.
NEWS │ ABOUT │ CAST │ SHOWS │ MEDIA │ ALUMNI │ PRESS │ CONTACT

Hello citizens!

After a brief hiatus, the minds of TSF Sketch have released a new installment of "Yesterday's News -- Today!" For this week, the future looks back 100 years to the Obamas' first Halloween in the White House, corrupt elections in Afghanistan, and the scarcity of swine flu vaccines.

You can watch the video below, on TSF's Youtube channel, on http://ynt.tumblr.com, or on our Facebook fan page.

See you yesterday,

Erik

Video Link

Erik Voss is the former T-Shirt Guy of Theatre Strike Force. He isn't allowed to wear a firearm anymore.

Link | 0 Comments

Hey folks!

Here is the latest video of "Yesterday's News -- Today!" for the week of Oct. 19, 2009. The future looks 100 years in the past to a week of balloon hoaxes, racist judges and talkative Kennedys.

You can view the video below, on our Facebook fan page, or by subscribing to our Youtube channel.

See you yesterday,

Erik

Video Link

Erik Voss is the former T-Shirt Guy of Theatre Strike Force. Now he is incredibly cold.

Link | 0 Comments

Hello citizens!

Former T-shirt Guy Erik Voss here. TSF Sketch, the comedy writing team of Theatre Strike Force, has launched a new Web-video series called "Yesterday's News -- Today!"

In the year 2109, the government propaganda department will release weekly newscasts covering the headlines from 100 years in the past (the year 2009). Like all government media, these broadcasts will have their share of biases and inaccuracies, which at times will be so absurd they might just seem humorous. But make no mistake: in the future, comedy of any kind is dangerously unpopular.

We will be posting these broadcasts every Monday or Tuesday. You can also view them on our Facebook fan page, or by subscribing to our Youtube channel.

See you yesterday!

Erik

Video Link

Erik Voss is the Former T-Shirt Guy of Theatre Strike Force. His friends agree he's a lot more fun to be around now.

Link | 0 Comments

Hey everyone,

What a time for strong openings!

A few weeks ago in Beijing, American Olympic athlete Lolo Jones got off to an early lead in the women’s 100 meter hurdle, just to have her foot snag the second to last hurdle. The minor stumble cost her the gold medal.

Back in June, Sen. Barack Obama’s numbers were soaring in the polls after he clinched the Democratic nomination. Now, he’s bogged down trying to explain what he meant by “lipstick on a pig.”

On that same note, two weekends ago saw the return of two live comedy shows that had strong openings and mediocre follow-ups. Luckily, in the world of live comedy, audiences are surprisingly optimistic. One solid joke can save a good backrub’s worth of eye-rolls. And if you catch them at the start, they’re more willing to wade through the muck with you.

Read more...

Link | 4 Comments

A few days ago I got the most exciting of the Facebook notifications: the +1 Friend Request. Upon clicking the link, I suddenly found myself gazing into the low-res eyes of my father's work ID picture.

Example of what kind of picture my dad used as his main profile pic. Randi G. Hiller is not my dad, despite any resemblances.

After a hesitant accepting of his request (and an adjustment of my
Privacy and Limited Profile settings), I clicked through to the book
that belongs to my dad's face and found one of the grossest misuses of social networking. He's trying to reconnect our family.

Linked from his page I was able to find profiles for my uncles, aunts, and my dad's best friends. These baby boomers (of whom my dad, born in 1947, isn't even the oldest) are reaching out to what Money magazine tells them is a cool way to connect to your kids, DiGiTaLLy!

My dad actually has twice as many applications as I do without any full understanding of what they are for. He regularly shows our difference in age and mentality by scrubbing his Facebook wall free of all comments and returning it to a nice, egg-shell white.

My dad's transition into being the cool dad isn't exactly going smoothly, but I did find a video on my cousin's Facebook (yes, found her through dad's Fb.) proving that the cool parent is not a myth. They exist, can be obnoxiously cute, and perhaps are at a level that allows them to connect more deeply to their kids. Keep reaching for those Raybans, Dad.

Read on to see the World's Milfiest Dancer / Cool Mom (TM). [CREEP-ALERT]

Read more...

Link | 6 Comments

The TSF website has been completely redesigned from the ground up.
You might have noticed.

Anyway, take a look around, get comfortable, this is your home now. We've finally decided to pay some attention to website design and have hopped on the current trend of fully integrating a blog into your website. Being such gloryhogs, sharing what we write with all 14000 people on the internet was a no-brainer.

The major difference with this design is that the blog is not simply for TSF's diary entries--

---

Dear blog,

It's hard being a not-for-profit. I think I'm quickly falling for another organization... She's brilliant, sexy, useful and rich. But alas, Google and I just come from different sides of the digital tracks (|==|==|==|==|==|==|). That kinda looks like a penis, hee.
--

---

TSF's such a perv. The blogs also serve as a quick way to post interactive updates for various categories. For example, if you are browsing the "Shows" page, you'll be kept up to date with upcoming shows, get a recap of some of our bigger shows from the stage perspective, and be able to leave comments telling us what you thought as well.

We've done our best to create some back log blogs (b-log blogs?) but keep revisiting the site as we'll constantly be generating more material. In the meantime, take a look around and try to get a feel for the girl.

See ya,

TSF

Link | 2 Comments

If I could draw a graph Here's a graph I drew, representative of the number of celebrities in the world at any given time in the last 40 years. While it's obviously not scientific or anything beyond theory, I think that it's true.

As you can cleary see, as we dance past the 60s and 70s, there is a slow, but steady increase of the number of Sonny Bonos and Scott Baios in the world. Late in the 80s, as cable television becomes more popular* and everyone has the option of viewing endless movies on their very own betamax, we see the number of celebrities more than double. After that is when it gets interesting. Over the course of the 20 years that followed, every comedian got a sitcom deal, regular nerds made giant leaps in computing and become ubernerds, and the internet revolution began.
*- 1981: MTV gives a face to Elvis Costello, millions boycott the network.

Thanks to the internet, it seems as if we're getting to a point where celebrities are so numerous, they're the #6 ranking minority in the country (behind Pacific Islanders, ahead of Werewolf Americans). These days, with a webcam and a free YouTube account, any Tom, Dick, or Harry (by way of his little brother, Charlie) can become a mega-celebrity.

It's many a-child's dream to become a star one day, but with the ease of digital video and the speed of broadband, it might happen sooner than they'd like (and for something they'd rather not be famous for). Remember Gellieman (the Aicha kid)? Well TSF decided to take a guess* at what his life might be like after
being thrust into internet celebrity at such a young age. Check it out.
*- No, I didn't write this incredibly long entry just to pimp a TSF sketch. But check it out anyway.

Gellieman - Aicha - Where Are They Now? (Part 1)


Part 2
Part 3

Link | 0 Comments