Comedy that kills

Marc Vogl and the rest of Killing My Lobster float some new sketches.
By Sarah Mueller

From sanfran.com
Originally published by San Francisco Magazine March, 2006
©2006 San Francisco Magazine. All rights reserved

"We're a comedy group that incorporates theater, film, music, and other disciplines to create wildly ridiculous original shows. For this one, rather than pick a more general theme like politics, sports, or crime, the theme comes from the setting.  All the action takes place on a cruise ship. We've given the writers assignments like 'Write a sketch that takes place on a specific part of the boat.' None of us has ever been on a cruise; as a result, we've got about five sketches that occur on the ship's bridge, but they're all very different. The last assignment [group co-founder] Paul Charney and I gave was to pick a character and explain how that person got to the boat—we've been watching a lot of Lost. Some of these sketches don't have much to do with a cruise ship; there's no Love Boat sketch, but there is a Dance Dance Revolution sketch. Once we get the audience on the boat, we want to have our way with you and get surreal. It's just chaos in here the week before a show, with crumpled-up run sheets on the ground, costumes that have been tried on and discarded, boxes of merchandise, concessions, props, models of the set, posters that haven't been put up yet...But then you're at the show, and you realize somehow it's working—and it's palpable because the audience is laughing."

THE WORK:
Killing My Lobster Takes a Cruise!, Feb. 23-Mar. 4, Brava Theater Center, 2789 24th St., S.F., 415-647-2822.

CV:
Marc Vogl and Paul Charney cofounded this Second City-esque troupe in 1997. The group, which includes about 35 actors, writers, and set and costume designers, has created and performed 30 shows, including Killing My Lobster Walks This Way and ...Guilty as Sin. It has two more new shows for this year, plus its annual hi/lo Film Festival (for high-concept, low-budget cinema) in April and its first full-length play, Hunter Gatherers, in June.

WORKSPACE:
A lime-green building in the Mission shared with Web design company Digipop.

RECOGNITION:
Best of the San Francisco Fringe Festival, 1998 and 1999; San Francisco International Film Festival's Golden Spire Award, 2000; ArtSFest Emerging Arts Organization award, 2005.