How do you string to following together and make it funny? And by the way, they were inspired by toast. Yes, toast.
Back to the Future
Robots a la The Stepford Wives
A Rube Goldberg machine
Danny DeVito
pederasts
empty movie theaters
predestination
ghost writers
meta-murder mysteries
Pee Wee Herman
Indian baseball Chicago Cubs fan who only goes to games to sing songs during the seventh-inning stretch
The Challenger Shuttle explosion
The invention of a earthquake, tsunami, cyclone detection device made from boride (a complete fabrication)
Switchblade combs
Corporate presentations followed by a striptease (by a dude)
sour patch kids (the candy)
telephone operator suffering a breakdown due to a) a devastating divorce or b) the weather
Christopher Lloyd
taxis
English taxis
overpriced English taxis
fate and causality v. free will
Slow motion fight scenes that last for 14 days
Michael J. Fox’s year of death
Ronald Reagan’s Alzheimer’s
wrestling
burgling wrestlers
burgling wrestlers who play in rock bands called Snake Pit
The answer? By watching The Reckoning, the improv troupe from Chicago. They rocked tonight.
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I agree! These guys and gals are terrfic! My big Spoleto event last night was Shantala Shivalingappa, who was ethereal and life-affirming. (See my fuller response at my blog.)
Following the dance I ran over to Theatre 99 to see The Reckoning. They perform in a “Harold” format - my favorite structure for improv, and have amazing command of what is known of as group mind. It’s almost hard to believe that the work isn’t scripted, given how easily it flows and how well it all comes together. I laughed for the whole hour. As silly as it may seem, one thing that truly impressed me was, after almost an hour of playing multiple characters, when they picked up characters they’d created at the beginning, they instantly remembered what voice they’d used. Good improv isn’t just about being funny and creating scenes; it’s about keeping track of it all and pulling it all together at the end. This group does that brilliantly. They only have three more shows. Catch them.