Purchase of the JoCo Cruise Crazy Entertainment Pass grants you access to all of the following:
The Concerts
The main event shipboard concerts will be held in the ship’s beautiful Vista Show Lounge in the early evenings (exact times TBA), and are open only to all JoCo Cruise Crazy entertainment passholders.
Confirmed performers for JoCo Cruise Crazy 2012:
And featuring additional performances by:
Shipboard Events
We’ll have activities planned for every day and night of the trip. And if last year’s cruise is any indicator, there will lots of activities generated by attendees, too. But here are some of the things that are already in the works:
- Q&A session with Jonathan and the other performers
- Dedicated, 24-hour tabletop gaming space and info center for competing, scrabbling, delving, magicking and gathering, Analog Tweeting, and a central hub for information/planning (with wipeboards and pens and stuff!)
- The return of JoCo Karaoke
- Movie Night(s?)
- 2nd Annual Paul F. Tompkins Memorial Moustache Formal and Fezstravaganza: an evening of formal wear (optional but recommended), fezzes (optional but recommended) and moustaches (optional but STRONGLY recommended)
- To Boldly Go, a.k.a You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat shove-off complimentary cocktail hour for EVERYONE
- So Long and Thanks for the Booze farewell complimentary cocktail hour for EVERYONE
Details on these activities and more coming very soon.
The Performers
An independent musician with the heart of a geek, Jonathan Coulton is a Yale graduate who left his day-job as a computer programmer to stay home and write songs. Between 2005 and 2006 he wrote, recorded, and published a new song every week as a free podcast project called “Thing a Week.” This year-long experiment produced 52 consistently well-written and solidly produced songs, and he soon became an internet sensation. Jonathan’s songs cover unusual topics not often heard in music and tend to make even the most jaded listeners excited about music again.
Coulton’s is the voice of every elementary school kid who could never quite keep his shirt tucked in or shoes tied; every lovelorn mason and mad scientist; every vengeful nerd; every one of us who has ever sat despairingly on the floor, surrounded by parts of an Ikea endtable, weeping over an allen wrench.
A number of Jonathan’s songs have become full-fledged internet hits: his folk-rock cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” the unrequited love of a mad scientist in “Skullcrusher Mountain,” and “Code Monkey,” the anthem of software designers everywhere. The office zombie song “Re: Your Brains” made the Dr. Demento Funny 25 countdown for 2006. But beneath the geeky comedy there is real heart. ” I’ve always been a math (sorry, I mean “maths”) and science guy, so I think about robots and fractals all the time. But on a deeper level, there’s a thread running through my songs about how it feels to be a nerd – this kind of alienation, a sense of not belonging, not being accepted. And it’s not just limited to actual nerds – I think we’re all familiar with that feeling, no matter how popular we were in school,” says Coulton.
Jonathan Coulton won the 2007 Game Audio Network Guild “Song of the Year” award for his composition “Still Alive,” which was featured in the critically acclaimed game Portal, the Game Developers Choice Awards “Game of the Year” for 2007. All of the songs from the Thing a Week project are now available on CD, either individually or in a packaged box set and his song “Code Monkey” is heard each week on the G4 Television program of the same name.
Coulton releases all his music under a Creative Commons license that allows for legal file sharing and copying, as well as non-commercial derivative works. His worldwide community of fans has rallied around him to generate airplay on hundreds of podcasts, create a library of music videos, and arrange gigs around the United States.
When not traveling the globe or using his powers for good, Jonathan Coulton resides in New York City with his wife and child. He does not own a Snuggie.
Marian Call is a trained composer and a spunky self-taught singer based out of Anchorage, Alaska. Her songs are eclectic and diverse, funny and light on their feet, powerfully honest, and grounded in the human experience. Call’s compositions are half study and calculation, half improvisational instinct, and always full of unexpected musical twists and turns. She has written pieces by commission for film projects and events, and she has been known to write songs on dares or to surprise devoted fans.
Her live shows have been loudly applauded nationwide in homes, quiet coffee shops, noisy bars, churches, radio stations, bookstores, and concert halls, in and out of Alaska. In only eight months she went from a relative unknown to playing the main stage at several of Alaska’s summer festivals. Marian released her first two albums plus fourteen singles in only fourteen months during 2007 and 2008. She is nearing completion on a new two-volume project titled Something Fierce.
