Every Sunday at Dunlap’s Corner Bar, you can catch a laugh, good tunes and be moved by a poem all in one sitting. It’s a rare occasion that these different art forms get to share the same stage, but not at a Con Tu Show.
Stephanie Ginese — a comedian and poet who published a book of poetry titled Unto Dogs — and TJ "Peachcurls'' Maclin — an award-winning musician, producer, voice actor and stand-up comedian — created Con Tu to bridge these different artforms together, showcasing Cleveland’s diverse talent.
We caught up with Ginese and Maclin to talk more about Con Tu and their work in Cleveland’s art scene.
Cleveland Magazine: Con Tu is a variety show that showcases different Cleveland musicians, comedians and writers. What was the reason behind its creation?
Stephanie Ginese: The show started as a way to kind of bridge all of these worlds together. You don’t often find musicians sharing the stage with poets or comedians and vice versa. Since [TJ and I] kind of existed in all three of those worlds, we know the ways that they overlap and link, and they’re sort of like a shared foundation. And we are both big fans of the arts scene here in Cleveland. A lot of our friends and collaborators are some of our favorite artists who are out here working. So it was also a way to condense down and show people all of the great talent we have here in Cleveland.
TJ Maclin: Cleveland is like a sandbox city. You probably only hang around the sh** that you used to hanging around. So if you’re into music, you only hang around musicians. If you a Cleveland comedy fan or comedian, you only know about that. A lot of people don’t really know how rich the literary scene is at all so what our show aims to do is break down these barriers between all these niches. Get rid of them so that people understand that we are all in this small market that is the Cleveland independent art market.
CM: How would you say bridging these gaps between all of these different niches have worked?
SG: A lot of us working out here are multi-hyphenate artists. We’ve had our friend, Dezhawn France, who’s a comedian, come through and do poetry for the first time. Our good friend, Elliot Jarrous, did the first show as a writer, then came back and did comedy. We have this ongoing joke about the Con Tu EGOT, like who’s going to do all three. It forces folks to explore other expressions. Have that stage time to explore.
CM: How does Con Tu go about getting people to become part of the show?
TM: We have a submission form on our website. You can follow the link to submit to be a [performing] artist. We look at the work and if we like the work, or if we think that it fits what we trying to do, then you get booked. But sometimes it might be a word of mouth thing. Let’s say you are a comedian or a musician and you’re trying to work something out. If we’re already established and we know what you can do, you should be like "I'm about to go on tour or something, and I’m trying to work out this 10 minutes,” come through and work on [it for] 10 minutes. Or “I’m about to put my album out. Is there a way I can do a performance that coincides with my album?” Stuff like that happens too but for the most part, you just fill out a submission form.
CM: How has Con Tu grown since its first show? How has it changed?
TM: For starters, the audience size has consistently grown. As far as the cultural impact, it has quickly become a local staple. It’s quickly become the thing to do on Sunday night.
SG: Yeah, artists have called it a safe space to come and work stuff out and try some new things and get really vulnerable on stage, or get really silly. It feels like a real incubator.
TM: It’s like a revered stage, like people respect the stage and they feel as though they gotta be on their A-game to perform at this show. You know what I’m saying? I’ve heard people be like “I’m nervous, I’m about to do Con Tu.” It’s like it’s becoming this thing that people talk about amongst themselves and really want to be a part of, quite quickly, in a little over a year.
CM: Do you have any long term goals or plans for Con Tu and if so, what does that look like?
TM: Since the beginning of it, I wanted this to be a staple thing. When you think about comic eras, comedian eras of different cities, they talk about a specific night that was like the night. Or they talk about a specific club, that was the club to do when [you were] coming up. I want our stage to be that. Like if you was coming up in Cleveland, you had to do Con Tu. So that’s the goal for me. To create this – I hate the word “institution” because I don’t want it to be rigid like that — but like kind of this staple in Cleveland.
SG: I want the same thing. I think right now in Cleveland, we’re building one of those scenes that people [will] look back on in history, because we really haven’t had that. Other cities have had that; you know, Chicago, obviously New York, Detroit, LA, you name it. And we have had that, but it’s been sparse [and] sporadic. So I feel like what we’re building now as our arts and culture is really substantial, and I want Con Tu to be a part of that.
Find more details about the Con Tu Variety show on its website, contuonline.com.
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