Kearny Street Workshop

Thoughts on Life, Death & Comedy by Jon Yang

July 2, 2009 · Leave a Comment

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been participating in KSW’s “Life, Death & Comedy” workshop, led by Samantha Chanse. Our public performance was last Tuesday and while it was certainly a nerve-racking experience, everyone pulled off their best showing and afterwards we all had the glow of accomplishment. I think for all budding artists, the chance to showcase your stuff is always appreciated, especially when it’s presented and worked on in a safe space.

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Above: Sam Chanse gives a performance pep talk.

Sam was amazing at getting us comfortable from day one, which helped everyone open up to honest critique and a sense of teamwork. The end goal of the eight week workshop was to produce a piece that we would share with the world. While some of our initial efforts were directed toward highlighting the comedy in our work, we quickly learned that being funny has nothing to do with trying to make jokes, trying to keep things light, or trying to force a smile from the audience.

What we learned was that humor often bubbled up from inherently unfunny events, such as death, or depression, or losing romantic love. Life tends to bring out the absurd and the laughable in the least likely situations and that, when highlighted and told well, can be hilarious. So we wrote about life experiences rather than “think of something funny and write about that.”

We read a variety of pieces by people like Danny Hoch, Augusten Burroughs, Sarah Vowell, and Marga Gomez. We brought in things we individually found funny, via YouTube videos and other writings, for show-and-tell and then analysis. We touched on the philosophy of tragedy and comedy, tapping into Aristotle’s Poetics. One of my favorite in-class activities was creating captions for blank New Yorker cartoons, using different comedic attitudes and techniques.

For me, as a first time workshop participant, it was eye opening to see how much a piece could change from week to week through the revision process, and always for the better. That improvement was a testament to how much the entire class put into each other’s work, giving useful feedback and pointers. By the time our rehearsal came around, everyone was still tinkering with their piece but we turned our attention to reading in front of an audience.

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Above: Chuck Lacson on stage.

“Don’t shift too much. Enunciate. Pause for breath (or clarity). Exude comfortableness. Hit your high points.” Performance always comes with some nerves so this was when our comfortableness with each other really paid off. We supported and reinforced one another with advice and evaluations all throughout rehearsals and even right before I read, I received empowering pep talks from Sam and Chuck — and then I bounded on stage and promptly forgot everything. But that could be fodder for a future story too.

The entire experience of working with the six members of my class, of being challenged to read in public, and of finding support from the community has been awesome. Thanks KSW!

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Above: (from left) Jon Yang, Yasmine Gomez, Linda Park, Sam Chanse, Chuck Lacson, and Cathlin Goulding.

BIO
JON YANG has slummed it in the valley with the Wakefield twins; slumber partied with Huey, Dewey and Louie; joined Krakow in stalking Angela; and climbed every mountain with the Von Trapps. He’s just wrapped up his second book, “Exclusively Chloe,” a fiction novel for teens, and is hard at work on his third one. You can find him online at www.jonyang.org.

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APAture Happy Hour Pics

June 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Thanks for joining us at Happy Hour! We had a great time. APAture staff, GPC, “OGs” (you know who you are), supporters, and artists all mixed it up.

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More pics after the jump…
Keep reading →

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LAST DAY to apply to APAture Runway

June 29, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Reminder to submit to APAture Runway today! Because tomorrow will be too late.
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Prohibition Poker: Reserve your seat and you’ll already be winner!

June 25, 2009 · Leave a Comment

It’s back! Really!
A cool new location—and pizza and beer is on us!**

Friday, June 26, 2009 – RSVP now

No more bluffing: This is the real deal. Prohibition Poker is back on, and if you reserve your seat now, you’ll already be a winner: your first slice of pizza and beer is FREE—but only if you pre-register!**

And Blackjack is back in our new lounge!
Not up for Hold ‘Em? Take it easy in our back room and play our no-stakes Blackjack, with a Flip camera and other great prizes for the night’s highest scores!

Ready to play?
RSVP today!
Our new location isn’t a secret—spread the word:
PariSoMa
1436 Howard Street @ 10th Street

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AATC’s “Fayette Nam” Opens Thursday (Tomorrow!)

June 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment

AATC’s New Play “Fayette-Nam” Opens This Thursday!

**Special ticket offer for KSW members – see below for details!**

By Aurorae Khoo

Directed by Duy Nguyen

Starring: Jon Gentry, Lisa Kang, Kathleen Mendoza, Kenneth Tan Ronquillo and Erika Pallasigue
One fateful night in Fayetteville, North Carolina–on the fringes of the US Army Base known as “Fayette-Nam”–a young African American soldier goes AWOL on the eve of his deployment to Iraq…and hides out with the Asian American mother and daughter with whom he is in a love triangle. Will they discover what they are each looking for before it’s too late? Find out in the world premiere of this dark comedy by Aurorae Khoo.

June 25 through July 11, 2009

Thurs-Sat 8:00 pm | Sun 2:00 pm
LIVE Q&A WITH PLAYWRIGHT AURORAE KHOO AND THE CAST

on Saturday, June 27, and Sunday, June 28!

