They Read The News Today, Oh Boy
PIT’s latest improv framework finds inspiration from tabloid fodder
By
Kyle Riveral / Jester correspondent
The Jan. 17 performance of the People’s Improv Theater’s tabloid
inspired improv show, “Headless Body in Topless Bar,” found the
performers duly inspired by New York Post headlines, even with a smaller
audience due to the holiday. The show did get the audience that was
there involved, giving everyone a copy of the day’s paper to choose
headlines from as suggestions for the performers.
Establishing a more relaxed and intimate setting, the improvisers
started by announcing favorite headlines from the pile strewn across the
table. “Crazed Dad Freaks Out” was quick to receive utterance from one
of them. “Globe’s Bogus” arose from another (referencing the previous
night’s Golden Globe awards covered in the paper), to which one
responded “Maybe they just have a preference for maps.” The improvisers
ran with the idea of characters having dire passion for maps as long as
they could. Nearing the conclusion of these announcements the very same
performer who praised the “Crazed Dad” headline again spoke out. “Here’s
one I think we can all relate to: ‘Crazed Dad Freaks Out.’” Based on
performers’ responses it wasn’t evident whether this reference was
deliberate, though it seems he’d had to have had some sort of stroke to
forget.
Once all was up and running, the framework of organized chaos that
ensued consisted of tagging in and out at will. No props; just chairs.
One such tag was centered around the concept of the crazed “cat lady,”
wherein Oscar Montoya (wearing a Daffy Duck shirt, high-tops, and thick
black-framed glasses, looking like he could be the fourth Beastie Boy
circa their Paul’s Boutique album) leapt in as a cat and was immediately
riled by rivaling cats, fighting for the cat lady’s gravy. He sprung
upright with a hunched back, light swagger, and contorted arms that
perfectly emulated the perturbed feline in an almost disturbing manner.
The tangential nature of such performances leads to some strange places.
Adonis, a narcoleptic partner in discourse with a man looking to “change
(his) shoes in for new shoes,” finds bizarrely homosexually-associated
comfort in this subway small talk. A sweet country woman approaches with
smiling awe a homeless person on the New York City streets. “How’d you
become homeless?” She adds a naively emphatic “I always like to ask.”
Tying into the aforementioned globe pun, two ostensibly Italian men
speaking with what seemed to be bad Puerto Rican accents played the role
of Galileo and his father. The intensity was daytime TV-worthy. “The
earth is not round; it’s flat and square.” “I think we flattened that
out a long time ago.” “Okay, father, the earth is not a circle because
of science, but because of her beautiful titties!” “Then it would be two
circles.”
In
the latter part of the performance, the map references returned, as
another presumably Italian character, but with a Puerto Rican accent,
exhibits raging carnal desires for maps. His father, in an attempt to
break him of his unnatural obsession, hounds him to cop a feel of a
woman’s bosom. In such a situation he inadvertently addresses the woman
as Tunisia, but slyly masks it by saying “No, I said Tanisha. Your name
is Tanisha, right?” And finally, tying all of these scenes together in
true long-form improv style, Adonis, the random passerby on the subway,
at the close of the show replaces Galileo as the head Chippendales’
existential stripper.
“Headless Body in Topless Bar” runs again at The PIT on Monday, Jan. 24. |