Wednesday, March 13, 1935
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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
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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
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flexions (jeosrgtjhl Sni.i.
era io iascmating people they p
ably won't ever nut ilzcm i
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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
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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
