It's our EIGHTH season - The OCHO!

LATE-NIGHT SATURDAYS @ 11pm

Five stories. Five cliffhangers.
Only three can continue. YOU decide.

Featuring Your Host... TERRY TOCANTINS

How SERIAL KILLERS Works

Each week, three continuing stories face off against two new tales.  (Click here for this week's serials!)

At the end of the show, you vote for the three stories that you would like to see continue on to next Saturday night, where their subsequent episodes will then be pitted against two completely new storylines.

Each week's serials could live on for weeks... or be quietly smothered in their sleep – it’s up to you. But whichever pieces you vote for, one thing is for certain - by the end of the evening, you will be a Serial killer.

PLAYOFFS 'n' PRIZES!

The Seventh season will culminate in May & June of 2012 in a head-to-head battle royale between the sixteen top serials, including the eight longest-running serials plus audience-choice selections!  First prize:  $750, Second prize: $250!  Plus, those final two serials will be the only ones that get to finish their storylines!

TRIVIA

* On and on and on... The longest-running serial ever was Magnum Opus Theatre, at a whopping 36 episodes!  Magnum spanned our first and second seasons, and eventually was spun off into a late-night show of its own!  (Since we began the playoffs in Season 4, storylines no longer carry over multiple seasons, so no serial will ever beat Magnum's record... or that of the second-longest running serial, the 31-episode epic Darque Magick, better known as "It's Mystere!")

* "Don't call them skits!" The ambition and wide range of material in Serial Killers has made it a fertile proving ground for new work, and several Serial Killers serials have been adapted into full-length plays for our mainstage.  The critically-acclaimed Beaverquest:The Musical, the award-winning Watson: The Last Great Tale of Sherlock Holmes, the sellout hit CarnEvil: A Gothic Horror Rock Musical and the subversive The Magic Bullet Theory all got their start in Serial Killers.  And in Sacred Fools' sixteenth season, we add three more to the roster, as A Kind of Love Story, the rechristened Absolutely Filthy and the Watson sequel Watson and the Dark Art of Harry Houdini become mainstage shows. Check out the originals: Beaverquest * Watson * CarnEvil * The Magic Bullet Theory * A Kind of Love Story * PP@30

* Ride 'em!  If a serial makes it to twelve episodes, it is said to have achieved "The Pony."  This is not a sexual position (unless you really want it to be).  "The Pony" is named for our first-ever serial, Pony Show, which ran for a then-unprecedented twelve episodes.  But at that stage of the game, everything was unprecedented by definition, so, um... I kinda forgot my point.  Moving on...

* Holy cow, you're famous! Several celebrities have appeared in Serial Killers over the years, including Jenna Fischer (The Office), Jennifer Morrison (House MD) and Dana Snyder (Aqua Teen Hunger Force).  Ryan Gosling once made an appearance  via a pre-taped video, and French Stewart enjoyed himself so much that he's now a Sacred Fools company member and a Serial Killers semi-regular!

* Music!  Not only do we write and rehearse a brand-new show every week, but there are often full-blown musical numbers.  From Richard Levinson's funky theme from The Incredible Scooter Cops and his moving "This Piano is Magic" from Ask Elizabeth, to Bobby's Stapf's country-rock stylings in Beaverquest, to Joe Jordan's sweet WWII-era showtunes from Seamen! The Musical, to Michael Teoli's gothic rock opera in CarnEvil and 8-bit music for Grip of Violence II - not to mention the theme song by Gary Stockdale (see below) - you should come to Serial Killers prepared to dance in your seat more often than not!

MEDIA

MELTCAST

Sacred Fools' Marz Richards and Jaime Robledo appear on Meltdown Comics' Meltcast to discuss Neighborhood 3, Serial Killers and their favorite comic books!  Listen to their appearance below, or hear the full podcast on the Meltcast website.

REVIEWS

L.A. WEEKLY (Recommended!)

