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In addition to our monthly Q & A series with three local comics, the stlmag.com arts section will launch another comedy-themed, monthly blog post, timed for early in the month and featuring some of that month’s special shows, along with looks at select open mics, plus this/that, as each month merits. (Did three uses of “month” here give you a good sense of how often this will run?) This is the maiden voyage. If you’re a show producer or performer, see the end of the blog for info on how to submit ideas. If you’re simply looking for some fun, affordable ways to spend an evening, read on…

“Sorry, Please Continue” Hits the Road: A podcast/live show with St. Louis roots and presence, “Sorry, Please Continue” is one of two live productions with a heavy dose of the talented Jeremy Hellwig; he also serves as one-quarter of the writing team behind the hilarious “Fatal Bus Accident,” a regular gig at the Heavy Anchor.

Hellwig was kind enough to send notes about next SPC event in St. Louis. Intrigued, we asked some questions and got the answers to the same. We’ll start with the introductory note.

“'Sorry, Please Continue' is a live storytelling podcast,” he writes. “It's kind of like a cross between The Moth and MST3k. People tell stories about a theme, while comedians sit on a couch onstage and interrupt with questions and jokes. It's hosted by me and Kenny Kinds, with a third guest comic on the couch with us. The show also happens monthly in Cleveland, Ohio. The next STL show is Wednesday, July 19th at 8 pm at The Heavy Anchor. It's $5. I'm pretty sure the theme will be Belated Pride (belated because I was too busy in June to pull together a Pride theme in time). After that we're going on a Midwestern tour at the end of July.”

Asked about the flexible nature of touring with this idea, Hellwig notes that “One of the benefits of the show is that it is a fairly simple concept. Yeah, we need four microphones and a setup to record it for the podcast, but the idea is pretty straightforward. It's just the three hosts (or two of us and a guest comedian) on a couch, interrupting a storyteller sitting next to us on a stool. If there isn't a couch, we improvise (in Columbus we sat on a massage table. It was very comfortable). Also, going out of town allows us to find more great storytellers, as well as expand the audience for our podcast. We usually contact local storytelling organizations and see if they know any great storytellers that would want to do the show. That way we can avoid just having it be all standups all the time.”

Regarding current touring, he adds that “we're going to Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Louisville, and Indianapolis. We've previously done New York, L.A., Columbia, Columbus, Kirksville, and comedy festivals in Phoenix and Memphis. Also, the cofounder of the show, Kris Wernowsky, moved to Cleveland and started a monthly version there; Kris hosts the show in Cleveland with a comic named Tim Cornett. Those two, Kenny Kinds, and I are going on the tour.”

If wanting more info, let the web provide for you.

Open Mic Spotlight, The Heavy Anchor’s Comedy Shipwreck: Every Monday evening around 10 p.m., emcee Chad Wallace prowls the barroom of the Heavy Anchor greeting people old and new. He asks them to head the venue’s performance space, where his shepherd’s work usually delivers at least 40 people into the seats. Most of them are comics, a few of them a friends, and a smaller group sit in observance of a weekly comedy open mic that seems to have found an audience; one, that we might add, is also drawn like moths to the $1 PBRs the club offers all night long.

Taking on the host role of the Comedy Shipwreck about three years back, Wallace believes the situation works well, thanks to the Anchor’s split facility.

"Being separate from the bar is huge,” he writes us. “You have a choice to sit and listen or run and get a drink if you don't like what’s on stage at the moment. Also the seating, sound, lights, and the raised stage makes it a legit performance area. Nowhere near the typical bar show. Comics love the room and respect it as a real stage to do real material which keep crowds coming back to see local guys get better. Josh and Jodie (Whitworth) are totally responsible for the great vibe of the Anchor. They're so inviting and attract interesting people that make you want to keep coming back. Jodie knows her target demographic and caters to them. The Anchor manages to keep away any toxic people which is almost a miracle considering some of the things that happen in Bevo.”