Thick House

1695 18th Street (near Arkansas)

San Francisco

[AATC is part of the Thick House Presenting Program]

Tickets: $15 – $25 sliding scale | 415-401-8081 or www.thickhouse.org
KSW Discount Codes:

Enter “KSW” for a $10 ticket to the KSW DAY – Thursday, July 9 performance

Enter “KSW3″ for a $12 ticket during any other performance from June 25-July 11

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Volunteer Pride Fest with KSW!

June 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Hi Everyone!

Call for volunteers for Pink Saturday this Saturday, June 27, 2009. It’s a fund raising event for Kearny Street Workshop through the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, so your time turns into funds for our annual APAture event! Our fund raising goal is minimum $1,000.00. We highly encourage you to sign up for the late shift, which gives an additional $55 per person! So come out and support Kearny Street Workshop while having fun contributing to Pink Saturday!

SHIFTS ARE FILLING UP FAST!!! SO SIGN UP ASAP!!!

To sign up for shifts go to: http://thesisters.volunteerhub.com
* Join Code for KSW is KEARNY.

Information on the shifts
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Early Shift (5:00 PM – 9:00 PM) w/4pm Mandatory check in: Stipend $75 per volunteer.
Late Shift (8:00 PM – 12:00 AM) w/7pm Mandatory check in: Stipend $125 per volunteer.

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Read the paper? Life, Death & Comedy at KSW

June 18, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The Examiner gives great advice for a night out…

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Say, what’s that red circle circling?

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Put it in your calendar to come out for the final performance of KSW’s Life, Death, & Comedy workshop, this coming Tuesday!

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Attn Artists: FREE Submissions to APAture Today!

June 17, 2009 · Leave a Comment

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Today’s the day! Apply to APAture 2009 today and your submission fee is waived.

Save yourself $10 and celebrate APAture Happy Hour by joining us at PariSoMa from 7-9pm.

We’re accepting submissions online (click here), by mail (just download the PDF), and in person (at PariSoMa). It’s a one-time only special.

APAture is the Bay Area’s biggest platform for Asian American art, which means we are accepting submissions from all disciplines:

  • Visual arts: painting, sculpture, photography, installation, etc.
  • Literary arts: poetry, short stories, creative non-fiction, etc.
  • Performing arts: plays, comedy, dance, etc.
  • Film & video: narrative, documentary, and animation short films
  • Music: rock, hip-hop, folk, indie, all genres!
  • Comics & crafts: graphic novels, ‘zines, jewelry, bags, plushies, everything do-it-yourself!

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Friday Fun Post: 100 Day Dance Party

June 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment

TGIF, KSW Blog readers! Welcome to the second weekly Friday Fun Post.

 

Let this adorable dancing Asian guy hustle/boogie/headbang you into the weekend…


more about “BOOMBOX on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod
You go, Ely Kim!

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Artist Interview: Imin Yeh

June 11, 2009 · Leave a Comment

goodimportsImin Yeh’s “Good Imports” (left)  are currently in the Present Tense Biennial. KSW has also shown Imin’s work at APAture 2008, and now she’s been interviewed for the SFMOMA blog!

Read what Imin says about her work in Present Tense

 

 

 

Adrienne Skye Roberts (SFMOMA): Can you describe the installation “Good Imports”?

Imin Yeh: There are a few pieces in the gallery at the Chinese Cultural Center and I was also given a storefront in Chinatown to do whatever I wanted—which is a perfect place for “Good Imports.” The installation consists of objects—laptops, televisions, children’s toys—that were all made in China and either found or donated to me. They are installed in an excessive pile and each object is individually covered in hand-printed fabric. The pattern of the fabric is taken from the boxes that souvenirs from China are shipped in. I work at the museum store at the Asian Art Museum and our back storeroom is filled with these boxes. I always loved these boxes growing up and when I would go back and forth to Taiwan or China as a child I would keep these boxes much longer than whatever came inside them. At the museum gift shop, whenever someone buys a $20 tea pot or whatever and I bring out the box to put it in and they are always so excited because they feel like they are buying an authentic object. The pattern of the boxes becomes a superficial identification of something Asian or something that is Chinese.

ASR: So to the consumer, the box becomes a symbol of authenticity.

IY: Right. If it comes in the box it is a “good import.” It is something we want from China, whereas a lot of other things we don’t want. There is a lot of anxiety about imports from China. Ten years ago it was Taiwan, thirty years ago it was Japan; it will always change when different countries come into power. There are a lot of racially charged comments made at the museum. People assume that if the products sold in the museum store are cheap then they must have been made in China. The problem is that the idea of what China is and what makes a “good Chinese import” is caught in a really exotic, ancient, static idea of Chinese myths. “Good Imports” is about expanding upon that idea and the idea that something is safe to consume because it looks different to you when we’re not all that different and we’re intertwined.

ASR: It also speaks to the contradictions in the search for authenticity, in general.

IY: Yeah, my work pokes holes at the myth that is authenticity. The idea that there is even something authentic to search for when buying things is what I consider a contemporary myth. It is totally made up.

Keep reading →

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