The ‘South Park Live’ Scoop And A Few Tidbits

Well, I’m back. Did ya miss me?

Montreal was great. A little family, a little friends, a little poutine (note to self: eat more veggies).

Here are the tidbits:

While I was gone, the good folks at the VFS Blog posted an interview about me and the storyboard blog. Check it out and poke around the site if you’re thinking about attending film school.

Or to reminisce if you already attended film school. Ahh, those long all-nighters…then sleeping under your desk the next day while I was trying to TEACH, dammit!

*throws imaginary boot*

This could get ranty.

On to tidbit number two.

While in Montreal, I had the opportunity to visit some other lovely folks at Toon Boom. I got a first-hand demonstration of Toon Boom Storyboard Pro which was very cool. I’m not going to write a full review until I actually fiddle around with it myself. Which I plan on doing soon.

But I will say that I was impressed. It looks like a real storyboard artist-friendly piece of software. And it could very well increase your productivity, so you could actually have a life while storyboarding. What a concept.

So stay tuned for that one.

Done with the tidbits, on to the review:

I mentioned in my last post that I would be attending the ‘South Park Live‘ show at the ‘Just for Laughs’ festival. There were only two shows on the Wednesday night, a 7pm and a 9:30pm (I went to the 7pm). I was quite stoked for it and I paid about $55 per ticket.

So was it worth it?

The short answer is “almost”.

But I’ll start from the beginning.

When I ordered them online I was under the impression that it was a general admission show. Because, well, that’s what it said. I picked up my tickets at the box office the day before the show. The tickets had actual seat numbers printed on them. And they were in the balcony. Not bad seats, but still.

Hmm, general seating or not?

I cared because general seating means ‘show up damn early to get a good seat’. Assigned seating means ‘not to worry because you have a seat saved’. So the day of the show I called. I was told they had to print seat numbers on the tickets because of the computers, but that it was indeed general seating.

We planned on getting there early, even though I am getting too old to stand in line for such things. But this was Matt and Trey.

So we got there early.

And one guy was standing outside.

Hmm.

We chatted with him and then a guy that worked there eventually came outside. So we asked, “General or assigned?”

“Assigned.”

Fine.

Went for a beer. Came back a little later. People were there, but not lots. Perfect.

It was very interesting to see the crowd a ‘South Park Live’ show attracts. Young and old. Normal and nerds. Yes. There are South Park nerds. They look a little like Star Trek nerds, but not quite so extreme. I assured myself I was an ‘industry professional’ and not one of the nerdlings.

And I stand by that.

We were soon broken up into two lines. The ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. As in, if you already had your tickets and those that were picking them up. I congratulated myself for picking them up the day before because we ended up close to the front of the line.

And I still wasn’t sure if this was general or assigned seating. But I was leaning toward ‘assigned’.

Soon a ‘Just for Laughs’ van pulled up and the boys came out. Trey Parker posed with some nerdlings for a picture and I got to see him up close. Yes, I will confess that I find him a little hot (he’s the one on the left…see? hot). It put a smile on my nerdling industry professional face.

While going through the doors and handing the gal my ticket, I asked again, “General or assigned?”

“Uh, I don’t know…general. Yeah, general!”

*grumble obscenities*

Once inside, I asked another official-looking dude. “General or assigned?”

“Assigned.”

For the love of…*more obscenities*

Decide to just go to the assigned seats. It looked like everyone else was too and it continued that way until show time.

Fine. The big, stupid seating debate was solved. This concludes my long-winded rant at the ‘Just for Laughs’ people.

They were pretty decent balcony seats. Right in the center about eight rows up with a clear view of the stage. I was satisfied.

I had read an article in the Montreal Mirror (one of those free arts and entertainment newspapers) about the show the day before. They said in the interview that they would be playing a bit of music from the shows. So I was glad I was prepared for that. The stage had a big video screen and a band set up with a piano, drum kit and guitars. I dig the songs, so that was fine by me.

They came out to a cheering crowd.

They started the show with a ballad version of ‘Shut your F@cking Face, Uncle F@cker’. Good start. They came to the front and greeted the crowd as a guy came out with a microphone. He turned out to be Paul Provenza who directed ‘The Aristocrats’ (‘crats’ not ‘cats’). I actually love that movie (yeah, I’m sick that way) but can honestly say I didn’t give a damn about this guy.

They all sat down and proceeded to have a sort of ‘scripted interview’. A bit of a ‘cheesy scripted interview’ if you ask me. This Paul guy started to get on my nerves. No Paul, don’t tell lame jokes and interrupt Trey and Matt…no one cares about you.

For hard core fans, some of the stuff they talked about wasn’t new. We’ve heard it in the DVD commentaries and read it in other interviews. But it was still cool to see them up there and tell their stories. Even with that cheesy Paul guy asking the questions.

They played more songs.

There was a sing-along to ‘Kyle’s Mom’s A Bitch’. Big crowd pleaser.

And the full version of a Christmas song previously sung by Kenny (i.e. muffled) which involved the Virgin Mary and oral activities. I’ll leave it at that.

They showed a few clip montages. Played the montage song (which I love). And more Team America songs. Which was fun, but wasn’t this a South Park show? They should have thrown in some ‘Faith + 1’ songs instead.

So the whole show went on that way. Song, song, cheesy interview, some clips, start again. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it. I liked the songs and when they were talking it was great. The crowd was into it and there was a pretty good vibe.

And then…

…it was over.

