Sheer Idiocy stole the hearts and spirit of the large McNeil Room crowd last Friday at the Union. Actually, the improv comedy group was not quite that great, but their first show of the year, “Sheer Idiocy Saves the World,” was definitely hilarious.
I was most impressed with their serial killer skit. The Idiots requested a place and a murder weapon from the crowd, and they amusingly chose Sesame Street and chopsticks. After an Idiot correctly mimed three actions, they were “killed” by the chopsticks.
Interestingly, though, the Idiots participating successfully figured out that the murder weapon was chopsticks, they had a difficult time figuring out the location—possibly because Sesame Street wouldn’t exactly be considered a normal place for a serial killer to strike.
I also much enjoyed the Idiots’ “parking musical,” which featured alien meter maids taking over all of the world’s parking places in a plan for world domination, surfer dude servants, and a couple attempting to park their car inside the Grand Canyon. As parking has become a particularly sore subject on campus lately because of the recent construction on campus, it felt great to laugh about the problems.
My other favorites of the evening included “Slides,” which pantomimed unrelated activities in photo shots like cliff diving, finding parking tickets, farming, and smuggling immigrants; and a skit about Germany taking over the world by stealing spoons and other utensils.
The “Conductor gripe” skit in which the Idiots presented problems to a bartender like losing car keys, having no grip on gravity, and an inability to drink milk was a little funny but considerably unoriginal. I’ve seen parodies of “Cheers” like that done too many times in improv comedy.
Overall, the Sheer Idiocy show provided great entertainment after a tough first week of classes—especially since the show was free to all RPI students. Their next show is an improv comedy workshop tonight from 7 to 9 pm in Mother’s Wine Emporium.
