No Shame Theather

Updated: Jan 22, 2020

Marc Von Ahnen

When I first started doing this blog I tried to make a post every week but after a while I figured that not everyone wanted to read about me sitting around in sweat pants watching The Simpsons. But if you did I would be set for life!

Instead of writing something every week I decided I would just write whenever I did anything new or exciting. Going on a trip or a concert. I feel it can make for a better blog overall but there can be a lull of no activity. Money and time can only allow for so many trips.

But every once in a while something falls into my lap that I feel compelled to talk about. That something this week was the No Shame Theater at Tee Hee's Comedy Club. I'm going to have to eat some crow here but I was unaware of No Shame Theater. I learned that it has been around for some time and recently found a new home at Tee Hees.

Wes put it on my radar a little while ago, he told me about this show and said that it was more than just stand up comedy, he then told me he wanted to try doing a sketch. Another comic, the amazingly funny Matthew Jacobsen, also was interested. I told them that I had a couple sketch's I wrote that I am adapting into my next comic High-Larity

I sent a sketch over and Matthew and Wes both liked it so we made a plan to meet and hash it out together. As an aspiring writer this taught me a very important lesson, before you decide anything you write is complete get at least a second set of eyes on it.

Many of my friends are used to me reaching out to them and asking, "can you proof read this?" Ryan, Joel, Greg and Amanda spring to mind. But that's not what I mean.

I thought this sketch was already pretty solid but both Matthew and Wes were ready to jump in and punch it up to another level of quality. In hindsight what I wrote was only decent and when they were done it was borderline fantastic.

We got together one other time to read through it but didn't meet again until last night. We arrived about 45 minutes early to do a quick run through of the sketch and I was aghast to learn that both Wes and Matthew had gone to trouble of committing it to memory. Where I had not... I felt really bad for having to slow the entire practice down to look at my script again. I would like to blame this on being busy, accepting a new job and so forth but I also have been playing a lot of Ms. Pacman lately. Like a LOT!

(PS I am aware that is a Pacman board but I couldn't find one of Ms. Pacman, which is sad because it is a superior game)

We hashed it out as much as we could and soon the show started. Our MC Amy Nichols took the stage. She was a taller blonde woman who I thought was hugging herself. Maybe she is cold, I mean it is 0 degrees out.

"Welcome to No Shame theater," She began. "This is a show were anything can and does happen. To start the night off, I am going to escape from a straight jacket."

It suddenly dawned on me that maybe Amy Nichols isn't cold or in love with herself but she is strapped into a straight jacket and she began thrashing around the stage, struggling to free herself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn191W6ImjY&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1vbDtvVCJ4c6KW1QkLyGVnTD0Q5OtAoW7K-ktlaYPwReVy5NAbWosRBCs

I thought I was just doing a silly comedy open mic but it turned out that I stumbled into what looked like a trap from Saw. Eventually she did free herself which was met with a round of applause from a decent sized Monday night crowd. It was hard not t be impressed.

Then she said "First up tonight is Matt, Wes and Marc with a sketch." Whoa, wait a minute. We are going first? You just escaped from a straight jacket and I don't even know my lines! How do I follow that?

The sketch went really well, I felt like I flubbed one part but kept it moving; the audience didn't seem to notice. People laughed when they were supposed to, cried when they were supposed to and cheered when they... Ok they only laughed but that was plan. Over all it worked out really well! I was pleased with the outcome.

After the sketch a woman took the stage and she read a poem she wrote about watching her Grandma pass away. It was pretty powerful and moving, that was followed by a real life story of another kid talking about his sister getting hit by a car, I know that does sound funny written down but he did get a lot of laughs! At this point I had to sneak out to the bathroom, when I came back I saw a man balancing on a plank of wood that was atop a metal cylinder juggling bowling pins. What happened? I was gone for two minutes! It was at this point where I thought, "Well I have this weeks blog."

The rest of the night was a real barrage of local talent. That was the real take away for me last night. Who knew that in Des Moines you could see a woman escape from a straight jacket, a card trick, hear beautiful heartfelt poetry, and see a SNL caliber sketch (right guys? right???) for the price of $0.00.

The highlight for me personally though, one person wrote that he was going to do impressions. He had a screen playing a classic Looney Toons sketch (Rabbit Season, Duck Season) and not only hit every line perfectly but also did every single movement. It was just amazing to me, the time and dedication to put into that was just jaw droppingly impressive.