Posted in: Comics, Recent Updates | Tagged: Alexander Lang, comedy, Comicazi, Comics, entertainment, Sam Kusek

The Geek Tribal Revolution Hits ComiCazi In Boston

By Shawn Perry

Greetings True Bleeders!

In the past few months I have been researching all of the great geek-themed social gathering endeavors and business popping up around the world.  As a proud member of the geek tribe with an insatiable passion for indulging his GQ (geek quadrants, ie; areas of geek passion) I have been inspired to learn about nerd havens like the Geek Easy in Florida, the Geek Bar in Chicago and Comicazi in Boston.

As a native New Englander, I was excited to learn about this latest chapter of the tribal revolution of the geeks – don't excuse my hyperbolic tendencies because they are awesome – located in Davis Square just outside of Boston. In addition to being a great place to pick up your weekly comics the venue boasts an impressive menu of events and shows that ignited just over two years ago thanks to the passion of local Geek Theater Group ComedyCazi. Sam Kusek, the founder of ComedyCazi who has since become the Event Coordinator at Comicazi, recently shared the origin story:

A group of friends from Emerson College and myself started a geek theater group and were searching for a place to perform so we approached the owners of Comicazi who agreed and things kind of snowballed from there with other groups joining and now ComedyCazi just celebrated its second anniversary show. Boston has a great art scene but we don't have much for geek culture in terms of a social center other than gaming at places like Pandemonia.

We have a diverse group of people with unique interests here and a lot of them want to get away from their own work to support the community. That's what these events are all about and over the years we have held an eclectic variety of unique shows and events celebrating geek culture, such as; a live reading of H.P Lovecraft, chiptune performances featuring CrunkWitch and Boston's Own GeekBeat Radio, our annual Battle of the Comic Shop All Stars trivia event.

Alexander Lang, was kind enough to explain what ComedyCazi is and how it evolved over the past couple years thanks to the continued support of ComiCazi.

SP: For those who don't know, how would you describe ComedyCazi?

Alexander Lang: Comedy Cazi is a geek-centric theater group that performs at Comicazi every month. The best way to describe it is we perform live, geeky sitcoms and it's all in the spirit of comics and whatever things our cast is into at the time.

SP: Sounds awesome, so how has Comicazi helped ComedyCazi grow?

AL: ComiCazi is the reason Comedycazi has been able to grow over the past couple years. We were the first comedy group to come up at Comicazi but now they have a bunch and we are very fortunate because having a regular place to perform is so rare in the Boston Theater Community. It's very hard to find places like Comicazi that basically give people a blank check to express themselves…you know, to have a place to tell the stories we want to tell and the jokes we want to share is such a gift not just for us but for everyone.

SP: How important would you say it is to have a place to express your passion as an artist? People all around the world are searching for places where they can share their passions openly and, in my opinion, it seems as though we stand at a precipice of times as more of them start to appear so I ask, in your opinion, is this something that you think the world needs more of right now?

AL: Absolutely. We're not just talking about theater or writing comics here we're talking about entertainment and entertainment is something that is so hard to get involved in, just to see if you like it, because there is a general lack of resources in terms of performance space and social outlets for the community. Whatever your thing might be there are all these roadblocks to getting your voice out there like publishing costs or rehearsal space but Comicazi has given those resources to us as well as other groups like Completely Unreliable, Bad Kids Press, Hadron Gospel Hour and the Comedians at Geek Comedy Night. They are enabling artists with a place where the stakes are low, the rewards are high and that is definitely something I would like to see more of because it empowers people.

SP: Right on, dude. What would you say to someone who is considering attending one of your shows or joining your ranks?

AL: You know, we can talk about structure and what the show represents but at the end of the day we are a bunch of people who just love to make people laugh and talk about the things that interest us. Basically these stories are live comic books and it doesn't cost much to see it so you don't have to be artsy to appreciate it.  We're just out to have a simple good time and if you're into that you should give us a shot!

Next time I am in the area I will definitely check them out. Nuff Said.

Shawn Perry is a proud geek striving to be here now. He currently resides in East Hartford, Connecticut. Tweet him @thesperry and email him at Shawn.Perry88@gmail.com

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