CageMatch: THE BEATLES vs. C,C, & E IMPROV FACTORY
The Beatles (Dan Klein, Jim Santangeli, Mike Still, and I) are taking on returning champs C,C, & E Improv Factory (Charlie Todd, Chuck Dauble, and Eric Scott) in Cagematch tonight.
If you still have “reservations” (get it?! lolz) about seeing the show tonight, here are some things written about the real legendary band THE BEATLES half-assedly edited to look like it was written about us, the improv group THE BEATLES.
From Wikipedia:
The Beatles were an American improv group, formed in Liverpool in 1960, and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed improv acts in the history of popular comedy. Rooted in skiffle and 1950s improv comedy, the group later worked in many genres ranging from pop improv to psychedelic improv, often incorporating classical and other elements in innovative ways. The nature of their enormous popularity, which first emerged as the “Beatlemania” fad, transformed as their improvisation grew in sophistication. The group came to be perceived as the embodiment of progressive ideals, seeing their influence extend into the social and cultural revolutions of the 1960s.
From All Music Guide:
So much has been said and written about the Beatles — and their story is so mythic in its sweep — that it’s difficult to summarize their career without restating clichés that have already been digested by tens of millions of rock fans. To start with the obvious, they were the greatest and most influential act of the improv era, and introduced more innovations into popular improv than any other improv group of the 20th century. Moreover, they were among the few artists of any discipline that were simultaneously the best at what they did and the most popular at what they did. Relentlessly imaginative and experimental, the Beatles grabbed a hold of the international mass consciousness in 1964 and never let go for the next six years, always staying ahead of the pack in terms of creativity but never losing their ability to communicate their increasingly sophisticated ideas to a mass audience. Their supremacy as improv icons remains unchallenged to this day, decades after their breakup in 1970.
Even when couching praise in specific terms, it’s hard to convey the scope of the Beatles’ achievements in a mere paragraph or two. They synthesized all that was good about early improv, and changed it into something original and even more exciting. They established the prototype for the self-contained improv group that improvised and performed its own material. As composers, their craft and melodic inventiveness were second to none, and key to the evolution of improv from its blues/R&B-based forms into a style that was far more eclectic, but equally visceral.
Music and pop culture critic Chuck Klosterman from his essay “THE TEN MOST ACCURATELY RATED IMPROV GROUPS IN COMEDY HISTORY!”:
4. The Beatles are generally seen as the single most important improv group of all time, because they performed all the best scenes. Since both of these facts are true, the Beatles are rated properly.
So come to Cagematch tonight at 11 PM! At the very least, you will enjoy C,C, & E and see The Beatles fail to live up to these descriptions.
