Origin Of Comedy

Dead Superhero Orchestra live at Penny Road

Grief. Death. Resurrection. Big issues, and the Dead Superheroes Orchestra will address them with its mix of rock and classical songs and a sound that’s reminiscent of “Dracula’s Lament” in Judd Apatow’s 2008 romantic comedy “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” at the Penny Road Pub in Barrington July 9.

DSO founder, singer and guitarist Mark Winston of Chicago, takes seriously the music of the 11-piece band that includes violins, cellos, an upright bass, piano and drums. (A harp and 20-member choir will be added later in the summer.)

The sound Winston developed is inspired by heavy metal, the music he loved most as a kid, and later German industrial and Goth music, the music composition he studied at University of Chicago and his interest in the stage.

Fun, too

“It was like bringing together the music I enjoyed listening to growing up and the classical training I had at school and the affinity for theater I’ve had over the years,” he said. “A lot of the songs deal with death and grief, but also there’s a lot of poking fun at death and poking fun at coming back to life. I sort of am fascinated by the thought of what it would be like to come back from the dead and exist in this modern world.”

Songs include titles such as “A Story About Love and Death,” “I’ll Spend My Nights in the Graveyard,” “Vexed,” and Sorrowful Sunlight,” among other names with dark imagery. But, he also alludes often to Greek mythology and Shakespeare in his songs.

In 2004, the group started as just a trio, with a guitarist, cellist and violinist from the University of Chicago, where Winston attended. But, in 2005, he added more strings and a piano. It grew even more after that.

“A couple years later I decided to fill out the band to be more like a rock group,” he said. “So we added the upright bass and drums in 2007. We added a second guitar shortly after that.”

Mythic origins

The name of the band/orchestra came from the songs he started writing in 2004 intended for a rock opera/musical about the origins of a superhero.

“It was kind of a parody of the story of Orpheus and also sort of playing on a resurrection story, like the story of Christ or something like that,” he said. “The name came from that musical, which was called ‘Dead Superheroes’.

Chicks with Schticks: My Origin Story, or, Nothing says “comedy ...

I never wanted to be a feminist.  Girls are icky.  It’s true and it needs to be said.  They use uncomfortable words like “empowerment” and “tampon,” sometimes in the same sentence and without irony.  I just wanted to be one of the boys.  I wanted to be  like my Hemmingway-esque father who raised me by himself for most of my teenage years.  I wanted to box, and be good at math, learn astronomy, and hunt with a compound bow.  I wanted to read science fiction and like it.  I wanted to be smart.  Not girl-smart, not I study too hard and behave and wave my hand in the face of teacher like Hermione Frickin’ Granger smart, but boy-smart.  Witty and defiant.  I wanted to not bathe for days.  And I did!  I did it all.  In a not so macho turn, however, I contracted pneumonia my second week into the semester.   I was down for the count for half of the first semester and missed out on a great deal of the essential socializing time that defines a college career.  In October, I managed to crawl down to the student activities fair in a last ditch effort to make some friends before Christmas.  I made my way to the drama club table despite having sworn to myself in a private letter that I would never, Never, do theater again.  I have always had a love/hate relationship with the stage.    First off, too many girls.  Did I mention girls are icky?  Second, I am kinda ugly.  Please, no sympathy, this is just a statement of fact.  I’ve seen the pictures.  I’ve had cellulite on my calves – not my legs, mind you, my CALVES – since I was 13.  And there are very few parts written for ugly women.  In short, I played a lot of black men.        But remember I was desperate.  Theater was something I knew I could hop into right away, so coughing residual pneumonia-filled coughs, I approached one of the drama club recruiters.  The table was being manned by a blond headed, squarish guy we will call, let’s see, Barney.  I wish I could remember the whole conversation, but I don’t.  But here’s the highlight:  I asked Barney if he had any musical auditions coming  up.  He gave me a skeptical look and told me that I had just missed their Fall Homecoming Show.  Shucks.

English comedy, its role and nature from Chaucer to the present day

The Origin of Attic Comedy

The Origin of Attic Comedy

The roots of theatre, rethinking ritual and other theories of origin

The origin of the German carnival comedy