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By: Keith Huang »
December 8, 2005
Inside With: Erik Marcisak, Producer/Manager of Juvie Hall
After three years of producing shows and managing the ECNY award winning comedy space, Juvie Hall, Erik Marcisak made the shocking announcement last week that the curtain will come down and the lights will go out at Juvie Hall at the end of the year. The announcement sent waves through the comic community as it forced comedians and performers whose shows have found residencies at the space to wonder what the future holds. We asked Erik about his decision and he shared with us his intimate thoughts and his fondest memories of theatre.
What is going on with you? Why is Juvie Hall closing?
The simple answer: I want to devote more time to my personal career instead of devoting all of my time to managing a venue and I am tired of running a space. It hit me while I was in a 16th century villa under the Tuscan sun. I was in Italy, along with my girlfriend celebrating Sara Schaefer's wedding to Chris Genua (early October 2005). This was the first vacation I had gone on since I left the office day job as an Agent's Assistant to become a comedy producer full time (almost 4 years). While in Italy, my girlfriend took many pictures of me. Many of which involved me scowling. Beautiful sunset in the background, I'm frowning. It took a couple days of relaxing and looking at a couple pictures, for me to realize I was unhappy about my life at the moment. I was spending all of my energy towards keeping the venue open. I was tired of building credit card debt and borrowing money from friends & family to keep the place open. I was spending no time on my personal goals. I want to be a writer, performer, and producer. When I was single, the only thing in my life was running the theater and doing shows. I met my lady and over the past 9 months, little by little, I have changed. I don't have a psychiatrist, but I feel she has helped me become a better person and a better person to work with. I am more aware of my actions, moods, and how I choose to view situations. My nature is to be cold and removed most of the time and I feel that is something that was a result of the stress of running the place. I can say this honestly, I am a happier person now.
I never wanted to become a theater owner. I got into running a space out of needing a place to put my shows up cheaply and at the same time support those, like me who needed help mounting comedy shows.
As with UCB and The Pit, Juvie Hall has come to nurture its own almost exclusive stable of talent and shows. Will we see JH's marquee shows and names integrate into the other spaces?
Well, the venue will stay open through Sept 2007. It will no longer be called Juvie Hall. I won't be in charge of the bookings. Gail, the manager at The Gene Frankel Theater will handle that. Some weekly shows that have found a home at 24 Bond Street will stay there: Manhattan Comedy Collective, The NYC, and Harsh. Without their consistent rentals, the theater would have closed sooner. As for the talent, I didn't want Juvie Hall to be a place known creating talent and shows. I wanted the venue to be that, a venue where people did shows on their own terms and were rewarded with how much they put into their own works.
If you are asking about shows that I personally had a hand in creatively as a producer, I can give you a simple rundown. Saturday Night Rewritten is going on winter break for January and maybe part of February. Last winter was rough, a couple snow storms, holidays, award shows, the super bowl are all on Sundays during the winter and tough to get a good turnout. I am still negotiating with the Frankel people about just renting Sunday nights but we may move to another space when we open again. SNR is a weird beast of a show, renting a theater space for about 8 hours in NYC is not cheap. officially ended in mid November. That decision was made in Italy by Sara. It stemmed from her desire to become a performer without the nonstop grind of a bimonthly show. She co-produced, mostly booked the guests and musical acts, co-wrote, starred, and publicized it. I am probably forgetting other things she did for the show that I can't recall at the moment. She & I agreed that we reached the goals we wanted for the show and ending the show would not destroy the world.
Sara & I have discovered that we really work well together. Right now she & I are going through the alot of the same crossroads things. I think we needed a break from working on stuff in general. I am positive that we will work together again in the future. The Midnight Kalan Show will probably morph into a new Elliott Kalan vehicle hopefully at a better time/ night/ venue that we are negotiating with. I produced a show called Happy Hour with Frowned Upon, they are on hiatus for the winter.
Were people aware that this was coming prior to the announcement?
People knew in small pockets. My girlfriend knew in Italy. Joe Guercio (who has been helping me since Show World), Sara & Chris knew when I returned from Italy. Then I sent an e-mail to people who I have worked with closest and anyone who had consistently rented the theater about the changes in my life and the space. I wanted to wait and make the announcement closer to when the space would actually close.
What are your Top 3 favorite Juvie Hall moments of all time?
Show related moments:
-Sara Schaefer's first SSIOWY show at Juvie. It was a show that we started at a weird rental theater. When we moved it to Juvie Hall, she & I were able to get in early before the show, almost 5 hours before the show and tweak the jokes & monologue. Made the show so much better. It was also the first time I got to mount something that of mine in my space.
-Seeing The Royal We's show "Be All You Can Buy" before any other person on earth.
-The first Midnight Kalan Show, Elliott, Joe, and myself are brothers from other mothers and the show is a fun outlet for us. The show was born in the lobby and seeing it from creation to stage was surreal.
-I will throw in a bonus one: Saturday Night Rewritten this past Sunday.
Non Show moments:
-Cleaning/ building the theater when we moved in. Friends past and present came in to help clear out the space and paint it. Sometimes I think I can do everything, but the entire theater was the result of the work put in by many.
-Armando Diaz committing to rent Thursday nights if I opened the theater. I would not have signed the contract if I didn't have his handshake.
-Winning "Best Venue" from The Emerging Comics of New York Awards.
What's next for you?
Well, couple things. The theater and shows got me what I wanted when I started doing this 3 years ago. I now have certain industry doors that are open to me that were closed 3 years ago. Several development people at a couple cable networks take my calls, read my e-mails, and will meet with me if I ask "Can I pitch you an idea for a comedy show?". Acting-wise, I'm the lead in a movie that was directed by an old friend of mine, JT Petty that looks like is going to actually get distributed and will hopefully make it to a small theatrical release. He is a genius and I am so happy to have been part of his project. In the meantime I will try to peddle my creative wares and/or try to get a day job to pay the bills. Oh yeah, and visit my girlfriend who is in Las Vegas for the next 4 months.
Care to make any plugs or comments?
Plugs? I wish I could plug the movie, but the name is most likely going to change into something else. It's a movie about horror movies. There are only 2 performances of Saturday Night Rewritten left in December (December 11th & 18th). I will be doing improv with Stacy Mayer at Manhattan Comedy Collective on Dec 15th at 7pm. I will be playing Sylvester Stallone from Copland in Midnight Kalan's "A Night of Stallone" on Dec 16th at midnight. (man, what a plug hog, I am)
Posted by The Apiary at December 8, 2005 12:05 PM