#beyond belief
Never not putting this here so glad Frakes is making his yearly rounds
Do you possess a flair for the thearical?
Were you involved in an incident that turned you from polite society?
Do you feel misunderstood and betrayed by a world that wronged you?
Did you swear they would rue the day? Any day? Are they ruing?
Are you aware that, at the time of this posting, no one has made readily available a minor key version of “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats?’
We’ve raided the old WorkJuice Vaults to bring a you a “new” podcast today. But more exciting is the information that comes with it! This Thursday, May the Fourth, you can watch our entire STAR WARS-THEMED BOOK RELEASE VARIETY SHOW-SLASH-BENEFIT FOR PUBLIC COUNSEL! It’s an amazing show that stars Workjuice Player Busy Philipps, our pals “Weird” Al Yankovic, Matt Gourley, Mark McConville,Janina Gavankar, Open Mike Eagle, Sara Watkins, Gaby Moreno, and MORE. It was an incredible night of music, comedy, and fun. Get the video, audio, and mp3s of the songs on Thursday at our website!
Today’s “lost” podcast is a studio recording we did back in 2006. It’s a version of the first and third episodes of Beyond Belief that we originally performed at M Bar in 2005.
As always, starring Paul F. TompkinsandPaget Brewster as those married mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle. Also starring Hal Lublin as the Spooky Narrator; Marc Evan Jackson as the President; Crissy Guerero as the President’s daughter; Mark Gagliardi as another president; Craig Cackowski as Agent Garvey; and Toby Huss as Buddy Holly.
Written by Ben Acker & Ben Blacker
Directed by Toby Wilkins
Produced by Dave Gruber Allen
Engineered by Tommy Chan with assistance from Jillinda Palmer
Music produced and composed by Andy Paley. “Here’s To Us” by Andy Paley & Acker & Blacker
Some thoughts about this episode from co-writer/co-creator Ben Acker:
In the early days of the Thrilling Adventure Hour, back when it was The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour, it was a stage show and not a podcast. This episode of Beyond Belief was our very first one. It was the first one we wrote, the one we dropped on Paget’s doorstep, the one we sent Paul, that first time. It was the first one we staged, it only made sense that it be the first one we record, in our first attempt to record the show. Why did we make this recording? To what purpose, you might ask? It was for the same reason as we did the show - we did not know, but it seemed like fun. The opportunity arose due to generosity from friend of the show Tommy Chan, whose studio we used and who engineered the recording and from the generosity of founding WorkJuice player Dave (Gruber) Allen who produced the thing. As you can hear, Beyond Belief at its inception was a different animal. Frank and Sadie were con artists. They had an enemy in the form of a secret service man named Garvey, with whom they had a history. They also had history with famous ghosts. The idea of famous ghosts, while fun initially, wasn’t something we ended up with, in that it planted the Doyles in time, which didn’t turn out to feel right. We found better outlets in the show for celebrity impressions and America stuff. You can also hear in this recording the things that were there at the start of the Doyles, the things that lasted all the way through. Not just their love for each other and booze and their banter and their clink, but the chemistry that Paul and Paget had at the core of those characters. It got richer over the years, but it was there before we were writing it. We hope you enjoy listening to the early days of it.
New episode!
The Thrilling Adventure Hour #235: Beyond Belief, “Snakes in a Mane”
Starring Paul F. TompkinsandPaget Brewster as those married mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle. Also starring Hal Lublin as the Spooky Narrator; Annie Savage as a gorgon; Mark Gagliardi as Pterodactyl Jones; and Autumn Reeser as Bloody Mary.
Music by Jordan Katz & the Elements of Style. Written, produced, and directed by Ben Acker & Ben Blacker.
“Love Ain’t No Billy Goat” written by Jonathan Coulton.
Recorded November 12, 2016 at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY.
Tickets are on sale NOW for the FINAL THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR show for many years. It’s at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles this Saturday, December 17, 2016.
Starring Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Busy Philipps, Joshua Malina, all of the WorkJuice Players, and special guests including Timothy Omundson(Galavant; Psych) and rapper Open Mike Eagle!
NY photo Credit: Mindy Tucker
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A new episode!
The Thrilling Adventure Hour #231: Beyond Belief, “Mannequin Episode”
StarringPaul F. Tompkins andPaget Brewster as those married mediums Frank and Sadie Doyle. Also starring Craig Cackowski, Autumn Reeser, Busy Philipps, and Janet Varney as mannequins; and HalLublin as a mannequin hunter.
Music by Jordan Katz & the Elements of Style, featuring Jonathan Dinerstein.
Directed by Aaron Ginsburg. Written and produced by Ben Acker & Ben Blacker.
Recorded October 23, 2016 at Largo at the Coronet in Los Angeles.
