Entertainment

Televised sketch comedy has relied on recurring characters from the Coneheads on “Saturday Night Live” to Vicky Pollard on the BBC’s “Little Britain.”

The lone gay sketch show, aptly titled “The Big Gay Sketch Show,” is no different. The Logo series recently ended its second season with a cliffhanger, where one recurring character will be killed off during the show’s hiatus.

Near the northwest corner of Grand and Gravois sits Truc Lam, a small, barely noticeable Vietnamese restaurant with a generic dark green awning and a neon sign in the window. Inside, floor-to-ceiling dark wood paneling creates a time warp back to the seventies. Décor is sparse: a plastic clock, a few paintings, and cheaply framed posters grace the walls, while green and orange bamboo paintings on the light panels of the institutional drop ceiling don’t add much charm. All of these elements make the restaurant seem almost dingy, but everything, even the floors, is spotlessly clean.

Midtown location ensures diverse crowds

Performers at the new Chaifetz Arena do not have to be Pope-approved.

That was certainly a relief for the thousands of Fanilows who attended the Midtown venue’s first concert on the campus at Saint Louis University. “They got Super Jew?” Barry Manilow said when he learned he was going to be the first Chaifetz headliner.

Written by Bertolt Brecht & revised by Eric Bentley
Presented by Hydeware Theatre

Reviewed by David Noble Dandridge
Script Adaptation by Jim Ousley
Presented by Magic Smoking Monkey Theatre

Every generation has its halcyon days — those Summers of Love or Studio 54 escapades — that define a moment in time and describe the revelers who indulge, imbibe and subscribe to the prevailing notion of what it means to be young, vibrant and decadent. When I arrived in St. Louis nearly two decades ago, I was a fresh-faced farm boy from rural Kentucky – the penultimate overachieving, extra-curriculared do-gooder from a Southern Baptist upbringing.

Let’s assume, for a moment, that our conversation about South City bar culture won’t include Soulard, as it’s almost a republic unto itself. And we’ll make another good-sized assumption, rendering the South Grand business district as another individual potentate, too; heck, we’ll even give Dogtown that independence, with an Irish flag flying high. Relating to ethnicities, one last qualifier: we’ll acknowledge the fact that a couple dozen Bosnian owned-and-operated establishments dot streets such as Gravois and Morganford, but we’ll leave those for another conversation.

A Life in the Theatre written by David Mamet
Lip Service written by Howard Korder
Presented by The Non Prophet Theatre Company

The Non Prophet Theatre Company, still best known for their original sketch comedy show, “The Militant Propaganda Bingo Machine,” is now in their second full season of performing straight plays. Having served on Non Prophet’s board until recently, I have obeyed a self imposed moratorium on reviewing in their shows until now. Full disclosure: Artistic Director Robert Mitchell is still my next door neighbor.

On April 15, the Vital VOICE sat down with “Big Sexy Kool” DJ Kaos to discuss the African-American club scene. Known as “king of the St. Louis hip hop club scene and the hottest hip-hop radio personality in St. Louis,” Kaos hosts a very popular show on HOT 104.1 and has been St. Louis’ most controversial and outspoken DJ.

Vital VOICE: What places did you like to go when you first started to going to clubs and are African-American owned clubs more prevalent now?

Mikeymoe’s
5535 S. Grand Ave.
St Louis, MO 63111
(314) 352-1555
www.mikeymoes.com

Some bars have a specific concept in mind when they open. It’s obvious from the moment you walk in that everything’s been fit neatly together, from the lighting to the menu to the music. All the intangibles somehow click, creating a pleasing and coherent whole.
Other times, though, taking exactly the opposite approach can work.