As we’re making merry this holiday season, we’re interviewing various members of the Walking Fish/B. Someday family. D. C. Fisher of High Dramma answered ten questions for us during a break from preparing for the upcoming show, Stop! Dramma Time! To find out what’s going on in the mind of one of the great mad geniuses of sketch comedy, read on…
For those of us new to you, what exactly is High Dramma?
HIGH DRAMMA is the most carefully written, precisely structured, comprehensively rehearsed and sublimely acted fart joke you’ve ever seen.
How was the troupe formed?
Johnny and Zac were in another sketch comedy group in Philly who I will not mention but they will with the fiery hatred of ten thousand suns, and felt that it wasn’t up to snuff. They decided to form their own group, and called me about being the head writer. With my only other option at that point being graduate school, I jumped at the chance.
What’s your creative process?
Over the years, I’ve slowly lost the ability to make sense of life outside of a humorous approach, so, at this point, all I have to do is let my mind wander and sketches start coming out.
How has High Dramma changed since you’ve been performing at Walking Fish?
It gives us kind of a home field advantage. It’s a place we’re very much used to and familiar with and that lets us plan out the lighting, staging, entrances, exits, and blocking much more precisely than if we were in a new location each show. Pretty much, it limits the number of things we have to worry about, coming into the theatre for each performance, and makes us more ready to start with the funny.
Chicken or beef?
Make the cow and the hen mate, (Tape that for me too, I know a dude who will pay top dollar for that kind of thing) then take that animal, kill it, and deep fry it. Delicious Beefken. Tastes great, and less filling.
What’s the most memorable moment you’ve ever had as a performer?
Pre-HIGH DRAMMA, it was selling out my 1200 seat high school auditorium for sketch comedy shows my sophomore and senior years, and performing our college sketch show at KCATFs.
During HIGH DRAMMA, probably having about fifteen people from my office, including two of the owners, attend a show and love it. Job security on two fronts. It’s nice.
What do you want audiences to come away with after seeing one of your shows?
I want to them to either love us or hate us. I don’t want anyone to go away thinking, “Meh, they were pretty good, I guess”. I’d prefer an audience with 25% of people who loved us, and 75% who hated us, because that 25% will come back every time.
What are you reading these days?
“Close Range”, a book of short stories by Annie Proulx, an anthology of Galway Kinnell’s poems, and “Apocalypse Culture” by Adam Parfrey, which is a book of essays concerning how art and agriculture are ruining humanity, a defense of necrophilia, poetry by schizophrenics, etc… pretty much the most absurd premises imaginable, argued at length with a totally misplaced passion and elegance.
What’s under your bed?
A smaller bed with a guy who looks exactly like me sleeping in it. I only looked once, however, because it freaked me out when I saw it. That guy makes a mess, though; he doesn’t take care of his lawn and he leaves his Christmas lights up till April. Jerk.
If you could have any three famous people, living or dead, over for lunch, who would you invite and what would you serve?
Groucho, Chico and Harpo Marx. We would go out to the nicest restaurant in Philly, I would buy them as many drinks as they wanted and I would sit back an enjoy what would most certainly happen.
High Dramma performs this coming weekend. The shows start at 9pm on Friday, December 18 and Saturday, December 19. Get your tickets at http://www.walkingfishtheatre.com, or at the door starting one hour prior to curtain. Bring a friend, bring an enemy, bring cookies!
Walking Fish Theatre 