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FEATURES
Wednesday, July 14, 1993
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Renegade theater brings comedy to city
Skits offer parodies, goofiness
By Todd Puntney Kansas staff writer
The East Side Comedy Shop is an R-rated dinner theater without the meal.
"We have one rule for comedy," said Doug Delaney, manager of Lawrence's only comedy club. "It's funny we do it. And sometimes we do stuff just because there's nothing redeemable about it."
The club is part of the two-year-old Renegade Theater Company, a group that produces material written by local artists. Originally concentrating on normal, serious plays, the theater shifted direction in January, when the East Side Comedy Shop opened at 518 E. Eighth St. Since then, audiences have been coming for the humor.
The 40-member group presents a new production every month. In the spirit of comedy shows such as "Saturday Night Live" or "Second City TV," the East Side Comedy Shop runs
skits with names like "Paranoid Boy," "Gynecology Today," or "Booger King."
In "Field of Beans," a troubled KU football coach is instructed by a far-off angelic voice:
"If you plant them, they will fart."
One can almost hear a cymbal crash or the atonal honk-honk of a bicycle horn.
The comedy, like the name of the theater, is renegade
"One thing we don't want is a set style," Delaney said. "We don't want to do all narody or slantstick."
The building looks more like a cheap dive than a place where shows sell out weeks in advance. Inside, the 65-seat theater is dark and black.
"It's just a traditional black-box theater," Delaney said. "You're only supposed to pay attention to the stage, and that's where we keep all the color."
An average show can have nine or 10 writers and about 20 skits.
Audiences seem to like it, too. Delaney said
"People come out after the show and say that it's better than 'Saturday Night Live'," he said.
Shawn Trimble, Topeka graduate student and actor at the club, agreed and said audiences had enjoyed the diversity of previous shows.
doing, they know another one will come along in a couple of minutes." Trimble said. "And there's a wide range of humor so that they always find something they like, from intellectual comedy to being just plain goofy."
Trumble is director of the current production, "Sex, Violence, and Chicken Boy," which runs at 8 p.m. every Friday and Saturday from July 16 to 31
Although some of the actors have had previous experience or are working on master's degrees in theater at KU, most of the comedy comes from theater members who have had little experience.
"One of our most prolific writers had never written a skit before." Delaney said. "And that's usually the case."
Delaney said that the theater was still funny regardless of experience and that the demand for the club had sent him looking for a bigger place, which he would prefer to be on Massachusetts Street.
"People told me that if I were going to pull a stunt like this, I should do it in Lawrence," Delaney said. "And they're right. I've done theater in other towns, and Lawrence is probably the most accepting."
Tickets for the productions cost $4.
Phillip Brown, center, Tulsa, Okla., sophomore, and Julie Roth, Watterloo, Iowa, junior, listen to Shawn Trimble, Topeka graduate student, at a rehearsal of "Sex. Violence and Chicken Boy" at the Renegade Comedy Theater, 518 E. Eighth St.
Computers make global friendships
Networks bring people together with keyboards
By Carlos Tejada
By Carlos Tejada
Kansan staff writer
Instead of watching television when he gets home from Poway High School in San Diego, Arif Malik likes to plug into his computer and bubble
"It's better than television," he said, or typed, from his computer terminal. "And I get to meet the coolest people."
Many afternoons, Malik logs into the computer bulletin board service run by the Iowa Student Computer Association at the University of Iowa. Once in, he is known as Fugazi, the name of one of his favorite rock bands, and is suddenly completely separate from his face, voice and body. Anyone logged onto the bulletin board would have nothing to judge him but expect the messages he types to them.
Malik said he had no problem with such a system.
bulletin board's sign of humor and goodwill. :)
--ting them as you do in real life."
The bulletin board has a "room" called Babble. Malik said he liked to enter the room and talk nonsense with complete strangers.
"I think it's neat because in real life you get a first impression on the way people look," he said. "Here, you judge them on their personality, which is what your friends should be based on."
