Great Salt Lake Mime Troupe Outline and Scrapbook

Omelette Broadcasting Company


Omelette Broadcasting Company 1981 at the airport in Frankfurt
Clockwise from Upper Left: Peter Wear, Jim Sweeney, Steve Steen, Johnny Melville, and Justin Case


Justin Hunter Case writes:
... the name of the Omelette show (was) "Meanwhile ..." We'd collect suggestions from the audience who put them in a glass see-thru goldfish bowl and then we would pick out suggestions at random and do them -- pre-"Theater Sports," pre-"Who's Line Is It Anyway," in fact Dan (the TV producer of "Who's Line Is It Anyway") saw our show. We performed in Edinburgh Festival and sold out -- we had the "OMELETTER" newspaper which was our "programme." It is a classic -- created/designed by the amazing Marjolein Kuijsten -- who was the kingpin & co-founder of the Melkweg (she's still the President) and supporter of Omelette & the 2 Reel Company -- she toured with us too...
We actually made ... pilots with TVS / Humphrey Barclay but the Broadcaster got cold feet ... and then along came "Who's Line Is It Anyway." Now I look back on it -- it's quite amazing -- I did a course with Keith Johnston (the creator of Theater Sports) in the UK then went to Loose Moose in Calgary and studied with him there, and with Alan Marriott (Canadian Impro performer / writer) we set up Theatre Sports In London with Nica Burns who was running the Donmar Theatre just off Leicester Square. It was from that and doing an Improv Marathon night with the likes of Jonathan Price (big on improv), plus other famous actors that "Who's Line Is It Anyway" took off using well known performers. Jim & Steve appeared in the UK version, but by then I'd left the UK to live in Europe & then LA.

Justin continues writing about the group's beginings:
... I saw Jim & Steve (The Wee Wees) do a video show at the Oval Theatre in London, I was so impressed that after touring Poland I came back and wrote/directed/performed a Video Theatre show called the "Candid Case Affair" in 1977 with Nick Fry -- which Peter Wear, Steve, Johnny, Jim were in the videos segments.
Peter was my co-creator/technician/actor/ buddy here -- it was because of him & Nick that the show managed to come to life.
I toured Europe with in a VW bus 1978-79 with Nick pre-VHS. Mad! Huge TV sets all B&W, Reel to Reel video. Wires/cables no remotes. Still have some video footage and photos.
It was after that the 2 Reel Company was born and then in Copenhagen there was a spare spot in the Festival for one group and so the Wee Wees & 2 Reel Company joined forces and we decided to do an Improv show based around a radio broadcast that went wrong -- so we got suggestions from the audience of what the story/scenes were to be and Omelette was born.
(We called it OBC) The following year we went back to Denmark and Johnny joined us. I think there is video of those shows.
(We performed Omelette in between time in London and Amsterdam)

Image courtesy of Johnny Melvile from his Facebook album. Used by permission. Text by Justin Hunter Case
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