Rosey – Memphis Flyer

Improv and music go hand in hand. After all, how do you make music without a little bit of improv? But Zephyr McAninch, director of the improv troupe Bluff City Liars, wanted to add more music into their improv because who doesn’t like a little bit of music with their improv? So they came up with the two-night Liar’s Ball, where the Liars will play improv games inspired by and backed by the tunes of Louise Page on Friday and Rosey on Saturday.

“Our regular shows typically don’t have a musical element,” McAninch says. “Every now and again, we’ve been able to work in a musical game. … But the ball aspect is there’s music very heavily integrated into the show [with the special musical guests].”

This ball will be the Liar’s second, with last year’s featuring Dandelion Williams and HEELS. “It was just such a success. I think it’s my favorite show we’ve ever done,” McAninch says. “It makes me feel like more of a rock star right there with the band. Everything we’re doing is a little bit silly, but it feels cooler when you’ve got Rosey giving you the backing track for your doo-wop song, or you got Louise Page laying down the piano for Hoedown [a musical improv game you might recognize from Whose Line Is It Anyway?].”

The show will also give audience members a chance to hear Page’s and Rosey’s originals in between games. “I can’t recommend these bands enough,” McAninch says, “so I’m excited for the possibility of getting to introduce somebody to either of them.”

But, of course, being the improv aficionado they are, McAninch is also excited about the possibility of introducing anyone and everyone to improv. “I think everyone should try improv,” they say. “I was the quiet, shy one before I started doing improv [in college], and when I told my parents I joined an improv troupe, they said, ‘You?’ … I just kind of fell in love with it. It’s a wildly fun, massively accessible art form, and it’s weirdly applicable to so many other parts of your life.

“Improv is just not knowing what’s happening. That’s everything that’s ever happening in your life. And on top of that, when kids play, they’re just improvising; they just have fun. We forget how to do it, so I just want to help people remember how to do it.”

So, in addition to shows like the ball this weekend where folks can watch childlike play in action, Bluff City Liars hosts a free improv workshop where attendees can take part in the play themselves at TheatreWorks@The Square on the first and third Monday of each month at 6 p.m. “It is no-commitment,” McAninch says. “You just drop in whenever you feel like it. We adapt what we’re talking about that week to who is there and what skill level is present.”

Keep up with the Liars at bluffcityliars.com, where you can also purchase tickets for the upcoming Liars’ Ball.

Liars’ Ball, TheatreWorks@the Square, 2085 Monroe, Friday, June 7, 8 p.m. | Saturday, June 8, 8 p.m., $12/advance,
$15/at the door.

It was so like a dream. “We were in the old house. You were there, and you, and you…And we saw this door we’d never seen, so we opened it — and found a whole other room, that had been there under our noses all these years!”

Except it wasn’t a dream. It was only yesterday and I was getting a tour from Laurel Cannito, who, along with Chuck ‘Vicious’ Wenzler, took over the Lamplighter Lounge last year after longtime owner Ann Bradley decided to retire. Looking a little mischievous, Cannito motioned me to a door I’d never seen and threw it open. And there it was: the Secret Room.

“It’s like Harry Potter, isn’t it?” she said, looking rather proud of her bar and the team that helps her run the place. “The room’s always been here, but we haven’t always been connected. This used to be a TV repair shop in the 60s. And then it was a bookstore. And then it was a ball point pen repair place. We’ve always said, ‘Oh, wouldn’t that be neat to turn into a venue space?’ So, we recently acquired it. We have great landlords. They worked with us to help get it attached and everything. Then we did a lot of the construction work after we put it onto our lease.”

Justin Fox Burks

Thomas pours a PBR

The Lamplighter Lounge, of course, is the long-adored dive on Madison Avenue that some say is the the oldest bar in Memphis. Despite the smallish space of the original lounge, the new owners removed the pool table last year and began hosting bands with increasing frequency. The vibe was always great, but it could get a bit cramped.

Now, the Secret Room more than doubles the size of the place. Entering from a door on the south end of the bar, you see an unassuming functional space that (gasp!) even includes a green room for the bands. What’s more, the new room marks the return of the beloved pool table. Cannito is happy to have it back. “Miss Anne sold the pool table before we bought the place, so we didn’t choose to get rid of it,” she says, now visibly relieved at its return.

In addition to some few finishing touches like stringing lights, she’ll outfit the new room with more bar-like amenities soon. “The original jukebox is still here by the bar, and we got that working again. But there on left is a new old jukebox that we are gonna get working for the Secret Room. Yep, double jukebox. You just need a jukebox in every room. That door over there is the customer door. And this door behind the bar is gonna be split in half and have a bar top on it so we can sling drinks from there.”

Aside from such touches, the Secret Room will remain fairly sparse. “It’ll be a little bare bones. It’ll be not so much a raw space, but a malleable space. I like performance art. I would love to have more of that, like performance art and puppetry and dancing, or even the aerial stuff that’s been around. Next month, we’re doing a pop-up boutique every Sunday, because me and some friends have a bunch of clothes that we’re trying to get out into the world. Stuff that’s really nice, but it’s just not our style anymore. And then, I have some friends in Asheville who are part of a professional circus. I could get them here at some point. It just expands our ability to help encourage creativity around town, give it a space,” says Cannito.

And of course there will be music. “We already have music of all kinds, like the old time string band, soul bands, rock bands of all kinds, and rap and DJs and 80s nights. It’s so nice. I want this to be the kind of space where every kind of music can find a place. And having the Secret Room is going to be really good for that. I think it’ll bring even more types of music and even more bands. Because not everybody wants to set up in the small room and just play for people who drink. It’ll help a lot with the intentionality of it.”

To that end, the Secret Room will be having its inaugural show this weekend, Saturday, July 13th, featuring some of Midtown’s favorites: Louise Page, Faux Killas and Rosey. Remarked Cannito of the latter band, “They’re so, so good. When they finish a song, there’s just a silence as the audience tries to process what they’ve just heard.”
Discover the Secret Room this Saturday, to see and hear it for yourself.

The Secret Room at the Lamplighter: Grand Opening On Saturday