Pre-History
Drawn together by a love of entertaining, the Talented Talent Brothers were first formed as a germ of an idea during the winter of 2003. Four young men, all outgoing and outrageous performers, just happened to find themselves working in the same office trying to make ends meet. During frequent smoke breaks these four guys loitered in front of the building they worked in, hanging out, telling jokes, cracking one another up and slowly became something of a clique. A silly clique, but a clique nonetheless.Spurred on by one another’s improvisational talents and work on a project where we were actually paid to make crank telephone calls, the four of us banded together to create our own “troupe” – something akin to 21st Century vaudeville – featuring music, dance, multi-media, film, comedic skits, stand-up and improvisation. We were (in alphabetical order) dancer and choreographer Clyde Bailey, actor Jonathan Brown, actor Jabbar McDonald and actor/director Rich Warren. We became The Talented Talent Brothers.
We knew right off the bat that we wanted to create something unique. We also wanted a unique selling point. So we decided that we’d create something revolutionary – a cross between The Ramones, the Marx Brothers, vaudeville and more contemporary urban comedians. So we became a family.If Mama says we’re family, we’re family
In 2004, we held a meeting to develop material and wound up going about the process of naming one another. I have always been King (King Richard) – Jabbar added “Spade” and I became King Spade Talent. Clyde was a terrific dancer who could “boogie,” so he became C-Boogie Talent. At the time Jonathan had a full beard and looked extremely tough. Jabbar named him “Brawny,” Clyde added a “Big” and he became Big Brawny Talent. Jonathan hated the name, thinking people would associate him with the paper towels and simply took his initials to become J.B. Talent. Hell, I wouldn’t want to be called “Big Brawny” either. Jabbar already had the nickname “J. Rock.” And thus, the “brothers” were born … King Spade, JB, J. Rock and C-Boogie Talent.
We began writing material and also solicited material from others. I drew on some scripts that I had been working on in the late ‘90s – scripts that I had originally envisioned for a proposed sit-com loosely based on my own life and experiences. After placing ads calling for original comedic sketches to be submitted, we received literally thousands of scripts – and hated almost every one of them. Over time, most of 2004 in fact, the group met periodically to write, create and discuss what we could become, what we could produce. The desire was simple – to take charge of our own careers and to work together to showcase one another’s talents and skills. But things were not meant to be … at least, not yet.
Early in 2005 C-Boogie stopped working in the same office and the others slowly lost contact with him. I was already slated to direct a production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus that summer and thought of it as a great opportunity for the three remaining members to work together. Perhaps we could use this as a springboard to get things rolling. J. Rock was cast in the title role with J.B. taking the role of Tullus Aufidius. But other commitments and a new job would force J. Rock to leave the production and force me to step in and play the title role.And then there were two
Armed with some ideas of what the group’s first show could be JB and I decided to press on. We agreed, however, that we needed to fill out the rest of the “family,” so we began a months-long process of holding auditions and looking for new members. I recommended a fellow I had worked with on a production of Henry V and thus, Jef Cozza became part of the family – Ezekiel Talent, or EZ Talent for short. JB brought in a friend, Giselle Hyland and we were back to four – King, JB, EZ and Baby G Talent.
The beginnings of a script were ready. I would be a sock monkey. EZ would be He-Man. JB would be the wild and vulgar Dr Cockburn. Baby G would be the ingénue. The rest of the cast was filled out with the phenomenally talented comedian Laz Viciedo, young actor Andy Jacobs and the sexy Kat Castaneda. The show would be called Abnormal Stew, something of an homage to the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup. Rehearsals were under way.
Things aren’t EZ
And then another Talent brother fell by the wayside. Due to personal and professional conflicts, EZ Talent stepped aside … leaving Abnormal Stew in a little bit of a lurch. Once again it was time to scramble. I hesitantly took over the roles originally played by EZ and brought in actress Jillyn McKittrick to play the sock monkey. In some ways, I was disappointed – I had thought playing the sock monkey would give me a chance to live out my Harpo Marx dreams and be a (mostly) silent comedian. Who would've imagined how much I would come to regret that decision?The revised group continued to rehearse Abnormal Stew and shoot a number of short films that would be presented during performances. An open-ended run at Where Eagles Dare Theatre in NYC was scheduled and the show would open in August of 2005.
After all of these starts and stops, personnel and personal changes, things were going to level out and this new adventure would begin. Little did I realize that sometimes changes come in waves.
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