Asked who has impressed him over that time, Wallace isn’t shy in throwing out some names, listing, “quite a few: Andrew Frank (of course). Nathan Orton. Amy Milton, Jeremy Hellwig, and Stryker Spurlock with Fatal Bus Accident. Kenny Kinds opening for everybody. Stephon Hightower quickly became a force to deal with, and Vincent Bryant moved to Chicago and just headlined a one-nighter at the Funnybone. Reggie Edwards moved to NY because St Louis got too small for his funny. Brandon Judd is getting a bunch of work at Helium.”

As can happen at these mics, comics often perform and then decamp elsewhere in the building. It’s not uncommon on Mondays for the Anchor’s back-alley smoking corral to be filled near the end of the night’s comedy sets, comics gripping their dollar beers and recounting stories from another mic. In the venue, though, the room lightens up in audience as the night ticks closer to midnight. Wallace is there, though, staying the course, flashing his phone (the international signal for “time’s running low”) until the final comic’s last laugh. His flock may’ve fled, but he stays ever true to his mission.

Dueling Shows on July 6: Several local comics of my acquaintance have praised Joe Murray and his ability to juggle standup and improv. This skill’s allowed him to create “Run the Joes,” a show that’ll appear at the new Improv Shop on Thursday, July 6 at 8:15. It’s described like so: “Run the Joes is a competitive show pitting Two Stand Ups against each other making up their sets on the spot based on your suggestions.” Quinn Wilson of the RFT got the jump on us and noted the basics about the show: “The show, which blends both stand-up and improv, kicked off with its first event last month. Murray says, "I wanted to make a show—this isn't just a showcase where people get up and do fifteen to twenty minutes and then the show's just over."

On the same evening “The Storrs Objection: Family” will be taking place at the Heavy Anchor. A show description suggests the following: “Comedian Matt Storrs (Sonoma LaughFest and Cinder Block Comedy Festival) brings his legal background to the stage, especially when fact-checking other comedians' material after their sets. ‘The Storrs Objection’ gives Matt and his co-counsel, Hattie Hayes (Ladykillers Comedy), the opportunity to fact-check other comedians' material DURING their sets.” Additional information on the $5 show can be found here.

Punderdome Coming to Blueberry Hill: Kick us for not doing more legwork on securing interviews for this one, but the NYC Punderdome show is coming to St. Louis in late July and founder Fred Firestone sent us an excited, punctuation-amplified description that reads like so: “The Punderdome®, New York City’s wild & crazy monthly pun competition—created and hosted by St. Louisans (comedian Jo Firestone and her ‘Rodney Dangerfield impersonator’ dad, Fred)—is coming to the Blueberry Hill Duck Room on Saturday, July 29th!! Pun-masters will be determined by the ‘Human Clap-O-Meter’ who ‘accurately and scientifically’ assesses levels of audience applause. The top two competitors will win: “top punsters in town” bragging rights, ‘As Seen on TV’ products, and the opportunity to strut their pun-stuff at our monthly show in the Big Apple!”

Multiple local comics will be taking part. We imagine the show will somewhat resemble the action found in this sanctioned, Punderdome video:

Sara Schaefer, Past Tense: Having never seen Sara Schafer’s act before, there were several inducements to a check out her set at the Ready Room last week. For starters, the openers were a murderer’s row of local favorites, including: emcee Chris Cyr, Angela Smith, Tina Dybal and Rafe Williams. The second inducement, no lie, was a ticket price that dropped in half, to a mere $6 on the day of show. Hello!

While the audience was relatively modest, fun was had. Schaefer was about 10 days into her “Love You So Much.” Jamming down a bunch of her material from YouTube didn’t exactly do justice to this show, though, as her current set’s definitely got a sense of the social/political ennui that so many of us are feeling these days, though you wouldn’t call it a political set, by any means. By the time she ended her hour-long set with a lengthy rumination on her late mother (and the potential of running into the spirits world version of her mom), she’d run the crowd through all the emotions.

She has plenty of videos and podcasts for you to enjoy until her next visit to town, which will hopefully play to the large audience she so obviously deserves. My guilt in paying just $6 for this gig is assauged by telling you of her brilliance.

Are you running a show? Do you book a club? Are you offering improv classes at your house of worship or favorite coffeehouse? Do you wish to pass along the word on something funny? There’s room for events not taking place at the Heavy Anchor! Contact this writer via email: thomascrone314 at gmail.com.