Sheer Idiocy put on an outstanding performance in the McNeil Room on Friday, leaving the audience in stitches with a number of improv games and skits.
If you’ve never seen an improv show (which is less likely now since ABC brought "Whose Line is it Anyway" back to prime time TV), the main concept is that none of what occurs on stage is rehearsed. Everything the actors do or say is made up as the show goes on.
Some of the performers’ creative energies are guided by games that use audience suggestions to make things interesting.
To start the evening, the "Idiots" played a game called "That Damned Clap." Two performers on stage started with a premise from the audience and came up with a scene as they went along. Whenever the host of the game clapped once, the performers had to change the last thing they said. Two claps meant they had to change the last action they made.
"Whip It Out" was another game featured later in the evening. Suggestions for lines were collected from audience members before the show, written on pieces of paper. As the actors performed, they would "forget their lines" and pull out one of the audience-supplied suggestions, inserting it randomly into the scene.
One of my favorite games was "Director’s Choice," where one performer, playing the director, had two others re-act the same scene, replacing something about the original style with an audience suggestion, for example, showing intense fear at all times or doing the scene in the style of a Shakespearean play.
Other parts of the performance included extended skits that were essentially made up from nothing as the performance went on. These skits were composed of multiple scenes with completely unrelated characters, and it was particularly interesting to see how the different story lines were twisted to work together.
The last such skit was done as a musical, with characters breaking into song at random points in the story. Several choruses of "Rolling on the Floor"—the lyrics of which consisted of the phrase "I’m rolling on the floor" while the singer was, in fact, rolling on the floor—worked into the skit nicely.
Of course I’m biased, but I especially enjoyed their light-hearted spoofing of The Poly. (At least, it better have been light-hearted. And speaking of protection money, I don’t think we’ve heard from you guys in a while.)
The show was wrapped up with a game called "Quest," in which the main performer had to go on a quest to acquire "sloppy dentures," again suggested by the audience. All the other characters he talked to required him to get something else, eventually leading the questor as far as Valhalla to acquire Thor’s battle axe. This he exchanged for Jack the Ripper’s knife—it’s a long story.
If you’ve never seen Sheer Idiocy, I definitely recommend catching their next performance. It’s complete insanity. I love it!
