MTX

On January 25th, I went to see the Mr. T Experience at the Bottom of the Hill in the city. I have seen them numerous times before and always thoroughly enjoy their performance. The last lineup I saw was Frank, Joel, and Jym (my favorite lineup in fact), so needless to say it has been a while. The lineup now is Frank and Jym plus the newest members, Ted Angel and Bobby Jordan. I hadn’t ever seen the latter two, so I didn’t recognize Ted despite the fact that he was standing next to me for much of the Hi-Fives performance. He kind of reminds me of Giovanni Ribisi. Add to that my attraction to younger guys, and I was content with the eye candy he was providing. Frank was also wandering around, looking either tired or drunk. I’m not sure which, but I know from first hand experience that pushing yourself to do the same things as you get older can wear you down. I think his wife was there, too. I have no idea what she looks like, but Jordan was with me and he thought it looked like her.

The Hi-Fives aren’t really my kind of thing, so I waited patiently for their set to end, and was happy when it finally did. Then, MTX came out and did their thing. There were some songs from their more recent albums, Alcatraz and Road to Ruin, that I didn’t recognize. They also played a ton of great classics, including Sackcloth and Ashes, Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba, I Fell For You, You’re the Only One, Hell of Dumb, Swallow Everything, The History of the Concept of the Soul, King Dork, …And I Will Be With You, and More Than Toast. I did notice that either Ted or Bobby (not sure which, maybe both) was off key on a number of occasions, sometimes enough so that it messed Frank up and pulled him off key as well. I know I am biased, but Joel really did a great job of singing back up. Their voices were great together.

They were gracious enough to do two encores, after the audience chanting MTX repeatedly. I find chanting creepy, so I didn’t participate in that, but I did my part with cheering and clapping. Frank noted at the beginning of the second encore that he was getting to old to keep playing so many songs. It was definitely strange, first of all, seeing Frank looking as old as he does now, but also seeing him singing with guys that are probably younger than me! Regardless, I had a good time and I’m glad I went.

Garden Update

Sketchfest, Part II

In addition to the Dr. Katz performance, I also went to see the Kids in the Hall performance on the last night of sketchfest, Saturday January 26th. I had seen them once back in 2000 when I still lived in Houston and loved the performance. The only thing I can remember now was a great Buddy Cole sketch, as well as the “Jesus 2000″ sketch, both of which were hilarious. The sketchfest performance was equally wonderful and included numerous sketches that apparently appeared in their performance at the 25th Annual “Just for Laughs” (“Juste Pour Rire”) Comedy Festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

They opened with a sketch about the Kids planning a new show. For the opening, they decide they should rape Kevin to the theme from “Footloose”. Kevin proposes raping Bruce instead, but Scott points out that raping Bruce isn’t funny and Mark agrees, stating that raping Bruce is “just redundant”. Poor Kevin…

Next, Bruce and Mark reappear as salesmen promoting a device which can siphon fat from the American gut and use it to power automobiles. There was a fairly disturbing graphic demonstrating how the device would work.

I’m not sure of the exact order of things after that, but at some point, we are introduced to the time machine theme. The lights come up on Kevin sitting in a chair, clearly drunk. An also obviously drunk Dave enters and sits in the chair next to Kevin. We hear the bartender announce last call. Kevin places his order and then scoffs when Dave only orders one beer. After arguing about what a waste of last call a one beer order is for a few minutes, Dave finally reveals to Kevin that he has created a time machine with which he can “defeat last call”. Kevin refuses to believe him, stating that he was certain that if Dave had created a time machine, he would use it for far more important or noble causes than defeating last call, such as going back in time to kill Hitler before the holocaust happens. Dave looks dejected and then says he has to go to the bathroom. He wanders out, dons his time machine helmet briefly, and then re-enters the bar, at which point he sits back in the chair next to Kevin. We hear the bartender once again announce last call, and then the stage lights go down.

The time machine concept was used two other times during the show. The second featured Dave in bed with his wife, played by Bruce. Bruce announces that it’s Dave’s birthday and that means time for his b-day BJ. A short simulation of said BJ commences and afterward, Bruce asks Dave why he only wants BJs on his b-day, why wouldn’t he want it more often. Dave replies that doing it more than that would just cheapen it, after which he says he needs to go to the bathroom. We then see him wander out, don his time machine helmet for a bit, and then climb back into bed. Bruce then awakens and again announces that it’s Dave’s birthday, at which the stage lights go down.

