Several of my Utah-based friends are involved in something called Sack Lunch TV, whose output so far is three amusing sketches that have been filmed and uploaded to the Interwebs, where you can view them.

The sketches are called “Humble Pie,” “The Man Date,” and “Cheesebigot.” I think all three of them are funny, albeit in varying degrees.

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If you find yourself near Provo, Utah, tonight, do not despair! There is still a reason to live. That reason is the Thrillionaires Improv Theatre, performing at 8:15 p.m. tonight at the Velour Live Music Gallery, 135 N. University Ave. Admission is $5 at the door.

The theme this time is “French Foreign Film,” which causes one to wonder what other kinds of French films there are besides foreign ones. The Thrillionaires’ usual plan is to do a 45-minute improvised play in the chosen style, take a break, then do a 30-minute improvised musical in the same style. I’ve seen the group twice and have been delighted by their skill for merrymaking. And I’ve seen most of the individual actors perform dozens of times in other venues, and they usually make me laugh until I cry great teardrops of laugh-tears. So I heartily recommend tonight’s Thrillionaires show, is what I’m saying.

Chris Clark stars in “Stalking Santa.” Barely visible in the passenger seat is Daryn Tufts, who wrote the film and also appears in it.

Two months ago I mentioned a movie called “Stalking Santa,” a mockumentary about a man seeking to prove the existence of Kris Kringle. It was made by some friends of mine (and some people I don’t know) in Utah, and it’s gotten rave reviews at the film festivals it’s played at. But it still had no firm release date, nor even a distributor — tragic, when you consider “Wild Hogs” had a release date and a distributor before it was even made.

Now I bring you two bits of information:

1) The film has been picked up by Excel Entertainment and will be released in theaters in time for the holiday season. Excel has almost exclusively done Mormon-themed movies so far, so this will be a departure for them, as “Stalking Santa” has no Utah or Mormon content. Hopefully they don’t chicken out and only market the film in Utah just because that’s what they’re used to.

2) You can see the movie this weekend at the Utah Family Film Festival, being held at University Mall Cinemas in Orem. It’s screening Thursday at 5 p.m., Friday at 7:10 p.m., and Saturday at 6:10 p.m. Cast members will be in attendance each time to answer questions and stuff. Tickets are $5 if you buy them online ($6 at the door), which means it’s cheaper to see it now than it will be when it’s released in theaters later this year.

I don’t know much about the rest of the fledgling festival. The lineup of films looks reasonable, with more than just Utah-made films on the list. The schedule includes special screenings of “The Goonies” and “Napoleon Dynamite,” too, so that’s cool. If you find yourself in Utah Valley this weekend, maybe you should check it out.

I found myself in Provo, Utah, on Monday, and I went to see a performance by the Thrillionaires, an improv group started last year by some of my friends. It was the second show of theirs I’d seen, and I continue to be astounded at their level of talent.

It’s not just improv comedy, you see. Most of the performers are ComedySportz veterans, or alumni of other comic organizations, and they’ve mastered the improvisation skills. With the Thrillionaires, they take it to another level.

Usually the first half of the show is a 40-minute improvised play in a particular style. Past themes have included Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams, and film noir. This week it was John Steinbeck: dusty, impoverished people working on ranches in the 1930s, that sort of thing. The Thrillionaires’ on-the-spot creation was hilarious, multi-layered, and even a little touching.

In the second half of the show, they often do a musical. Improvising a musical is hard enough, and they tend to make it even more rigorous

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I was in Utah for a few days last week, visiting friends and family in my old stomping grounds. It’s always nice to see my bros and hos in the Beehive State.

On Monday, a couple of fun things happened. I had a few minutes before I was supposed to be somewhere, so I stopped at the Barnes & Noble in Orem to browse. There was an exceptionally large crowd of people milling around, many of them youngsters, so I wondered if I’d happened upon a field trip of some kind. Then I saw that an autograph-signing was in progress, featuring Brandon Mull, author of the “Fablehaven” books.

Brandon and I are both BYU alumni, and we’ve occasionally crossed paths over the years. He was part of Divine Comedy, the sketch troupe that was inspired by my Garrens Comedy Troupe, and now of course we’re both writers. Except he writes fiction, and he has fabulously well-attended book-signings.

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When I was in Salt Lake City in January, I saw a truck pulling one of those combination trailer/billboards. The ad was in support of Utah’s new school voucher program, wherein the state will pay you money not to send your kid to public school, or something like that.

Here is a picture I took of the billboard in question:

In case you can’t quite make it out, here’s an enlargement:

This is a pretty good endorsement for the voucher program, actually. The people who made this sign were probably educated by public schools, and look where it got them.

Vice President Dick “Richard” Cheney’s visit to Brigham Young University’s commencement ceremony on Thursday passed smoothly and without incident, though there had been much controversy beforehand. The cantankerous, go-F-yourself-encouraging veep, known in some circles as Bush’s “attack dog,” came across as likable and pleasant in his address to graduates and their guests. He didn’t say anything controversial or political (I don’t think anyone expected him to; it wouldn’t be the right forum for that), and he even earned a couple of laughs.

