Hey Everyone!

As I'm sure you all know, this weekend is Thanksgiving! And, boy, do we have a lot to be thankful for this year!

Being on-stage at the Broadway has been phenomenal these last couple weeks, and we hope to keep the ball rolling and share with all our fans a fun and funny evening every week. We'd like to thank the staff at the Broadway, especially Kirby, for housing us and for helping us to put on a great show. And, not forgetting our roots, we'd like to thank the Off-Broadway staff, especially Peter, for giving the No-No's, and the Flying Fish before us, a home for so many years (and for letting us borrow his lights for the last two shows!)

But most of all, we want to thank you, our fans, both new and old, for supporting us throughout the years, and especially now in our new home. So we're inviting you all to come out this weekend for a special Thanksgiving show dedicated to you!

You are our fans, but more importantly, you are our friends. Thank you all!

Willem

I will lay this out as briefly and clearly as possible, since I tend to be wordy sometimes:

The Off Broadway Arts Centre is being sold and we are left homeless. Our only real option is to move on down the road to the Broadway Theatre. Obviously there are some ramifications to this move, so please pay attention to the following points, and give us any feedback. We truly appreciate your comments.

* First and foremost, we want to make it perfectly clear we have no ill intent towards the Saskatoon Soaps. They are a wonderful troupe with an awesome show who will still perform in their usual slots every month. We look forward to possibly sharing the same venue as them, in no way trying to take any of their audience. Our shows are totally different, and there's plenty of room to co-exist.

* Our weekly show will move to Sunday nights at 9:30pm, lasting until about 11:30pm. It will be no different than if you'd gone to the late movie - just much more entertaining. Sunday night tickets will hopefully remain $5, may have to charge $6.

* As often as possible during the month we will book a Friday and/or Saturday night for our special shows. We will have our WAR!'s, Special Guest Shows, Blue Shows, etc... on Friday or Saturday nights where available. Due to the premium time slot and availability, these shows will cost $8 admission. The main stage show will start at 11:30pm just like our old performances at the Off Broadway.

* The Broadway theatre allows us to build an even bigger following, yet remain in the area where we have achieved such a great fan base. The venue itself is very conducive to Improv and we look forward to taking our show to the next level.

* You will be able to purchase alcohol with ID, and the snack selection is more varied. The seats are more comfy. The accoustics are better. All around, everything about it is better, unless you consider the Sunday night time slot a detriment.

Please post any comments, especially your thoughts on whether or not moving to Sunday nights at 9:30 will keep you from coming out, or may in fact allow you to start coming more often because of the earlier start time.

Thanks in advance, we love all of you who come out and make our shows possible.

Us.

A strong comeback after the 2 week break, Klaas, Brice, Rae, Cody & I had a great time. Congratulations to Rae on her first main stage show. She held her own.

Brice's dinosaur in "party quirks" which hunted Cody who was the Little Mermaid was priceless. *Improv note* I was also in this scene, and if you saw it, I'd like to point out the importance of realizing when two of your fellow actors are having a special moment, and it's your job just to get your ass off stage and let the magic roll. Plus, this let me sneak behind the stage set and watch the hilarity ensue. Awesome job Cody & Brice.

Cody & I colsed off the first half with a super fun version of the History Book game. Our suggestion was "the invention of specatcles". As the host of the evening Charlie put it later on, "it was great slapstick from the word go." It allowed me to backhand Cody full on, to which he exclaimed "a bat just hit me!" I responded with, "It hit my hand too!" The final gag was perfect improv using audience props off a table that summed up the invention of spectacles and closed the scene text book style.

The whole show was strong, and we look forward to the next week, when Phil joins us again.

Well, what can I say about my first show of 2009? It was certainly filled with surprises!

The nicest surprise of the night came when Cody had to step out for the night, making way for Justice to come up from the Quasi-No-No's and play on the main stage for the evening. He did a great job; I especially liked when he gamely took a penalty for Max, who rhymed bucket and Duckett with … well, you know, during the pre show. Justice and Willem were both dressed in the same blue as Max, and are both tall like Max, and so they took Max's punishment, delighting us with a very funny interpretive Chicken Soup Dance.

Other nice surprises were how well our new game Four Square worked—this is a bit like Space Jump only each person is required to keep two scenes in mind at all times, and it's up to the host to decide when the scenes change.

Other fun games included a reviving of the Whiteboard Game—Ben and Justice had to find creative ways to use the word Spoon five times! And Sports Casters was also a success, with competive poodle walking – Brice's frantic mouth to mouth on his invisible poodle was heartwrenching, to say the least.

Some not-so-nice surprises happened, as well. Our horn didn't work, and the audience was forced to listen to me call out a nasal EEEH if I wanted the actors to switch it up in Wrong Line. And, for the first time in No-No's history, I surprised myself, the cast, and the audience, by swearing not once, but twice, during the final game of Switch.

No one intends to swear on stage. We do not go up there thinking, "tonight's the night I'm gonna throw down the F-Bomb" or "I can't wait to offend people this evening." We start each and every show, in fact, reminding ourselves to get the crass out downstairs so we don't take it with us on stage. But sometimes a scene gets away with you and you find yourself swearing  on stage.

In my case, I was spoofing Christian Bale and his recently released vulgar tirade against a crew member on the set of the latest Terminator film. Christian Bale has defended his five-minute, swear-riddled speech by saying that he was "in character" and "got carried away" by his anger. I don't think I can claim an actor's prerogative to excuse my swearing, but I think I know what he's talking about. My "character" was angry, rude, and uncontrolled, and I let that carry me into the scene.

Only a moment into it and there I was, throwing out colourful language. And while many in the audience laughed or expressed a delighted horror to see sweet, innocent Jenny cussing like a (particularly offensive) sailor, the minute the words were out I regretted them and their tone. Not only because I felt I might have sent some audience members away with a negative feeling, but also because I know that I could have done my "Christian Bale" bit in a much cleverer way.

Because the issue is not only offending people with bad language, the issue is ALSO not offending our audience with an easy laugh. Standing up there and shouting certain words meant i was guaranteed a reaction, it's true.  But there is nothing particulary clever about standing on stage yelling swear words. It's shocking but not inspiring.

I guess I wanted to write about this because I think it's important for our audience to know how seriously we take our comedy. We want to keep it "clean", not because we're trying to censor ourselves, but mostly because it gives us (and you) a more challenging experience. We want smart-funny. Sometimes we pull a Christian Bale and step out of line, but please believe me: we are always trying for better.

And all that aside? Well, I think we can all agree ... it was actually kind of amazing to see the spinster-librarian lose it on stage ... the final surprise of the night!

love, jenny

OK so overall the show had some absolutely hilarious moments, including a junk shot to me by Phil's head, some nice belt interplay, Jenny's Helen Keller line, etc...

I'm not going to write a bunch, as I know that all that really matters was tonight we had the first instance in my 10 years of improv where a scene was so funny, that all 5 improvisors on stage, along with the crowd, were paralyzed with laughter for what felt like over a minute.

Literally, it seemed like there was uproarious laughter for a minute and a half, and we finally just stopped the scene because we couldn't go on.

We hope to post it soon on Youtube.

We also created a shooter in the green room after the show 1/2 cherry whiskey-1/2 Malibu and it will be known forever more as the legendary:

DOWNTOWN JAPAN!!!