Part of the ongoing Origins of CIC series by Founder and Executive Producer Angie McMahon.
After the Del Close Marathon, Bryan and Sam had already started working on making the Southpaw sketch a full show. Of course we were all asked if we wanted to participate. It was never put in writing or made official, but it somehow became CIC’s
first production. It was a talk show with host Southpaw Sam McClowski, who would ask the real questions. There were “celebrity” guests (mostly played by us), and commercials, and musical guests (real ones), and it should have been a ton of fun…and sometimes was. Some of my favorite memories of Southpaw show was the “On the Street Scenes” we would tape. Sam, dressed to the hilt, would go out and interview folks, or I Miss High School would dress up in weird stuff and do “pranks.”
Bryan dressed up like a cow once and just sat on the El moo’ing. On the same El I asked someone to go to prom with me and started dancing with them while Bryan sang “Lady in Red.” We got kicked of the train pretty quick. But we didn’t have any fear, or idea of what we were getting into. And the show changed every week so it was very tough to keep morale up. I will say Sam was the best pitch man in the world. He would dress up as Southpaw and go to bars every Thursday Night to promo the show for hours.
After 6 months of filming bits, rehearsals, and exhausting weeks CIC and Sam got into a BIG fight. Unfortunately, it ended ugly. I Miss High School split, and Sam retained rights to the character and show. It was a mistake I regret to this day. And the end of a 6 month sold out hit show for CIC.
“Who asks the Questions”- Southpaw Sam McClowski
“Southpaw Asks the Questions!”-The Audience
I wanted to clarify something cause I told Elisabeth to edit the post how ever she saw fit. But I wanted to make one thing clear. I do not regret leaving Southpaw or even CIC leaving Southpaw.
I regret that I sided with an asshole during the blowout and lost two of my closest friends (Bryan and Sam) in the process.
The show was exhausting to do…and I was glad to be done when I was.
But the end was the ugly part. And I wished I hadn’t picked sides between bickering boys and made it a “Company” issue.