Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 4, 1995 TAG: 9510040086
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The lead news story reports on a tsunami that hit Smith Mountain Lake, resulting in the declaration of an official day of mourning - by the state of New Jersey.
Followed by this news brief: ``A black hole was discovered in Vinton behind a dumpster at Bob's Quik-mart, known locally for its fried chicken and live bait.''
And perhaps most telling of all is the name of Roanoke's first public-access comedy show: the ``Low Budget Comedy Hour.''
It's only a half-hour long.
Produced at Cox Cable Roanoke's new public-access facilities, ``Low Budget'' bills itself as a cross between PBS and ``Hee Haw.''
Sprinkle in a bit of ``Saturday Night Live,'' Monty Python and ``Wayne's World'' - and reduce all funding - and you've pretty much captured the show's flavor.
``It's by and for people with a low budget,'' says Jim Galloway, 48, the show's co-creator, co-writer and co-star, along with Roanoker Randy Walker.
How low budget is ``Low Budget''?
The first of its two episodes was filmed last year in Galloway's Southeast Roanoke basement. Props included two musty old chairs and a bar-turned- newscaster-desk.
A prop in the second episode, being shown currently, is a fur weasel stole that once belonged to Walker's girfriend's mother.
Walker doesn't even get cable at his Old Southwest apartment.
His press releases are hand-delivered - in crinkly used envelopes.
Credits are written by hand on pieces of paper that are glued together like a scroll.
And you know when WDBJ sometimes has technical difficulties going to a live newscast? "Low Budget" always has technical difficulties going on-location.
``We couldn't get the camera to work when we got up to Mill Mountain, so we just made it into a joke,'' Walker says.
Walker and Galloway have by no means given up their day jobs. Galloway is a dealer specialist for Orvis by day and an actor, director and playwright by night. Walker is a musician, freelance writer and Radford University graduate student.
They met in 1987 at Unity Church, where they discovered they shared an interest in television production and dry, absurdist humor. It was three years before they actually sat down to write the thing, and another two before they managed to get it produced.
``The basic process is, Jim goes off on a spiel, I start laughing and write it down. Then we work it up into a script,'' Walker, 34, says.
Walker is constantly jotting down ideas for the news segment - local items of interest that eventually turn into satiric show fodder.
The city of Salem officially declared independence today. Leaders of the new republic in Salem plan to raise an army, print their own money and commision a national anthem. The president of the new republic said a foreign minister would be appointed to deal with the outside world.
Their goal is anything irreverent or dry or remotely Monty Python-like, ``except we're not gonna dress up like women,'' Galloway says.
Even though drag queens are popular now? "Precisely because drag queens are so popular now."
The second season's single episode, which airs at 9 Saturday nights through Oct. 21, seems to be attracting ``an alarming number of people,'' Galloway adds. ``We're thinking Saturday must be a good channel-surfing night.''
One such surfer was Glenn Gleixner, a local salesman who caught last year's episode and volunteered to write and star in a comedy bit of his own. Called ``News of the Truth,'' his gags feature such National Enquireresque sightings as a 7-pound baby boy born with a 3 ounce potato in his mouth.
Other local actors, all of whom volunteer their talents, include Dorothy Johnson, Sonya McMillion and Jim Strouth. Buchanan's Pete Burris plays a paranoid, oregano-smoking professor in a running skit called ``Mind Expansion University.'' And Roanoke artist Will Robertson, 19, contributes animation bits.
``A lot of what we do is determined by what we can physically do without fancy props or taking time off work,'' Walker says.
Pending real-live sponsorships, Walker and Galloway hope to be able to produce a show every eight weeks. They'd also like to be able to pay their contributors and themselves.
Future gag ideas include a take-off on the Roanoke Valley's perennial economic development hand-wringing.
``We'd like to do a skit on nuclear testing in the Roanoke Valley - as an economic development tool,'' Walker says.
The ``Low Budget Comedy Hour'' airs on Cox Cable Roanoke's public-access Channel 9 Saturday nights at 9 through Oct. 21.
by CNB