Creating new material every week for the stage is an insane undertaking, and here Sacred Fools takes on the challenge with tenacity and balls. Ten-minute episodes of five different ongoing plays trump across the stage every week. At the end of the evening, the audience chooses three that will return with a new episode the following week. In the hands of lesser craftsmen, the endeavor could easily turn into mush. But most of the serials presented on the night I attended were well worth the challenge of an 11 p.m. curtain, and two in particular got my enthusiastic votes. "Pony Show!", written by Padraic Duffy and directed by Aaron Francis, followed Jimmy (Avi Klein) and his pursuit to become the most famous horse trainer in the world, a dream threatened by the evil and campy Chamois (a great performance by Henry Dittman). And Ben Rock directed Bob DeRosa’s "Zombibi," which featured the hilarious Dawn Stahlak as a bride-to-be made undead on her wedding day, who now must keep making amends with the "loved ones" in her life until she stumbles across the one who originated the curse.

-- Luis Reyes
© 2005 L.A. Weekly

SoCal.com

Pssst! Wanna commit a murder without getting arrested? It’s possible at the Sacred Fools Theater every Saturday night in their ongoing production of Serial Killers.

Every week five stories are presented. Some are continuous while others are making their debut. At the end, ballots are collected and the audience decides which plays stay and which have to go.

Last Saturday night was the premiere of Jimmy Hoffa and the Magic Pie written by Jeffrey Pfeiffer and Hate Stories by Jenelle Riley. Hoffa is about the missing union leader who miraculously re-appears after a lengthy absence. Jimmy (wonderfully played by Adam Bitterman) is still stuck in the 60s. He tries to make a comeback of sorts with the help of two mob guys Tony Pro (Brendan McLoughlin) and Tony Jack (Al Patino). The magic pie in question has the answer to Hoffa’s question. Hmmm. Very interesting!!!

Riley is Maggie in her self-penned story. She flips the script on a stalker and treats him as welcome visitor instead of psycho prowler. She invites John (Troy Vincent) in for cocktails and tries to get to know him better. After all she knows nothing about him except he likes to masturbate and smell her panties. Meanwhile, Paul (Jon Monastero) is Maggie’s other stalker who hates that John is invading his territory. Monastero and Vincent were hysterical beyond belief even if the story is disturbing and sometimes revolting. On the lighter side, Bugadoodles by Padraic Duffy is reminiscent of a children’s television show.

In this fifth episode [second, actually - editor], Glow Worm (Rebecca Larsen), Dung Beetle (Philip Newby), Lady Bug (Stacey Jackson), Bee (Matthew Garland) and May Fly (Jaime Andrews) decide to go swimming. It doesn’t matter that bees won’t go near water or may flies have a short life span, gosh darn it, the beach is the place to be. On their adventure, they meet a shy Stick Bug (Joe Jordan) who quickly becomes the Bugadoodles friend when he helps Bee out of a sticky problem. Unbeknownst to the gang, Clarence (Henry Dittman) is on a mission to control the bugadoodles. Think of the cranky Gargamel from the 80s cartoon show The Smurfs. It’s so damn corny but fun to watch at the same time.

On a funnier side, the ever-popular Magnum Opus Theatre churned out their 17th episode.  You don’t really need to know what the other episodes were about to catch up. It’s easy to figure out. A host comes out and explains what the audience will see. Amber (Franci Montgomery) is a sweet natured young girl from Louisiana who moved in with her white trash aunt Jasmin (Kimberly Atkinson) after her parents died. In this episode, her friend wait for her to come out of a coma and then the fun begins. This acting and movements are overly exaggerated and yet it works perfectly. As the first show of the evening, the audience cheered and roared for Magnum. And this was before Haven Hartman, better known as the Beer Wench, carried a vinyl cooler filled with Tecate and Heinken beers.

Out of the five stories, Hate Stories and the fifth episode of Office Fu, which blends corporate America and 70s karate flicks, were killed by the audience. This means that two new stories will have a chance to be either liked or killed by the audience. And the mad man who hosts this medley of hysterical chaos is Terry Tocantins. His wiry frame and infectious joyous personality emits high-octane energy that an audience member easily absorbs. You can’t get this much quality from watching a late night movie. Audience participation is a huge part of the show. The actors favor this and the audience, enjoying their tiny cup of wine, soda or beer in hand, happily oblige.

-- Mary Montoro
© 2006 SoCal.com

Also read SoCal.com's review of the 2006 First Annual Thursty Awards