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<p>Entries in Reviews (34)</p>
<p>Friday May 21 2010  Dystopia Gardens @ The PIT - 5.15.10</p>
<p>Friday, May 21, 2010 at 12:39PM  Will Nunziata and Jerry Miller in Dystopia Gardens. - Photo: Keith Huang By: Michael Martin</p>

<p>Dystopia Gardens, the sketch comedy play by Will Nunziata and Jerry Miller, is a lunatic romp through the goofy conventions of neo-futuristic sci-fi. While structured episodically as individual sketches, recurring situations and characters are abound--all 20+ characters in the show are portrayed by the same two actors and they manage to keep each one distinct, despite the sometimes break-neck pace. The show has a thematic and dramatic continuity which rises above the usual expectations of sketch comedy to become, categorically, a play. It is all of a unified piece, carrying the action through to an inevitable conclusion.</p>

<p>The show opens with a glimpse of a supposedly better world and then, through the machinations of a scheming benevolent "Leader," the stage is set for the promised descent into an unpleasant future. This is seen in a series of sketches featuring people of all walks of life--from fast-food clerks and night watchmen, to an over-cloned Leader--a drooling imbecile played with pants-pooping malevolent glee by Nunziata.</p>

<p>Recurring video elements give us a peek of future newscasts. An early scene featuring a museum outing with a father and young son sees Miller playing the best 30-something 10-year-old you are likely ever to see. His spittle-flecked innocence is the set-up for a view of the dark edge which is ever present in this effectively frightening universe. The sketch between two night watchmen presents a tomorrow where privacy is long forgotten and it builds at an expertly controlled pace into some of the most hysterical bits in the entire piece. The show contains a bathroom joke to end all bathroom jokes and the whole thing wraps up with a Broadway song parody that not only brings back every character previously seen all in a four-minute blitz of comic virtuosity, it also maddeningly hints at a sequel which may either be joke in itself or the promise of more to come.</p>

<p>Most striking of all is that the play has genuine heart. Very little of beauty might grow in any dystopian garden but where it does, these writer/performers have cultivated it with great love. It is a rare thing to strike sentiment without sentimentality but here it is. You can do a heck of a lot worse with 10 dollars and an hour or so of your time, but if you like the sketch comedy form, or are a fan of dystopias, or want to see a comedy duo tailor-made to write and perform together, it'd be hard to do much better. Also, if you like bare ass. There is a little of that for you too.</p>

<p>Dystopia Gardens continues its run at The PIT the next two Saturdays, 5/22 & 5/29, at 8PM.</p>

<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment | 3 References tagged Dystopia Gardens , Jerry Miller , The PIT , Will Nunziata in Reviews , Show Recap Friday Apr 23 2010  URDB Live @ Joe's Pub - 4.21.10</p>
<p>Friday, April 23, 2010 at 4:24PM The Universal Record Database held its friendly and spirited monthly live show at Joe's Pub on Wednesday. A wide variety of astounding records were set, but which will stand the test of time?</p>

<p>NOTES</p>
<p>--Box office profits and $525 dollars worth of items auctioned during the show were donated to the Boys and Girls High School basketball team of Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn who can be seen here setting a URDB record on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last month.</p>

<p>--The MOMENT OF THE EVENING belonged to birthday boy, Paymon Parsia (pictured above), who successfully snagged the Most People To Kiss One Person At The Same Time record. Also in that photo: the hand of Opus Moreschi giving a thumbs up.</p>

<p>--CollegeHumor's Jeff Rubin attempted the record for Most Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition Movie Questions Correctly Answered in 60 Seconds but he was answering them so quickly I think he more accurately set the record for Most Trivial Pursuit 90's Edition Movie Questions Correctly Memorized in 60 Seconds. Judges??</p>

<p>--Late Night's warm-up comedian, Seth Herzog, was pumped and gunning for The Most Audience Members' First Names Rhymed in 30 Seconds By a Dude in a Wonder Woman Unitard. As the clock started, Seth was immediately derailed like a night train off a scenic bridge when he called on some guy who might as well have been named Orange. This unfortunate opening stumble ate 20 seconds of time, leaving the door wide open for every other man dressed like Wonder Woman to go after Herzog's glory. Stay home, people with names that are hard to rhyme!</p>

