Where else but TheaterLand could one encounter such a series of stupid, petty, vain, self-defeating events? (Politics, maybe.)

So.

It begins with Troy Mink, local improviser and beloved character actor, who was in something called Andy Christie's The Liar Show—a variation on the venerable party game where four people tell a story, one is a lie, and the players/audience tries to suss out which one.

In Andy Christie's The Liar Show, the human lie-detector gets a prize.

Mink realizes this is a great idea and proposes a local version at Annex Theater called Hot Pants with a stellar lineup of storytellers: David Schmader, comedian Emmett Montgomery, solo performer Keira MacDonald, director/smut-writer Gillian Jorgensen, and others.

Mink's mistake: He and Bret Fetzer (artistic director of Annex Theater) send out a press release saying Hot Pants! was "conceived and curated" by Mink and Fetzer.

Andy Christie, of Andy Christie's The Liar Show blows his stack, claiming Fetzer and Mink are liars and thieves, using an army of commenters (or just a pile of aliases) to browbeat and insult them. See the firefight here. Sample comments:

This is directly stolen from Andy Christie's The Liar Show, which Troy Mink performed in as our guest in Seattle this May. The is an absolute low in artistic ethics.

Annex Theater: cancel this booking. If you don't, you're a party to the theft of intellectual property.

GROSS GROSS GROSS. YOU DESERVE A LONG SHAMEFUL CYBER-FLAMING DEATH!!!

people are being way too nice in their posts. go fuck yourself, you stealing prick!

Fetzer freely admits the mistake:

I, carelessly and clumsily, put 'Conceived and curated by' Troy and myself on the press release for Hot Pants. At the time, I was writing it hastily and casting in my mind for a press-jargon equivalent to "written and directed by", without thinking through the implications—it wasn't my intention to claim any ownership of this idea, but that's unquestionably how it reads. (I could say that I was so certain that the idea was public domain that I didn't think it would read that way, but in truth I was on autopilot and wasn't thinking at all.) While I'm agape at Andy Christie's hysteria and bullying, I fully recognize that this mistake fanned those flames.

It was pointed out to me that the press release said this while I was in e-mail to-and-fro with Andy Christie about all of this; I sent him an immediate apology for that, but at that point he'd already posted "These guys are thieves!" on my facebook page and the digital lynch mob was well under way on Broadwayworld.com.

Andy Christie demands a royalty, Fetzer issues an apology and seriously considers paying him a fee, but Andy Christie is such a tantrum-throwing prick, Annex Theater decides it'd rather cancel the show than do business with him.

Several things went wrong here.

The big, obvious numero uno: Andy Christie claiming intellectual property rights over a very popular party game people have been playing since before the fucking Flood. Christie sent emails to the participants suggesting that they boycott the show.

As Schmader responded: "I used to play 'the Liar Game' with my North Carolina School of the Arts classmates; this was 1988. I can understand your annoyance with Troy, but my connection to a liar game long pre-dates the Liar Show..."

If Andy Christie hadn't been such a tantrum-throwing prick, he could've gotten everything he wanted: a public apology, a royalty check he didn't deserve, and free press for Andy Christie's The Liar Show. Instead, he threw a prickish tantrum and gets nothing. (Except a burgeoning Google relationship between "Andy Christie" and "tantrum-throwing prick.")

Number two: Fetzer and Mink clearly shouldn't have claimed credit for "conceiving" the liar game. But they admitted their poor etiquette/mistake and everyone should've moved on with their lives. Instead: tantrum-throwing prickery.

Number three: Annex shouldn't have caved to Andy Christie's insane demands. I cannot imagine Andy Christie, tantrum-throwing prick, would try to convince a judge that he holds the intellectual property to a very popular party game people have been playing since before the fucking Flood.

I emailed Andy "tantrum-throwing prick" Christie and asked whether he was happy with this lose-lose situation he precipitated. He wrote:

Yes I was happy with the outcome. But also a little sad that it came to that. I think the speed with which this all developed might have caused things to get a little more heated than they might have otherwise. I like Troy, and he & Bret were both great about resolving the problem.

"A little more heated?"

You think, Andy? After the blast furnace you pointed at Mink and Fetzer—for specious and childish reasons—you deserve a little blowback.

I suggest Annex re-mount show with the name Andy Christie Is a Tantrum-Throwing Prick: The Game Show!. But I'll leave it up to you, Sloggers.

As always, Slog polls are legally binding.

(And for a trip down memory lane—this whole fiasco reminds me of the ridiculous WET vs. WET lawsuit that a New York company threatened a few years ago.)