Marian was born into a family of musicians and artists, and she was raised on a steady diet of Bach, Beethoven, Joni Mitchell, Tower of Power, and Ogden Nash in her hometown, Gig Harbor, Washington. Over twenty-odd years she has performed with chamber choirs, jazz combos, early music groups, rock bands, a gospel choir, and experimental music ensembles, and all of these influences (and more) meet and mingle in her own writing. She completed her bachelor’s degree in composition and vocal performance at Stanford University in 2004. After graduation, she spent two years pouring coffee, waiting tables, and listening to good music in Anchorage coffee shops, slowly learning about the craft of songwriting through osmosis and eventually through practice. Marian plans to travel and tour as much as possible, including the upcoming 49>50 fan-coordinated tour of the entire United States, but she remains committed to the development of a great arts scene in Anchorage. Marian can’t wait to tour again and meet new fans as well as friendly musicians, writers, visual artists, and filmmakers from all backgrounds.
Two-time Grammy loser Chris Collingwood is a singer, songwriter, and
cofounder of the rock group Fountains of Wayne. Since 1996, his career
has included occasional chart success, extensive touring throughout
America, Europe, and Japan, and a brief appearance in a hit video with
a pole-dancing supermodel.
Fountains of Wayne’s songs have always been populated by unexceptional
people, their stories told with humor, empathy, and an acuity that
more than one pretentious rock critic has called “Carveresque.” 2011’s
“Sky Full of Holes” retains the band’s trademark humor and
tunefulness, while exploring darker themes with uncharacteristic
warmth and sincerity. Rolling Stone called it “one beautiful bummer of
an album,” which was probably a compliment.
When not touring, Collingwood enjoys reading books about politics and
evolutionary biology, yelling at the TV, and hacking various
electronic devices until they don’t work anymore.
We suspect we don’t have to tell you any of this, but John Flansburgh is one of the two Johns in They Might Be Giants (the one who is not John Linnell). And we really don’t think it’s necessary to tell you this either, but over the past 30 years They Might Be Giants have become a beloved and fully diversified institution, conquering all media throughout the known universe, contributing to film and TV soundtracks, making hit DVDs, winning two Grammy awards, becoming Musical Ambassadors for International Space Year, appearing as cartoon characters, writing music for a robot ballet, topping the iTunes podcast charts, and being the subject of the acclaimed documentary Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns. And now the very aptly titled Join Us, their 15th album, which finds John Flansburgh and John Linnell on a creative roll, making music that positively swarms with energy, invention, and an impeccable grasp of the miraculous synergy of words and music.
John Flansburgh also produced Jonathan Coulton’s new album, Artificial Heart, which is pretty good.
Those of you who attended last year’s cruise will perhaps remember the evening when David Rees led an away team down to the Northern Lights disco to take it over from the unsuspecting, non-JoCo cruisers. We didn’t know you liked to dance! But since you do, we thought that you might enjoy dance parties that were DJ’d by John Flansburgh, or DJ Flans, as we have just now decided to call him without even asking. He’ll bring the beats to meet your feets! He’ll spin the stacks of wax from min to max! Other rhyming things about DJs and dancing!
“I am a recreational mathemusician currently living on Long Island, NY.
“I love music that is fun, and I love music that is interesting, but above all I love music that is beautiful. I prefer writing for real, classical instruments, because of the added emotion and interpretation a performer adds to each unique performance.
“I like most creative activities that involve making a lot of noise, mess, or both. Aside from composing, I love improvising on various instruments, drawing, sculpting, and other methods of making things. My main hobby is mathematics, with special interests in symmetry, polyhedra, and surreal complexity. This usually manifests as collaborative research in computational geometry and other areas of theoretical computer science, or as mathematical art. I think the human brain is incredible and strange, so I have developed a great interest in dreaming and consciousness. As a result, I am a trained hypnotist and a lucid dreamer. The human body is pretty neat as well, so I enjoy dancing and judo. I always love to learn new things—variety is the food of creativity!”
Before he went on television, JOHN HODGMAN was a humble writer, expert, and Former Professional Literary Agent living in New York City. In this capacity, he has served as the Humor Editor for the New York Times Magazine, Occasional Flight vs. Invisibility Consultant on “This American Life,” Advice Columnist for McSweeney’s, Comic Book Reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and a Freelance Journalist specializing in Food, Non-Wine Alcohol, “Battlestar Galactica,” and most other subjects.
This was enough of a career for any human.
But then he wrote a book of COMPLETE WORLD KNOWLEDGE entitled THE AREAS OF MY EXPERTISE and was asked to appear on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart”, where he continues to provide commentary as the show’s Resident Expert. Now, at 37, he has unexpectedly become a Famous Minor Television Personality, appearing as the “PC” in a series of television ads for Apple brand computers, and accepting guest roles as “the person wearing glasses” in a variety of films and TV shows, including “Battlestar Galactica,” a show he once wrote about as a journalist.