<p>--MESOTHELIOMANIA: Joe's Pub's parent company/next door neighbor, The Public Theater, had notices posted on their entrance warning theatergoers that asbestos is going to be removed from the space. Oh good!</p>

<p>Owen Biddle of the legendary Roots crew set the universal record for Jamming With the Most Crybaby Pedals Plugged Into a Bass Guitar... 2! The Apiary | Post a Comment | 8 References tagged Dan Rollman , Joe's Pub , Owen Biddle , URDB , seth herzog in Reviews , Show Recap Tuesday Nov 24 2009  High School Talent Show: 2-Year Anniversary @ The UCBT - 11.20.9</p>
<p>Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 4:45PM  Photo: Erin Kennedy</p>

<p>NOTES</p>

<p>--Eliot and Ilana Glazer--possibly the most versatile brother/sister comedy duo since Donny & Marie Osmond--hosted the 2-year anniversary of High School Talent Show at the UCB Theater, a monthly rotating sampler of the freaky and geeky characters roaming the halls of Upper Central Bay High School.</p>

<p>--Kurt Braunohler, Nick Ross, Jill Donnelly, Matt McCarthy, Katina Corrao, Adolpho Blaire, and Rob Lathan lent their considerable talents to the evening.</p>

<p>--Andrea Rosen played an awesome advice dispensing hag with a thick jewwy warble who has "never spent a dime" in her life. She gave useful tips on how to save money on condoms including this keeper: "If you're over 30 -- grow up and have a kid already!"</p>

<p>--In the pictures above and below, Eliot and Ilana sing a repelling version of the Boyz II Men/Mimi collab, One Sweet Day. We don't have perfect pitch so we couldn't tell if it was off key or not, but damn, Ilana's got some pipes! If they're taking requests, we'd love to see them cover Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow's enchanting ode to surviving sex tape scandals and cancer next time.</p>

<p>--Eliot has been racking up huge wins all over the Internet lately with hits like My Parents Were Awesome and his Bea Arthur tattoo. The big question is: will we see a MPWA blog-to-book before the Black Friday doorbuster sale at Urban Outfitters??</p>

<p>Photo: Erin Kennedy</p>

<p>The Apiary | Post a Comment tagged High School Talent Show , UCB High in Reviews , Show Recap Thursday Apr 09 2009  Reviews and Appraisals - Tom Shillue's SupernormalBy: Andrew Singer</p>
<p>Thursday, April 9, 2009 at 7:00AM Photo: Tom ShillueTom Shillue is one of the most comforting comedians I know. Listening to him speak for more than an hour about his childhood antics gives me the same pleasant satisfaction that comes with eating a warm brownie. For native New Englanders like me, Shillue's tales of Massachusetts bring back bittersweet memories of friendship and hardship; for others, I'd imagine they get a glimpse into a foreign land where everyone is cold and harsh on the outside but truly loving once you get to know them. Shillue's story is about his journey to adulthood, dividing the trip into bite-sized reflections on significant points in time. His details tend toward the confusing, though he'll often say, "Well, let me take a step back," before diving back in and leaving you to wonder how it all ties together.Photo: Seth OlenickOne the most veteran standup comedians working today, Shillue's timing is impeccable, and it is the patient listener who gets rewarded once his many threads are woven -- seemingly all at once -- into a masterful tapestry.Supernormal is all Shillue -- the staging is low-key, and for most of the show, he stands centerstage with general lighting. When he ran into someone important from his past however, stage lights would dim until a single spotlight guided this new character into his life. Shillue effortlessly plays dozens of people, from family members to high school buddies, all of whom are grown and no longer so young and innocent. After that particular show, Shillue returned for a brief Q&A to get some fresh audience feedback. Some suggested he make the racy parts racier, but I preferred his smoothness in creating a safe environment where you felt like nothing could go wrong. Shillue doesn't need to offend to entertain. I found that everything seemed so normal was the very thing that made his show quite new and shocking.--Andrew Singer is a contributing editor for The Apiary. He performs regularly as "Soce the Elemental Wizard." He recently interviewed Harrison Greenbaum.THE PLUG• Catch Supernormal MONDAY NIGHTS at The Green Room through May 4 | Tickets• Tom Shillue's Web page• Tom is teaching/coaching a standup comedy class</p>

