The show included great performances by the London Broil, Hey Nunnie Nunnie, Michael Rosman, the O’Danny Girls, Kyle Cease, the Christmas Ninjas, and Circa Paleo and the Christmas Special Orchestra!

In this comical pageant version of the first Christmas, the ladies of Hey Nunnie Nunnie took us to blackout with memorable the one-liner, “He has his father’s eyes.”

John and I sang a sentimental version of “Chesnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”, the Boys from the Broil did some great juggling comedy and Michael Rosman made a great showing with a magical musical number of his own. We were again joined by our stagehands, the Christmas Ninjas who played a giant sized version of TV Pong with audience members.

New to the show were Circa Paleo and the Christmas Special Orchestra and Comedy Central’s Kyle Cease who did some great standup and crowdwork comedy while playing the grand piano and generally causing mayhem.

The the Christmas Special Orchestra, or “C.S.O.” as we satirically dubbed them, played a show stopping version of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”, along with Christmas favorites which were featured up on the giant screen, a new addition to the production which made the event an eye-popping experience all the way to the back of the house. The Orchestra, capably led by Circa Paleo’s stunning violinist and leader, Jenny O’Connor, included strings, brass, electric and acoustic guitars, drums and more for an amazing sound that knocked the holiday socks off our boisterous and loyal audiences.

The show also welcomed newcomer, Jimmy “the upaid intern” Meritt. Jimmy is my standup comedy co-host of the DC and Baltimore Comedy Labs and made a big impression as the breakout character in this year’s storyline.

Another unannounced returnee was my one-year-old Aussie puppy, Leo, who stole the show in my comedy speech about thankfulness and returned to bark at the ninjas during the door prize draw.

A special thanks to Steve Parke and Bruce F Press for the photos in this article. READ ON!! Here’s where it gets good!


CHARITY SUCCESS!!


The best part of the show experience was the charity effort. We had a breakthrough year in creating impact for others locally and globally. Here’s the score for this year:


  1. -Thousands of Dollars Raised for Habitat for Humanity

  2. -Five Global Clean Water Projects Completed with Your Ticket Money!

  3. -Habitat for Humanity Build with Cast and Fans

  4. -Numerous Projects Completed by the New “Hack and Slash Miracle Machine”, a fan-driven effort to create individual, original charitable efforts at the local level

  5. -Over 1800 Pounds of Food Collected at the Show!

  6. -Over ONE-TON of Clothing Donated for Approved Low Income Families to Receive for Free!

Please take a moment to visit the Hack and Slash page at WaterCharity.org and see the wonderful projects that you all helped to support. This is truly your doing, as many of the projects were complete before the show was even open, using the money from your ticket purchases. I am moved and inspired every time I see the pictures and hear from the people we helped.


Here are a few words and images from just one of the projects we sponsored in the Domenican Republic:


“We were able to buy and distribute 30 water filters, and train each head of the household, school personelle, or cook (in the case of the community center).

 

A GRAND total of 390 PEOPLE!!!!

 

The distribution of the water filters are as follows: 200 students at the Olivia Nuñez Hidalgo Elementary School, 50 individuals at the community center, 40 people at the church/school that serves mostly Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans, as well as 23 filters to individual families (serving about 90 individuals). The majority of the people who are now using the filters are children and adolescents.”

I’m not ashamed to say that, as I first clicked on the above video of kids thanking you all for your help, I was moved to tears and humbled by the number of people who came together to make a difference.

Against our better judgement, on the day before we were supposed to open, early in the morning, with impending snow, a group of cast members and fans converged on downtown Annapolis to help at a Habitat for Humanity build site. We put in a window, spread some goop, broke one finger and burned Kyle Cease’s glove. It was perfect.

This year’s show was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my life. I am indebted to the patience of my friends, the generosity of our audience and the guidance of my mentors and family. We’ll be back next year with a bigger and better show and DVD’s are on the way, so stay tuned. On behalf of John, the cast and myself, thank you all for believing in our show and the power of laughter for all these years.


I learned one thing in this project, above all else. I was born to rock those white pants.


spence.

Gracias, Hack and Slash fans!