Voting is important! Voting is sexy!

They look like they're thinking about voting.

EL: Hey, Mel?

MEL: Yes, El?

EL: It's time for a call to action. We need to get everyone to vote.

MEL: True. People think that Romney's unending gaffes are gonna be his end but there is widespread voter suppression and...

EL: I'm talking about the Broadway World Awards Nominations.

MEL: Seriously?

EL: Yeah, they just added some cabaret-esque categories and regular folks can nominate us for things.

MEL: I don't think you're supposed to ASK people to nominate you.

EL: Please! This is how the universe works! Everything is a popularity contest! Kardashians run the world!

MEL: That is so depressing.

EL: Or it's amazing! As long as we get our base FIRED UP! READY TO GO!

MEL: Please don't co-op Obama campaign language for this situation.

EL: I can't be stopped!

HERE IS WHAT TO DO:

1. Go here

2. Fill in "Mel & El" where it says "Person" in the categories where that makes sense.

3. Fill in "Mel & El: Our Time of the Month" where it says "Show" in those same categories.

4. Tell everyone you know to do the same

5. Do it again

6. Feel really good about yourself

EL: Was that so bad?

MEL: A little bit.

EL: Don't worry. We'll go do some volunteer hours right now for something important to help make up for it.

MEL: REALLY?

EL: No. We're gonna watch Kourtney and Kim Take Miami.

MEL: I hate you.

EL: You're watching it already, aren't you?

MEL: Yeah.

It's Fun To Win Things!

We were just sitting around thinking about how much more fun a day is when you WIN SOMETHING in it. And then we found out we won A Thing. Our web series, THE MEL & EL SHOW (haven't watched it? HERE IT IS!) won BEST WEB SERIES at the Las Vegas Comedy Film Festival. Terrific! We're so happy and once again want to thank the awesome producers, cast and crew that made it happen.

INFO & TICKETS HERE

SIX REASONS YOU MIGHT LIKE TO JOIN US

What can we do for YOU?

El: Hey, Mel?

Mel: Yes, El?

El: 'Tis the season of giving.

Mel: I wish I knew where this was going...

El: And we've been making so many requests of late, that I want to give back to our people!

Mel: That's lovely, El!

El: What do you think they want?

Mel: I have NO idea!

El: Let's just ask!

Mel: Excellent. But, first, let's bullet point our Holiday Wishes for the very last time - just in case there are 2 1/2 people out there that don't know about them!

El: You're better with a list. Go for it!

 

---

 

Hi! It's Mel. I'm here to make a list of the things we wish people would put in our Jew Stockings this year for Christmas. I'm gonna make this list using letters instead of numbers cause I'm feeling craaaaaazy today!

 

 

 

A) The very last MEL & EL: OUR TIME OF THE MONTH of the year is this FRIDAY, DECEMBER 3rd! That's right, the show is usually on Thursdays but we're doing this one on a Friday so more of you can come out and play with us. We'll be joined by Special Guest Ben Lerman. He's terrific! Make your reservation by clicking HERE! Cause we want YOU to be there!

 

 

 

B) In just 2 clicks on the computer machine you could NOMINATE US for a fancy comedy award! Click HERE and write "Mel & El" in for BEST MUSICAL COMEDY ACT! We'd be honored just to be nominated. Really.

 

 

 

C) Only 8 DAYS LEFT for us to raise the $850 left on our Kickstarter Campaign! If you can forward this email to your friends & loved ones we'd be most grateful! Help us spread the word! The Webisodes Must. Be. Made.

 

Now, what do you want in your Jew Stocking this year? Tell us! We'll totally work on it!

XO,

Mel (& El, too!)

 

P.S. Book a group of 6 or more at our holiday show & you will receive a Personalized Holiday Rap from us! Feel free to also celebrate your birthday or anniversary, too.

Really bloody funny. Period.

Hello, friends.

 

We are still in recovery from hosting the Miss Fag Hag Pageant on Sunday night or, as the producer called it, 'Gay Vietnam'. Some hightlights (happily bullet pointed by Mel):

• The part where we had the fabulous drag-comedian Miss Kitten Withuwhip singing our Fagnet lyrics back to us while we frantically tried to put on our makeup.

• The part where Mel kept losing her place in her "hosting note cards" because she was making goo-goo eyes at John Cameron Mitchell (who was a Judge).
  

• The part where El had to shush a room full of 350 rowdy gays who were upset because of a mistake made about The Golden Girls in the Gay Q&A Competition. She. Shut. It. Down. But in a really adorable way.

And now...we hope that all of those Hags and their Gays (and all of the rest of you wonderful people who don't identify with either of those groups) will come join us THIS THURSDAY, May 6th at 7:30PM for...

 

 

 MEL & EL: OUR TIME OF THE MONTH!

Really bloody funny.

Period.

 

You can make a reservation by clicking right HERE.
Zero food/drink minimum. Ten bucks. An infinite number of laughs.

 

There will be a Special Guest Appearance by the hilarious Carrie Gravenson and, as always, we will be accompanied by our brazilliant composer Patrick Spencer Bodd.

 

We'll see you there. Once we shake off our Gay P.T.S.D. from 'Nam,

 

Mel & El

 

Fun, ice cream photo by PJZ Studios.

Makup by Erin's Faces.

Best of New York!

El: I'd like to thank the Academy, my mother, and my first grade music teacher Mrs. Beebee for teaching me to always breathe with my...

Mel: El? What are you doing?

El: I'm practicing my acceptance speech for the award we just won.

