“Random Acts of Whimsy” at the Improv
This was my first time at the Melrose Improv, and I couldn’t have been more excited. Parking was a bit of a nightmare, but eventually, we got inside. This was a special benefit performances for the Virginia Avenue Project, hosted by Caroline Rhea with lots of special guests, including The Shneedles, John Carney, Jason and Randy Sklar, Billy Mernit with Jane Brucker and Dina Platias, Kathy Kinney, Drew Carey, Ryan Stiles, and “special surprise guests from Whose Line is it Anyway.” The whole show was very good, but I don’t think I have to tell you what the best part was.
Caroline Rhea opened the show with some standup. I have to say, she was pretty funny. There was a group of people in the front that reached the minimum drinking age...if you *combined* their ages. I had no idea the Improv let such young kids into the show! I suppose this was just a special exception since it was a benefit performance. The oldest of the group must have been eleven. Anyway, Caroline had a lot of trouble with her performance throughout the night because she had to censor out everything she had planned to do. I’ve got to give her credit. It must be tough to completely scrap your whole act on stage and do completely different material.
The Shneedles were a couple of slapstick type mimes. I could really tell that they had worked with Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil.
John Carney AKA Mr. Mysto was a magician, and a very good one.
Jason and Randy Sklar were two Jewish identical twin standup comedians. I’d seen commercials for them on Comedy Central, but never actually watched. I have to say, they were hilarious! I think I’m going to start watching them on Comedy Central now. I was in hysterics.
Billy Mernit & his backup singers just sang some songs. Not a particularly funny section of the evening. This was particularly slow for me since I knew who was coming up next....
The part of the evening I’d been waiting for! The special surprise guests from Whose Line were Greg and Brad. Sean Masterson and Julie Larson were there as well. They played Questions Only set on the Titanic, which was very good. They did Quick Change with Brad and Kathy, which disappointed me. So much of Kathy’s comedy is dirty, and you could tell she was censoring herself and having trouble coming up with things to say. Brad, of course, was wonderful, but I know he could have been better if there hadn’t been a group of kids in the front. They played Freeze Tag, which was also very good, despite the censoring. Drew and Ryan played Sound Effects with two of the little kids from the front, and they ended with the story game where Ryan points to different people (not sure of the title).
After the show, I was really hoping to meet Greg, since I’d never met him before. However, I got a little bit caught up chatting with Ryan, and by the time we were done, I couldn’t find anyone else from the show. Maybe next time. :)