lifestyles
Typewriter Tim
A KU senior makes music with a keyboard
Top: Timothy "The Type-
writer" Jordan plays his
typewriters. Far Right:
The crowd watches Jordan
and Friends. Bottom:
Jordan makes noises into
the mike.
Photos by Paul Kotz.
By Casey Barnes Kansan staff writer
Wearing only a robe and the smell of incense, Timothy "The Typewriter" Jordan sat on stage behind three manual typewriters. His eyes closed, his head back, he began to give mild orders to a silent audience.
"I want you all to relax, take a deep breath and think. Think about all the energy you are projecting, not just the heat, but spiritually. Raise the energy in the room because I need a little more." Jordan said.
The energy that Jordan, St. Louis senior, was eliciting Tuesday night at the Bottleneck was for the first headlining, major performance of Timothy Typewriter and Friends. The debut performance drew a crowd of about 200.
Although Jordan has played his typewriter tunes on open mike at Hockenbury's Tavern and The Bottleneck, the entire entourage, including percussion, guitar, saxophone.
turn tables, singers and rappers was playing together for only the third time.
"We had no idea what was going to happen three hours ago," Jordan announced from the stage.
What happened was Jordan's idea of interesting but different entertainment. Surrounded by typewriters and his band members, he put on a show with everything from percussion solos to rap songs, with short stories in between.
Jordan uses his typewriter like a set of drums. As he pounds random keys, he amplifies the machines' taps and dings with microphones. He uses crumpled up paper or just about anything else in order to make the sound unique.
Though his show may be extra strange, he hopes it proves a point.
"I don't want people to feel weird about being different or having weird thoughts because it's something that is normal," Jordan said. "Everybody has weird thoughts, I just divulge mine."
Jordan divulged his own at the climax of the show when he he off his robe revealing a plastic, brain-shaped athletic supporter.
This isn't just a passing phase, Jordan said. He wants to perform for a living.
Jordan began to express himself musically through the typewriter about seven months ago. He was interested in percussion, but couldn't afford a drum set. His mom gave him a typewriter, and he got the idea to play it as an instrument from Stewart Copeland, the drummer for The Police. Copeland performed the soundtrack for the movie "Rumblefish" with a typewriter.
"It's a music show with drums and a performance art, more than a band playing." Jordan said. "I wanted to make a three
dimensional show, something different than I've seen around."
But his performance is not just musical. It is a work of art he has mastered with the help of a performance art class he took from KU art professor, Roger Shimomura.
Shimomura said he had heard more unusual tools of performance art.
"For someone involved in performance art, the typewriter is not a terribly exotic idea. What one needs to focus on is how it is played. That's what is important," Shimomura said.
Shimomura said he had not seen enough of Jordan's act to comment, on the quality of it.
But Jordan, who studies painting and performance art, said that the Lawrence crowd is receptive and curious.
"Lawrence is the best town to do something like this in," Jordan said. "It has a killer music scene, but it's all basically the same. I just want to so something different."
Renegade Theatre
Paul Kotz / KANSAN
East Side Comedy Shop gets the last laugh this weekend at their final season performance
Keith Scott, left, and Doug Deleny perform the skit,
"Meat P. S.A."
By Casey Barnes
Kansan staff writer
The show, which is a combination of the their best skits since last August, is being performed August 26 and 27 at the Renegade Theatre, 518 E. 8th St.
This weekend will be the last chance for comedy lovers to see the final performance of the East Side Comedy Shop's show, Greatest Hits Volume II.
The troop performs skits on everything from male douches to a parody of the song "Wind Beneath My Wings." The scripts are written by the performers.
They will perform two shows at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. each night. Admission is $6, except at the 10 p.m. Saturday show, which is $4.
Martin Martin, director of East Side Comedy Shop, said the show is open to anyone, but parental discretion is advised. The skits deal with adult humor.
from 8-years-old to 80."
"There is a wide variety of people at every show," Martin said. "There have been people
The shows are known for their audience participation. At one performance, the crowd rose to their feet and sang along, said Doug Delaney, founder and head maniac.
The cast of Greatest Hits Volume II is made up of only 12 members, but the year-round group can have as many as 25 to 30 actors.
Although the East Side Comedy Shop requires a large time-commitment, it is all done in the spare time of the members.
"We all have other jobs or school to deal with, and this is our creative outlet," said Hannah Brazee, Comedy Shop member. "This is how we keep our sanity."
The group has been performing since August of '93 and is beginning to expand. Some of their material is being performed in Florida and will soon be performed in New York, said Frank Doden, head writer of the show and KU instructor in English.
For more information or to make reservations, call 842-8808.
People and places at the University of Kansas.
August 25,1994 PAGE 4 B KU Life
calendar
NIGHTLIFE
The Bottleneck
737 New Hampshire St.
Tina and the Bee-Side Movement, 10
tonight. $4
MU330, The Pasters, Gangster Fun and Dance Hall Crushers, 10 p.m. tomorrow,
$6. $9
L.A. Ramblers, 10 p.m.
Saturday,$4
The Vandals and R.K.L., 7 p.m. Sunday, free
Open mike Night, 9:30 p.m. Monday, free
Overkill and Pro-Pane, 10 p.m. Thursday, $11 advanced tickets
Catherine, Shiner and Shallow, 10 p.m.
Tuesday. $5 advanced tickets
Just Friends Jazz Duo, 7 tonight, free The Cellmates, 7 p.m. tomorrow,free Trout 66, 7 p.m. Saturday, free
New Riddim, 9 tonight, $4 (21 and over) $5
701 Massachusetts St.
Granada Theater
1020 Massachusetts St.
Mondo Disco, 9 p.m. tomorrow, $4, $5
Caribe, 9 p.m. Saturday, $4, $5
Full Moon Cafe
Big 6 Sports Club (under the Eldridge Hotel)
803 Massachusetts St.
Bill Garrison Blues, 8:30 tonight, free The Lonesome Hobos, 9 p.m. tomorrow.free
Darrell Lea and Megan Hurt, 9 p.m. Saturday, free
Tom's Tuesday Thing with Rick Frydman, Mike Adams and John Swift, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, free
River Valley Music Cafe
1601 West 23rd St.
Wakeland 9:30 tonight cover charge
Wakeland, 9:30 tonight, cover charge Salty Iguanas with the Reejers, 9:30 p.m. tomorrow, cover charge Lee McBee and the Passions, 9:30 p.m. Saturday, cover charge
Mulligan's
1016 Massachusetts St.
The Bindlestiffs, 10 tonight, $2, $3
V
The Lonesome Houndgoss, 10 p.m.
tomorrow, $2, $3 Ricky Dean Sinatra, 10
p.m. Saturday, $2, $3 Acoustic Open
Mike Night, 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, free
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