Issue 1: Hello!

A big week for lovers (of my little projects)

Welcome to Dinner Cut, the newsletter about community theater, cardboard prop building, and why I think everyone in the world needs to learn how to sew.

If you don’t know who I am, my name is Matty. I’m a comedian living in Chicago, IL, but I’m originally from Nebraska and that is kinda my whole vibe. I can’t help but write this in the style of an instagram caption because aside from my day job as a journalist writing deep dives on the Federal Reserve or covering literal plane crashes, I exclusively write stream-of-conscious social posts that make my mom comment stuff like “ok….never a dull moment with this one.”

I’ve spent the last year and half falling deeply in love with producing low-budget, cardboard-prop-filled productions with my friends. I’ve worked on stuff like this:

Photo by Sarah Elizabeth Larson from Talladega Nights @ Bricktown, March 2024

And this

Photo by Gianni Segarra from Witches of Eastwick @ Bricktown, Oct 2024

Oh, Annaleigh and I kinda popped the hell off with this set

I have no idea who took this from Dritty’s Dreamland @ The Annoyance, March 2024

And I love love love doing this stuff. It’s complicated and time consuming and it makes me feel so alive. To spend months rehearsing a stage adaptation of the 2006 Will Ferrell comedy Talladega Nights…that’s sort of what makes life worth living. 

What the hell is this newsletter for?

I’m so tired of posting on Instagram!!! I want to blabber on and on about how I collaged elaborate set pieces and I don’t want Mark Z*ck*rb*rg to be able to jerk off to it.

What you can expect from Dinner Cut:

  1. The nitty gritty of how my friends and I put up elaborate, tiny budget comedy shows. I’m talking pie charts and budget breakdowns. Real sexy stuff.

  2. Business chat. Right now I’m pretty much breaking even on comedy, which is sick considering how much money I spend on rhinestones alone. I don’t want a side hustle, oh my goddd, but I do want to live in Chicago forever and make weird art and make it sustainable for everyone involved. If I’m making $12, we’re all making $12.

  3. Endless yammering about my friends. I hope everyone gets to experience the joy of watching their friends crush on stage. While the shows I produce have been described lovingly as “perverted little plays” and “really bad drag”, they are, at their core, “extreme community theater.”

You can expect me to get into important stuff like grant applications, taxes, building The Leaning Tower of Pisa out of yogurt containers, filing for an LLC (girl, I just did that!) sewing on stretch fabric without a pattern, work-life balance, making fake diarrhea in the AliveOne bathroom, and, of course, Mod Podge. 

Right now, I’m fighting for my life trying to figure out which business checking account won’t ding me for having less than $300 in it and buying more magnets to hold my Village Discount receipts (an incredible filing system). So if any of this sounds interesting to you, let’s rock and roll!

And that’s not all. I’ll throw in fun sections like…

Recommendations

  • I’m listening to a lot of Marianne Fathfull (RIP queen), Jamie’s GUSHER playlist for lovers and horny people, and Brigid’s hilarious podcast with Jerwin.

  • I’m obsessed with swimming the breaststroke because it’s so hard.

  • I hopped on Derek’s “Welcome to the Show” last night at The Getaway in Lincoln Square and had soooo much fun. Truly such a warm crowd.

  • At this very moment I’m working on building a giant sexy egg for this show I’m dancing in on Saturday night with Kari and Elena. And then cleaning up all the scrap cardboard in my studio for open studio on Sunday.

  • I can’t stop watching my new fav sewing YouTube creator Carly B and I’m foaming at the mouth thinking about making this scrap dress.

  • I just learned how to do a fishbone stitch in a visible mending class at Jenny G’s Art Supply.

My goal is to send this bad boy every other Tuesday at 11:11am (make a wish!). If you see typos, don’t tell me unless they’re really bad.

Also if y’all could make some noise for my logo (I’m pretending that I’m hosting a show). It was designed by my genius friend Faith. The mega talented Gianni did my announcement photoshoot..

Next issue…I’m talking about the logistics that went into putting on Talladega Nights last March, a one-night-only live play that involved 30+ people and cost around $2,200 to create. If you want some homework, you can watch the whole dang thing here. See you in a couple weeks!!! WEEE HAPPY FIRST ISSUE TO ME I WONT HAVE THIS ENDING LINE ON EVERY ISSUE BUT THIS TIME IT’S ALLOWED I LOVE YOU ALL XOXOX

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