“Ma chère mademoiselle, it is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now we invite you to relax. Let us pull up a chair as the dining room proudly presents…your dinner.” Or so it is that a famous talking candelabra once said. Needless to say this little speech was followedby a platoon of random singing dishes. How idiotic…but not to a seven year old watching for the first time.
It was again that I felt like this, that rush of amusement and amazement, at the antics of Sheer Idiocy, as they once again dominated the McNeil Room on Friday night. Not only did the Idiots put on another top notch improv show, but the theme of their first show this semester, “Shateau Idiocy,” really set the mood.
Provided to the audience was not only a large quantity of those spiffy red plastic chairs, but also a program printed to look like a menu. Listing 33 of the Idiot’s most popular acting games as appetizers, entrees, side dishes, and desserts, the audience was given the choice as to what was performed.
The first order up was for a game called “524,” in which the Idiots are given a noun and must come up with bad puns using the format “524 somethings walk into a bar...” The first suggestion was a herd of wildebeest, followed by 524 shoelaces. The last suggestion though proved to be the best. “524 idiots walk into a bar and the bartender says ‘What is this, a Bush family reunion?’” quipped one of the members.
The next act to be served was the classic game “Ode,” in which one of the Idiots serenades an [un]lucky audience member. Emily, the aforementioned participant, likes to sleep, enjoys cooking chicken parmesan, and her favorite color is blue. That is all Mike Hourihan needed to compose an on the spot love song for his new friend. After the delightful song Hourihan and Matt Duggan played “Columns,” a game in which two audience participants supply words to the Idiots when they become tongue tied. Setting the scene in a morgue resulted in a somewhat morbid, but altogether interesting skit in which Duggan was trying to sell Hourihan a casket for his grandmother who was killed by a falling television. Luckily the morgue’s embalming machines did prostitutes and burial with apricots was an option. Guess you had to have been there.
Following “Columns” the audience was served a helping of “Famous Person Café,” where three Idiots became famous icons, but had to guess who they were since only the other two players know. Joey Faust, Rob Headley, and Matt Duggan respectively became Liza Minelli, Richard Simmons, and Grover, who is “close enough to a cartoon character for government purposes.” Helping the players guess their personage was Craig Lampert acting as the café waiter.
The fifth game chosen from the menu was “Party Quirks,” featuring Jeff Kimball who was the host of a party with some very unusual guests. The object of the game is for the host to guess what his guests’ quirks are. John Bragg had trouble keeping himself together and was easily deemed a leper. Faust played a schizophrenic displaying a mild case of multiple personality disorder, and Carrie DePetris was queued to vomit any time a word beginning with the letter “d” was said.
Throughout the rest of the show the Idiots played a number of the remaining games on the menu. Of the remaining skits one of the more interesting ones included “World’s Worst,” portraying the world’s worst orgasm, orthodontist, bomb technician—both of which were blind—and a Bible reading Dhali Lama.
Another well done game was “Objection,” in which DePetris, Lampert, Duggan, and Bragg contested the different aspects of sex with furniture. Duggan and DePetris disagreed on the hardness and softness of furniture during sex, and Lampert quoted that “there are drugs to help that now.”
Nearing the end of the show free range saber toothed chickens were introduced by Kimball, Faust was the first man to walk on the sun, and wrapping things up DePetris took home thousands of midget babies from the Pro Bono Midget Organization. The first Sheer Idiocy show of the semester was a smash hit and if you enjoy “fine dining” I suggest checking out L’Idiots any time you can.
