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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 13, 1985)
Wednesday, March 13, 1935 PagoO Daily Ncbraskan ffj) A ii H 11. (Sjytj .-- v .3 A- in DO . TI t u -s E i t V K 3 L 1 ft B W It 1 II I I " I- ,i f m r B 1 I I. I (ft a V lrf Bylise Ols en EtuSTEeporter The gift that unwraps itself, strip-a-grams, adds a twist to the usual song and dar.ee cf a singing telegram. Three Lincoln singing telegrun ser vices, Excite-O-Gram, 1440 M St., Tane-A-Gram, 484-TUNE, and Origin? Sing ing Telegram, 1415 Sumner St., oiTer versions of strip a grams. Excite 0-Gram, an Omaha-based company, i3 owned and managed by Jesse Conyers, a senior business major at U.N.O.. Conyers started out as a stripper-messenger to earn money for school three years ago and ended up buying the company. He expanded his service to include Lincoln six months ago. Sales have increased steadily each month since the company's Lincoln debut, Conyers said. Despite their popularity, some peo ple have misconceptions about Excite-O-Grams, Conyers said. "It's not Council Bluffs sleazy we're not an escort service or any thing. . . it's just fun," he said, although on some occasions Conyere has gotten date offers, which he has refused. In three years of stripping, Conyers and other employees have doffed their tuxedos to reveal string bikinis in bowling alleys, airports, warehouses and once in an announcer's booth at the Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack in Omaha. Part of the male dancing act is to surprise and shock the recipients. But occasional ly, Conyers said, he has been a little shocked and surprised himself. Like' the time a lady whose T-shirt read "Sixty, Sexy and Sinful" ripped the buttons off his tuxedo shirt "No one had ever done that before," Conyers said. Another time an inspired 37-year-old lady took off her skirt. Clad only in a silk slip, she joined his dance. "You don't expect an 87-year-old to do something like that," he said. For male customers, Excite-O-Gram sends the "Birthday Bunny." She arrives clad in a rabbit suit with a card in her cleavage. The Bunny will tell jokes and coax the recipient into removing her garter with his teeth but she doesn't "The bunny stays in her bunny cos tume," Coityers said. ByBillAMsn Senior Eeporter You don't often get a chance to see movies like "Repo Man" in Lincoln, so take advantage of the chance now at the Sheldon Gallery Thettre. "Repo Man" is bizarre. It's off-the-wall, black humor. It's satire. It's been called a science fiction farce, but it's also many other things. REVIEW &.C3V2fe' tfa Michael Nesmith, (Monkey's TV ser ies producer) produced the 1984 release, which explains some of the mors fsr stretched iiasges. For instance; All of the food and drink in this movie is generic, plain label. You don't ' ctch on to this right ary. All the characters, though seemingly unrelated, keep raining into each other in weird situations end all are inter twined by the end. Every csr kzs pine tree air freshen er which also are occasionally on hospital doors. And by the end of the movie, you may never open the trunk cf your car again. Basic plot: Otto (Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen's son) repossesses cars for the Helping Hands Acceptance Company. Kcw, he's at to repossess a & ilm wins with blackhumor' Another more innocent Exciie-0-Gram service is called "balloons with style." A tuxedoed messenger delivers the bsilocn3, which are accompanied by perfume and a rose (or cologne and a mug), a birthday card and a bottle of imported champagne. Lxcite-O-Gram services cost ICO for Lincoln delivery ($50 for Omaha.) Tune-A-Granv Lincoln's oldest sinking telegram service, has a version of the strip-a-gram called "Long John Stripper." Orir.-i!y Long Jchn earned his name by stripping down to long red underwear. However, owner Cecilia Lawson says that customers have got ten more liberal and so has Long John. He's traded his woolens for a more revealing bikini. Long John's colleagues at Tune-A-Gram include the Kissing Bandit, ikboon-A-Tuns, Honey Eanny and Belly (dancer) Telly. Seasonal messengers like Cupid and the Queen of Hearts make special appearances for Valentines Day (the service's busiest day of the year). Leprechauns will wear the green and dance the jig for St. Patrick's Day on March 17. In addition to its regular singing services, Tune-A-Gram will consider special requests. "Once we dressed as pigs for a guy who was retiring from Swiss Premium, Lawson said. Tune-A-Gram messengers also have made marriage proposals. Once, Law son recalled, a man and woman mes senger team pantomimed a proposal scene. They performed by the couple's table. A violinist accompanied the pair. "Luckily she (the customer's girl friend) accepted," Lawson said, "everyone in the restaurant was watch ing it would have been pretty embarrassing. Tune-A-Gram's messengers have even been asked to fire people, but Lawson said she always refused. "There's just not a nice way to do that,' she said. However, Tune-A-Gram messengers have delivered bouquets of dead flow ers and thrown pies in people's faces, Lawson said. "We kind of feel out the situation and make sure it's not a vendetta or anything," she said. Before creating Tune-A-Gram five '64 Chevy Malibu for an amazing reward of $20,000. Of course, everyone else is after the car too, including other firms besides Otto's and the U.S. Government. That's the plot, and it's a good plot. It leaves plenty of room for car chases, sex, U.F.O.'s, slinky music, fried shrimp and quite a bit cf humor, weird humor. Harry Dean Stanton is wonderful as Bud, an old-hand repo man code, kind of like a Hemingway code hero. The movie also has aEiil Murray-type character, Miller, who plays a strange part in the ending. Miller is a former hippy who cleans out the repossessed cars. "Repo Man" is also a satire cf many things in contemporary America. The movie opens with Otto working for a jerk manager in a supermarket. (He later gsts revenge on the guy.) Then we snitch to a scene cf Otto "slam. dsneir.g" ia an alley with Ms gang cf new wave far out packers. Otto kaves the gang, but they keep shoeing up, robbing liquor stores and committing ether crimes, and giving us some classic Uses, such as "Don't say cir immes, Duke, or we'll have ta kill all these psople." Lcter, Duke h shot during a liquor store robbery. Otto just happens to be in the store, ta he was during two other robberies, end Isans over the dyfog punker. "I'm just aictim cf society" Duke said, eying. "No you're not," Otto deadpans. 