Hilarity ensued when the funny folks of Apollo 12 graced Bookmans Phoenix once again to freely hand out giggles and guffaws on Friday night. As part of our Fight Censorship Month, the improv troupe tackled the topic of banned materials. We snagged members, Arturo Ruiz, Mack Duncan and Rick Lansen to browse our banned books display for their favorite titles, read excerpts out of aloud, and on the spot come up with scenes to act out. They chose some familiar titles like, The Scarlet Letter, Twilight, The Great Gatsby, Snow Falling on Cedars and Junie B. Jones and the Yucky Bucky Fruitcake, all of which have been banned. They took us back to the era of the scarlet letter and satisfied our sweet tooth with a new scenario in Ronald Dahl’s, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Bookmans appreciates all artists, visual or performing, especially when they help with our anti-censorship message. We had nearly 20 folks come out just to see their performance and at the end of the show, the guys announced that their troupe will be getting their own theatre space soon at 4727 N. Central Ave. (Central and Camelback) so keep an eye on their Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages for more info as it becomes available, I know we’ll be checking with anticipation!

We have to thank Apollo 12 for letting us borrow some of their performers for the evening and can’t wait until next year when we get to laugh the night away once again.