The Deadbeat Club TV DVD premiere party celebrates the first release by a group of local comedians who decided to shape their own destinies. “This was mainly about taking control and making our own names,” writer and director Steven Katz says. The result is a 45–minute, -broadcast-quality DVD featuring 14 sketches that tackle TV (yuppie-skewering skit “iTrade” and the cop spoof “Spic and Spann”), religion (“Jewish Pain” as viral video) and race (“Blaxsposé”). Katz, an animator and video editor, is quick to note the slick production, and the members of the year-old The Deadbeat Club, who claim to be “registered sketch offenders,” describe their work as “the best sketch comedy you’ll ever see (that wasn’t made in L.A. or N.Y.).” If you like your comedy a little bloody and inappropriate for network television, you’ll be inclined to agree. The party begins at 8 p.m. River Oaks Theatre, 2009 West Gray. For information, visit www.deadbeatclubtv.com. $5.


Thu., Feb. 26, 8 p.m., 2009

This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 4, 2009.