70 minutes. One hour and ten minutes. Off the stage. Gone. Lights up. Not to return.

Too. Damn. Short. For the money I paid.

To be fair, I did read that they came out after the 9:30 show for autographs. So that’s good…for those 9:30 folks.

All they had to do was tack on a 20 minute Question & Answer period and I probably would have been super satisfied. That would have been really cool. But 70 minutes of mostly music and a mock interview?

Not quite enough.

Was it worth it? Almost. A little bit cheaper or a little bit longer and I really would have no complaints. It was still great to see them live. But for that caliber of a comedy festival it could have been stepped up a notch.

Or at least less ‘cheese’ and more ‘edge’ in the interview parts.

After all, that’s what we nerdlings industry professionals expect from Matt and Trey. 🙂

Read the Storyboard Blog by RSS Feed or by email for more ranty, rant, rants in the future.

14 thoughts on “The ‘South Park Live’ Scoop And A Few Tidbits

  1. Will

    First, yes, we missed you.

    Second, the Paul guy sounds really awful. It’s great that you got to see the show but it sure doesn’t sound like what I imagined it would be.

    Welcome home.

  2. Karen J Lloyd Post author

    Aww, thanks Will.

    Maybe I’m being too hard on the Paul guy, but the interview part just reeked of ‘rehearsed’, ya know?

    I read a few reviews and some people expected them to *just* come out and do the voices like the Simpsons and Family Guy folks did (at past festivals).

    I think that would have gotten old pretty fast with just the two of them. But I was expecting a bit more of an ‘insider’s look’ at their daily work routine. They could have made an in-house video to show us and that would have been really cool.

    It’s all good. It was still fun. Just short. 🙂
    K
    (BTW the Toon Boom folks found your site thru my site and thought it was neat)

  3. Friar

    Oh well, when you take into account the big picture, what’s 55 bucks?

    It’s something you’d have had to see anyway, at least ONCE. You’d never forgive yourself if you didn’t.

    If I lived a bit closer, I might have gone too. Sounds like it was fun.

  4. Karen J Lloyd Post author

    Exactly. When it’s all said and done, no regrets.

    I think the floor seats went up to $100…so I might have felt a little gypped if I had paid that much for a little over an hour.

    Or not. It’s all in the perception, really. To sit really close might have been worth that too.

    I mean, I’d probably be willing to pay *quite* a bit to see any of the Python guys live. It would be worth it to me.
    K

  5. Liana

    Welcome back !

    I was expecting a picture of you with Matt and Trey at the begining of this blog .

    Glad to see that your time in Montreal was great .

    Now that you are all rested up. I can’t wait to see what you will write about next ..

    Liana

  6. Karen J Lloyd Post author

    Hey, thanks girl!

    Nope, no pics with the guys unfortunately. 🙁

    But I did get that up close look at them, so that was cool.

    And I still don’t know what I’ll write about next (I’m being a lazy bum)…hmm…
    K

  7. dan szilagyi

    Hey Karen,

    Good to have you back, sounds like it was a fun time, not sure what to say about the thing with trey and matt, but its good to go just to see what it was about.
    I remember when Kevin smith here and it was a GREAT time, super long and very funny.

    Toonboom has some neat stuff, they talk about their products in their little review newsletter ( we used to get them at mercury)

    anyway looking forward to your next post!

  8. Karen J Lloyd Post author

    Thanks Dan.

    Yeah I’m looking forward to it too…cause I’m not quite sure what it’s gonna be…
    I’ll think of something soon tho. 🙂
    K

  9. Friar

    I just watched a re-run last night, when they poked fun at John Edwards (Biggest Douche of the Universe!)

    (Not to mention Kenny’s Soul getting imprisonned in a pot roast, and Rob Schneider, Ter Doop Dee Doo Ter Teedle Dum…)

    One of their best episodes ever!….:-)

    Despite the low-brow gross-out humor (which I still like) it’s one of the cleverest comedies on TV.

  10. Karen J Lloyd Post author

    That’s one of my favorite episodes too!

    And I love ‘Freak Strike’ when Cartman goes on Maury and keeps saying, “What-ev-ah, I’ll do what I want!”

    Both are from season 6. One of the best seasons in my opinion. 🙂
    K

  11. Friar

    @Karen

    I remember that one too…!!!

    Cartman is such an obnoxious amoral nasty little shit .

    I just love to watch him be a little asshole. I think he makes the whole show! 🙂

  12. Debi

    Welcome back and glad to hear you had a good time. Nice to see you broading into theater reviews. You just need a gimic now..like thumbs up or something… 2 pencils up or down? One or two papercuts?

    If you want something worth your money, try the musical Spam-a-lot. Now that was good, and I normally hate musicals.

  13. Karen J Lloyd Post author

    Thanks Debi!

    I really want to see Spam-a-lot…I think it’s here in Vancouver now (note to self: look into that!). Gotta watch the pennies these days, but still…it’s Python!

    I’d like to start doing some movie reviews too actually (if anyone cares what the heck I think). Wanted to do Kung Fu Panda but I feel it’s too late now (?). When I see Wall-E (probably this week), I’ll give my two cents on that one.

    Might give ‘two views’ (tho I like the idea of a gimmick… hmm)… like the ‘animator’s eye’ and the ‘consumer’s eye’. I’ll see.

    Gotta get off my butt and write somethin’ soon.
    The unemployed bum is taking over!! 🙂
    K

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