Villainy is a showcase for stories revolving around despicable characters, and in its premier show (which marked Pgraph’s 150th performance), Pgraph found one hell of a heel in King Harold, a pauper who juggled and stabbed his way to the English throne. ...

Being incredibly popular is really very fun but can also, you know, wear a girl out. Which is why, as you’re reading this, my ass is planted firmly and deeply upon a beach chair in Hawai’i for a week as I rest up and prepare for my next round of popular posts. But just because I’m away doesn’t mean I can neglect my duties. And so this week, I present an interview with Kareem Badr, one of the four masterminds in the improv troupe Parallelogramophonograph, aka Pgraph [www.pgraph.com]. (And yes, you might have noticed, I am running a lot of interviews lately. I love other people’s stories. If there’s someone you want interviewed, drop me a note and I’ll see what I can do.) I first saw Pgraph perform at the 2008 Frontera Fest. They did a French Farce and, as I detailed here, I just about drenched my pantalones I was laughing so hard. ...

Tonight’s portion of the see.hear.speak 3 festival is a collection of monologues and one-person performances. Gentleman Brock—or, as he’s formally known, Sir Gentleman Brock LaBorde, Esquire—recently authored a book called The Semi-Complete Guide to Sort of Being a Gentleman, and he’s rather opinionated on the subject of chivalry. ...

Tonight is the “Hear” portion of see.hear.speak, the comedy festival that has been taking place at the Coldtowne Theater since last night. One of the performers in Hear—indeed, a headliner of the festival—is Jill Bernard, a Minnesotan (resident of Minnesota) who has toured the continent performing and teaching improv. She even acted as the coach of an aspiring improviser in an episode of MTV’s Made....

The 3rd annualSee.Hear.Speak comedy festival begins tonight at the Coldtowne Theater. See.Hear.Speak began as a celebration of alternative comedy formats; each night represents a different comedic medium. Tonight’s show features local video sketch troupe the P! Company, who are currently gearing up for their next show, Hanging with Mr. The P! Company. We recently spoke with P!'s Andy Petruzzo and Kyle Sweeney about video sketch and their participation in See.Hear.Speak 3....

The third annual see.hear.speak fest opens on Thursday and closes on Saturday, with shows nightly at 8 & 10 at Coldtowne Theater. Bringing a few big-name comedy groups to town, this year's fest has quite the lineup....

Image from Coldtowne Official Site 3-2-1 Kill!Tuesday, November 6Alamo Drafthouse Downtown (320 E 6th St)9:45pm, $9 / $7 Student, AFS[info] | [tickets]3-2-1 Kill! was one of the last live shows to play at the Alamo Drafthouse before it shut its doors in June. The format-bending improvised movie extravaganza, starring members of the improv troupes Coldtowne, The Frank Mills, and Parallelogramophonograph and produced by the Coldtowne Theater, debuts at the new Alamo Ritz tonight at 9:45pm.......

Consider Tuesday night another notch in Austin’s bedpost of filmmaking opportunity as the Austin Film Festival debuts its new year-round Conversations in Film series. This first installment “Script to Screen: Making the Short Film” will target the writers among us, but will also be useful to directors and filmmakers who need distribution tips for their shorts. Three Austin area award-winning filmmakers will lead the discussion, as well as screen their most recent/notable shorts:Steve Collins is......

Trust your instincts, faithful readers. That is a disturbance you've sensed in the force. For the second year in a row, the nation's finest and funniest poets plan to pummel Austin with their poesy, prose, puns...and all sorts of other p-words we can't mention here. Starting August 7, National Poetry Slam 2007 will transform Austin into the epicenter of all things slammarific, with five days of knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred competition to find out who can......

FRIDAY [2] theatre • Improv rap group Aww Shit (Chris Trew, Cody Dearing, Eric Seufert) compose freestyle rap songs and improvise scenes based off of them at this week's Cage Match at Coldtowne Theater (11:30pm) art • Opening Reception for The Llamerret Show at Darkroom Gallery (7pm) art • Texas Biennial Opening Reception at Okay Mountain & Site 1808 (7-10pm, 301 Chicon Unit E at Third and Chicon) art • B Scene: A Night......

If tragedy + time = comedy gold, then satirization of what is arguably this country's darkest decade was far overdue. Enter Parallelogramophonograph, some of Austin's finest purveyors of genre improvisation. Previously, Austinist has highlighted Pgraph's unusual (and beguiling) combination of lit nerd, geekiness and comedic chops. Their new show, Parallelogramophonograph Presents: The 1930's, draws on this, poking fun at the Great Depression via a completely improvised story set in that era. In this week's show,......