MARGARET LISS:
The first CEREBUS Live! segment was just Dave Sim, a microphone and a slide show. At the Victory Cafe in Toronto, in conjunction with the Toronto Comic Arts Festival on May 28, 2005, Dave performed several segments from CEREBUS. Using a slide show for visual aids, Dave did the voice acting for several characters. The segments he did were "Night in Iest" from issue #46, the Alec and Bacchus meeting from issue #205, the Swoon and Snuff encounter from issue #167, the mongoose "incidents" from issue #211, the Spore and Todd McSpawn baby throwing scene from issue #276, and a scene from issue #295 of Cerebus trying to get the veto lifted to see his son.
The second CEREBUS Live would wait until the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo (aka: SPACE) in April 2007. The CEREBUS Yahoo!Group was getting ready for their 6th annual meeting and Jeff Tundis was working on things for the group to do. He talked to Dave Sim and the two of them discussed doing a follow-up to Dave's CEREBUS Live! at the TCAF after dinner with the group at the Sausage Haus. From my blog entry:
After the interview, everyone pulled out their High Society phonebooks. Dave called me over and said we should do the short story " The Goat" from High Society. So Dave played Lord Julius and I was the Abbess. We did a "walk through" then we recorded a take. It was pretty fun, and I did all I could do to not laugh - just focus on my next line. For Dave plays a great Julius. It was fun trying to keep up with him.
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| From left to right: Lenny, JeffT, Dave Sim and Matt Dow during CEREBUS Live! II |
The next reading was an Elrod scene that Jeff S wanted to do and it involved Jeff S as Elrod, Jeff T as Cerebus, Chris W as the Cockroach and myself as Astoria in Three Days Before. Everyone did a pretty dang good job, now I'll be hearing their voices in my head as those characters. Dave and Margaret also did the bit from High Society called Goat, when Lord Julius brought his "candidate" to the Abbess. The last installment was Summit Enchanted Evening with Dave reprising his Lord Julius role, Jeff T as Cerebus, Lenny as Duke Leonardi and Matt as the Army Commander. It was hilarious. During the walk through everyone was laughing like madman. And yes, there were some outtakes.
The next year at SPACE the CEREBUS Yahoo!Group performed a more ambitious CEREBUS Live! reading with CEREBUS Live! III that had a lot more segments and readings. Dave Sim participated again as Lord Julius in the reading of "Exodus". Yes, that is right: the group read the entirety of issue #51 in all of its hilarity. The list of segments includes a lot of bits from Guys (part one and part two), the Carroll E. King Reads bit from issue #59, "Anything Done For The First Time Unleashes A Demon", "The Merchant and the Cockroach", "All Lined Up" (part one and part two), "A Valuable Lesson", "The Origin of the Wolveroach", and the aforementioned "Exodus". From my blog entry on that year's SPACE get together:
With dinner cooked, Jeff T started handing out plates and pretty soon the tables were full of Cerebites, Dave and the Day Prize winners eating pasta. With the conclusion of dinner, and on full bellies, we talked about what to do for Cerebus Live! III. We knew that Cerebus #51 was to be one of the "skits", so parts were given out. I had opened up the issue and did the line "And bad health ain't the worst of it, y'know? I've always had troubles with women - no luck with women at all. . ." from Lord Rodney and the next thing I know, I'm Lord Rodney. Jeff T recorded the skits on audio and video, and when he manages to get two free minutes (or more!) he'll edit them and put them on YouTube as he did with Cerebus Live! II.
Two of the highlights of Cerebus Live! III? Jeff and myself doing the baby throwing scene from Church & State I ("my baby! my baby!" "You're welcome.") and Jeff just doing page after page of Cerebus' internal dialogue from Guys - you know when everyone, except Cerebus, heads South, and then the voices in Cerebus' head start to talk to each other? Yeah, it was great - he had the timing down pat, like he practiced or something. Heh.
When the CEREBUS Yahoo!Group met up the next year for CEREBUS Live! IV, Dave would not be in attendance. His absence was duly noted, as his impression of Lord Julius could not be surpassed by anyone in the group. All the Lord Julius scenes the group thought of doing were nixed in deference to Dave.
CEREBUS Live! IV was the first that the group performed in front of an audience. Kind of. CEREBUS Live! IV was given a spot on the programming list at SPACE, and use of the programming room for an hour. The panel before the group was to go on carried over their time limit just a bit, so it was off to a late start to read the selections from issue 7, 44, 68, 81, 84, 116, 133, 134 and 268 and some had to be skipped. From my blog entry for it:
At 3pm Cerebus Live IV had the panel room, and Tundis had sat up the video display to project panels from the issues that we were about to read out loud. We read issue #7 (Elrod, Cerebus and some kid in a bunny suit), issue #44 (wuffawuffawuffa and white lighting), some bits from Church & State (“one less mouth to feed” and “Praise conflict”) and some from Jaka’s Story (“Listen. Kid. Cerebus is in love with your wife.” and “I’m Mrs. Thatcher”). I thought it went pretty well – some good laughs.
This year at SPACE, the CEREBUS Yahoo!Group will be performing CEREBUS Live! V. The event will once again be a panel on the programming list, the selected segments to be read this year: Church & State II excerpt: pages 675-708. Jaka's Story excerpt: pages 324-352. Melmoth excerpt: pages 50-54, 62-68, and 76-87. Women excerpt: pages 35-39, 45, 46, 48, 49, 58, 59, 94-97 and perhaps 119-121 and 125-126.
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| It's a joke Margaret! Quit calling Dave and asking for a signed copy! |
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