Thanks guys. This person is REALLY getting out of hand.

Here is a little background.... (I'll keep it short.) I do a web site and do live sound (with my empeg! ) for an improv comedy troupe in Detroit. Over the years, a little rivalry has formed with another troupe. It was always profession and most people didn't even know about it. This January, the theater that we rented every week shut down when it changed owners. We have been looking for a new "home". And were recently (last week) invited to perform at a place called the Comedy Castle. This place is top notch and we were invited to perform with some stand-ups. The problem is that the Comedy Castle happens to be the competeing troupe's "home" and they have had an exclusive deal there for almost a decade. We made it known that we would love to be there and they made it known that they were pissed we were allowed to perform for even one night. (This is SO petty I can't believe it!)

Now, I probably didn't help matters when after last week's show I put a Guestbook on our page with the current topic being "Would you like us to perform at the Comedy Caslte again?" We have several hundred subscribers to our mailing list so we were getting some nice compliments. Well... the other troupe found out and got pissed. (Again, this is SO petty.) We suspect that THEY have been posting these smearing comments. Here is what they have posted so far:

In reply to:

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Message #1 - Thursday, March 14th 2002 - 10:42:11 PM STILL ONLINE
By: "Steve" - [email protected] (notice the misspelling of "steves@") IP: 68.41.48.90
Saw you guys on Wednesday cuz I'm a big fan of Chris J. Newberg...but was wondering why you don't call yourself Motor City Sketch? Ridley's already has an awesome troupe that does improv every Tuesday, real improv-you should check them out!
(Such a big fan or Newberg that he wrote his name wrong! “J. Chris Newberg”)

Message #2 - Thursday, March 14th 2002 - 11:08:06 PM OFFLINE (this is the one I thought was posted at 6am)
By: "Jack S" - [email protected] IP: 68.41.48.90
(Same IP as Message #1. He is using the same computer traced to a Comcast ISP in Canton, MI)
Just saw you guys at Ridleys and I'm a regular at Comedy castle, and how could I put this nicely? you ruined my week. I didn't laugh didn't smile, you guys need some more practice sorry but I want to be honest. Well I felt better when I asked Mark Ridley for my money back after seeing your "Improv show" the next day, and he was grateful enough to do so, I suggest you guys try a local bar full or drunks before you hit the comedy clubs. (Repition in style/verbage and identical IP’s – this is the same guy.)

Message #3 - Friday, March 15th 2002 - 08:54:55 AM OFFLINE
By: "Jack S", IP: 32.97.239.14
(This IP is provided by AT&T Buisiness Broadband who sells to a lot of companies locally.)
Well I can see what kind of people you are! Thanks for deleting my comments I made about how I said MCI isn’t good enough for the big boys yet in comedy clubs, and should practice at a local bar in front of a bunch of drunks! I’ve never seen a group of people write in there own guest book and try to act like they are fans, And replying to Gilda and Steve, Steve’s right TUT is better then MCI and that’s my opinion so delete this! One more question if MCI is so good and TUT isn’t why don’t you have a home? And why every night I go to see TUT they have a sold out house? Strange….
(This one if my favorite where he refers to the post he made as “Steve”.)

Message #4 - Friday, March 15th 2002 - 09:26:21 AM OFFLINE
By: “Jack S”, IP: 32.97.239.30
(Same LAN.. he basically used another computer at work)
Well I can see what kind of people you are! Thanks for deleting my comments AGAIN I’ve never seen a group of people write in there own guest book and try to act like they are fans, And replying to Gilda and Steve, Steve’s right TUT is better then MCI and that’s my opinion so don’t delete this! One more question if MCI is so good and TUT isn’t why don’t you have a home? And why every night I go to see TUT they have a sold out house? Strange….But hey we are all entitled to are opinion
(For the record, the posts are real. Many guests are friends, but still legit.)

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Both the Comcast IP (68.41.48.90) and the work LAN (32.97.239.*) have been blocked from posting to the Guestbook again. Because of dynamic IP’s and there being a trillion computers in the world, this is just a temporary fix.

Now, what I would LOVE to do is prove that someone from this other troupe did this. It would be as simple as nailing down what cities the posts were being made from. Then I could look up the cities that he works in and make the connection. Then I could send an email to the owner of that Comedy Castle and ask him to take care of it privately. I don't want to stoop to their level, but I do want to be able to prove my hunch.

Any suggestions? Should I call the A-Team?

EDIT: No real email address is required to post msg's, so I suspect they are all fake.