'Ysu'ra a whits mide-class punk." The mcvie also satirizes evangelist U .is? A ! Jr LiM! ).. years ago, Lawson worked at an Alcohol Rehabilitation Center. "I was getting depressed by the fact that everyone I worked with was depressed. I wanted to make people happy," she said. In her five years at Tune-A-Gram, Lawson has delivered messages at swimming pools, city dumps, grocery store checkout lines, city buses, con struction sites and even a men's rest room. "I honestly don't' get embarrassed anymore," Lawson said. Tune-A-Gram prices range from $14 for a basic ballocn-a-gram to $55 for a belly (dancer) telly. Original Singing Telegram offers a tamed-dowa version of the strip-a-gram called a "Comic Strip." After singing an appropriate song, the messenger discards his kasoo and mechanical racnkey and begins whst looks like a serious strip tease. But TV preachers, family relsticnships, drugs and R-rated movies, which it is. Estevez is great in the role of Otto, It's also easy to tell he's Martin Sheen's son. He has that same deadpan facial expression that conveys different mepings in different situations. Estevez goes through the movie as I did, a little bit amazed, a little bit confused and accepting everything as it comes. After the first few minutes, you cease to be surprised by anything and you just sit back and accept it, hoping the movie will eventually make sense. "Eepo Man" makes some comments about life in the United States, but you can l?Joy it without spending two hours searching for subtle meaning. It's much more fun -locking for cam paign posters, fried shrimp and plain label beer cans, which are everywhere, mi may be a w:y of saying ths 'produc ers won't fail for all the commercialism in many cf todsy's movies. But a "Eepo Man" soundtrack is avaikbk The movie is highly recommended for the college crowd, especially that ; large mority who fancy they have a slightly warped sense cf humor. If you like David Letterman, you'll like this mcvie. Screening are at 7 and' 9 p,m. tonight through March 18, with a mati nee today at 1 p.m. Thre will be no screening Saturday, March 18 and no Sunday matinse. Admission is $3. 1 got in free for the press screening but I'm gcins back . again. If 1 spring for a movi it's good. 4 after he has removed his bellhop uni form, the messenger reveals only an undershirt and & pair cf Hawaiian shorts not his birthday suit. "It's for someone who wants some thing fun and different but doesn't want to go the full nine yards with a real stripper," Maggie McGowan, co- manager of Original Singing Telegram, said. Other uniqus Original Singing Tele- gram mess2Rgcr3 include "Glittergirl" Cheer (leader)-a-gram, and "Lilly the Gorilly," an ape-suited messenger who sings in a Cpdi L&sper sort of voice, McGowan said. - OrigUidSiisgiagTelesrsaa messengers sing orinil songs composed for a company songbook. They also will include personal messages in songs. "If we don't have a song for it (the occasion) we'll write one," McGowan said. ; Original Telegram has delivered to nm jr ? r 1 1- 1 t i i I U t' i J f J Mm tn W' Tfee S2iks,M esse cf th Esstwstchtd rtiend Gccrsphlc epdsis, is ts Etssiy piwrsssa fcared in Great EIosacEts with Naticasl Gecnspc, t&& c.J7ca rJSTV. Te!isba coddn't ordlRariiy visit ' and anim- At 7 D.m. on NSW lis! thv r-ir-hi i;.?!v never en- Vi itn national Geogrgphk," a retro spective cf past National Gecsra phic Spedt!3. The ! minute program wsa crssi ed to celebrate the series 10 award winning years on FI53. From the mysterious depths cf the oceans to the lairs of the earth's deadliest animals, from the cn?:-y gnn of Sir Edmund Hillary ta ftS pntle manner of Jane Goodall, the .. .... - - ...v.(v.m flexions (jeosrgtjhl Sni.i. era io iascmating people they p ably won't ever nut ilzcm i they 1 . :.j residence halls, Greek houses and even classrooms. "We call Erst to make sure it's OK with the professor if we're going to disrupt a class, McGowan, a former junior high school teacher, said. Original Singing Telegram prices range from $23 (bailoon-'a-grain) to $70 for a belly gram. Prices vary depending on the type of costume or lack thereof, McGowan said, All three singing telegram services will deliver in a SO to 50-mile radius of Lincoln, and in some cases points beyond if miies&e is paid. KigM new (the period between Val- entines Dsy gad Father's Day) is the peak of the business year for Singing Telegram services, Lswscn said, Their worst busdasss d,7 is Halloween. That is the cue time that people 'don't feel stepid dressing up and mak- ir.g hzh out cf themselves in public, Lmon said. niiim'iiiiiiiwuiniiiiiiii i nnwiiin iiiwihiiiiiii "7 r -i f JAW , i. l - i9 -1 tmi tiwpfjii tftfm,m on scenes from tti 40 species produced since 1075. On CcisssiS a "Eepo Man" at the Sheldon Art Gallery Thestre. Admission is $3 for this cl?th3-wdl, dsk comedy. Screenings ere at 1, 7 and 9 p.ro. - O DtetzQ K" i tr Guitar Clinic is - v. t ..v O Tlis llct Nctes pb,y at the Zoo ir'tonight A $1X0 cover wiO be
