L.A. Comedy Writers/Performers Ask Audience To Settle Marital Disputes at Montreal Fringe Festival

A few years ago BICK/ANTZIS created a YouTube video called Settle This Thing in order to have the Internet provide a solution to an ongoing argument they couldn't resolve on their own. Tamara Bick and Drew Antzis each laid out their argument and told viewers, "Vote for who you agree with and we'll live with the results." After a week the married couple tallied the votes and had a winner. Argument solved! "It's crowd sourcing to solve our fights," says Antzis, "and it worked!" The web series Settle This Thing was born.

The couple used this method to settle many unresolvable arguments like what's appropriate in sexual fantasies, front seat driving and should we share dreams; then in 2017 decided to take their fights to the stage. Bick and Antzis both started out in theatre and realized it's an immediate and exciting place to work on comedic material exploring their marriage, sex life, in-laws, and parenting, and began crafting live shows. The results were 5 completely different one hour 'relationship seminars' where the couple shares their scientific-ish conclusions on how to be an expert in all these many facets of life.

Bick explains, "We'd get hired to work for other people, and while we loved that experience, it's not quite the same as creating your own work. We wrote many videos together when Drew first started directing at Funny Or Die. We wrote and directed a short black comedy, COMA, and then started getting hired as writer/directors shooting commercials and promos and a lot of projects for the web, and it just continued from there... but now, we get to do our own thing and that's just really fun for us." Antzis adds, "Plus our shows are usually at 8pm so it gets us out of bedtime with the kids, which is also a nice bonus."

Now BICK/ANTZIS is coming to the Montreal Fringe Festival to put some fresh disputes in the ring for a vote. They've been workshopping the show for many months and when asked if audiences are enjoying it Bick thinks they really are, "Because we are unpacking and analyzing falling in love and sex and kids and all that stuff in a really scientific-ish way, they find it is very valuable info." Antzis adds, "People love it. And want it. They eat it up."

About BICK/ANTZIS: Immigrants from Los Angeles, Tamara Bick & Drew Antzis inadvertently fled across the border into Canada with young children in tow, narrowly escaping the inauguration of Donald Trump. Happily married with two super fantastic kids, they are a directing team with an outstanding sense of humour. Their work history encompasses acting, stand-up, improvising, shooting, directing, editing and producing. Improvising and performing at Second City in Toronto and Los Angeles, Improv Olympic and Upright Citizen's Brigade as well as work on sitcoms including Men Behaving Badly, Frasier and Seinfeld, they have intimate knowledge of what it takes to develop a character and tell a great story. They've worked for prestigious companies all across North America including ABC, HBO and Comedy Central. Drew is best known as the first in-house director at Funny or Die, where he launched the site directing The Landlord with Will Ferrell, arguably the most famous viral video in history. After that, their work includes over 70 other videos at FOD, where they had the pleasure of directing Jon Hamm, Natalie Portman, Olivia Wilde, Richard Jenkins, Snoop Dogg, Fergie and Kirsten Chenoweth, to name a few. They also wrote many of the videos, including The Instructor with Sean Hayes and Eulogy Punch-up Artist with Jim Parsons. Their short film, COMA, traveled to festivals across the globe winning the hearts of audiences and snagging Audience Awards. Most recently they directed content for Bud Light with Chingo Bling and directed promos for the re-boot of Roseanne for ABC.

To see all of BICK/ANTZIS' work- www.bickantzis.com, settlethisthing.com (view previous unresolvables)

BICK/ANTZIS at the St-Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival

Venue 7- Montreal Improv Theatre A - 3697 St. Laurent

6 shows only! Dates: Thurs. June 7- 9:45pm; Sat. June 9- 11:30pm; Sun. June 10- 2:30pm;

Tues. June 12- 7:45pm; Thurs. June 14- 7:45pm; Sat. June 16- 5:15pm Running time: 60 minutes

Tickets: $10.00, $8 for students (+$2.50 service charge)

To purchase tickets: 514 849-FEST (3378) www.montrealfringe.ca

During the Festival: Tickets also available at the box office located at FRINGE Park (corner Rachel and St-Laurent) or at Montreal Improv Theatre A as of one hour before show time.

 

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