Mel: Do you mean the Village Voice Best of NYC 2009 Award?

El: That's the one!

Mel: There's no awards ceremony, sweetie.

El: There isn't?

Mel: No. They just ran it in the paper.

El: Don't we get a plaque or a statue or anything?

Mel: Nope, we just get to enjoy the title.

El: But I was really looking forward to making that speech.

Mel: Save it for the next award.

El: Ok.

Mel: And you can put the hairbrush down now.

El: What hairbrush?

Mel: The one you were pretending was a trophy.

El: Nuh uh. I just had some knots.

Mel: Sure you did.

Best Advance in the World of Fag Hagdom
Performance duo Mel & El—a/k/a Melanie Adelman and Ellie Dvorkin—don't care for the term "fag hag." They feel it has acquired a sort of negative sound, as if there were something wrong with a woman wanting to cling to a gay man day and night until she passes out. They prefer "fruit fly"—or, even better, "Fagnet," which happens to be the name of their popular comedy/dance song that is a hilarious highlight of
their act ("F-A-G plus magnet equals fagnet," they chant in sisterly unity). The two have been best friends since seventh grade, but it's doubtful they were bonded in fagnetting till at least the eighth. Their goofy anthem—which they've paraded around everywhere from the Duplex to Ars Nova—has made the gays love them right back.

We had an absolute blast being the special guest performers at Vanessa's

bachelorette party last weekend. There's a pic above and our business card below so

that you or someone you know can hire us, too!

Winning Awards With Long Names

El: What's the name of that award we won?

Mel: The NYCWAM Collaboration Award.

El: And that stands for New York City Women and Men?

Mel: No.

El: Nice Young Charming Weird American Musicians?

Mel: Stop it.

El: I can't.

Mel: You can and you will.

El: Tell me what it stands for.

Mel: New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media's

Biennial Collaboration Award.

El: There are more words in that than the acronym had letters for.

Mel: I WILL hit you with this cupcake.

El: Please don't. I'm an award-winner, after all.

The New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media presents
the 2008 Collaboration Award

Please join the NYCWAM Board Members and Honorary Artistic Advisors Nancy Ford, Gretchen Cryer and Leslie Ayvazian to honor the winners of the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media's Biennial Collaboration Award.

$1000 Prize: Sounding,
written by Jennifer Gibbs, directed by Kristen Marting

Honored Finalists:
Mel and El, This Show Rhymes: Melanie Adelman & Ellie Dvorkin
Frontlines, Political Plays by American Women: Shirley Lauro & Alexis Greene
Showers of Happiness: Carol Todd & Catherine Eaton
Wellsprings: Elyse Singer & Ruth Margraff

Monday, March 2, 2009
The Gershwin Hotel, 7 East 27th Street

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. with a champagne reception.
The Awards ceremony begins at 7:15, followed by wine and dessert.
Tickets are $35 in advance, payable by check or by credit card via
brownpapertickets.com or at the door for $40.

If you wish to pay by check, please make the check out to:
NY Coalition of Prof Women in the Arts & Media, PO Box 2537, New York, NY 10108
Checks must be received by February 28.

An Award Winning Conversation

El: Did you see that interview we did about the Bistro Awards?

Mel: I saw it.

El: You get three sentences to talk about how hideous you thought you looked and then it's my turn.

Mel: Ok. I looked like a troll. I am obviously a bridge troll and I should not be allowed to venture out from under my bridge. Also, my resting face looks very angry, and I was not angry, I was simply... resting. 

El: You were looking at me with an awful lot of anger. Do you hate me?

Mel: No.

El: Ok, good. My turn: 1. Why didn't you tell me my hair was so flat? 2. Why didn't you tell me I looked like a demented clown in a bargain basement v-neck? 3. Why didn't you stop me from acting like an IDIOT? You just sat there with your angry resting face and let me say asinine things. What kind of a friend ARE you? 

Mel: That was five sentences.

El: I don't care. Thank goodness no one knows where to find that interview. Hopefully they'll just buy a ticket to the Bistro Awards to see us perform live and look like pretty people.

Mel: Right? We can totally click HERE and hate ourselves as much as we want, but no one else can!

El: Oh no you didn't. No. You. DIDN'T.

Mel: Aw crap. I totally did.

We Won a Bistro Award!

We think it's super neat that our song "Fagnet" earned us a Bistro Award! Here is an excerpt of a Playbill.com article about it by Andrew Gans from February 28th:

Back Stage Magazine has announced the winners of the annual Bistro Awards, which recognize outstanding achievement in the cabaret field. Among the winners of the 2008 awards are such Broadway names as Bryan Batt, Christine Pedi, Jason Graae and Jeffry Denman. A gala evening celebrating this year's winners will be held April 7 at the Gotham Comedy Club in Manhattan. Winners were chosen by Elizabeth Ahlfors (Cabaret Scenes), David Finkle (Back Stage's Bistro Bits columnist), John Hoglund (former Bistro Bits columnist), Erv Raible (executive/artistic director of the Cabaret Conference at Yale University), Roy Sander (former Bistro Bits columnist) and Chuck Taylor (Billboard).

Then Mr. Gans goes on to list the 2008 Bistro Award Winners, and lo and behold...

Musical Comedy Number: "Fagnet," lyric by Melanie Adelman and Ellie Dvorkin; music by Noah Diamond and Amanda Sisk, performed by Adelman and Dvorkin in Mel & El: This Show Rhymes at the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Café and at the Duplex.