April 07--Outside of Second City, you don't see much topical comedy in Chicago sketch shows. More often the focus is on characters than social commentary, and that's not a knock. But these are strange times, indeed, and if ever there was a need for trenchant satire ...
That kind of commentary only works, though, if the ideas behind it are fully thought out and make sense. You never want an audience to doubt your ability to make a point, no matter how absurd the premise, and I'm not sure the writers and performers of "United We Fall" (at iO) have a firm grasp just yet on what it is they want to say.
The opening sketch is a good encapsulation of this issue. A father (played by an agreeably aggrieved Michael Lomenick) listens to his teenage daughter's playlist and declares: "The music's dead. It sounds like it was made in a research facility." OK, that's a real starting point! But neither generational tastes in music nor what very well may be the empty and cynical state of hit-making is really explored, or exploited, beyond the notion that much of today's rap "says so many words but says nothing at all." When you find yourself mentally refuting a sketch's basic foundation (Who is being zinged here anyway, the dad or the music business?), that's a problem.
It's not that generalizations don't work in satire, but they have to be mostly on point. Or, better yet, just really, really funny. That's not the case often enough here. A classroom sketch (featuring a game Christina Seo as a jaded teacher offering hard truths about capitalism) has a similar problem. You get what the performers are going for, but the actual ideas make no sense. Soup to nuts, it's a confused sketch. (iO owner Charna Halpern directs.)
The show's strongest portion features Bill Letz, alone onstage, gazing out into the void when a disembodied voice informs him, automated-style: "Hello! You've reached the gates of the afterlife! Thank you for your death. My name is Peter, and I'll be assisting you with your judgment today." He is thereafter put on hold repeatedly. This is how I picture my own death.
I also liked David Quinones' '70s-smooth (and, therefore, absolutely bonkers) performance as Cool Dracula. It feels as if a deranged riff on Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World. "I get caught in your hypnotic gaze," he purrs to a pretty gal, "which is different than my hypnotic gaze." The sketch doesn't quite have an ending so much as a hurried conclusion, which is another constant in the show as a whole.
What makes "United We Fall" stand apart is the presence of a pair of post-ironic troubadours -- Jack Bensinger on ukulele and Jake Bradley on acoustic guitar (they are also two of the show's three writers, along with Peter Byrne) -- who stroll around the edges of the scenes like the town troubadour on "Gilmore Girls." It's playful and a little weird, and it gives the show a fresh rhythm that separates it from your typical sketch-blackout-sketch format of most shows.
2 STARS
When: Through April 27
Where: iO Theater, 1501 N. Kingsbury St.
Tickets: $12 at 312 929-2401 or www.ioimprov.com/chicago
