, which is a somewhat standard improv warmup, but we have added dozens and dozens of additional wild rules and moves added over the course of our years together. So it felt real special to share that with them and have them join in, and they were big fans!
We had a full Bureau in attendance, and our set went really well! Another great thing was that Coach hosted the show!
You may have heard of Coach on our Bureau tshirt, which you can buy right now on our Redbubble Store. He’s the one named “Coach”
Once again, I do not remember what the suggestion was. I should probably convince someone with a better memory to write these recaps. I feel like it was something where we all immediately though, “wow, that was a good suggestion that we never would have thought of”. But whatever it was spawned us doing this motion in our opening group scene and lead to a great set. So whoever suggested that, thanks!
I do remember that this was the set where a guy had gotten him and his Buddy kicked out of a bowling alley because he wished that a Mandela Effect happened to the owner so that it turned out someone he loved had just recently died who wasn’t dead before, and it turned out his Aunt had just recently died. The set got very heady and mind-fucky from there, with characters and parts being erased and replaced by either the Mandela Effect or the Butterfly Effect, but somehow stayed held together by that theme. There was also a funny scene where Jared and Bergs shocked each other but it felt really good that cracked us up.
Such a fun show!
Conclusion
Okay I’m finally caught up! I know there’s probably dozens of funny bits or cool things about some of these nights that I’m missing but this is all I’ve got in me for now. I’ll try to keep up on these blog posts more but no promises!
If you’re thinking “damn, I wish The Bureau had more pictures of these shows so people could see the funny stuff they’re doing” or “Boy, it sure isn’t the same reading about improv as it is watching it”, then come see a show! Take pics and send them to us on our Facebook page or Instagram!
We’re at Planet Ant in Detroit every Thursday at 9pm following Ants in the Hall. The show is Pay what you can, and there’s Karaoke after. So come make a night of it! Also, hot off the presses, is a new poster!
and if one poster is not enough, here’s our other poster (Design also available on a t-shirt!)!
Can’t wait to see you there!
Love,
Da Admin