Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Stat Freak

Last night at the robot show, Elephant Larry performed "Ode to Robogalactica X17," a totally average sketch last seen two years ago at "A Tree Grows In Elephant Larry." This marked Elephant Larry's 1,206th performance of a sketch.

1,206.

This includes:
-our Washington and Union Squares outdoor performances back in summer 2002
-videos

This does NOT include:
-multiple part sketches (Yawn Move, a trilogy, only counts as one sketch)
-video interstitials and intro's

Since our first performance was July 27, 2002, Elephant Larry has performed, on average, over a sketch a day. 1.08 sketches a day, to be exact. Though to be honest, we usually performed between 5 and 20 at a time.

As far as distinct sketches, we've performed 159.
Least performed: 8 tied for last with 1 performance each.
Most performed: Alarm just edges out 18 Billion Staples, 37 to 35.

DISCLAIMER: I would say there's a +/- of 5% in the accuracy of these numbers. But that's OK, you forgive me!

11 comments:

Alex said...

Most used prop is easily sports coats.

Second most used prop is the flint-flasher, but that's only if we count social use of a prop, not in a show.

Anonymous said...

Geoff, did you tell them how many times you've performed "Ode to Robogalactica X17"?

Anonymous said...

get hobbies.

Alex said...

This IS our hobby.

Geoffrey said...

Anonymous 1: That number would be 6; 5 times at "A Tree Grows In Elephant Larry," 1 time yesterday. For the foreseeable future, I would imagine that number will hold steady.

Anonymous 2: Elephant Larry is like a hobby. But it's also like a job. That's why I call it a hobjob.

Anonymous said...

Geoff, you make my statistical wet dreams come true.

Pun most certainly intended.

Baz said...

geoff, yr post has inspired this sketch geek confession:

i maintain a database of all 382 animal club sketches. i can generate pie charts showing who's the most productive writer, the busiest performer, how our productivity is trending re: idea generation vs. sketch debuts on a year-by-year basis, so on and so on.

i actually used this database to get a job maintaining a real database for a medical research company.

should i be:
a) proud
b) ashamed
c) grossly ashamed

Anonymous said...

Baz,
I do the exact same thing with all of The 3rd Floor stuff. Any stat you want, I can produce within a minute...Now if I could just use that information to get a job. Then we'd be TWINSIES!!! YAAAAAYYY!!!

Geoffrey said...

BRETHREN. I am inspired to calculate more stats now.

If I knew how to maintain databases, I would do what you both do. Alas, I am restricted to Microsoft Word and its veritable Swiss army's worth of tools. Like Word Count.

I DO have every setlist we've ever performed. That's probably not as huge a deal though.

mary said...

i agree with alex that the most used props are the sport coats and white buttondowns. the gun is often used, but it's not always the SAME gun, so i wonder if that counts. i think the least used prop is sadly among the most expensive - the bowler hats. i could write statistics about how (in)frequently certain costumes were WASHED, but that's really disgusting and not something we should admit to...

Baz said...

you can do it, geoff! here's a step by step guide:

1. create an excel spreadsheet
2. make rows "sketches"
3. make columns "variables" like number of times performed, cast size, writers, etc.
4. get way too into it
5. kiss free time goodbye
6. embrace the depths of your geekitude

ted-
i'd warn you the kind of job these skills get you is the kind of job that destroys your lust for life. that said, i've always wanted a brother...and if geoff follows suit, we could be TRIPLETS! (triplettes?) SKETCH JOKE!