Die Grüppe orders you to "Kiss My Butt!"

Die Grüppe orders you to Kiss My Butt

LOS ANGELES – After selling out (well, practically selling out…hey, prove we didn’t!) its official launch on February 2, Die Grüppe, the sketch comedy division of Theatre Unleashed, is back…and they’re not going anywhere anytime soon…so I would suggest you learn to love them like the Octo-Mom loves babies, I mean, Angelina Jolie, I mean attention.

Theatre Unleashed presents Die Grüppe in Kiss My Butt on April 1, 10 p.m. at the legendary El Cid in Hollywood. Even more exciting for the dozens of people out there that know who we are, from now on (until, like, forever), Die Grüppe will perform MONTHLY, focusing their keen and lean jokes, biting sarcasm, scandalous skits, vicious viral videos and lame-ass acoustic wuss rock parodies on one specific topic. For this upcoming show, we decided to tackle the joys of SMOKING. Thus…Kiss My Butt. Oh, comedy writers with their wit!

“We chose cigarettes as our first topic because they represent dichotomy,” said Director Vance Roi Reyes, who insists that he studied comedy at a Buddhist monastery in Uruguay. “On one hand, they represent dying a slow, painful death full of death, pain and slowness. On the other, they help you be thin, pretty and popular. We also chose them because they’re phallic.”

Other upcoming show topics include a gay-themed show and one based on the comedy of Uruguayan Buddhist monks. Die Grüppe will also take topic suggestions from its audience, having someone offer a random topic that the troupe will perform skits about at its next show…assuming the suggestion isn’t stupid. Though monthly shows might be ambitious for the young troupe, the company’s sick bastard of an artistic director is excited about the potential. Aww, thanks Daddy!

“I have a certain resilience to doing things the way they’ve been done before and any chance I get to try and subvert people’s idea of how something can be done, I do it,” said Artistic Director Phillip Kelly in yet another drunken, nonsensical rant. “Die Grüppe is a selfish attempt at this. We aren’t getting better in the world right now. It’s a slow process. So, for us, focusing on the funny in the rotten--like smoking and cancer and death--will hopefully translate to audiences doing the same.”

Whatever Obama, thanks for your diatribe. Anyway, Kiss My Butt coincides with the Theatre Unleashed Main Stage show The Way of the World by William Congreve, which is playing at the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center in North Hollywood from March 20-April 19. The company also recently announced the launch of its late-night theatre series Tales of an Unsettled City, which plays on select Saturdays over the next couple months, and Acting Our Age a one-night-only show/party celebrating the company’s first birthday with 24-hour theatre.

Holy shit, we’re busy.

When: April 1st, 2009 @ 10pm
Where: El Cid in Hollywood [web site] [directions]
Tickets: $10

For More Information: Call (818) 849 4039 or e-mail webmaster@theatreunleashed.com