The Recovery Party and Table Salt Productions just closed an impressive run of “Danger! Will/Robinson,†an evening of sketch comedy and improv created by the local comedy team of Joshua Will and Jim Robinson. Supported by fellow Brave New Workshop alums, Michelle Cassioppi, Julie Grover, Eriq Nelson and Dan Hetzel the cast had an easy camaraderie on stage and offered an interesting mix in looks and acting styles. Dennis Curley at the keyboard served as another character providing accompaniment, musical punctuation and delivering his share of punchlines a la piano.
The combination is just plain great fun. Robinson and Will are capable of making the verging-on-pointless (arguing over paint in Menards) to the fundamentally serious (dealing with ADD) equally funny, and while there is a sketch/song about a ménage a trios, and a few other slightly risqué references, this writing duo doesn’t sucker for the cheap sex joke laughs – and that earns them extra stars in my book.
The excitement with sketch comedy – and especially with live improv – is the inherent danger in it. I don’t know if they thought of this when picking the title. (There aren’t any “Lost in Space†references, so I assume it was just fun with names.) Sometimes the sketch works, sometimes it sort of works, but not quite. The entertainment value is in its immediacy – watching the actors find their way to the laugh line at lightning speed, and when they do, there is no more satisfying moment in theater, and last night’s audience loved it.
Incorporating a mix of improv and scripted scenes works beautifully in this show. Highlights among the scripted scenes include Cassioppi as a mother telling her daughter the story of how she almost swore once; Will as a son forced into the trauma of admitting to his parents that he’s left handed (“There just aren’t that many people left to make fun of, except maybe Canadians and where’s the fun in that?â€); and Eriq Nelson’s Bible geneology (“Jeremiah was a bullfrog …â€), which was just plain brilliant.
The setting was less than ideal. The theater in the Hudson Inn in Hudson, Wisc., has a sweet little stage and café seating, but the mediocre bar food and strange lighting stripped some of the ambience. However, the cast had ready access to the audience who willingly shared suggestions for the improv bits.
All in all, it’s smart writing and relevant satire offered up by skilled performers who aren’t afraid to take risks and lay their egos at our feet. That takes guts and I love it.
Next I’d like to see recognizable characters, which is at the heart of sketch comedy. When TV sketch comedy was primetime, characters created by Carol Burnett, Cher, Red Skelton, and many others – even Johnny Carson – turned these successful performers into huge stars. If Will and Robinson, in particular had established, identifiable characters that appeared in all their shows, they’d bump up the excitement and turn their fans into fanatics. They certainly have the chops to do it.
You’ve missed your opportunity for this one, but Table Salt Productions holiday show, “Spiked! Put a Little Punch in Your Holidays†opens December 1 with Will, Robinson and Curley once more at the helm. It could be another “dangerous†show.