Curtains up on Fringe Fest
The Arts - Theater reviews
by Elizabeth Maupin
May 17, 2009
'A Day to Remember'
Maybe it's May, but it's Valentine's Day with Absent Minded Improv -- at least for the first of the group's seven Fringe shows, each of which takes on a different holiday. Chocolate, wedding cake and betrayal all played a part in Thursday night's offering, at which guest Andrew Connor (of The Cody Rivers Show: Meanwhile, Everywhere) spun stories from his awkward youth and the improvisers took off from there. (Different guest stars will be there each day.)
The Absents aren't especially good at fishing for audience suggestions, but it doesn't much matter: They use what they get, sometimes ingeniously, and you never know which way they'll turn. Thursday's show produced a couple of gems -- the little girl who can't decide between two boys, one of them gawky, the other of whom buys crack on the way to school; the man who must disembowel his loyal robot in order to rescue an artifact from history called a radio.
I may have been the only one who laughed really loud when the gawky boy gave his love a Valentine's Day equation (OK, I'm married to a mathematician). But, hey, that's improv. Wish hard enough, and the Absents will surely craft a joke just for you.
Remaining performances: 11:45 a.m. today, 10 p.m. Mon. 5/18, 6:40 p.m. Thurs. 5/21, 6:40 p.m. Fri. 5/22, 1:40 p.m. Sat. 5/23. Blue venue.
The Arts - Theater reviews
by Elizabeth Maupin
May 17, 2009
'A Day to Remember'
Maybe it's May, but it's Valentine's Day with Absent Minded Improv -- at least for the first of the group's seven Fringe shows, each of which takes on a different holiday. Chocolate, wedding cake and betrayal all played a part in Thursday night's offering, at which guest Andrew Connor (of The Cody Rivers Show: Meanwhile, Everywhere) spun stories from his awkward youth and the improvisers took off from there. (Different guest stars will be there each day.)
The Absents aren't especially good at fishing for audience suggestions, but it doesn't much matter: They use what they get, sometimes ingeniously, and you never know which way they'll turn. Thursday's show produced a couple of gems -- the little girl who can't decide between two boys, one of them gawky, the other of whom buys crack on the way to school; the man who must disembowel his loyal robot in order to rescue an artifact from history called a radio.
I may have been the only one who laughed really loud when the gawky boy gave his love a Valentine's Day equation (OK, I'm married to a mathematician). But, hey, that's improv. Wish hard enough, and the Absents will surely craft a joke just for you.
Remaining performances: 11:45 a.m. today, 10 p.m. Mon. 5/18, 6:40 p.m. Thurs. 5/21, 6:40 p.m. Fri. 5/22, 1:40 p.m. Sat. 5/23. Blue venue.