If you’re not familiar with Write Club, I suggest you check out my initial review in which I cover all the workings of the series. I am far too lazy to explain all the technical mumbo jumbo over again (not to say it’s technical, since it ain’t, just that I’m lazy).
Saturday 5th’s Write Club was held at the Prop Thtr as part of Rhino Fest, a festival for performance that can be summed up in three words: weird, hilarious, and, a word I use rarely, psychedelic. All the plays and performances, like Mascot for example, give a lot of entertainment in very little time. So check it out. Write Club fits perfectly into this world, giving you a wonderful set of words from writers who have less than seven minutes each.
This Write Club delivered some of the best entertainment you’re liable to find in any reading series. It also had a slightly more serious (emphasis on slightly) tone than Chapter 10, which was outright hilarious most of the time, though the readers still brought the comedy. Here’s a rundown of the readings…
Jonathan Messinger vs Ian Belknap | Attack vs Defend
“Fuck bees” was one of Jonathan Messinger’s many messages throughout his piece that wagged a finger at the concept of defend. And even though Jonathan was able to mix in a powerfully political back end that appealed to every liberal heart in the audience (which was all of us, we’re writers and in Chicago, come on), he lost to Mr. Ian Belknap.
To quote my last post on Write Club, “I found myself wondering if Ian ever wins.” Well apparently he does. Time for me to eat that humble pie. Mmmm, tastes like shame. My shame. Which is kind of like chocolate…
Ian’s piece on defense, comedic when delivered in his uniquely dry wit, resonated when he applied defense to the relationship he has with his family. Who doesn’t want to defend their loved ones? Ian deservedly won. Even if he didn’t deserve it, he’d have won anyways based on his manipulation of the crowd, essentially telling the crowd that, were they to decide he lost, they’d be betraying a young lady with a possibly lethal heart condition.
Emily Rose vs. Megan Mercier | Buy vs Sell
Emily Rose started this bout out, detailing her near-hoarding tendencies towards buying anything and everything a person might ever need. Despite this seeming like a bad thing, we’ve all seen that TV show Hoarders, the soothing feelings these items bring her won the crowd over.
Megan Mercier regaled us with details of her longest relationship yet: the relationship she has with her Camry, which she’s been trying to sell, halfheartedly, for a year. If you own a pick-up truck, stay away from Megan, she seems to have a penchant for hitting them.
Emily Rose’s slightly unnerving buying tendencies ended up beating out Megan’s bad driving in the end. Regardless, both readings entertained.
Andrew Reilly vs Dina Walters | Mom vs Dad
Mom vs Dad, the argument of the ages. Actually, I think we can agree that most dads would concede to the moms, nobody likes an argument, but let’s not go into that.
Andrew started the match of by covering all his bases in his defense of Mom. And I mean, ALL his bases. He even went biblical on our asses. Yeah, Andrew, I guess the G-O-D was a pretty bad father.
While Andrew made as many arguments as he could, Dina covered only one subject, her own father. She brought things in close with her personal relationship with a man who would fart on her face when she was little. It was hard for those of us in the crowd to not reminisce about our own fathers and their flatulence as she told stories of a very funny and loving father. She cinched a win with crocodile tears at the end, giving Andrew no chance. Hell, she deserved it.
And thus, the fighting writing ended. All in all, a good show. Be sure to check out Saturday, February 12th’s show.
[...] I’ve plugged Write Club a dozen times now and will continue to plug Write Club. I like it. It’s a good series. It’s fun and rarely disappoints. If you want to hear what I think, read one of my old reviews of it. [...]