From time to time, he is asked to explain his professional life, and in particular, the effect of this dramatic and surprising change of fortune, and typically, he finds he cannot do it.
As a direct result of her being funny, clever, and generally awesome, Molly Lewis has gathered a large following primarily through her videos, which she posts on her website and on YouTube under the name sweetafton23. Pairing her wit with a ukulele has yielded a number of original songs, available from her website and in one complete physical package titled “I Made You a CD, But I Eated It“.
The original mastermind of Nerdcore Hip-Hop and still its Final Boss, MC Frontalot (nee Damian Hess) takes great pleasure in identifying himself as a professional rapper in polite conversation.
At the dawn of the current millenium, Front coined the term “nerdcore” to describe his secret hope: that the listening public might accidentally misconstrue his dorkiness as an asset to his rapping endeavors. Now it is 2011 and nerdcore has metastasized into an internet phenomenon and underground touring powerhouse, with dozens of live acts and hundreds of home-studio rhymers self-identifying within the subgenre. MC Frontalot—called alternately the movement’s godfather or grandfather (thanks, kids)—continues to lead the charge, performing for thousands around the country and at prominent geek gatherings such as the Penny Arcade Expo and BlizzCon. He’s been featured in Newsweek, CNN, The New York Times, Spin, Wired, Blender, XXL, XLR8R, The London Daily Telegraph, NPR, G4TV, Esquire, The Guardian (UK), The Wall Street Journal, and scores of city papers nationally and internationally. He has released four studio albums, Nerdcore Rising (Sept 2005), Secrets From The Future (Apr 2007), Final Boss (Nov 2008), and Zero Day (Apr 2010). His fifth, Solved (2011) will be released on August 23rd. The documentary feature, Nerdcore Rising: The Movie, which focuses on Front’s live band and the Nerdcore phenomenon general, debuted at the South By Southwest Film Festival, March 2008, and is currently distributed by Virgil films / B-Side.
Paul and Storm have been writing and performing funny songs together for a long, long time, starting with their stint together in a cappella band Da Vinci’s Notebook. Their music tends to make people laugh and feel good, and Paul and Storm believe that this makes their pursuit noble, right and just.
BONUS: their live show is better than 1,000 Fonzies, and more spellbinding than Mr. T on a unicycle.
Anyone with ADD will appreciate the broad range of territory that Paul and Storm cover in their music…Chicken nuggets. Love. Boxing nuns. Relationships. Pirates. Friendship. If James Taylor were on fire. Catchy melodies and well-constructed music underpin the comedy, and in live performance their harmonies draw comparisons to the Everly Brothers, while their stage presence evokes the Barenaked Ladies. They will do nearly anything to win the hearts and minds of their audiences, who often throw panties at them.
Paul and Storm often tour in support of Jonathan Coulton, and their music is regularly heard on the “Bob and Tom” syndicated morning radio show, and has been featured on “The Drew Carey Show”, Comedy Central, XM Satellite Radio’s “Dr. Demento” show, online cartoon website Homestar Runner, web series The Guild, and throughout the YouTubes and internets. Their latest CD, “Do You Like Star Wars?”, is available wherever it is sold.
David Rees is a cartoonist and comedian. His comics include Get Your War On, My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable, My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable, Adventures of Confessions of St. Augustine Bear, and Relationshapes. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Harper’s, the Nation, thehairpin.com, and many other publications.
David Rees is also an artisanal pencil sharpener. Through his web site ArtisanalPencilSharpening.com, he has sharpened or renewed pencil points for more than 300 customers. His book “HOW TO SHARPEN PENCILS: A practical and theoretical treatise on the artisanal craft of pencil sharpening for writers, artists, contractors, flange turners, anglesmiths, and civil servants, with illustrations showing current practice,” will be published in Spring 2012.
John Roderick is the songwriter and singer/guitarist of The Long Winters, forming the band from a mound of clay back in 2001. Widely acclaimed as one of America’s preeminent artists, credited with resurrecting Seattle’s moribund music scene and bringing new life to the rock genre, John also writes his own press bios. A central figure in the Northwest music community, John nevertheless maintains his outsider status by being both dangerously edgy and completely huggable, in contravention of established Seattle practice. Equally talented at almost any instrument, (except guitar, at which he is even more talented), John has made it nearly impossible for any other musicians to find work in Washington State, effectively playing ALL the music that needs to be played. John is also a widely respected journalist, an extensively quoted author and philosopher, a prima ballerina, a cowboy and an astronaut.
