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Contra Costa Times "Pop!" Review (2004)
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Lobsters skewer celebs with a delicious hilarity
By Pat Craig
From Contra Costa Times.
Originally published from Contra Costa Times, 2004.
(c) 2004, All rights reserved.
Even if you have never read a copy of Us Weekly magazine or tuned in to "Access Hollywood," you will find yourself chuckling mightily at Killing My Lobster's latest sketch fest, "Pop!"
If, on the other hand, you are one of those who lust after the most arcane information on anyone even remotely close to celebrity (like maybe the Oregon service station attendant who claims to have once squeegeed the windshield of Paris Hilton), you will devour the company's comic assault on pop culture, just as you might next week's issue of People.
The show, especially for those who wonder what Janet Jackson's other breast looks like or what sort of crimes and misdemeanors can get you kicked off "American Idol," is a delightfully fresh, deliciously skewed look at the sort of pop culture that tends to be our new national pastime. And, after seeing "Pop!," you will hopefully feel just a bit foolish about being so curious, as the Lobsters eagerly point out just how silly the whole culture compulsion is.
When the sketch show opened Thursday night, an announcer voice said the evening would include no jokes about Michael Jackson, who, he claimed, was basically a real swell guy and a beloved entertainer for several generations of music lovers.
So the first sketch involved a number of the quirks and crimes alleged to be part of la vida Jackson, only the celebrity they were credited to was another young man who came to fame when he was just a little boy-Ron Howard.
It puts a whole new spin on the sitution, and sets the tone for the crafty crustaceans skewering the famous and those who wallow in their wake.
For example, we see Queen Elizabeth I, delivering the what's hot, what's not list for 1615 (Shakespeare is hot, Marlowe is not), you get a video parody of tennis shoe ads with commercials for big muddy farm boots flickering on the large video screen, and a not-so-futuristic presidential debate that pits two movie heroes against each other.
Not all the sketches hit gold, but there are enough wry delights to make the Lobsters probably the hottest and most consistent sketch group working in the Bay Area. Like their pervious shows, this one, directed by Andy Miara, is speedy and well staged. The material is sharp and unflinching, and contains a thorough line of zaniness that fives the piece a cohesiveness often missing from sketch shows.
Also, the company has its own house band, The Boneless Children Foundation, which plays apt and off-kilter accompaniment, and some very exciting music in between the bits.
And, of course, there are the performers, a talented group of eight who, in what is apparently Lobster tradition, are identified in the program only by name, and not the characters they play. In any case, they are Molly Berry, Melanie Case, Tonya Glanz, Emily Helfgot, Daniel Lee, Ian Scot McGregor, Jon Wolanske and Patty Wortham.
They are all tremendously funny.
And a weekend with the Lobsters is really not a bad idea.
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