Feb. 04--Both a lampoon of late-night talk shows and a sincere (if twisted) homage to form, the show devised by Kevin Knickerbocker and Nick Mestad for their Tuesday night slot at iO feels like they're picking up where David Letterman has mostly left off these past few years.
"Live! Tonight!" is a new show each week and crosses over into a "Twilight Zone" of alternate realities, treating the standard talk-show format like a sweater that's been turned inside out, ripped to pieces and sewn back together. The opening monologue is phony. Their smiles: phony. The guests and celebrities they name-check: also phony. All of it is phony -- and yet utterly recognizable. There's a real architecture to the show, it's not just slapped together (as much as it may seem at first glance).
It's not just talk shows that they are, um, investigating. According to iO owner Charna Halpern, a few weeks ago the pair staged its show in the theater's event space, where the audience witnessed a fake wedding. Per Knickerbocker, the next couple of months will likely include an Oscar-style fake awards show, a parody of Barbara Walters' "Most Fascinating People" specials, a faux celebrity roast and a detective show done in the absurd, gag-a-minute style of "Naked Gun" and "Airplane!"
Each week the material spirals out from the show's talk-show roots, featuring new bits each time, such as the imagined conversation between the voices in the head of twerpy banjo-playing sidekick Brian Biancardi, which was an inspired moment of madness. iO's new creative director Alex Honnett was a guest one week, droll and deadpan as he showcased a preview of (intentionally bad) experimental improv shows he was considering booking at the theater. The thing is, bad improv -- even when it's supposed to be bad -- is still bad improv. That segment was mostly dead in the water, due to a lack of pacing more than anything.
More to the point, it suffered from an extended lack of Knickerbocker and Mestad, who bring a manic, panicky show biz patina to the proceedings (phony as well; there is a deep confidence behind these performances) and an affinity for wordplay, looping timelines and absurdist back stories. When they're on stage, that's when the show works.
2.5 STARS
In an open run at iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St.; tickets are $5 at 312-929-2401 or ioimprov.com/chicago
