Improv Review ...Because Improv is Art, Dammit

Weaselicious sucks. They don’t “yes and”, they’re self-referential, they step out of scenes to comment on them, they insult their audience, they mock and satirize improv conventions and they even make fun of other improv groups on the evening’s bill. They ask for an audience suggestion that they’re going to ignore, bring their personal life on stage (two members were recently married; we had to hear about it), and actively and vocally play to potential agents and casting directors in the audience. They let some scenes simply die on the vine and perform other scenes that are, literally, nothing more than a game of charades. But this did not come as a result of poor training or commitment, but as an active choice of this troupe, which includes veterans of Second City, Improv Olympic and the Annoyance Theater. They show that the comedy comes from creative actors, not from the structure or format of the piece.

It’s anti-improv -- improvisation about improvisation, pointing out the faults and pretensions of improvisors and members of their audiences (including me – they grabbed my reviewer’s pad and wrote their own notes about the show; specifically “Paul Grondy [followed by a bunch of squiggles]” and “Joey Canale sucked”). And while they’re having fun, they don’t much care if you do.

And they’re right on the mark with most of their satire. The show opened appearing like a standard freeform longform, a series of cut scenes focusing around a space station magician. Early on, one actor, Joey Canale, started repeating back lines he heard the other actors say, which was an actor’s training device invented by Sanford Meisner, and employed by the group Malice earlier in the evening. When the other actors didn’t pick up on it, he told them what he was trying to do. Things sort of spun out from there, at one point doing schlocky shortform, at another referring to a “very important improv director from New York” (Kevin Mullaney of Upright Citizens Brigade Theater) that they were trying to impress. All of this was eaten up by the audience, which on Saturday at midnight at the Playground, was almost entirely made up of improvisors, who understood each of the references. At the same time, the troupe kept it all in fun, they never crossed the line from tweaking noses to twisting balls.

Created by Mr. Canale (who’s alleged alter-ego, shitbag ballcowski, taunts improvisors on improv bulletin boards) the group’s goal is to ignore all the normal practices and tenets of improvisational thinking. And here they fail. In satirizing, rather than ignoring those tenets, they focus on them, albeit often to great effect. It’s as if their work can only exist in negative counterpoint to other improvisation. This does make them improv rebels, but does not make them revolutionaries.

<<<<<<< Back to Improv Review

<<<<<<< Back to Improv Review