Feb. 18--"There's a lot of weird stuff online and we're here to make fun of all of it," reads the description for this show on Under the Gun Theater's website. "Each week a panel of distinguished guests talk about all the weird and wonderful things that your friends shared with you this week. And then that discussion inspires the improv which follows."
For more than a decade, iO Theater has done a similar show with a decidedly old-media inspiration (newspaper articles) called "Whirled News Tonight." I like Under the Gun's tweak on the formula (using viral videos and memes instead) and with some regrouping, the show has potential. As of now, it needs some work.
Last week's show might have been an off night but it also highlighted a flaw in the setup. If your guest panel is checked-out or too drunk or bored to engage with the weirdness of the viral videos being shown, what is the point? The general tone was perplexed apathy that quickly soured as the show progressed, despite host Bill Meinicke's dogged attempts to elicit feedback from the panel beyond awkward silences and non sequitur statements. Come on fellas, I kept thinking, you came here to play, right?
This is something director Kevin Mullaney needs to remedy, but quick. Don't invite panelists who aren't entirely game. The videos should be a springboard for conversation -- pithy or dumb, doesn't matter, but a conversation of some sort -- otherwise it's just a dead spot in the show. Meinicke has a nice laid-back energy, but it needs to be amped up just a bit if he is going to manage the show's pace and tone.
The panel's refusal to play along also felt like a middle finger to the performers, who plowed forward regardless and had some sharp moments here and there, including a running gag inspired by a viral video from Boston Dynamics featuring a four-legged robot getting kicked, a cringey image that looks exactly like a dog getting kicked. Will Meinen was the repeated butt of that joke, and he played it off like an ace.
Other standouts in the ensemble (which rotates each week) included Allison Ungar (playing an amusingly flirtatious New York housewife) and Jeanette Cerami, a performer who makes strong confident choices and was a welcome sight each time she jumped into a scene and wound up steering it.
2 STARS
In an open run at Under the Gun Theater, 956 W Newport Ave.; tickets are $12 at undertheguntheater.com/shows/trending
nmetz@tribpub.com
