Event: FFNL Sea. 1 Finale feat. Ryan Avery, The Hooves

Taking gumption from watching the original season of Saturday Night Live, Michael Twenty-three wanted to create a live comedy sketch show. After two years of planning, plotting, and slipping on banana peels, the result was First Friday Night Live (FFNL). The season finale show will be March 4th, 2011, at 11:00pm, featuring a cast of fifteen funnymen and women, musical guest Hooves, and hosted by Ryan Avery.

Ryan Avery is t...he perfect host for the season finale show. He is the holy trinity of Phoenix, having excelled in improv theater, music, and comedy. A film was made about his life (Hi, My Name Is Ryan) and he was on the cover of Phoenix New Times, which says, “Avery's arguably the hippest Mormon since alt-rocker Brandon Flowers of The Killers, or even Napoleon Dynamite himself…”

Our finale musical guest, Hooves, were named by the Phoenix New Times as Arizona’s supervillian and the best band in Phoenix, in the same year. Their song "Giggles" has been the theme song to First Friday Night Live all season long. Love them or hate them, you can’t help but dance and sing-a-long to their catchy, bluesy tunes. FFNL will be the end of their West Coast tour, and the perfect night-cap for a documentary being made about their music.

For the last seven months, FFNL was the showcase for cage-free Phoenix talent. Unlike loose-running open-mic events, this locally-produced performance-art shindig displayed a cornucopia of fire-spinning, music, and comedy. They moved Pete Petrisko, gave Leslie Barton a sex-change, made Michael Little fly, killed and resurrected Stephen Strange, and pulled Lucy Morals on a golden chariot. Simply put, First Friday Night Live has made dreams come true for many Phoenix performers, while entertaining audiences live and online.

Through humor, FFNL softens some of the worst blows that life delivers. Whether it be about SB1070 or TSA patdowns, intentionally, FFNL begins where First Friday Artwalk leaves off, offering a late night experience that rivals other metropolitan cities. In addition to the live show, people from all over the world have watched the show in its entirety on the web. The show will be available to view for free on www.ustream.com. In addition to this, small clips from the show have been posted on Youtube.com, which has already received over 10,000 channel views.

Tickets for the guffaw-fest will be available February 15th for a pre-sale price of $5. However, on March 4th, the price will go up to $7, so please buy tickets early. Tickets can be purchased at the box office in the Firehouse Gallery during business hours, or online at www.firstfridaynightlive.com.

The Firehouse Gallery is located at 1015 N. 1st Street. The Firehouse Gallery’s vision is to provide a space for public art of all kinds. More information about the The Firehouse Gallery can be found on Facebook or at www.strivedreams.com.