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<p>keithhuang | Post a Comment in Reviews Monday Apr 06 2009  Reviews and Appraisals: 'John Mulaney: The Top Part'By: Dan Wilbur</p>
<p>Monday, April 6, 2009 at 7:30AM John Mulaney's The Top Part (Comedy Central Records) is available now.It's the easiest subjects that are hardest to tackle. As I drove from my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, back to New York, I popped in John Mulaney's The Top Part (Comedy Central Records), and was blown away. Not by how funny the jokes remain on the third or fourth listen (most New York comics have seen their own bits about Law and Order dwarfed a thousand times over by Mulaney), but by how it maps a vital survival guide for both the Midwest and New York City. The tips include, among other things, drinking. John started early with everything. He had been in a sketch group at 7, started doing stand-up at 20, and started drinking at age 13. Did this damage anything? No. The pinnacle of his comedic success (denoted by its placement on the album) is the closing story of playing "What's New Pussycat" on a jukebox as many times as possible with seven dollars. And that happened before the black-outs and stand-up -- when he was only 11.This is not to say that John is flawless. Most of these stories have a moral (like "Don't chase a girl down the subway platform at 2AM unless you're a rapist") that were born from his own mistakes. What's fascinating is how he manages to mingle wisdom that can only come from experience with the fact that he is still forced to see the world as a near child (misunderstanding the Dow Jones and a track titled "I Just got my License"). It's as if he were born an adult and still fucked up the way kids are supposed to. I only wish someone had told me earlier that basketball and math are not for everyone. This is not just topical information. It's a survival guide not only for an out-of-towner headed for New York City, but for anyone who has looked around his or her hometown and is too bored to find what's funny about it. It poses the questions: How did everyone else miss these glaring details? How could you not point out the absurdity of the Solomon story? How can you watch Law and Order until your eyes bleed, and not see its absurdity? We miss the forest for the trees. These jokes are a delightfully refreshing take on everything that makes your life as boring as mine. This CD can help you find your way out of the endless drudgery. Thank you, John, for letting me know there's a way out.--Dan Wilbur is a stand-up comic and comedy writer. As a contributing editor for The Apiary, he has written about FATSMILES at Joe's Pub, Mitch Hedberg's "Do You Believe in Gosh?" and Ochi's Motel.</p>

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<p>keithhuang | 1 Comment in Reviews Tuesday Mar 24 2009  Reviews and Appraisals: Adventureland By: Kevin Tor</p>
<p>Tuesday, March 24, 2009 at 10:50AM Adventureland, by Greg Mottola, follows James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg), a guy who expected to spend the summer after college seeing Europe but instead had to get a job working at Adventureland, the local amusement park. His crappy parents reneged on their graduation present because his father had to take a pay cut at work or something. I don't know. It was hard to relate to this part given today's economy. Regardless, love, pot ingestion, sack taps, and hi-jinks ensue. Those expecting Superbad 2 will not receive it. This is a retelling of the director's own experiences working at an amusement park. This movie is personal. You experience everything James is going through from the disappointment with his parents to his increasing romantic feelings for the grown-up version of the cute, little boy from Panic Room (Kristen Stewart). While the actors are great, the real star is the soundtrack. (I will be accepting punches to the face for the awfulness of that last sentence.) It features 80s music from The Cure, Husker Du, Lou Reed, New York Dolls, and more. Each song fits the situation perfectly. The last movie to use music this well was Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and look how that turned out. See this movie if you hate summer jobs, your parents, the 90s, cancer, or bad movies. Finally, some things I learned while watching: * Erections were not easy to hide in 80s pants. * Martin Starr plays misunderstood geek like no other. * It's weird to see the guy who killed vampires in Blade III make out with the girl that was in love with a vampire in Twilight. Now that's range. * It really wasn't anything like Superbad. * Ryan Reynolds doesn't have to play the same character in every movie.</p>