Joseph Scrimshaw is a writer, comedian, and actor currently based in
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
As a “geek flavored” comedian, he’s performed at CONvergence, San
Francisco SketchFest, H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, Chicago Improv
Festival, and more.
As a writer, he’s currently working with John Kovalic’s Dork Storm
Press developing Dr. Blink for movies and television. Joseph has also
written for RiffTrax, and the national sketch comedy TV show M@dAbout.
Joseph operates a theater company in the Twin Cities called Joking
Envelope. His plays, ADVENTURES IN MATING, AN INCONVENIENT SQUIRREL,
and MY MONSTER (written with Bill Corbett) have played in New York,
Seattle, Orlando, Dallas, Las Vegas, the UK, Bulgaria, Peru, and the
middle of the Caribbean Sea for Jonathan Coulton’s JoCoCruiseCrazy.
Joseph also plays the drums, drinks whiskey, and spends a lot of time
on twitter. Joseph’s spirit animal is The North American Tree
Squirrel.
Paul F. Tompkins is a comedian, and actor, a writer, and a comedian again.
Born in Philadelphia in the 1900s, Paul F. Tompkins got his first big break as a writer and performer on HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob & David. Then he wandered around for a while. Did this, did that. Some stuff on The Daily Show, some episodes of Real Time With Bill Maher. He introduced Tenacious D in a handful of short TV shows and one regular-length movie. He was heard in the film Magnolia and barely seen in the other film There Will Be Blood. Three stand-up specials for Comedy Central—not bad, huh? Nothing to sneeze at.
A couple years ago, Mr. F. Tompkins was made the host of VH-1′s Best Week Ever and demanded the name be changed to Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins. O, hubris! The show got canceled! He briefly revisited pop culture mockery with his celebrated recaps of Season 10 of American Idol, which almost made him jump off a roof.
Nowadays, he flies around the United States and other English-speaking countries doing stand-up comedy. Oh! Also, as of this writing, he is developing a couple projects for Comedy Central; one of them has just got to hit, right? Fingers crossed! Seriously! CROSS THOSE FINGERS NOW. Mr. F. Tompkins also hosts his own podcast, The Pod F. Tompkast, which was called “the #1 comedy podcast of the moment” by Rolling Stone. They may be a drug magazine, but that was a good call.
Wil Wheaton’s successful acting career began in 1986 with acclaimed roles in Stand By Me and Toy Soldiers. He continued to build his resume through his teen years as series regular ‘Wesley Crusher’ on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and opposite Robin Williams in Flubber. But Wil is much more than just an actor; he’s an author, blogger, voice actor, Columnist for the LA Weekly and Suicide Girls, widely-followed Twitter user, and a champion of geek culture.
Wil currently splits his time between acting and writing. He has recently appeared as serial killer Floyd Hansen on “Criminal Minds”, comic book publisher Miles Sklar on “NUMB3RS”, and as the voice of Ted Kord, the Silver Age Blue Beetle, on “Batman: The Brave and the Bold”. He’s published three acclaimed books: Just A Geek, Dancing Barefoot, and The Happiest Days of Our Lives. His latest books are Sunken Treasure and Memories of the Future, Volume One. All of his books grew out of Wil’s immensely popular, award-winning weblog, which he created at WIL WHEATON dot NET and currently maintains at WIL WHEATON dot NET: in Exile. While most celebrities are happy to let publicists design and maintain their websites, Wil took a decidedly different turn when he started blogging in 2001. He designed, coded, and maintained WWdN entirely on his own, until he “blew up” his sites’ database in 2005 and moved his blog to the TypePad service. In 2003, Forbes.com readers voted WWdN the “Best Celebrity Weblog.” Wil’s blog was chosen by C|Net for inclusion in their 100 most influential blogs, and is an “A” lister, according to Blogebrity.com. In the 2002 weblog awards (the bloggies) Wil won every category in which he was nominated, including “Weblog of the year.” In 2007, Wil was nominated for a Lifetime Achievement Bloggie, alongside Internet powerhouses Slashdot and Fark. In the 2008 weblog awards, Wil was voted the “Best Celebrity Blogger,” and in 2009 Forbes named him the 14th most influential web celebrity. This is all amusing to Wil, who doesn’t think of himself as a celebrity, but is instead, “just this guy, you know?”
