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HOLIDAY PARTY / POT LUCK DINNER
THE GROUND ZERO CLUB
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: December 12, 1987.
Meeting Site: Saddle River Valley Cultural Center, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Official Attendance: 46.
Meeting Program: Pot Luck Dinner. Skit Performance by the Ground Zero Comedy Club.
Notes:
Meeting Memories:
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 1988 Philip De Parto:
FRIENDLY SPIRITS WARM PARTY
No, the headline does not mean that beer and liquor were overflowing, but rather that all the forty-or-so attendees were in a good mood.
Baked ziti, stew, meatballs, and pierogi were among the foods parked on the "Main Dish" table. Homemade and store bought cookies, cakes, pies, etc., were among those on the "Snacks" table. Overall, we were a little weak on the "real foods" and went a little overboard on the "junk foods." Next year we'll try to correct that.
My personal culinary highlight was the delicious fresh-perk cinnamon coffee brewed by Dennis Fox. Pauline Alama's brownies disappeared before I got to them, as did several others, so I must presume that they were as tasty as last year's.
A number of club members pitched in to mind the kitchen to prevent an encore performance of char-broiled fan. Thanks to one and all on the kitchen and clean-up patrols, especially Ben Ellison.
Appearances were made by a number of seldom-seen club members including Susan Kahn, Ken Lee, and Bill Molendyk. Sharon Archer and family, including little Jamie, popped by late in the night.
We had hoped to show the "It's a Wonderful Job" episode from MOONLIGHTING, but that fell by the wayside. Thanks to the uncomplaining Mike Nelson who served as TV chauffeur.
Dan Adler and Roy Greenberg took advantage of the unoccupied basement to continue their gaming rivalry. Since several past challenges at chess were unsuccessful, Danny tried Scrabble. He still lost, but the score was much closer.
The Ground Zero Club was brought onstage at around 9:30 PM. Their first routine, in which one of the group discovered through channeling that he had been a janitor in Mesopotamia, was their most effective. Done almost completely ad lib, they revealed the secrets of the ancients. Topics covered included personal hygiene practices along the banks of the Tigris River, lost books of the Bible, and the destiny of man in the universe.
Other sketches were less successful. The STAR TREK bit presumed that the audience was familiar with a mainstream writer no one in our group had heard of. The PEANUTS spoof had a few clever ideas: twenty years later Linus is a cultist of the Great Pumpkin, Schroder has become the keyboard player in a punk rock band, etc., but needs to be fleshed out.
The Lovecraft takeoff was a very subtle and clever one, but went over the heads of most people. I've read almost everything HPL wrote, but it was a dozen years ago, and my memory never was what it used to be. Some of the references to Mr Pickman and Charles Dexter Ward I picked up on. Many others eluded me, although a few of our group caught them. My immediate reaction was to wish that I had had time to prepare by reading the complete Lovecraft canon before the meeting.
Knowing that this would not be everyone's cup of tea, I had limited T.G.Z.C. to an hour. Afterwards different people told me that they considered it among both our best and our worst programs.
Ground Zero recorded the session and hope to sell a tape of the performance. Details will be announced in a future newsletter.
The Club wanted to get home at a reasonable hour, so I left to drop them off in New York. Our West Coast branch made a surprise call to say hello. Cathy Faraci and Mary Anne Denny, now sharing an apartment in San Diego, gave a ring just a few minutes after we pulled away. The phone was passed back and forth on both ends of the line and made a very nice and unexpected Christmas present.