Taste checked at door as musicals parodied Times Colonist, Page B3, REVIEW: Victoria's version of Chicago's Second City comedy troupe is attracting a young, hip audience to an upstairs nightclub on Broad Street. And with good reason. Atomic Vaudeville, which calls the Victoria Event Centre home, specializes in sketch comedy familiar from such television shows as Saturday Night Live and Mad TV. This style of satire is terribly difficult to do well (as SNL can attest to). Yet the Atomics' latest show -- marking its one year anniversary -- proves that it has to right stuff to make you laugh... at least much of the time. |
Its current alt-comedy offering, Atomic Vaudeville: The Musical, is a twisted homage to the musicals. One of the most successful routines Wednesday night was a Broadway-style parody of the hillbilly nightmare flick, Deliverance. Boasting a "cast-of-thousands" look (actually about 15 people on stage) the actors sang the story of random killings and forced sodomy to the tune of Dueling Banjos. Sounds silly, but this well-rehearsed bit is a definite hoot. Also noteworthy is a martial arts movie send-up, in which a rabbi and a "fundamentalist Christian ninja" battle with scientists experimenting with stem-cell research using fetuses. The actors lip-synch (badly) to a pre-recorded voice track in homage to Japanese action flicks with cheesy overdubs. Risible fight scenes are choreographed to hyperactive techno-dance tracks. In one scene, a "fetus" (doll attached to a pole) is batted back and forth like a volleyball between the ninja and the scientists. Bad taste? Yes. Funny? I thought so -- and so did the audience. The evening commences with a homage to overblown Broadway musicals. Miserable Phantom Cats of Saigon parodies all four shows alluded to in the title. A passionate American G.I. reveals his forbidden love for a cat, played by some poor girl in a rubber cat-mask (on this summer night the club was absolutely sweltering). Giant hairballs are obligingly coughed up, the true meaning of Christmas is mused upon. And finally the poor kitty ascends to heaven on a New York City manhole cover. Meow. Elsewhere we get the Bush Twins, Forbidden Ukes, |
Suduki the Clown and skewerings of those televised Canadian heritage moments ("Buddhism -- it's a Canadian idea"). The cabaret's host is an English-accented, martini-swilling sot played with brittle verve by Gina McIntosh. Hostess Flora seems a combination of Dame Edna and a '50s housewife on the verge of a nervous breakdown. When she laughs (and she often does) it seems like the facade has finally cracked and madness lies therein. Not everything works. For instance, a trio singing selections from The Sound of Music was sort of funny. But it also seemed a tad pointless as little was done with the original material, aside from mocking it. Happily, each sketch is short -- so if one is less than impressive, something better is almost sure to come. There's a good deal of high spirits at work here. There's some good singing and first-rate comic acting -- at least half a dozen of the performers are of a thoroughly professional calibre. The writing varies from the inspired to the, well, not so inspired. Some of the satirical treks are well-trodden ground. Yet ultimately, the cast's exuberance and joie de vivre easily carries them over rough spots -- some of which are weirdly amusing precisely because they're so bad. Atomic Vaudeville, playing to a packed house of 20-to-40-somethings on this particular night, is obviously onto something good. This is the troupe's 14th installment. The troupe has so far worked with more than 60 performers, many of them leading lights in Victoria's theatre community. Running through Saturday, this vivisection of pop-culture is entertaining and worth catching. |