You can hear his entire speech here. Note the places where he got the biggest applause: when he extended President Bush’s well wishes to the graduates, and when he mentioned BYU’s consistent ranking as No. 1 in the category of “stone-cold sober” colleges.

He cracked a few jokes at his own expense. He said that in his own college career, he nearly earned a doctorate, lacking only the dissertation. “I’ll get started as soon as I come up with a topic,” he said.

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With all of pop-culture-savvy Mormondom (that’s about 50 people) abuzz over news of filmmaker Richard Dutcher’s announcement that he has left both the Mormon cinema movement and the Mormon church, it was only a matter of time before the man himself stepped forward to offer some clarifications. And now he has done so, not by writing another commentary in the Daily Herald, but by posting a comment on a blog. (See, mainstream media? Blogs ARE important!)

The site is By Common Consent, and it’s a smart, Mormon-faithful group of thoughtful writers. One of them, Taryn Nelson-Seawright, wrote a stirring essay about Dutcher’s work, prompting a lively Dutchergate discussion. Then Dutcher himself piped up. His comment is #77, and this link should take you directly to it.

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Kieth Merrill: You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

Richard Dutcher’s commentary in last Thursday’s edition of the (Provo, Utah) Daily Herald sent shockwaves throughout the Mormon blogging community. (Of course there’s a Mormon blogging community. There’s a blogging community for everything.) I recommend reading it in its entirety, but here are some key excerpts:

The church would never allow shoddy, inexperienced architects and builders to create one of its temples. In its sacred commitment to excellence, the church searches for and employs those with the necessary talents, non-Mormons and Mormons alike. Some day, church leaders also will understand the power and potential of film. The cinema of a movement as great as Mormonism must be directed by great artists, not by inexperienced committees. Imagine the potential of images to convey the deepest, most sacred doctrines of Mormonism.

Look at the movies that play on the screen of the theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. These films are the introduction of Mormonism to hundreds of thousands of people from across the globe. Shouldn’t these be the most powerful films on the face of the earth? For whatever reason — nepotism, ignorance … who knows? — this opportunity is squandered. Why not share with visitors the beauty and power of Mormonism, rather than treating them to polite, remedial and not-so-factual recitations of Mormon History and scripture? Viewers should leave those films weak in the knees, their minds reeling, their spirits soaring. Film has the power to do that.

He also said he is no longer a practicing Mormon (a big shock to most readers), but he loves the church and its doctrines and has simply gone a different direction, spiritually.

On Saturday, the Herald ran a viewpoint by Chris Heimerdinger, a popular LDS novelist whose book “Passage to Zarahemla” is being made into a film to be released this summer. Heimerdinger’s comments don’t really interest me, so I’m not going to talk about them.

The real juicy response to Dutcher’s article was published right next to Heimerdinger’s, both covered by one central headline: “Answering Dutcher.” This one was by Kieth Merrill (misspelling of “Keith” is correct), who won a Best Documentary Feature Oscar in 1973 for “The Great American Cowboy.” He was a little annoyed by Dutcher’s dismissal of the films that play at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. These movies, first “Legacy” and most recently “The Testaments,” are hour-long motion pictures that depict stories, dramatized but fact-based, pertaining to Mormonism. Dutcher described them as “polite, remedial and not-so-factual recitations of Mormon History and scripture.” This offended Merrill because, um, he wrote and directed them.

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Richard Dutcher in his upcoming film “Falling.”

Richard Dutcher, whose 2000 film “God’s Army” launched a new wave of Mormon-themed theatrical features, announced two things last week: that he’s leaving Mormon cinema, and that he’s leaving the Mormon church.

This is big news to followers of LDS cinema, and small news to people who didn’t realize there was such a thing as LDS cinema. But in Utah there has been no bigger film-related story in this decade than Mormon cinema — films made by, for, and about Mormons.

“God’s Army,” released March 10, 2000, was the first. Its $2.1 million gross showed Utah filmmakers that a movie with a niche audience (Mormons comprise only about 2 percent of the U.S. population) could be successful, provided they kept costs low and turned out a good product. Dutcher himself made the movement’s second entry, “Brigham City” (2001). By the end of 2003, 10 more non-Dutcher LDS films had been released, some good, some bad, some profitable, some not. As of this writing, another dozen or so entries have been filed, including Dutcher’s third film, “States of Grace” (2005), which is far and away the best of the lot and one of the best films of any kind of that year.

Most of these played only in Utah theaters. A few did well enough to move into other locations, mostly in the western U.S., where the highest concentration of Mormon audiences is. None ever managed to be the illusory “crossover success” that many directors were hoping for; in general, non-Mormons have shown no interest in watching movies they perceived as being for Mormons only.

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