Saturday night was the third and final night of the 2014 Norfolk Comedy Festival. For the third night in a row comedy fans gathered at the Generic Theater for the improv and sketch portion of the festival. And once again, the audience was treated to world class long form improvised comedy and responded with tears of laughter and standing ovations.
I have been fortunate enough to attend at least one night of the festival in each of its first three years. The step up in talent, energy, and enthusiasm from the crowd this year was considerable. Festival organizers and fixtures of the Hampton Road comedy scene, the Pushers, recruited some top notch sketch and improv talent for this years festival and the Norfolk area owes them a debt of gratitude. One can only hope the momentum from this year’s festival carries through to future festivals and translates into bigger crowds and even better performances.
Richmond’s Comedy Coalition theater team once again found themselves in the opening slot and began the evening’s festivities with a smart and funny set of montage-style long form improv comedy. I was impressed all weekend with Coalition member Jim Zarling. He seemed to effortlessly think his way to a funny relationship dynamic in any situation. He seemed great at always responding to a situation with a character who was extremely invested in whatever was going on at the moment and by doing so increased the audience’s investment as well. Zarling’s energy, enthusiasm, and wit kept the Coalitions set interesting and funny throughout.
Tonight was the fifth time that I’ve seen Cats Hugging Cats from Charleston, SC, perform. They really make it look easy. They are consistently funny and always on their game. They do a great job of pacing themselves, playing subtly, and letting their scenes develop. Tonight’s set saw the Cats having fun with the idea of a Finnish man’s struggle against racism, casual conversation among a group of friends who were dismembering a body, and the ostracization of a citizen of “Suffolk County” by his colleagues that were from a different county. Long form improv is a hard thing to get right on a consistent basis. The Cats seem to have mastered it.
Next up were the Pushers. For the second night in a row, the Pushers performed a style known as an Armando or an ASSSSCAT. Their set began with Sean Devereux telling a story about an old relationship of his with a trapeze artist who enjoyed French language covers of Sheena Easton songs. The group then used elements from this story to inspire a series of scenes that dug deep into such disparate topics as prison tattoos, sexual identity, and think tanks. The think tank scene was my favorite of the Pushers two sets this weekend. I hope Pusher Ed Carden didn’t do any permanent damage to his knees during all of that extreme thinking.
Bartenders was up next. I was impressed with this duo from the Peoples Improv Theater in New York City all weekend. Watching Bartenders create their complex story-lines and strong characters on the stage at the Generic felt like watching an actual produced theatrical performance. The fact that they can stay so present to everything they create along the way, jump in and out of characters without confusing the audience, and tie it all together at the end is astounding. My favorite characters of this evening’s performance were two elderly men who worked in the film room at a movie theater and appreciated the opportunity to have an occasional physical reaction to a beautiful woman, even if that woman may have been recently deceased (you had to be there).
I became a huge We’re From Here fan this weekend. They have so much fun performing their brand of montage-style long form improv and it’s contagious. All weekend they got a huge response from the audience including a standing ovation after their Saturday evening set. Taking an audience suggestion in the form of a locale and information about that locale, the trio from Toronto and Chicago proceed to spin several tales in the form of often very long scenes with deep character work, a ton of honesty, and seriously funny insights along the way. The scenes sometimes spin off or relate to one another, and other times are quite distinct from each other but may find elements of other scenes mixed in at some point.
Another compliment I could give We’re From Here is that I really couldn’t single out any of the three performers. This was a group of three equally talented women having a blast with the art form. These were three equally talented women cracking the audience up with their hilarious characters especially their surfing bro’s commemorating their lost bro and their valley girls waiting in line at Disney world (the laugh when Erin Lovely’s character got excited and grabbed her friends’ attention to move up just a slight bit in line might have been the biggest of the entire night). These were three equally talented women who were so funny that they even each cracked themselves up at some point throughout the set (the good kind, the kind where the performer can’t keep it in, not the forced kind).
Closing the show and the festival were headliners Squirm and Germ from New York City. I think it’s fair to say these guys went legendary in the Norfolk area this weekend. Their set the second night was largely a repeat of the first, but no one who was in the audience both nights was complaining. You could watch these guys over and over and not get tired of them.
They spiced things up a bit this time with a couple new songs and some serious audience participation. During one song, an audience member who had been at their workshop earlier in the day got a special personalized invite to come up and dance with the fellows to a song she had requested off their album. She readily accepted. Then, during their last song, “Maine, MoFos”, the entire audience was invited to participate and then the guys were joined by many of the evening’s other performers. It was epic. Oh, and does the state of Maine have an official song yet? If not, someone send them the YouTube link.
I have a feeling the next time I see MC Squirm and MC Germ is going to be on television. It’s just a question of which late night show grabs them first. I could easily see these guys killing it on Conan, the Tonight Show, or even SNL. They are going to be huge. It’s only a matter of time. They are just too funny and too talented for it to go any other way. There will be a time when those of us lucky enough to be there this weekend will say to each other “man, remember when Squirm and Germ headlined the Norfolk Comedy Festival? That was badass. Now look at them!”
by Brian Garraty
Brian is an IT guy for a local healthcare organization by day, a part-time single parent by night, and a member of local improv and sketch group Nerd Alert. Find Brian on Twitter (@NULLgarity) and tell him how much you love him. Disclaimer: Brian performed in this year’s festival and is friends with a number of the performers mentioned above.
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