Eric and Derek's Hot Nuts and Popcorn Show
Mercury Cinema
11:00pm, Wed 1 Mar 2000
Score: 7
Short Review: Talk-show
Oh, how we did laugh. Eric & Derek (along with Terry and the music guy - sorry, forgot his name) present a pretty-much-nightly talk-show style performance, complete with guests, ad breaks (live "clips" from other shows) and a little stand-up. As you could imagine, the quality of the show on any given night is pretty much dependant on the guests, and what a great bunch we had tonite...
First up (after a bit of awkward banter from the "hosts") was local Channel 10 reporter Chelsea Lewis. Entertainment reporter Chelsea Lewis. Who also covers "real" news stories. Like the Christmas Shopping. And back-to-school. To be fair, she also covers sieges - but she's "never been in any dangerous situations". Fine. Pretty much what you'd expect to hear from an entertainment reporter. But she also mentioned how she gets a little angry when she sees one of her stories get butchered by her bosses ("bosses" being Channel 10, a Fringe sponsor). And that she doesn't know how long she'll stay with Channel 10 "because of all the down-sizing going on". And that what she really wants to do is documentaries - "I want to change people's lives. Especially about racism and homophobia, they're my two big topics" (you could feel the audience groan).
Well, good on her I say. Who cares that, as an entertainment reporter - reporting on the Fringe - she'd only sat through two entire shows (including this one?). Who cares that it's every journo's dream to do doco's, and that people who bad-mouth their bosses aren't likely to survive the next round of down-sizing? Who cares that someone who wants to change people's lives doesn't know who Michael Moore is? Who cares about my appalling over-use of sarcasm? Get over it, Pete!!
The ad break for the night was a snippet from "Help Wanted", which looked to be a slapstick-ish bit of physical theatre. The real bonus for the night (besides listening to "but I really want to make documentaries" - FrontLine was sooooo accurate) was that the Tripod boys appeared for a bit of a chat. Witty to the extreme, they colluded well with Eric & Derek to create much mirth and merriment.
In all - the amusement factor was high, though probably not for all the right reasons. As always, your mileage may vary...
Stewart Lee
Nova (Cinema 1)
9:20pm, Wed 1 Mar 2000
Score: 8
Short Review: Lazy-in-a-good-way
After hearing of comparisons between Stewart Lee and the late, great Bill Hicks, I was anxious to check this guy out for myself. So, along with a ton of other people (who had either heard of Lee's reputation, or were at his opening night because of the cheap tickets), I cosied into the non-air-conditioned (what? it was 40 degrees today!) Nova...
Lee's style is fabulous. The best way to describe it is to say that he makes the audience work for, long for, virtually beg for the punchline. Maybe this is an acquired taste - I definitely heard some people post-show who didn't agree with it - but I thought it was great. This was perhaps best demonstrated in his piece on the death of Princess Diana - the crux of the joke was introduced very early on, but you had to wait - almost labouring under the knowledge of what was to come - before Lee delivered the punchline that you knew was coming.
This may sound like a crap idea - trust me, it's not. I'm going to cop out just by saying - go see Stewart Lee. It's a different style of comedy, but he's still bloody funny.
Loose Moose Mammoth Big Improv Show
Mercury Cinema
7:00pm, Wed 1 Mar 2000
Score: 7
Short Review: Improv
5 Canadians, 1 stage, 1 hour, no script. Hmmmm, I wonder what can become of this? As with any improv show, you've got to be lucky on the night, and this night wasn't bad at all.
Each of the 5 participants took turns at "directing" the improvisation, with the audience voting after a given period whether or not to continue the current storyline. This provided the audience interaction required of a good improv piece. Some "directors" even asked the audience for story ideas.
It kinda seems pointless to discuss the plot of an improv show; suffice to say, it was pretty rapid-fire stuff, and bloody amusing too. However, just remember that it is improv; your mileage may vary.