- CARPETBAGGING COMEDIANS: AMCâs new reality series Showville bills itself as a chance for small-town Americans to get a shot at stardomâeasy pickings for city slickers like the two Portland comedians who trucked 250 miles to audition for the show in Walla Walla, Wash. In October, Nathan Brannon and Tyrone âThe Real Hyjinxâ Collins brought their acts to Showvilleâs open call in rural eastern Washington. Collinsâwho says his mentor, Brannon, hatched the ideaâlanded in the final four. What did Walla Wallaâs humble sweet onion-farming jugglers and prison-guarding magicians think of two big-city hustlers crashing the party? âThey took me in and treated me well,â says Collins. Some townsfolk even asked him for pictures and autographs. Collins, who hosts a weekly open mic at Northeast 82nd Avenueâs Red Room, will appear on the June 6 episode.
- ART SHAMING: Thereâs trouble at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, where students and alumni have plastered bulletin boards with fliers accusing college President Tom Manley and top PNCA executives of giving themselves raises while leaving many adjuncts who actually teach classes underpaid and uninsured, all while raising tuition in a recession. Manleyâs 2010 salary was reported as $218,368âup from $207,019 in 2008. âPeople are getting priced out while college education is becoming compulsory,â says Chloe Dietz, a student at PNCA who runs the website distributing the fliers, pnca.centralcentral.org. She says other people have downloaded the fliers to post around the Northwest Portland campus. Asked about the fliers, Manley wrote that PNCA will âcontinue to support our studentsâ¦in the creative expression of their thinking and beliefs.â
- CLICK AND SEE: At wweek.com youâll find a review of Mike Daiseyâs new show, Journalism, which debuted in Portland, along with a recap of the new episode of The Real World: Portland and an explanation of why Portlandia sculptor Ray Kaskey gets paid when you buy a bottle of Laurelwood Portlandia Pils.
- CLARIFICATIONS: A photo accompanying last weekâs review of Slide Inn (âBar Spotlight,â WW, May 15, 2013) was from the adjoining Jade Lounge, which has the same owners and an overlapping menu, but is a different place. In a review of Portland Center Stageâs The Peopleâs Republic of Portland (WW, May 8, 2013), Lauren Weedmanâs mispronunciation and misnaming of this newspaper (âWill-uh-met Weeklyâ) was interpreted as accidental. Cynthia Fuhrman, who served as dramaturg for the production, tells us it was deliberate. Finally, last weekâs interview with Mike Daisey (âHotseat,â WW, May 15, 2013) characterized the monologuist as âweaselly.â Daisey emailed WW to note that he is âmore like a plump otter.â WW regrets any confusion.
WWeek 2015