"I talk with all the people and do silly things," he said.
He ended his sentence with a "grinny," the
As computers become more popular in U.S. households, so do computer networks, said Charles Rezac, a consultant at KU's computer center.
"The Internet just started as a small network and took off." Ozac said.
He said the Internet, the world's largest computer network, was simply a set of wires and cables that connected computers across the nation. However, for those who use it, the Internet is far more. Computer users see the Internet as a vast highway on which one can gather information.
"There is a great deal of information out there," Rezac said. "It's fun actually navigating around looking for information."
The entire library catalogs of the country's major universities, including KU's, can be found on the Internet without much trouble.
Some computer users are after more than information, however. They turn to the Internet and other networks for personal relationships that Rezac said were different from any face-to-face relationship.
"When you communicate with people electronically, the interaction is very different," he said. "Everything you use to judge people normally isn't there."
Gordan Gasparovic, a sophomore at the University of Tasmania in Australia, said the differences were welcome.
"People seem more honest," said Gasparovic, who calls himself Asparagus on the bulletin board. "I guess you don't fear upsetting them as you do in real life."
In the Internet
Oread accounts are free to all KU students and are available at the consulting window in the computer center, but even people without an account can enter the internet center at 864.0449 for the correct modem number for their modern type.
On Macintosh and Microsoft Windows
On Macintosh and Microsoft Windows
Double-click the Oread or UNIX icon
Type KUFacts
Select Internet Toolbox
On MS-DOS
Type Teletnet Oread
Type KUFacts
Select Internet Toolbox
Communication often takes place on computer bulletin boards, where computer users from all parts of the world gather and post messages to each other. They divide the subjects of discussion into electronic rooms, where people with similar interests can gather.
Rooms like Babble.
Malik and Gasparovic both said they liked the room.
"Babble is where you talk to the whole room instead of one-on-one." Gasparovic said. "It's fun. A lot of people play characters in there."
Howard Sypher, head of communication studies at KU, said such acting was one of many reasons real communication could not be achieved on a computer. He said friends he talked to on his computer and later met were inevitably different from the impressions they
made from their computer terminals.
"The way people are really like is the way they are face to face," he said.
He said acting is a natural offshoot of computer interaction, where typed words are the only medium.
"It's a very safe way to act out certain fantasies he said. 'It's anonymous.'
He also said such communication had other benefits
"Maybe people who have difficulty in face-to-face encounters may find this a positive way to interact with other people," he said.
Ray Dillinger, Lawrence resident and systems operator of the local bulletin board Electric Dreams, said he disagreed. He said the acting on computer was no different from the acts people put on in real life.
"People do that 24 hours a day," he said. "With bulletin boards, you have a different way to do it."
He said people used other means, such as typing speed, as indirect communication. He said people who were uncomfortable with a subject tended to type more slowly.
"When the guy who you know can type 60 words per minute types 30 or 40 you go, 'oh no I'd better tread lightly.' Dillinger said.
Computer relationships may not be for everybody, however, said Ellen Kaler, Lawrence graduate student. She said she taught her English 203 class. Representations of Gender, that computer interaction could be a means of neutralizing gender.
But she also saw a possible fault with the means.
"I would not want electronic communication to eliminate face-to-face communication," she said.
Play aims at AIDS education on campus
'The Inner Circle' scheduled to open during Hawk Week
By Lisa Cosmillo
Kansan staff writer
An innovative approach to AIDS education opens in August when a group of students step onto the stage in a production of "The Inner Circle," a play designed to raise awareness of the disease.
Phoebe Zimmerman, Wichita senior and director of the play, said this project had been her passion for seven years after a high school friend died of AIDS. She is doing the play as a class project.
Zimmerman said that students must be educated about the risks they may face at college.
Janine Demo, coordinator of health education at Watkins Health Center, said one in 500 college students is estimated to be infected with the HIV virus, the virus that leads to AIDS. Demo will educate the cast of the play about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.
