The Buzz Intro Interview | Pyroclastic Funk

Name of Respondent: Michael Shaeffer, founder, writer, performer
Name of Company: Pyroclastic Funk
Name of Show: Hot Lava!

“I have a poem called “The Playboy of SeaWorld” about having (consensual) sex with a dolphin. It’s the only poem of mine that my mom doesn’t like.”

1. Why should people tune in to your show?
This will be a solid hour of fun, silly poems and stories that lampoon pop-culture icons like Chewbacca, Aquaman, Aerosmith, and Mike Tyson. Audiences will discover the inner workings of an overzealous zombie, a lovelorn Jedi, a burglarized giant, a cocky volcano, and Hunter S. Thompson’s hyperkinetic sweet tooth along the way. The Three Little Pigs, Shakespeare’s Marc Antony, and a show-tunes-obsessed cowboy will also crash the set. Hope to see you there!

2. What about festivals intrigues you? Any why the Atlanta Fringe?
I love being able to take in all sorts of entertainment, ping ponging my way through dance, drama, spoken word, and trainwreck along the way. The concentrated festival experience always inspires me to write and create new material for future Fringes, and the assembling of other like-minded geekery provides a golden opportunity to make new friends.

3. What inspired you to create this?
My parents took me to see Star Wars in 1977 when I was 7. This show celebrates all the captivating movies and stories that influenced me during those formative years.

4. This year ain’t normal and there’s no sense pretending it is. How has Covid affected what you’re doing for this festival?
My three-member troupe was planning on taking my Shakespearean adaptation of Caddyshack down to Atlanta. COVID complicated that goal, so I’m resurrecting a one-man show that I’ve done at different Fringe Festivals and Frankensteining some brand new material in as well.

I’m looking forward to sharing my house–the setting of the show–with zoomy strangers. I’ve worked in some shout-outs to the good people of Atlanta, and I’ll be thankful come opening night when it will be 75 degrees here in Fairbanks, Alaska as opposed to whatever silly temperatures you have planned for Atlanta in June. Essentially, I will have to do less hydrating and deal with much less flop sweat for my show than if it was in Atlanta.

5. What have you learned from working on your show so far?
I’m really happy with the pace and the variety of the show so far. It rocks; it wails; it’s swell as hell. It’s a developing beast that can certainly make room for new moments between now and then. I should probably change its litter box now.

6. There’s a mysterious, anonymous little square watching your show and sticking around for the talkback. In your WILDEST dreams, who is that mysterious stranger grooving on your work? (Please note, this question is inspired by us recently learning that Neil Patrick Harris has been doing this.)
My little square turns out to be German Chancellor Angela Merkel. I have a bit about dating her and how our second date kind of falls apart. I then perform a German version of The Three Little Pigs. To have her getting all groovisch to my fantasy fiction would be all Achtung, baby! As the most powerful woman in the world, she would pass along a few kind words about my show, and I would find myself an international success by the end of the summer, finishing my virtual tour in Berlin.

[Above: Lurking in the Zoom, thirsty as hell]

7. Fringes are the place to really push the boundaries so we gotta ask: are your parents getting the link are or you gonna be like, “Uhhhh, I dunno, the website doesn’t seem to be working, Mom…”
My folks are wonderfully supportive. I have a poem called “The Playboy of SeaWorld” about having (consensual) sex with a dolphin. It’s the only poem of mine that my mom doesn’t like. She’s asked that I don’t perform that one when she’s in the crowd. The dolphin poem did not make the cut for this Atlanta show, but my show still has a playful edge, some moxie and grit to it–what I call testicular fortitude. So, yes, my parents will be tuning in and laughing along.

8. We’ve asked this question every year for the past nine years or so but it hits different this year: Will your show change the world?
It depends on the time zone. If my poetic genius fails to change the world for the better, I rest the blame on the four-hour lag between the 907 and the 678.

9. Zoom meetings: dress up head to toe or Daffy Duck it?
I am all about providing the laughter, but I shall be wearing pants as a courtesy. See earlier comments about my parents in attendance.

10. We’re making an excellent Spotify playlist. Describe your show in two or three songs we can add to keep the jams flowing.

“My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” –Frank Zappa