EPISODE 29 - Backstage at the Rush Concert: Live from Largo

[JulyDiaz 2797]

Paul F. Tompkins once again welcomes the wonderful real people of Los Angeles AND the internet to a LIVE episode of Spontaneanation recorded at the world-famous Largo at The Coronet! This week, Paul’s special guest is Thomas Lennon of Reno 911! and The Odd Couple. They chat about what Thomas would do if he had the power of invisibility, how he got bit by the theatre bug, and the time a celebrity punched him in the stomach when he was a kid. Paul is then joined by Sarah Burns, Craig Cackowski, and Marc Evan Jackson to improvise a story set backstage at the Rush Concert happening right now at the LA Forum. And as always, Eban Schletter (only the best) scores it all on piano!

Don’t forget! The next LIVE SPONTANEANATION is happening Saturday, November 7th with special guest Keegan Michael Key and more! There will be special moments that you can only experience LIVE so get your tickets now over at www.paulftompkins.com/live!

 

Photos by Liezl Estipona

 

PFT's NOTES

- Tom second-guessed his choice of location between me seeing it when he first wrote it down and the beginning of the improv set. Too late!

- At Tom’s suggestion, Paul and Tom covered “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division– perhaps the least dynamic song in the history of pop music!

.

- “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is Sarah Burns’ favorite song, and she danced to the entire thing!

- Despite competing with the

concert happening at the same time, our show was sold out!

- There was a lengthy conversation in the dressing room about Rush before the show!

- Craig Cackowski knows a lot about Rush!

 

- This episode features no Canadian performers yet contains the highest amount of Canadiana for a SPONTANEANATION episode yet!

[Jon Onyx 1226]

oh man, over an hour late? Worth the wait!!

 

what a great line up.

[JacobCrites 4977]

Has Paul never heard of A Bug's Life, or the much-worse Antz? Ants can be heroes, Paul.

(And just to get ahead of this: I understand that it looks like I misspelled the word "ants," but that actually is the name of the movie. It's a very clever title because the main ant's name is "Z" and on the poster for the movie, Z--the ant--is holding up the letter Z next to the word Ant. That's how you know it's a funny movie.)

[KajusX 1807]

What was the source of that super-scary noise?! Was that a piano trick by Eban??

[brotherTodd 22]

I can't wait until Shimmy Jontz does an east coast tour!

[KatherineIsOdd 486]

What is it about Paul talking about animals that's so great? I think I find animals intrinsically funny, especially when assigned human characteristics, plus PFT can make any subject even funnier on top of that. In this episode, I learned ants are no exception!

 

So much Canadianness! As a Canadian, every stereotype and impression of Canadians makes me say "That's not accurate," except Tim Horton's! That one's true. As soon as they mentioned Timmy's, I just thought, "Yup, they figured us out." Now I'm gonna worry about getting stabbed in one!

 

I am also wondering about the source of that noise, and whether there really was a list of songs.

 

Glad to hear the return of Sarah's rage!

[doggans 126]

FUN FACTS FROM THE LIVE AUDIENCE:

 

When Cackowski exclaims "Get off my bus!" to the exorcists, it's a callback to an exchange during the break, when Jackson said that in an attempt to call back to PFT's prejudiced-against-anthropomorphic-things bit, but ended up confusing everyone.

 

And as you may have pieced together from elsewhere, the Joy Division stuff is a callback to the song PFT and Lennon sang (and Sarah danced to) during the break.

 

Sadly, I don't remember most of the visual goings-on from the show, so I am HELPLESS to provide fun facts for those.

[Kickpuncher 5012]

"Fuck you, sick kids!"

 

Jacob, I also assumed that Paul was talking about Antz, forgetting that this was taped months ago, when Ant-Man Fever was sweeping the nation.

[HotSaucerman 2051]

What's with the terrible mic noise? I mean, don't Largo and UCB know that they're in the podcast capital of the world? Take a day or half a day to set your venue up for ideal podcast recording. When we go to your town, we WILL pay money to go to your building, because you're in the fucking podcast capital of the world!

[JacobCrites 4977]

That was the best improv the show has done so far. So fantastic; right from the get-go there were so many running gags and games happening and it just built from there. The idea of having a box with "canadian healthcare" in it never stopped being funny for me.

 

EDIT: It seemed clear to me that Belushi was doing an old Hurt's Don't-it? joke. "Do you want to be in this shot?" and then he takes a shot at him. Am I crazy?

[Blink 1844]

This ep:

[Xandar1977 421]

Oh my god this was insane and amazing. Definitely one of the best.

[ApathyMonger 309]

Is the bit about there only being 1,000 people in Canada a Comedy Bang Bang call back? That's a deep cut. I can't remember what episode it's from; one of the live shows in Canada maybe?

[IanR 153]

Tom's story about the Kalamazoo theater reminded me of the Branson Simpsons song

[staircar1 15]

Is the bit about there only being 1,000 people in Canada a Comedy Bang Bang call back? That's a deep cut. I can't remember what episode it's from; one of the live shows in Canada maybe?

 

If memory serves, it’s one of Alan Thicke’s goals to meet every Gord in Canada, which isn’t as difficult as it sounds because there are only 1000 people in the country.

[AprilFoolsRebel 457]

Loved this ep! It should be mandatory for all Canadians or people who enjoy laughter to listen to.

[jesshelga 17]

Them Duke Boys sure get around to regional theater: I saw John Schneider as Curley in a production of Oklahoma! in the late '90s.

 

I enjoyed how Craig wove his deep knowledge of Rush throughout the episode, especially because it seemed to delight all the other players.

[Blink 1844]

I'm glad that this podcast has lent respect to Primus and Rush, two of my favorite bands who people really like to shit on (because their fans are nerds).

[Bumpy 1674]

I relistened to 'Superyacht' before hearing this one and for the last two days I've had 'One! Pound! Ant!' set to 'Girls on film' going through my head. This all your fault, Paul.

[Emptyeye 11]

As a huge Rush fan, I'm glad I finally got around to listening to this. And on behalf of Rush fans everywhere, I can say thanks for "I prefer PEE-rt!", and Craig's knowledge of Rush in particular. "I printed out a setlist for you right here!"

 

I kind of want to go back and, if I can, listen to Eban's piano playing to see if I can pick out any Rush now.