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<p>The Apiary | 1 Comment in Reviews Friday Mar 20 2009  Reviews and Appraisals: Miss March</p>
<p>Friday, March 20, 2009 at 7:31AM Miss March was battered senselessly by every critic in America and the box office receipts show it. So, did Trevor Moore and Zach Cregger make a lame movie or did the masses miss the gist?If you're all butthurt and you need urgent care, would you rather seek the advice of a Nurse Practitioner... or the Chief Resident of Proctology? The problem with most film critics is that they don't specialize in anything--they're all generalists. This is why Fangoria and Harry Knowles' neckbeard are allowed to exist. After comparing Miss March to something from "the 7th circle of hell," Stephen Whitty at the Newark Star Ledger wants you to know that he's hip and he 'gets' what's funny. He sez, "I should stress that I don't mind a dirty joke at all. I'm fine with an occasional gross-out bit. But the jokes have to be clever, and funny." Hey everyone, this fun guy can tolerate jokes occasionally! Salon's Stephanie Zacherak also fails when she writes about comedy; she's fine at bloviating endlessly, but history tells us she didn't find anything humorous about Freddy Got Fingered--arguably the funniest, most critically panned film of all time. 8 years of movie-going later, Steph's sense of humor remains unchanged. She scathes, "[Trevor and Zach] are the comedic equivalent of erectile dysfunction!" These people couldn't be more wrong. I saw Miss March last night and ROFLed heavily. I think Moore and Creggers' intent here isn't to copy the comedy-with-a-sweet-message motif, rather, they acknowledge the Hollywood bro-com formula as rubbish that's ripe for mockery. Moore is a Hawaiian shirt-clad "crazy" guy and Zach's a buttoned down straight man... and they're on the road trip OF A LIFETIME! The whole film is a farce on the genre and critics just don't know how to deal with comedies in which unforgiving absurdity is the reality.The Whitest Kids have always had a flair for angsty, nihilistic humor with unexpected twists, and Miss March will not disappoint WKUK fans. I'm still giggling to myself as I think about many of the scenes--including the scene from the trailer of the black seductress falling out the party bus window. The next 2 minutes in the movie are nothing but Trevor Moore reaction shots, and it totally works. Although Miss March might literally be a shitfest cuz of all the poo jokes, the movie IS NOT one metaphorically. Much like Freddy Got Fingered, it's a misunderstood and maligned film with great payoffs for those of us who don't cross our arms when we pee. The unparalleled, unified detriment of the critics is enough cause to seek this one out.</p>

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<p>The Apiary | 5 Comments in Reviews Friday Mar 06 2009  Reviews and Appraisals: I'm Perfect, You're Doomed by Kyria AbrahamsBy: Carolyn Castiglia</p>
<p>Friday, March 6, 2009 at 7:27AM Former Jehovah's Witness Kyria Abrahams tells all in her new memoir I'm Perfect, You're Doomed... but does ace reviewer Carolyn Castiglia want to hear what she's saying?Abrahams sez: "We attended the Kingdom Hall and hated the things it was most important to hate: holidays, patriotism, blood transfusions, and Catholics."REVIEWEvery stand-up has a story; some confluence of issues, most likely stemming from their childhood, that draws them to the stage. But few comics have experienced a youth as complex and absurd as Kyria Abrahams. In her first book, the comedian and now memoirist comes clean about battling OCD, her penchant for day drinking, a habit of cutting herself, and a troubling case of "school phobia" that caused her to drop out in tenth grade. One might wonder how so many problems could befall an otherwise normal, New England teenager, but take one look at the book's subtitle, Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing and the picture becomes clear. It's easy to feel like life has no meaning when you spend your days consumed by thoughts of humanity's imminent doom, waiting for "this system of things to pass away." With a narrative of this grandeur, the book is both touching ("As much as Aaron and I hated studying the Watchtower, it felt good to be a part of something with Dad. It was the only time I ever felt like we were a healthy family.") and hilarious ("The bottom line was that Armageddon was coming and college would make you Asian."). Abrahams' protagonist finds herself in a loveless marriage at seventeen to a twenty-four-year-old math professor with onion breath, only to be rescued by an obese slam poet still living in his parents' house. Ultimately, somewhat inspired by the "worldly" tunes of R.E.M., Abrahams does lose her religion, but keeps her wise wit intact, much to the benefit of her readers. I'm Perfect, You're Doomed is a brilliant portrait of a faltering fundamentalist teen on the brink, finally rising like a phoenix from her own (non-Catholic) ashes.PICTURE REVIEWAfter the jump!</p>

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