Thanks!

We have so many things to be thankful for this year.  When Your Pals FtH look back on the year past, and think about all of the talented and funny haha people who played with us, we are just bursting with thanks.  We are also thankful for some of the fine talent we already have lined up for our annual Foz the Hook’s War on Christmas Pageant.  Those hilarious comics and singers and what have you include, but are not necessarily limited to Kristen Clifford, Krystal Lafianza Pitzen, Bill Bullock, Rachel Ortiz, and Meredith Kachel.

We are all thankful that Leah Raffanti agreed to marry Patrick Stonehouse, and then actually did.  Everybody has been rather giddy over that the past week, and again everyone here at FozBlog sends our congratulations out to the happy couple. 

Also, Your Old Pal Foz is thankful for all sorts of things today.  Reflection does that, you know.  Once you start thinking of all the great good fortunes in your daily life, you naturally think back to all of the things you have to be thankful for in the past.

I am thankful for my good ole Mom and Dad, and my sibs. 

I am thankful for that first time FozBro threw a football at my groin, and taught me the true meaning of comic timing.

I am thankful for that exposed rebar and crushed concrete slab that broke my fall when I was 11, and my bike was careening uncontrollably down that cliff by the construction site.  What might have happened if I had missed it and plunged into that soft pile of sand at the bottom of the hill?  I shudder to think.

I am thankful for all the young ladies on the high school cheerleading squad who taught a featherweight, chicken-legged, piano player the true meaning of shame and disgrace.

I am thankful for that nasty bottle of Peppermint Schnapps that was passed my way in the backyard of the freshman house party. 

I am thankful to GrandpaFoz for taking me to those East Sunset Boulevard crushed velvet dives, and for trying to buy me all of his favorite middle aged hookers.  Most young men just read Charles Bukowski stories!

I am thankful for condoms.

And I am thankful that today is Wednesday, which means that tonight is Cole’s Thanksgiving Turkey Coma Open Mic, starring Sweet Sonia Denis and Mad Adam Burke and Angry Uncle Kenny Witzgall!   It’s the most thankful open mic in town, so get there by 8:30 to See Foz the Hook’s 9:00 set!  The Thanksgiving funny business starts at 9:30.

Poison Valentines - The Poster!

Last night my heart melted when I first saw this amazing promotional art created for Foz the Hook by the brilliant Meredith Kachel.

FtH’s Poison Valentines Pageant is going to be a huge success! 

I hardly know where to start here.  First, the seed – and by that I mean germ of a seed:

Last week Meredith and I discussed some ideas for the artwork, and came up with a number of ideas based around the “movies” theme of the show.  The pageant will include a number of short romantic vignettes from famous movies, acted by Foz and The Ladies.  Then, as we wrapped up and headed for the bar, I said “Maybe think about a thing where there is a heart made of snakes and an adorable mouse with a valentine and the snakes are going to eat the mouse.”  Meredith immediately lit up, and while she said something like, “yeah, I’ll play with that too,” she clearly meant “This thing I’m going to do is going to be effing amazing.”

Now we have a sort of ingenious allegorical comment about love and expectations, and hopes, and getting devoured by predators.  "Poor little mousey.  I wuv U too… Gulp!"  See, Mousey and his predators truly love each other.  They just have their own definitions of love. 

Then we have the choices of predator for each performer.  Sure, Olde Foz is a buzzard, but he also wears glasses and parts his hair on the same side as me.  Patrick is a noble looking falcon with sideburns.  Larry is a jolly wolf with a beard.  Even the guest performers are well chosen.  Krystal is a blonde cat (or maybe a lynx); Bill is a scorpion as one would expect a sax player to be; Rachel is the Black Widow (Mike Ortiz says she is going to love that); and Maria Wojo is a (singing) frog with a mop of stylish blonde locks; most importantly, Natalie Jose is a badger, and NOT A SKUNK!  Keep saying that!  Never, ever suggest to Natalie that this is a skunk.  It’s not!  It’s an awesome and powerful badger…..  Not a skunk!  Doesn’t look like a skunk at all. 

I can guarantee that FtH will want to play with Natalie Jose again, so keep repeating that the poster represents her as a lovely, powerful, and flattering badger.

After that, the poster tells you where to go and when.   I don’t know what else I could have asked for.

Thank you, Meredith!  The rest of you should go to Meredith’s web site now and see what you can pay her to draw for you.

Where Art Comes From

As you know, Your Pals in FtH are impresarios of the arts.  At various times we have represented local geniuses in the areas of photography, music, comedy, and international security consulting. 

Well, a few weeks ago Old Foz was warming up for a show with a little Martini (twist of course), and thinking about love, when it hit him that the thing we needed for the huge Foz the Hook’s Poison Valentines Pageant was a poster.  A poster!  Yes!  If we had a poster, people might know that we were doing a show.  Our poster could even tell them when and where the show might be, such as “at Coles,” or “Wednesday night, February 8, before Cole’s Comedy Open Mic,” or even list featured performers, like “Rachel Taylor, Bill Bullock, etc, etc.” 

All we needed was an artist with a hand for drawing to make the poster.  Rats!  Where on earth will we find an artist at Cole’s?

That’s when we found out about Meredith Kachel.

You know Meredith.  She made the award-winning* video to Cameron Esposito’s world famous Lesbian Person Rant.  (What do you mean “Which one?” , THIS ONE!).

Anyway, a drink or two later and Meredith was absolutely in to drawing a poster for the show.  I can’t show you the poster yet, but I will soon.  In the meantime I have included Meredith’s take on Alexander Gardner’s photograph of President Abraham Lincoln, taken in Washington, D.C., on 8 November, 1863 – commonly known as The Gettysburg Lincoln. 

Sweet, huh?

Anyway, tonight Meredith and I will talk about the hot new poster, and as soon as I see it, I will share it with you, Internet.

Where will Meredith and I be tonight?  Why, we’ll be with you, at Cole’s Comedy Open Mic with Cameron Esposito and Adam Burke and Foz the Hook, and You!  We play at 9:00, and the comics make jokes at 9:30.

* Meredith’s video won the Foz’s Favorite Video For the Time Being award for 2011.