Stephanie Streisand

Hey everyone,

As you know if you have been following my tumblr posts, my show Convicts, Skinheads & Rabbis is this Thursday, 12/15, at UCB Chelsea, at 6pm (up third at 7). And you know you can reserve tickets by clicking here.

What you may not know are all the people that contributed to make this show a reality and as entertaining and as funny as it is.

BRANDON GULYA is my director. He saw me tell a story about my rabbi ex at a School Night. After, he came up to me and told me he liked the story and asked me what I was going to do with it. I told him “I don’t know, maybe I’ll make a show or something.” He responded that I most definitely should. Then I asked, “If I wrote this show, would you direct it?” He told me he most definitely would. That was the best thing that ever happened to me at UCB.

Working with Brandon Gulya, as his sketch and improv teammates and friends I am sure will also tell you, is the fucking shit.  He’s just brilliant! Brandon helped me figure out a format for my show that would make it focused, clear, and showcase my voice, style of humor and material the most. Without Brandon this show would most definitely not be what it is. Thank you, Brandon for the best director and believing in me.

MATT K. HORTON wrote the music for my show. Matt is a member of one of my favorite bands Danger Pin. He also plays once in a while with another favorite of mine, Thin Skin Johnny. He is also a dear friend. I will never forget my meeting with him and saying, “Okay. So when I have sex with people I have a song that always plays in my head. It goes like unce, unce, unce. But it has Clapton-esque guitar riffs in it like banadana wah!” And his face looked deep in confused thought, then he nodded, plugged in his guitar and turned on his percussion/bass/synthesizer machine… (I don’t know what it actually is called but it is an awesome machine) and then said “You mean something like this?” And he played exactly what was in my head. He’s like a musical magician.

MATT BRAUNSDORF directed some of the videos in my show. They are amazing! A lot of people’s favorite part of the show is the letter video. Matt directed that. Matt had the scary task of going through a 12 page letter I got from one of my exes in prison. Brandon has also read the entire letter. The two of them are still not the same.

BILLY BREYER directed a video in my show, too. The video is played at the beginning and completely sets the tone for the whole show. It is funny, scary and epic. 

STEVE DRESSLER made all the amazing graphics you can see in my show. He went through all my scary photos from the past and made them laughable. He also created so many things from scratch, like, my favorite, the kick ass holiday card. He’s a talented creative machine!

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There were so many more people that contributed to making my show what it is, too. And I would like to thank them now.

I want to thank my dude JOHN ROBERT WILSON for not being a sociopath, but more for being really supportive of my dreams and goals.

I want to thank JOHN FRUSCIANTE for meeting with me about notes on the spank and for giving me the courage to see this show through. He was right, I am very proud and satisfied with myself for accomplishing what I had thought to be so challenging.

I want to thank my friends NIVEDITA KULKARNI and CORINNE FISHER for reading my script when I was ever worried and nervous. It gave me so much confidence because I look up to both of them so much. They are both amazing writers. I want to especially thank Nev, for having/letting me perform the show three times in a row for her so I could get more rehearsal in, then smiling after and asking me if I wanted to do it again.

I want to thank my friend ANDY ROCCO for being an ass to me when I needed it and giving support to me when I deserved it.

Performance opportunities are extremely valuable. Thank you, JUSTIN PURNELL, for giving me the performance slot at School Night that Brandon Gulya saw. Thank you, EMILY TARVER, for hosting School Night that night and giving me confidence all of the time. Thank you, KATEY HEALY-WURZBURG, for teching that night and allowing me to go two minutes over to finish my story. Thank you, JOHN FLYNN for hosting that fabulous open story telling show you run Oh, Hey, Guys. It was a great, safe, supportive place to work on my material for my show. I want to thank the sketch team ONASSIS for letting me try out some material at the open mic sketch show Liquid Courage. Thank you, TODD BIEBER for creating what I think is the best show at UCB, Animated Stories. It’s a fantastic open mic where you can work on your stories AND win the opportunity to get your story animated by an amazing animator! I still can’t believe I won and that the amazing ED MUNDY animated something of mine. Todd’s show and Ed’s animation gave me the most amazing teaser trailer ever! Thank you.

Last, but not least, I want to thank NATE DERN and JOHN FRUSCIANTE (again) for giving my show an audition and for giving people, like myself, so many performance opportunities with all these open mics and variety shows available at UCB.

Now that I have thanked everyone in the world. I am very excited about this show on Thursday and I hope to see you there.