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I was talking with Maxx Mann, who recently fought and defeated the Epstein-Barr virus, and he mentioned previous TSF historian Kate Matarese held a caption contest back in 2006.

Well, now that the 18th Amendment has been repealed and photos are legal again, the Caption Contest is back!

We take the most peculiar snapshots and invite you to come up with the best caption - a phrase, a summary, a bit of dialogue, etc.  So get ahead and get a move on!  The submissions cut-off will be after Wednesday at midnight.

http://apps.facebook.com/theatrestrikeforce/caption01.php

The winner will recieve some prize yet-to-be-determined.  Only current members in TSF are eligible for prizes, though comments are welcome from anyone.

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As I prepare to be Crystal Skull-F'ed tonight, I have to admit, I'm seeing this movie more because it's my civic duty.

Anytime an established American franchise spits a frontier style PING! into the face of the Nazis/Russians (or really, the Brits... We prefer our drinks whipped, Mr. Bond) I feel like I have to go, just for the obligatory U.S.A. chant at the end. People still do that, right? Ok, good.

I still regret not making my parents conceive me five years earlier, so I could've gotten this out in the 1980 Olympics.

That said, the only movie I remain truly excited for is The Dark **********ing Knight.

For all you Batfan-boys, here's a trailer for an Animatrix style DVD being released a few weeks before the film. Normally, I'm not a fan of anime, but by the Ark of the Covenant, this looks bad ass.

Batman Gotham Knight - Official Trailer

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This past Saturday, TSF was represented by 3 different teams at the Moe's Burrito Eating Contest. The teams ("EMoe's," "Team Chris Mullet," and "Theatre Strike Force") were mostly competing against themselves, as the fastest player on each team to eat 3 Moo Moo Mr. Cow burritos, won Free Burritos for a Year.
While all the members of the EMoe's and Team Chris Mullet were in it to win it, Team Theatre Strike Force did what it does best and rigged their own competition in order to guarantee team member, Filup Molina, free burritos for a year. Molina, a too old to still be in school TSF member, recently paid his way back into UF and wiped out his bank account in the process. TSF was there for him and have guaranteed that he will die young and obese, but with his appetite fully satiated.

Filup represented Strike Force well by placing fourth overall out of 150 contestants.

Check out the article I wrote about it for my reporting class:

"Kid-sized burritos too much for some at eating contest"
by RICHARD KLOPFENSTEIN

The best part about losing on purpose is how badly you get to do it.

Read on for pictures of the various methods Strike Force members used to lose.

Read more...

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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--

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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.
--

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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

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Not long ago, Theatre Strike Force spawned some great performers, who spun off into their own troupe, called The Norsemen.

These performers graduated at the height of their popularity and split ways, some heading to Chicago and others to L.A.

Catching up with the L.A. crew shows that they're doing pretty well. 3/5 of The Norsemen (Zach Huddleston, Brandon Barrick, and Eddie Geller) formed the iOWest Harold troupe: Local 132.

The troupe shot to success very quickly, winning last year's Harold Competition, making the rookie team into a bonafide iO House Team. This is a pretty big deal.

Look them up right now and you'll see they're taking part in this year's Harold Competition as well, though now as a veteran team. They just completed their first round and defeated [troupe name removed to soften their shame]. If you're in L.A. do your best to get out there and watch some recent TSF and UF grads do their thing.


Local 132 with their trophy last year.

Continue reading this story to see how one TSF freshman suddenly appeared on the iO West scene. INSANE.

Read more...

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Hey... Bill Arnett and Danny Mora came back into town. They did a great 2 man show and taught some workshops too. I've gushed about them enough recently, but please, if you're ever in Chicago, seek these guys out (3033 and The Armando Diaz Experience).

Seriously... read Bill Arnett's improv blog. It's enlightening.

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Our major event to close out Spring semester was our annual 12 HOURS OF IMPROV. All semester we raised money (deadly games of ASSASSIN, sexy Date Auctions, etc.) leading up to our main fundraising event. As was the trend, this year's 12 Hours was our most lucrative one yet.

Some great troupes performed, including the debut of the brand-new TSF musical troupe: AM-Radio.


At the end of the night our voices were gone and our minds were mush, but it was all worth it, because we raised $680. If you add in the $1800 (!) from our Date Auction, and money raised by individuals as well as at Relay For Life, then you get... our final total... which was.... drumroll please... ... ... I don't know exactly. BUT, I know what it was very near. Going by TSF bylaws, we round up to the nearest thousand, so... WE DID IT!!! We raised $5000 for the American Cancer Society. We are the champions... 2 Legit 2 Quit... Un Dos Tres, Ale Ale Ale.

That is by far the most money TSF has ever raised for our Relay For Life team. In fact, we were the 3rd highest grossing team (of 55) that participated. We had some extra pride walking that track this year.*

Special thanks to Catherine Alford and Samantha Kanal for all their help putting the fundraisers and events together.


*-TSF walking with pride.

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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

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Arnett, who has since been awarded iO's Teacher of the Year award, and Mora, recipient of the Coach of the Year award, join other veteran improvisers, Alex Fendrich, Rush Howell, and Andy St. Clair, to make 3033 happen in 2000*.
*-It may be 2008, but if someone is reading this in the future (3033,perhaps?) something about 2000 is much more timeless than 2008.

If you find yourself in Chicago, be sure to check them out.
NOTE: If you find yourself in Chicago, watch all the improv you can. The shows are all great and many feature Strike Force alumni.

Read Bill Arnett's fantastic improv blog HERE.

 

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For those of you planning to attend Summer B semester, and:

• You haven't picked your classes yet (really? you haven't picked your classes yet? )
• You've got any interest in learning how to do the same kind of improv that TSF does (really? you see TSF as role models? ),
• You'd like to take a fun (and pretty easy) class that's also a 3000-level humanities credit (really? you want to have fun AND get gen-eds out the way? ... wait, no... ...there we go)

RUN, don't walk, to a sitting position in front of a computer, and sign up for:

TPP 3124 Improvisation and Social/Political Issues
Credits: 1 to 3; can be repeated for up to 6 credits. 3rd Period, M-F. That's daily improv fun from 11am-12:15pm.

The class is taught by graduate acting students and also actual TSF performers (that's right, your teachers will be the same people who regularly offend society... and now, you can too!).

If you're not around for the Summer, feel free to register for Fall instead (or in addition). Fall improv will be Tues. & Thurs. 9th and 10th periods (4:05pm-6pm).

It's a lot of fun and a great experience. Not only did most of us learn our craft there, but many of us were introverts who were taught how to overcome stage fright and truly come out of our shells*. So hurry up and get to ISIS (here, I'll give you a boost) and I'll see ya there.
*-Of course, some turned out to be actual turtles. Very unlucky turtles.

P.S. For those of you keeping up with UF news, don't worry, this class isn't affected by budget cuts... Luckily, improvisers already have everything they need.

It's only $47 MILLION DOLLARS.

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