My name is Yoram Bauman, and I’m a PhD economist who makes a living doing stand-up comedy about economics and politics (see million-YouTube-hit comedy videos about
politics and
economics, with lots more at
standupeconomist.com). I’m also active on climate change issues… and I’ve written a play! (It’s a romantic comedy about carbon tax ballot measures; my neighbor Miles calls it a Yoram-com 🙂
Although I currently live in Salt Lake City, I lived in Seattle for 20 years (my PhD is from UW) and I will be back at the end of April for some comedy shows… and I’m also trying to organize stage readings for the play on Sunday April 28 (tentatively 2-4pm at UW) and possibly also on Monday April 29 (time and location flexible / TBD).
The working title of the play is “Seize the Initiative! A romantic comedy about falling in love… with democracy”. There are 5 parts, 3 for folks in their 20s or so (2 women, 1 man), 2 for folks closer to 60 (1 woman, 1 man), although if necessary we can flex ages and genders.
It’s about an hour long, and it’s family friendly, i.e., I’d say it’s rated G or PG.
I’m looking for actors who are willing to put in about 3 hours: an hour in advance reading the script (linked below), and 2 hours for the reading (and feedback/discussion). In return I can offer up… my eternal gratitude, plus either a pizza party or other meal (preferably after the reading!) or a sadly modest stipend of $60 per person. (I can of course also keep folks in the loop about auditions—happening in May, aiming for Salt Lake Fringe July 26 – Aug 4—but, full disclosure, those will probably be held in Utah.)
I’d be grateful if folks who are interested would email or text me: yoram@standupeconomist.com or 206-351-5719, preferably with their date/time preferences and their name/age/gender, and/or identifying the part(s) they’d be interested in reading. (PS. I’ve joined TPS just to post this notice, and it says the following: “If you are willing to accept a member’s TPS profile as a submission for your production, please clearly state that in your posting.” I don’t entirely know what that means but my guess is Yes you can send me your TPS profile as a submission!)
More about the play: Below are 10-second and 60-second ad-style summary, plus here’s a link to the full
script. (Feedback is welcome in the doc itself or via text/email!) The grand plan for the play is to put it on at
Salt Lake Fringe this summer and then hopefully do some performances around the state of Utah in the fall, partly as a Theater for Social Change attempt to promote the clean-air-and-climate campaign I’m part of in Utah called
Clean The Darn Air, but the play should be strong enough to stand on its own as well. And perhaps I can also raise enough enthusiasm—and enough money on
Kickstarter—to fund a performance in Seattle, and/or at
Caveat NYC, a club in NYC where I’ve done comedy in the past. (And then of course Broadway and Hollywood!) We’ve got a director lined up (
Josh Patterson, theater professor at Snow College in Utah) and we did a stage reading at the Univ of Utah last month that was fun and led to great feedback. I hope we can do the same in Seattle!
*** Summaries below, and here’s a link to the full
script.
10-second-ad-style summary:
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NIKKI: What I’m worried about is: you know how some men, they’re only after one thing?
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GRACE: Mm.
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NIKKI: What if he’s like that, but with signature-gathering?
60-second-ad-style summary:
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Close-up on SAUL: “I meet hundreds of women every day…”
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Zoom out to show that SAUL is wearing a campaign sandwich board and speaking at a campaign training session: “…and I flirt with them.”
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Different camera angle, still on SAUL: “At best you could meet the love of your life…”
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Cut to GRACE, who (with NIKKI) is waiting to enter a concert venue and is speaking to SAUL, who is collecting signatures from them: “We’ve got an extra ticket to the show, want to come?”
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Cut to NIKKI, responding to GRACE: “Wait, you’re inviting Jimmy John to join us?”
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Back to SAUL at the training session: “…at worst you could find somebody to rope into volunteering on the campaign.”
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Cut to GRACE, flirting with SAUL outside the concert venue: “I would like to see what you look like without a sandwich board.”
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Cut to SAUL, responding to GRACE: “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’d like to see what you look like with a sandwich board.”
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Voice-over narrator: From the world’s first and only stand-up economist…
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Cut to GRACE, talking to NIKKI: “Did you know that Oklahoma had a ballot measure in 1992 to require random drug testing of elected officials?”
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Voice-over narrator: …comes a romantic comedy…
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Cut to KATHERINE, speaking to SAUL: “I know, I know. You’re just putting the ‘action’ into climate action.”
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Voice-over narrator: …about falling in love…
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Cut to LANCE, at a wedding giving a toast: “I recently had a vasectomy…”
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Voice-over narrator: …with democracy.
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Cut to KATHERINE, speaking to GRACE and SAUL: “I’m going to tell it to you straight: this campaign is doomed.”
***