PLUS: A bonus musical treat recorded at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY, featuring Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Ted Leo, Jean Grae, and the cast!
itunes // nerdist
Tickets are on sale NOW for the FINAL THRILLING ADVENTURE HOUR show for many years. It’s at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in Los Angeles on December 17, 2016. Tickets: https://www.acehotel.com/calendar/losangeles/thrilling-adventure-hour-holiday-funaround
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Adventurekateers –
Our first foray into monthly comics was a whirlwind. It was exciting and it was a learning experience. It was several learning experiences. We thought it would take four months for four issues of each comic, but as you know, It took longer. Due to this delay, Image is opting not to release issue #4 of Beyond Belief in physical form.
In the interest of getting that issue into the hands of those who want it, we are offering a digital version at the potentially hefty price tag of “pay what you want.” Get issue #4 of Beyond Belief here.
The art and cover are by Phil Hester. Please check out his back and current catalog. He is one of the truly greats. We had inks by Eric Gapstur with some assists by Ande Parks. Mauricio Wallace did the colors. Marshall Dillon and Taylor Esposito did the letters. Chris Eliopoulos designed the logo. Nate Cosby edited the book. Thanks to the WorkJuice players for their constant inspiration and to you for supporting this silly endeavor.
Thanks for sticking with us. This is not the end. It is never the end. You know that. We stopped doing the monthly stage show and at the time of this writing, we embarking upon our tenth and eleventh shows since our finale. As with the shows, we will find more ways to comics. We are currently in negotiations to release collected versions of both the Sparks Nevada and Beyond Belief books, and we’ll update you as soon as there’s any news on that front. We hope you enjoyed this run and we look forward to bringing you what’s next.
Thanks again and always!
Acker & Blacker
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Now open to all! The WorkJuice Players–Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Marc Evan Jackson, Mark Gagliardi, and Craig Cackowski–return to the Bell House in Brooklyn on July 23rd!
Please join us and our NY pals and special guests for these sure-to-be fun shows, featuring ALL NEW episodes of Sparks Nevada and Beyond Belief.
Clink for tickets:
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New episode up now!
Beyond Belief, “Dead & Breakfast”
Recorded May 23, 2015 at the Opera House in Wellington, New Zealand
Frank Doyle: Paul F. Tompkins
Sadie Doyle: Paget Brewster
Cheston:Craig Cackowski
Lustraya:Janet Varney
Shell:Annie Savage
The Twins: Jenny Wade & Carla Cackowski
The Bartender: Marc Evan Jackson
Tickets are on sale NOW for our shows at the Bell House in BrooklynonJuly 23rd starring Paul F. Tompkins, Paget Brewster, Marc Evan Jackson, Mark Gagliardi, and Craig Cackowski.
Clink for tickets (same show):
Photo by Jenn Kelley-Lublin
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Throwback to March 2014. Acker & Blacker’s break of what would become “Straight on til Mourning” (performed first in December 2015 at Largo and again January 2016 at SF Sketchfest).
We referred to “Corey Slightly Sr” as “Offerman” because we initially wrote it for Nick to play (also with the idea that Megan Mullally would play the Poppins). Marc McConville and Joshua Malina played Slightly at Largo and SFSF (respectively) and Busy Philipps played the Poppins both times. All were brilliant, as always happens. We write something with an actor in mind and then someone comes in and shows us how it ought to be played.
This episode had a pretty long gestation. Acker had the idea of a Poppins monster not too long after the Pan episode, but we never quite got to the story for one reason or another. Then, when we finally broke the story, we knew we wanted Paul & Storm to write the songs; it was over a year before we could make that happen. We’re glad we waited. It’s one of our favorite episodes.
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Yoooo Ya Girl finished her first ever animatic
Its a scene from “Beyond Belief” a show that I still go back and listen to every year.
A few inktober drawings. I tried to keep up this year but I got sick halfway through and was in the hospital for a bit. I did have a lot of fun with what I did do.
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GOD HAD BOYFRIENDS i just remembered. why didn’t they do anything with that. they just left it as Thee God having boyfriends, being both into men AND women and then didn’t even let dean have one. insane show.
Only on Supernatural can they make freaking GOD bisexual-with-ex-bfs, but then they also give him a creepy obsession with his #1 favorite creation (Dean) but they specifically just introduce it AS creepy and leave it at that. Because, ew, gay.
Way to try to have your gay cake and choke us with it, too, fuckers. >:(
More Fan art.
Okay, I have this vague memory from a long time ago of an episode of some Urban Legends or Beyond Belief show where there’s like this woman (I think with dark hair, maybe in a red dress) and she gets into this car that’s haunted or possessed by a ghost that’s jealous? and as she’s putting on lipstick, the car starts playing music on its own, and the car kills her somehow. I have no idea if this episode exists, or what show it’s from, probably ca. 2005, give or take
If anyone knows what show this is, and what episode, let me know I’m not imagining this whole thing
