Jody Haucke and his wife Thea Nikolic are a regular act at the Atomic Rooster along with their comedy group Crystal Basement.
The Crystal Basement comedy troupe, which has gained a devoted following with its monthly Centretown performances, is looking to broaden its audience in cyberspace.
Ottawa’s self proclaimed longest running improv sketch comedy, and “twisted tune” team plans to begin producing webisodes – online video shorts – and possibly full-length movies, says Brett Kelly, a filmmaker and group member since the late 1990s.
After not having any regular shows for a couple of years, the group has become a regular act at the Atomic Rooster on Bank Street over the past two years, says Kelly.
The 16-year-old group has five members. Co-founder Jody Haucke and his wife Thea Nikolic, another group member, are both Ottawa actors.
Nikolic says she was “shotgunned into the group” about a year ago when they didn’t have enough people to put on a performance.
The troupe’s other two members are Shawna McSheffrey, a local actor and drama teacher, and Trevor Payer, another founding member.
Haucke says the Atomic Rooster events are the group’s main shows.
But members are also involved in other projects such as the Eddie May Murder Mysteries at Scarlett’s Dinner Theatre in the Byward Market.
Kelly says Crystal Basement is a “nice opportunity to perform” something that he used to do a lot more.
The shows are usually made up of improv games, sketches, and song parodies, he says. Some audience favourites are the improv games Same Brain and Mannequin.
In Same Brain, two members of the group have to get up and speak at the same time and say the same thing, says Nikolic.
They’re given some guidance on the topic; for example, she and another performer were once experts on paintings that talked when painted with mustard.
In Mannequin, the actors stand perfectly still while members of the audience try to move them around, says Kelly. One of the funnier scenarios is when an audience member tries to make an actor walk.
The unpredictable side to improvisation is what he enjoys, says Haucke.
“I really like coming up with something on the fly and never knowing what the audience is going to give us,” says Haucke. He and Payer have been working together for so long, he adds, that they almost know what each other’s responses will be – so now they try their best to throw the other off course.
The song parodies they add into the mix are written by the group. Haucke says he once reworked Bruce Springteen’s “I’m On Fire” to “I Got Fired.”
Their unusual shows and interaction with the audience are what keeps the restaurant full every time they perform, says Kim Ramji, manager at the Atomic Rooster.
“Comedy night was one of those events that kept people coming in” throughout the two recent Bank Street construction projects and last winter’s bus strike.
When they first started, the group members had no idea what to call themselves, says Haucke. So when he saw a cardboard moving box with the words “crystal” and “basement” written on it, Haucke says he decided to stick with it.
But reader be warned: the group uses the name as a “quick improv tool,” he noted.
So you might also hear that the name came from the first show when a crystal chandelier fell from the ceiling of the venue and dropped right through to the basement.
Crystal Basement’s next live event will be scheduled early in the new year and will be posted at the troupe’s website – www.crystalbasement.com – where performances might soon be showing online, too.