First up, our monthly Dungeon Crawl goes on an old-fashioned Cthulhu-style cosmic horror fest in The Dungeon Out of Time that Crawled Beyond Madness! Yes, lock up your Necronomicon, practise your elder sign and beware of bad dreams as Dungeon Crawl goes back to the bad old creepy days of the 1930s. Our hardbitten adventurers think their rational modern view of the world holds all the answers, but will their minds be able to cope with a glimpse of the greater horror of the unknown cosmos? Can they escape the baleful gaze of the bizarre outer gods with their sanity intact?

And, more importantly, can they kill Cthulhu and take his stuff?

Join our guests, including Nick Caddaye, Andy McClelland and Richard Watts (who wrote for the Call of Cthulhu RPG back in the day), as they pit themselves against the eldritch knowledge of Ben McKenzie and the unworldly horror that is Richard McKenzie.

Tickets $15 at the door or $14 (inc. booking fee) online – on sale now.

But wait: there’s more! Dungeon Master Ben McKenzie loves games so much, he’s not just running Dungeon Crawl – he’s also started a new pervasive social games company, Pop Up Playground. Their first public outing is a latish show on Thursdays for Comedy Festival – and you can attend a free trial performance right after the March 7th Dungeon Crawl! The show is a new twist on the game werewolf, in which you form a team with one of five guest comedians to root out the murderous creatures of the night before they kill off the village council. Guests so far confirmed are Richard McKenzie and Andrew McClelland, with more to come. Find out all the details on the Pop Up Playground web site. The show is free, but seats are limited, so if you want to stick around and see this one too, you should definitely book!

Nick Caddaye played a mighty, taciturn dragonborn ranger named Pikachu, whose twin weapons were a sword and a beer. Andy McClelland was Gax Garyguy, a minotaur who had given up all ability to navigate labyrinths to be a music promoter with high Charisma and an infinite supply of unwanted promo CDs. Geraldine Quinn was Tmesis (it’s a word – look it up), a half-human, half-horse, half-mathematician cleric who wielded Fowler’s Modern English Usage and a red correcting pen in the name of Mycantor, god of grammar. Finally, Scott Edgar played the dwarven druid Ironbeard Muntingbone, whose special powers were summoning and controlling normal and giant insects, and calling down lightning – though only if sufficient orgasmic energy was available through ancient, orgiastic rites.

These four were recruited by the mayor of the swamp-locked town of Orcfest to find out what happened to their children, who had gone missing. They tracked the children through the swamp, where they defeated a band of kobolds and picked up on the trail of a gelatinous cube, which had been engulfing the children and taking them to its master, an evil cleric trying to raise an army of evil babies – including a baby dragon. Pikachu revealed that he had been searching for this lost wyrmling all along, and despite being horribly wounded, managed to talk it into betraying its master.

Thanks to friend of Shaolin Punk and excellent photographer Robert Young, here are some snaps of the action:

The next Dungeon Crawl is at the Bella Union on March 2nd; watch this space for line-up announcements soon!

]]> http://shaolinpunk.net/2011/02/05/the-first-dungeon-crawl-is-away/feed 1 http://shaolinpunk.net/2008/10/08/set-list-jazz-the-dancin-pandas http://shaolinpunk.net/2008/10/08/set-list-jazz-the-dancin-pandas#comments Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:40:54 +0000 Benjamin http://shaolinpunk.net/?p=201 [...]]]> Set List returned on Saturday with a set from jazz legends the Dancin’ Pandas, featuring the smooth musical stylings of Brent Strahan, Matt Mulcahy and Emma Muiznieks, directed by band leader “Marching Band” McKenzie, and starring the vocal, guitar, harmonica and keyboard talents of “Guava” Muiznieks, “Smooth Dan” Walmsley and “Moldova” McClelland. They played hits from their forty year history including the unforgettable ensemble numbers “The River” – a gospel song in which the protagonists took a cheese plate, a fishing rod, a riubber duck and a pantomime horse down to the river – and “Travellin’ Strange”, a blues number describing the joys of travelling via Segway, llama, lava flow and TARDIS.

Set List returns for one final show this Saturday afternoon, 4:30 in the Old Council Chambers, when an as yet unannounced rock band will take the stage and blow your mind. Be there!

The AGSC’s fourth meeting is at the Bella Union, Trades Hall, starting at 5:30 on Sunday, September 21; tickets are $15 full/$10 concession or group, and you can get them at the door or via the Bella Union web site.

• “Clinton”, an ode to the sleepy little New Zealand town whose chief attraction was being the only part of the country not featured in Lord of the Rings.
• “The Brush Went South”, a tragic tale of two lovers forever separated by the misuse of a toothbrush.
• “Reasons to Leave Your Phone On in a Show”, a list of…well, you get the idea.
• “Snow Dome” – a terrifying glimpse of the hidden dangers within seemingly innocuous ornaments.
• “The Best Nose in the World”, a love song for a man with beautiful nose hair.
• “Fight the Faint Smell”, a rousing political anthem espousing the olfactory superiority of communism over capitalism.
• “City of Evil”, a chilling expose of the supernatural horrors which lurk in the seemingly cheery home of beer, Prague.
• “Life is Like a Rolling Pin”, an allegory for all those times when you’re feeling flat.
• “The Band Whose Name Has Been Forgotten”, a spooky story of what happens if you allow creative tension to boil over on stage.
• “Cheri”, a love song for a New Zealand roustabout who once dreamed of being a model
• “Vodka, Absinthe and Pineapple Juice”, a rousing final chorus to get everyone in the mood for visiting the bar at the Butterfly Club!

Remember the preview season continues tonight, with Dan, Emma and Karin returning, this time joined by Andy McClelland as they form an entirely new jazz band. There are also performances on Saturday and Sunday.