Part of the ongoing Origins of CIC series by Founder and Executive Producer Angela McMahon
9/11 had just happened and everyone was feeling pretty awful about themselves. Not knowing how we could make others laugh when we ourselvers were in so much pain. I sat with Frankie in his lofted office above what would soon be a Theater space and just felt numb. I said to him, “We should do something! Like a show. It would 1. make us feel better, 2. get folks into the space, and 3. give me something to do.” He was all about it. His father was a firefighter so right away he wanted the charity to be the Widow’s and Children’s Fund. The space needed a lot of work. But we decided to to do the event in 4 days from that moment. My husband called a cousin of his to come and put the lights on a dimmer switch so we could at least do some slow fades or quick blackouts for each group. Tom and Frank built the stage and me and Frankie’s girlfriend at the time hung up some fabric to make a backstage area. We put the word out looking for folks to perform and I booked two solid days of performers to donate time to the cause. The line up was:
4437 N Broadway
$7 Donation at the door
Food will be provided
BYOB
Monday September 17th
Hosted by Frank Janisch
7pm Jiggly Chair
7:30 The Union
8pm Bare
8:30 Pickle
9pm Wiley Spectacles
9:30 Space Mountain
10pm Cover
10:10 Belts
10:30 Young Urban Comedians Club
11pm Cashed
Tuesday September 18th
Hosted by Spike Kunetz
7pm The Beverly Thrill Billies
7:30 Amy Guard (Solo)
8pm I MissHS
8:30 Sit Pretty
9pm Liquid
9:30 Ward and Friends
10pm The Sex Diaries
10:30 Frank Janish
Frank made all the food himself and the place was mostly packed for the shows. We ended up raising $2000 and every dime went to the charity. Everyone felt great and the momentum to open the space was there. We decided since the space was now open why not start doing shows. The first performance would be two weeks later and it would be CIC’s first time producing a Theatrical “The Southpaw Sam McClowski Show.”
Frank and I saw each other everyday, sometimes for several hours a day, getting the space as ready as it could be for a show. The downstairs was still heaps and piles of dirt that would someday be a restaurant but upstairs there was a stage (even if you did have to climb over a toilet to get to it).
And so it began…