Colin and AJ’s ___________

a.k.a. Colin and AJ’s Everybody Get’s a Slice of Ham

Often regarded by the two of us, not to mention many of our most loyal fans, as our worst party, the planning process for 2017’s “Colin and AJ’s ____________” was fraught.

(Still) Drunk on the success of “Christmas in Space,” we started 2017 with big ideas. Our initial plan for the party was a highly conceptual and complex scavenger hunt which would take places across the Central West End. The Mayor would send out handwritten letters to everyone on the invite list telling them that all the Christmas presents he bought them had been stolen and Christmas–the party included–were canceled. Guests would then report to a pub in CWE and be given a set of clues which would take them to locations all across the neighborhood. There would be dozens of different routes and attendees would happen upon art galleries with Colin and AJ art, stores with Colin and AJ merchandise, restaurants with Colin and AJ food, and so on and so forth. The end of the night, we hoped, guests would solve all their puzzles and arrive at one big party location to celebrate. The Mayor’s presents would’ve been found and everyone would’ve left with a gift.

Obviously this never got off the ground. We figured December would be too cold to ask people to wander around outside, but really we just lacked the budget, chops, and will power to make this idea a reality. So we dropped it and didn’t much discuss the party until fall.

When we began spitballing ideas the concept of a “canceled” party held over. We did toy with the idea of a Christmas-themed game show, but mostly kept our focus in the meta partyless-party world.

Truth be told though we didn’t have many strong ideas and we weren’t even brainstorming at the kind of pace we’d need to in order to deliver a proper follow up to 2016’s movie. So the final product, Colin and AJ’s _________, was really quite honest. We decided we’d poll our friends and family for party ideas, pull an idea out of a hat the night of the show, and improvise a party from there.

The results weren’t as bad as our memories believe they were and the theme which we ultimately pulled from the hat, “Everybody Get’s a Slice of Ham,” has given us years of continued jokes.