from The Bloomington Voice
Sept. 1-8, 1993

Stumbling into a second season of stupidity!

J&B on the Rox premieres Tuesday at the Bird

By Marge Snedeker

So maybe you've never been to a Hollywood premiere. But you can go to a Bloomington premiere, this Tuesday at the Bluebird, when local celebrities/cult heroes J and B kick off the new season of their BCAT show, J&B On the Rox. The evening's festivities will include performances by local bands El Nino and Go Mango, in addition to the first episode of the new season of J&B, entitled "J&B's Freshman Orientation."

After a whole summer of J&B reruns, the new episodes have been much anticipated by viewers. J offers a sneak preview:

"The gist of the episode is kind of giving freshmen and new people in Bloomington a taste of things in Bloomington that the university or the Herald-Times or whatever just won't tell them, like where to buy the best liquor and where to get pornography and that kind of stuff."

For the uninitiated, the show is an offbeat look at art, life, culture, society, and whatever else the two hosts feel like looking at. The basic premise if that of teaching the viewers how to mix a variety of drinks, all with "simulated alcohol," according to J, even as they urge people to use alcohol responsibly. Special guests are often featured, and Christy Paxson, star of The Christy Paxson Show (also on BCAT), now hosts a regular segment on J&B.

Prefaced by a multitude of warnings about possible foul language and nudity, each episode features the two and their guests in various settings and situations, from a party to a hospital room to their kitchen.

"We did 32 episodes last year," says J. "The last one was, "Mom, Dad, I'm Getting Married," in which B and Christy announced to B's parents that they were going to get married, and this was the first time they (B's parents, not B and Christy) had ever seen the show."

The wedding will be videotaped and televised, according to B. It will be a puppet show ceremony, to be held September 25. "And the viewers can watch either the demise of the relationship, or the flowering, however it works out," says Paxson. She will continue to be a featured guest on J & B, as a "tour-guide type person," as J calls her. Her weekly segment will show viewers various points of interest around southern Indiana, and she is currently accepting suggestions for the name of the segment.

The upcoming season contains even more highlights, say the hosts. "You'll also be seeing something called an 'Anarchist's Diary,' which will be featuring a homeless man in town who's going to give tips on living on the streets," says B. "So that will be, hopefully, a weekly segment. But that hasn't quite gotten off the ground yet... And then maybe a segment called 'Jobs,' just looking at people's jobs, lifestyles of the non-rich and poor... Other highlights of the season are going to incude 'My Mother, The Doctor,' which is about J's mom, who just got her doctorate, and 'J's Summer Vacation.'" Adds J: "Oh, and then we broke into a house, actually, and we filmed it, up in Carmel, and that's going to be an episode pretty soon."

No, nothing is off limits for these "funky young monarchs of self-promotion," as B calls them. They also have T-shirts and other J&B merchandise for sale (including a J&B video game, personalized J&B answering machine tapes, and even a "special limited edition J&B cheese sculpture"), and a free publication called the "Smiling Dog," which you can get by writing to them (P.O. Box 3241, Bloomington, 47402).

And you can always feel free to write to them for any reason at all. "That's the marvelous thing -- people write in to us and actually appear on the television show," says B. "People can reach out and contact us and have a part in the telvision program; that's a piece of its charm and quirkiness and silliness."

So be at the Bird this Tuesday to help them launch their new season, and watch for them every Tuesday night at 11 pm on BCAT, channel 3. It's always entertaining, and, on occasion, almost thought-provoking. Says J: "You know, all the great artists throughout history have been drug abusers, so it only stands to reason that at some point, someone would actually create an artistic product that just glorifies drug abuse itself."