Buntport! In front of bottles!
I’m not going to say that this is my favorite episode of My Dining Room Table so far but this is my favorite episode of My Dining Room Table so far. So I guess I am going to say it. Blatantly. But make no mistake, this is not a dis towards any of the guests on the previous shows. Those people were all great – except for Ben Roy who really phoned it in and who was looking at himself in a mirror for the duration of the interview, muttering words like “cross-fit” and “killer” under his breath. Nay, this is my favorite episode because this is the first episode that I’ve done that has not featured an interview with a stand-up comic. Instead, I sit down with two members of Denver’s theatrical gem the Buntport Theater, Erin Rollman and Brian Colonna!
If you’ve never seen a Buntport production you are missing out. Check them out. Post haste. Here’s their website: Buntport. These guys bang out productions every few months that are consistently inspired, quirky, touching and brilliant. I’ve never been to a Buntport production that didn’t leave me marveling at their creativity and their prolific nature. And they do it all themselves. They own their space, write all their own stuff, do their own stage-craft, tear the tickets, they even freaking bake cookies for you to eat during the show. And they do it all a few blocks from my house in Denver. Watching their shows I always find myself thinking, “How come these guys aren’t bigger? These shows are incredible, how come the whole country doesn’t know about these guys?” It’s the same ole trap I fall into when thinking about comedy and the Denver scene – immediately invalidating the art because it’s local, because it’s not some giant, national monolith. But as we discuss on this episode, and as my Jedi Buntport mentors school me, sometimes just being able to make a living creatively, doing what you love and not having to do anything else to get by, is reward enough. Art for art’s sake and what not, but not pretentious, merely grateful at being allowed to live their lives that way. That’s a lesson that applies anywhere, to any scene or genre and it’s sage advice from some sage performers.
I’m also just a huge fan so it was awesome to sit down with two members of the Buntport gang and see what makes them tick. Spoiler alert: it’s heroin!
Available on iTunes here.