ThanksKilling The Musical
What happens when you take a terrible movie and set out to make an even more terrible musical? Jeff Thomson, Jordan Mann and David Eck decided to find out. All three were serious creators of musical theatre. They had everything that emerging artists need to make a name for themselves, awards, the respect of their peers and no money.
Being serious is all well and good, but every so often, there's a joy in writing something ridiculous, and as they sought a property to adapt, one name axe murdered its way up to the top of their list.
ThanksKilling. A movie about a foul-mouthed homicidal turkey that didn't include Rob Ford.
After seeing the original film of ThanksKilling, all three realized that this Turkey could not only fly. It could sing.
The original film's shoddy brilliance, its deliberately cliched characters, bad acting, terrible puns, absurd premise and keen self awareness are now the stuff of legend and the creators sought to not just polish the turd before them, but to embrace its turdiness and hold it aloft for all the world to see.
After receiving permission from the film's original creators, and embracing the film's "we shot it in a week for no money" essence, Jeff and Jordan wrote the entire show in three days. They were long days, filled with music, laughter and endless discussions on how many possible rhymes exist for MOTHER F**KER. As Jeff and Jordan wrote, the sublime and ridiculous got together and had a cheap and torrid one night stand and while several souls were condemned to the nether regions of hell, the work was completed and a musical was born in an orgy of blood and feathers and bad bird puns.
The show was then blessed to be embraced by Balagan Theatre of Seattle, Washington who endowed the show with a cast, a director and the best scenery and costumes that could be had for $4.20.
It was just what was required, and ThanksKilling The Musical burst forth like a necromanced turkey through the innards of an inbred hick to audience adulation and critical praise.
Where will the Turkey strike next? That dear fans, is up to you.
"Is The Show Going to Be Recorded?"
From the moment that we announced there would be a production of ThanksKilling there was one question that was asked, over and over and over again. "Is the show going to be recorded?"
Our Facebook timelines and Twitter feeds were constantly filled with this request and we decided to finally give the fans what they've asked for, and give them to opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, and help us make this universal dream a reality.
So, we've decided to give it a shot and we're asking for your help. Because everyone deserves to be able to turkey trot to GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**KER on the treadmill and sing along to the infectious rock anthem MAN LOVE.
What We Need
We've been crunching numbers for months and the magic number to make this all happen is $15,000.00.
This covers the following:
- Musical Director - The piano doesn't play itself and the actors need someone to teach them all of the gobble notes they'll be singing.
- Actors/Singers - We have a cast of eight and while we could ask them to work for free, the ones you'd want to actually hear sing won't work for peanuts.
- Rehearsal Studio - A room to rehearse for a couple of days, so we don't waste precious time and money in the the studio.
- Insurance - If an actor swallows a microphone while singing, we don't want them to sue us.
- Studio Time - We expect it to take us two days to get it all "In the can". The acoustics in grandmas basement, are not what they used to be and we want to give you the best sound using the best equipment we can afford.
- Engineer - Someone to mix live as the tracks are being recorded.
- Post Production - Take everything we recorded in the studio, equalizing the levels, adding sound effects, pitch correction, preparing the tracks to press them onto fancy CD's, iTunes and SH*T.
- Water - Actors instruments need to be lubricated.
- Design - Graphic design for the CD cover and liner notes.
- Duplication/Distribution - Everything we slaved over for a week gets sent out. CD's get pressed, retail packaging is produced, files are uploaded to iTunes, CD Baby, Amazon, etc. because you shouldn't have to look to hard to find Turkie.
If all goes according to plan. We hope to go into the studio the first week of April.
What You Get
Surely you want something in return for forking out your hard earned cash so we have several levels to which you can contribute and get something in return:
- $25.00 - Poster From the NY Production, MP3 track OF GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**CKER (before the album release) and a ThanksKilling Button
- $50.00 - CD hot of the presses, MP3 track OF GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**CKER (before the album release), Poster and a Button
- $100.00 - CD, MP3 track OF GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**CKER (before the album release) Poster and Button Signed by Jeff Thomson and Jordan Mann
- $250.00 - CD, MP3 track OF GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**CKER (before the album release), Poster, Button and Sheet Music of GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**KER signed by Jeff Thomson, Jordan Mann and the original Studio Cast (TBA) and a Limited Edition ThanksKilling Hoodie.
- $1,000.00 - CD, MP3 track OF GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**CKER (before the album release), Poster, Button, Sheet Music of GOBBLE GOBBLE MOTHER F**KER signed by Jeff Thomson, Jordan Mann and the original studio cast, Hoodie AND you'll receive a Special Thanks in the printing of the CD.
- $5,000.00 - Everything above and you'll be credited as a Producer on the Studio Cast Recording of ThanksKilling The Musical.
Other Ways You Can Help
If you can’t contribute, that doesn’t mean you can’t help:
- If you're a huge fan of ThanksKilling and want to see this album get made, help us spread the word and share our campaign with your friends.
Thanks for your time and contributions!!
#GGMF
Photos by Jeff Carpenter Photography featuring; Evan Woltz, Jeff Orton, Larissa Schmitz, Lindsey Larson, Brian Lange, Evan James Hildebrand and Kody Bringman. ThanksKilling made its world premiere at the Balagan Theatre in Seattle, WA November 29, 2013.