The third time machine sketch starts with Dave wandering through time with his helmet on. Finally, he takes it off and enters a bar where Hitler is having a beer. Hitler offers to buy Dave a beer. As they drink Dave makes a comment to Hitler about his hatred of the Jews, to which Hitler responds “I never thought of that before…” as the lights go down.

Another sketch featured couple Dave and Kevin (as the wife) showing up to see the new baby of another couple that they are friends with, played by Mark and Bruce (as the wife). Bruce brings the baby out and hands it to Dave. Then he and Mark wander off for a bit. At that point, Dave begins to lament over having to hold the baby because it is so hateful. Kevin laughs it off until he gets a look at the baby’s face. At that point, they begin arguing over who has to hold the horribly hateful baby. When Mark and Bruce return, Dave and Kevin end up revealing how they feel about the baby, at which point they are thrown out of the house. Once they are gone, Mark turns to Bruce and says, “So I guess it’s not just us” and the lights go down.

Of course they threw in a Chicken Lady sketch. Dave shows up at her house for a blind date and freaks out when he sees her. She thwarts his attempts to get away and ultimately offers him an omelette, which he accepts. He seems to be enjoying it until she mentions the eggs are fresh lain from her body, at which point he makes a final break for it and succeeds. My reaction to this sketch was dramatic, but more visceral than comedic. Chicken Lady always has that effect on me (and many others I’m sure) – it’s just so disturbing to watch.

Another sketch featured Dave and Kevin fighting over an imaginary girlfriend. Dave shows up at Kevin’s house in the middle of the night to make a confession. He’s been imaginary cheating with Kevin’s imaginary girlfriend. They get into a big (and humorous) fight about it. Dave tells Kevin that it’s his fault for always describing her to him. Finally they decide to let her choose who she wants to be with. They each sit down and close their eyes. Kevin then announces that he imagined that she chose him. Dave replies that *he* imagined that she chose *him*. Kevin says, “Really?”, to which Dave dejectedly replies “No…”, and the stage lights dim.

In another sketch, a gay couple, played by Dave and Scott, show up at the home of another gay couple, Peter and the Professor (played by Kevin and Mark). As they wait at the door, Scott tells Dave to play along like they are still together because he doesn’t want Peter and the Professor gloating about their fancy Canadian marriage. Apparently there has been recent turmoil in their relationship, as Dave has been involved with a woman. They are finally let into the house and Scott does an awful job of hiding the fact that they are having problems. The Professor’s niece, who is visiting him, comes in, a giggling slutty looking blonde, played by Bruce. Scott decides to wander off with her as a slight against Dave. The Professor projects what’s going on in the other room from a hidden camera up on his wall. We see Scott doing nasty things to the Professor’s niece, at which point, it is finally revealed what is going on between Dave and Scott. Scott reenters the room and the Professor proceeds to explain the homosexual male dynamic from a “scientific” standpoint. He explains how Scott, the “alpha fag” has had his masculinity threatened by Dave going outside the relationship and is now attempting to reassert himself. Ultimately the Professor’s explanation leads to a reconciliation and everyone is happy again.

Other great sketches included a Buddy Cole monologue in which he proposes that Jesus was in fact a homosexual, Kevin performing a song in the three-chord structure which he has not finished writing as of the show, a Gavin sketch in which he annoys his neighbor (Kevin) as he tries to paint a chair, and Superdrunk – a superhero who stops crimes by drinking (played by Bruce), assisted by his trusty sidekick, the Bartender (Dave).

The evening ended with Mr. Tyzik appearing on screen with a video camera, which was being projected onto the large screen on stage. He interacted with a few audience members and each time concluded the conversation by crushing their heads, which we got to view from the usual perspective via the on-stage screen. He then called out the rest of the crew. He went down the line, laying out a vicious verbal attack and then finishing each one off with a brutal head crushing!

The Kids came out for a few words after that, but there was no encore. I left thoroughly satisfied.