10 assume that students are ever not going to do something is ridiculous," Zimmerman said. "You should assume that they will and arm them the best that you can, and they will make the choices past that."
AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases
The play is about a young man who gets AIDS
from using intravenous drugs, Zimmerman said.
banana.
"I hate to keep calling it AIDS education. It makes it sound like something where you have to sit down and pay attention," Zimmerman said. "The play is good in and of itself."
Zimmerman said that she thought this was an important part of the program, and that if the play had not included that scene, she would have written one herself.
Zimmerman did not want to put on a play that portrayed a homosexual man with AIDS. She said it would further the misconception that a certain group of people are singled out by the disease.
She said the play includes a lesson on condom usage, showing how to put a condom on a
"I just think it's about time it becomes a curriculum type of thing." Zinnmerman said. "I would like to see it done every year during freshman education as an introduction to college life."
This fall a new peer education program administered by the Center for Sexual Health will begin at the University of Kansas. Demo is training students as peer counselors for the program. The students will go to different forums and discuss health issues with their
Patrick Dilley, head of the Center for Sexual Health Advisory Board, said he believed Zimmerman's play would be an effective method of educating people about AIDS.
"In terms of getting the information across and making it more relevant, it's more effective than just giving someone a brochure." Dilley said.
There will be a facilitator present at each performance to take questions from the audience or to start a discussion on the topic. Diller
Auditions for "The Inner Circle" will be held today and tomorrow at 7 p.m. in 209 Murphy Hall.
The play will be presented as a part of Hawk Week on Aug. 19 at Hashinger Hall, Aug. 21 at Oliver Hall and Aug. 28 at the Inge Theatre in Murphy Hall.
CALENDAR
--older than 21
Kill Creek, tomorrow, $5 younger than
737 New Hampshire St.
Grotus, tonight, $5 younger than 21, $4 older than 21
Kill Creek, tomorrow, $5 younger than
21, $4 older than 21.
21, $4 older than 21
Salty Iguanas, Friday, $4
Eek A Mouse, Saturday, $8 advance tickets
Danger Bob, Tuesday. $3
Hockenbury's Tavern
Innerstring, tonight, $3
1016 Massachusetts St
innerstring tonight $2
Leroy Shakespeare and Ship of Vibes, tomorrow. $3
Lonesome Hounddogs, Friday and Saturday,
$4
Jazzhaus
Jazzhaus Big Band, Saturday, $3
2016/1/2 Massachusetts St.
Disappear Fear, tonight. $4
Lonnie Ray's Blue Jam, tomorrow. $2
Chubby Smith and His Orchestra, Friday.
$3
Joshua B. Dread, Saturday.
The Crossing
618 W. 12th St.
Danger Bob, Friday, $1
Power and Fear, Saturday, $1
Daisy Chain, Monday, $1
Murphy Hall
Crafton-Preyer Theatre
"The Comedy of Errors," 8 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
through Sunday
Tickets available through Murphy Hall
and Lied Center box offices. $6 public.
$3 KU students and $5 senior citizens
Student Union Activities
"Beauty and the Beast," 7 p.m. tomor row, free
Swarthout Recital Hall
Jazz Workshop faculty recital, 7 p.m. Sunday through Tuesday, $2
South Park Gazebo
1. 2th and Massachusetts streets Lawrence City Band, 8 p.m. tonight
Kansas City
Sandstone Amphitheater
Bonnar Springs
Brooks and Dunn with Mark Collie and Chris LeDoux, 8 p.m. Friday*
Steve Miller Band with Paul Rodgers, 8 p.m. Saturday*
Def Leopard, 8 p.m. Sunday*
Concerned, Confidential & Personal Health Care For Women
Kansas City, Mo.
The Righteous Brothers and the Smother
others. 8 p.m. tonight*
Tickets available through Ticketmaster
(816) 933-3300
Starlight Theater
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- *Birth control—including Norplant,
Depo provera & Tubaligation*
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TollFree 1-800-227-1918
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