The Ed Schrader Show: Live from The Maryland Art Place in Baltimore Maryland on August 10, 2007

This past Friday, Aug 10, 2007, the fifth episode of The Ed Schrader Show took place at the Maryland Art Plaza on Market Street near Power Plant Live Plaza. The Ed Schrader show, a Wham City production, is an internet talk show, videotaped to appear months later on the internet (though the initial plan was probably to get them online faster).



This was the second time I've seen The Ed Schrader Show live and it was a vast improvement over the first. Many of the sound issues I brought up after episode 4 were addressed, so the sound quality of this recording is so much better than my recording from June 8, 2007. The only issue I really found with the sound this time around was that the volume of the band was much higher than the other mics around the set. Speaking of which, The Ed Schrader Show band was (as last time) Josh Kelberman on drums and Peter O'Connel on guitar (when not two fisting the stash of Natty Boh on his amp. Back in his position as show Emcee was Connor Kizer.

The show started off with the usual monologue from the talk show host...though, since Ed's not the usual talk show host, his monologue was replaced by some recent poetry he wrote. I'd like to say it was either socially motivating or funny as hell, unfortunately, it was neither. I really didn't see the show picking up when the next segment came around, "Cooking with Nautical Almanac." Twigg Harper came out with a person in a wheelchair (Carly Ptak?) and another person with a mask over their head, and proceeded to make pancakes. Throughout the show Twigg Harper (I feel silly just calling him Twigg) continues to make pancakes for the audience. I didn't try any, but I didn't see anyone fall out with food poisoning. Following was a sketch with Connor Kizer as your local dictator. It didn't have me doubled over busting a gut, but it was funny enough and worth making it into the show.

Following the dictator sketch was a video presentation from Jimmy Joe Roche and Erin Gleason titled "Baltimore Shopping Network Showbeast." This was the third Roche video I'd seen (first at episode 4 and second at Whartscape) and probably the funniest (and most coherent). Throughout the recording, some of the funniest bits are Ed's side comments to the band and the audience, like when they're coming back from a commercial break (no commercials). Next up was a guest interview with photographer Uli Loskot from Austria. While this segment dragged on a bit longer than necessary, it wasn't bad. At one point Loskot mentioned that when she first arrived in Baltimore, she felt more safe in Bosnia than Charm City.

The next segment was one of the best of the night: The "Oh My God" Guy. While parts of the bit were funny (and some just odd), the funnier parts are, again, Ed's verbal interactions with the audience. Next up was an interview with New York filmmaker Ray Roy, apparently an old friend of Ed's. While this bit went longer than necessary, it did include a great music video directed by Roy of Blue Leader with music by OCDJ. Afterwards, The Blue Leader came out and sat in for the remainder of the interview. This was followed by another guest interview spot with the soft spoken Baltimore duo Ecstatic Sunshine.

After the show ended, Ecstatic Sunshine came out and played three tunes. It was a short set, but as they were essentially the reason why I came out, it was well worth it. The only real issue/complaint I would have from this past show was the total disrespect of many members of the audience towards Ed and Ecstatic Sunshine. The room was fairly big, and crowded, so I'd say the audience numbered about 50-60 people. Alot of the audience had to stand in the back and, possibly disgruntled at not getting a seat, there were many private conversations that should have moved to another room or lowered the volume. During the Ecstatic Sunshine set it got worse. One of the art exhibits in the room (who was the Einstein to decide this?) was a laptop that would uncontrollably shake when you flipped a switch. Not surprising, several people felt compelled to flip the switch...several times each. That's just rude and disrespectful. I can understand if the audience at a music show talks, that's what the audience at music shows do. But you wouldn't expect the audience at Letterman to act this way. It doesn't matter that Ed Schrader is not David Letterman, and it doesn't matter that the show was free. What matters is that the audience enjoy the show and not detract from others enjoying the show.

Overall, I thought this episode of The Ed Schrader Show was excellent. Better sketches this time around than in episode 4. I thought the interview with Twigg Harper was very creative, though the interview with Ecstatic Sunshine was kind of a snoozer. Ed's band played great, as did Ecstatic Sunshine. Both of the videos played were top notch.

The files for this show have been removed...if you leave me a comment, I can stick the files back up again.