Justin & Jerome Experience

Sketch
Justin as a Game Show host who is fed up. In one hand he holds a thin microphone like a game show host would use, in his other hand a beleaguered and falling security guard. Justin is bent over a family of four who are cowering on the ground, in abject horror or quite possible undying love for one another. With veins popping out of his neck and sleeves rolled up, Justin is screaming at them.
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The Worm shouts out Your Show of Shows while getting shouted at and out in the process. The Retirement Show to retire all retirements. (Photo by William Lardinois)

My friend Justin Vetter and I did a monthly sketch comedy show for three years on the first Friday of every month at midnight.

We featured over 50 special guests as part of the world crafted by the Finnegans Family. Over the years we raised money for charities, The Carnegie Museum of Art allowed us to give carte blance nonsense tours without telling paying patrons, and once even turned Arcade Comedy Theater into a fully functioning Speakeasy with the help of wunderkind Aaron Tarnow (and Arcade who lets us do whatever we want with no questions asked for some reason).

We still write and perform together, just not every month at midnight.


Looking to add some photos and videos. In the meantime check out 🍽️ My Dinner With André: The Musical and some old show posters below:

A show poster for JJE. It has a pink background with the word “Experience” repeating it coming more into focus until it takes up the entire width of the poster. The word “experience” has a black background and pink text so it looks like steps kind of. Below is a grid of text information with show details.
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2016 Summer Poster with our very special musical friend Nice Rec

A show poster for JJE’s show “In Slacks.” Justin and Jerome stand in front of a brick wall looking dapper. Justin is on the left with a tie and vest on. Bespecatled he is looking down to the ground and what looks to be a flower growing out of a broken pipe. Jerome has a tie and sweater on, he is looking off into the distance.
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A 2017 Show with special guests Ayne Terceria and Nilesh Shah!

A show poster for the JJE show “Speakeasy.” It is very text heavy with show details and logos of companies that helped put the show on like Driftwood Oven and Maggie’s Farm Rum. The main image part is a giant secretive door that has two eyes peering out of it from a slot that has been slid over. Looks like someone just knocked on the door and this person is asking for the password, because baby this is a Speakeasy.
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This show was unfortunately cancelled by the Finnegan’s corporation. What would have been a standing room only crowd was left literally on the street, no one could get into the theater, we were EMBARASSED. Luckily we were able to bring everyone to the alley and sneak people into a fully functional Speakeasy. It was something else for sure, haha.

An illustration of the beloved Worm (Jerome) the shock-jock of shock-jocks. The Worm is in many different poses all while wearing a red polo, blue hat, and hunting sunglasses. he has a pinky ring on his left hand, and bright red lips that stick out on his pale face. In one panel he is screaming, another spitting coffee out, another looking mad and deranged, and finally increidbly somber and despondent. In the right corner is an overlay of Sound Tech (Justin). A man wearing stylish glasses, beard , oxford and tie, with headphones on.
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The character no one ever knew existed, was given a send-off that no one knew they absolutely needed. Special guests included: Alex O’Brien, Chris Laychak, Julia Metelsky, Michael Cunningham, Matt Solter, Shannon Norman & as always Aaron Tarnow. (Poster by Anna C. Reilly)

A show poster for JJE’s show “In Coats.” Justin and Jerome stand in front of a brick wall looking dapper. Justin is on the left with a tie and vest on. Bespecatled he is looking down to the ground and what looks to be a flower growing out of a broken pipe. Jerome has a tie and sweater on, he is looking off into the distance. This may seem like the exact same poster as “In Slacks” however Justin has a brown fur coat super-imposed, and Jerome a super-imposed pink bomber jacket. This show was free if you donated a coat for Shepherd’s  Heart Veteran’s Home.
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We were In Slacks, and now we are In Coats and collected over 30 coats! We put some on during the show. Some were too small, some were too big, and one ... had a knife in the pocket. (The knife was returned, no one was hurt!)

On a pale pink background stands a naked Ben Amiri hued completely in blue. This prince of a man is looking forlorn in the distance. Could he quite possibly be holding Yorick’s skull?
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The iconic poster, of the iconic show, of the iconic prince. (Photo by Mike Rubino)

Major props to PGH Print ShipAn icon representing an arrow pointing diagonally towards the top right corner of the screen. (formerly Flower City) as so many of these and more wild posters came through.

Info

Cast
Technical director
  • Aaron Tarnow
Producer
  • Jerome Fitzgerald
Writers