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The San Francisco and New York hit, SPEECHLESS, begins its Los Angeles monthly engagement tonight, February 20 at 8pm at the Improv, 8162 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA.
In response comes SPEECHLESS, a hilarious, snarky, irreverent entertainment from Silicon Valley, in which tech workers, entrepreneurs, and entertainers live out their worst nightmares to the vast amusement of packed houses.
SPEECHLESS, created by Sammy Wegent (FarmVille 2) and produced by Scott Lifton (Mortified SF) and Anthony Veneziale (Freestyle Love Supreme), puts comedians, performers, and audience members on the spot -- with a PowerPoint deck of images they've never seen. The result is a series of fall-down laugh-riot presentations, with contestants competing for prizes and bragging rights.
At each show, a virtual spinning wheel (developed by a software engineer, of course) determines what kind of random talk the speaker must give -- a TED Talk, app launch, new hire orientation, video game pitch, quarterly report, even a sexual harassment seminar -- while random outrageous slides are presented to accompany their talks. Judges score each presentation on a F.U.T.I.L.E. system (Funny, Understandable, Transcendent, Informative, Legendary, and/or Entertaining).
Tickets for SPEECHLESS ($10 in advance, $15 at the door) can be purchased through the Improv site http://hollywood.improv.com/event.cfm?id=358533&cart or call 323-651-2583 for more information.
Creator Sammy Wegent says, "It's like someone you work with sabotaged your whole powerpoint presentation. This is the joy of collective embarrassment. Who wouldn't want to watch that? "The special contestants for this Los Angeles preview are an audience member -- and:
Ian Roberts - Actor/Comedian, Founder of Upright Citizen's Brigade (UCB) (Reno 911, Key and Peele, Anchorman)
Sean Conroy - Actor/Comedian (UCB, Comedy Bang Bang, Monster's University)
Caitlin Gill - Comedian, 4 Time Speechless Champion (Snap Judgement, Competitive Erotic Fan Fiction)
The judges are:
Actor/Comedians: Joel Bryant & Deven Green
Deven Green's satirical "Betty Bowers: America's Best Christian" videos have earned millions of views online, she is the spokesmodel for OCCmakeup, and currently tours with her "Electric Ukulele Lounge Show." (Blades of Glory, RuPaul's Drag Race)
Joel Bryant is an actor and comedian recently named "Best of the Fest" at the Burbank Comedy Festival, proudly announces games for the LA Derby Dolls and can next be seen in the Western web series "Ride the Lightnin'." (Unsolved Mysteries, Monk, Criminal Minds)
Performing together as a comedy duo since 1998, they've toured the US and Canada, headlined recently in Las Vegas, played for the Troops in the Middle East, and performed at a number of maximum security prisons.
About the creators of SPEECHLESS:
SPEECHLESS is the brainchild of Sammy Wegent, Senior Game Writer and Narrative Designer for Zynga where he recently helped launch FarmVille 2: Country Escape for iOS and Android. Wegent, who acts as onstage host for SPEECHLESS, is also an actor/comedian/writer /director/producer/teacher, who has been seen in national television shows and commercials, and performed comedy in venues and festivals across North America, including at the Chicago Improv Festival, YouTube Live, SF Sketchfest, the Toronto International Improv Festival and more. He is a past winner of the Battle of the Bay Comedy Competition and still holds the title, "The Funniest Person in the Bay Area." Wegent has made dozens of online comedy videos and short films, including the autobiographical web series, Everybody's A Comedian. He has taught acting, writing, improvisation, and stand up comedy at several institutions including the San Francisco Comedy College, University of California Berkeley, and Georgetown University.
Producer Scott Lifton has been the Producer and Host since 2005 of Mortified (www.getmortified.com), a live stage show created in Los Angeles that has expanded to nine cities, spawned two books, a television show (The Mortified Sessions on The Sundance Channel), and a hit documentary (Mortified Nation). He has been running Mortified in the East Bay for the past eight years, developing talent, editing material, and promoting the show. It has grown to become the most successful of all nine cities, selling out to an audience of 800 every month in both San Francisco and Oakland. Lifton is also a leader in corporate team building, producing events all over the country, for major companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Goldman Sachs. As a theatre producer, he has produced several comedic musical plays, including Spring Break the Musical and Heavy Metal Playground, winner of the Best of Fringe Festival Award in San Francisco.
Producer Anthony Veneziale, is also a writer, director, and actor. He is an original producer of PBS' re-launch of The Electric Company, the Tony Award-winning In the Heights, and the San Francisco Improv Festival. As an actor, he appeared in Che (dir. Soderbergh), Hereafter (dir. Eastwood), Trauma (NBC), All My Children (ABC), Sex and the City and Looking (both for HBO). He also created a television pilot for Adult Swim of his freestyle rap theater show called Freestyle Love Supreme which received new life on the Pivot network last spring and will be airing this fall. Freestyle Love Supreme has toured all over the world to sold-out houses in Edinburgh, Montreal, Aspen, Melbourne, New York City, and London. Anthony has also taught improv for the past 15 years around the country and has written for Sesame Street (PBS) and WallyKazam (Nickelodeon).
