In many ways, the Victor Continental show is like the world's raunchiest church service. Much of it depends on ritual. We expect certain things, and the show serves them up, sometimes modified but always recognizable:
Some of those necessary elements are:
Splashy opening and closing dance numbers in which Victor shakes his ass surrounded by sexy chicks.
Drinking games (including a new one involving "Honey Badger").
An appearance by Victor's brother who provides an update on his newest "adult film" adventures (this year: a "space porno" called "Ride Sally Ride").
A reliably LFK-centered edition of Shitty Deal Puppet Theater as a kick-off to Act II (this year's was in part a scathing history of Lawrence failures: "The Tanger Outlet Mall was so boring that the addition of the DMV actually made it better." --paraphrased but fairly close).
A "slideshow" sketch in which the actors "freeze" in ridiculous poses at the narrator's cue (cleverly reconfigured this year as a "choose your own adventure" sketch that depends on the audience reacting in certain ways and made even funnier by the fact that drunken audiences do not always react in the expected manner).
A "word from our sponsors" sketch near the end that offers rapid-fire gags about local businesses. The mere mention of Frank's North Star got a huge round of applause, suggesting that Frank's has quickly established itself as an essential fixture on the scenester circuit. What the fuck did people do on the North Side before it arrived?
Criticisms:
As always, we find the show to be sharpest when it's at its most local. A throwaway reference to First Management in Act I got one of the biggest laughs of the early-evening, for instance. But SO MUCH of the first half of the show was the kind of broad, topical-but-unfocused material (Obamacare) one might see in an average SNL sketch. Does it entertain a drunk crowd? Sure. Could it be stronger? Easily. But bear in mind this critique is leveled by a blog that's 65% boner jokes, so who are we to judge?
Verdict:
Surprisingly, the beer lines at Liberty Hall were moving swiftly each time we needed beers, which raises our rating to 3 out of 4 PBRs.
Photo:
As they always say at Liberty Hall, the show ain't over till Mick takes his pants off.
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With 106 degree temps, the chances of tonight's Replay matinee drawing much of a crowd are slim at best. But we want to give a shout-out anyway to one of the bands, Don't Stop Please, because they hail from near our old Arkansas stomping grounds and because they have a song called "My Booty is So Luxurious" (listen to it here via Bandcamp).
This blurb from the Arkansas Times certainly makes the show sound damn tempting, doesn't it?
"Anna Horton sang a smoky, Latin-tinged lounge number. While playing a ukulele. Later, after everyone had switched instruments a couple times, and we'd seen a trombone, banjo and harmonica make appearances, DSP did the whitest proto-rap funk song perhaps ever performed. The hook was "My booty is so luxurious.*" And at one point, Horton asked, "Where my lazy sluts at?"
The Times follows their review with this funny retraction: "*A previous version of this post misquoted the lyrics above as "My ass is luxurious."
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There are plenty of movie events to keep you occupied during the early part of the week.
Frank's North Star's Monday Movie Night presents R. Kelly: Trapped in the Closet. The FB event description says it all: "What?!"
The Replay Horror Picture show double-feature on Tuesday presents the Rocky Horror Picture Show (finally!) followed by Psycho. Presumably this will be the original and not Gus Van Sant's bizarre shot-for-shot remake starring a masturbating Vince Vaughn. But if you must (and we know most of you will), you can watch that Vaughn clip here and make poor Hitch roll over in his grave. In better news, the clip does contain a shot of Anne Heche's side-boob.
Also on Tuesday, the Bottleneck presents Trash Night: Superzeroes.
We STRONGLY encourage you to visit the Trash Nite website here and watch the trailer. Turkish Superman is the coolest!!
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