Over the past several months, Thursday nights at Go Comedy! Improv Theater have morphed into a night of original comedies. It's a great proving ground for creative talent to explore their abilities and to fine-tune their ideas – and as you might expect, some shows are slicker, funnier and (quite frankly) better produced than others. But one thing is certainly guaranteed:
If you don't care for one particular show, hang around for the next – and expect a totally different experience.
That's what happened on a recent visit to Go Comedy for the opening night of "Shim & D'rothy," subtitled "Comeducational, Learntastic, Glocal Variety Show."
Self-fancied comedian Shim (Ryan Parmenter) and social crusader D'rothy (Carrie Hall) have joined forces to produce a show that's part variety extravaganza and part teaching tool, reminiscent of "Sesame Street" – but very low budget and extremely low brow. (I couldn't help but think this is the type of show that well-meaning trailer trash would put on if they took over the local community access cable channel.)
The concept, written by Parmenter and Hall, is ripe with possibilities, but the show loses steam with multiple sequences of far-too-long streams of one-and-two sentence platitudes. (Only some of the imparted "wisdom" is witty and perceptive, although some in the audience seemed to think otherwise.)
The most creative elements, however, are delightful – particularly the excellent spoof of "Circle of Life" from "The Lion King" and the lesson that tries to teach us that AIDS is all around us. The videos by Mikey Brown are likewise excellent.
Direction is provided by Jaime Moyer and Peter Jacokes, with choreography by Lauren Bickers.
Afterwards, Tommy LeRoy presents "Richard Myron's YouTube Bonanza," a selection of the week's funniest videos on the internet.
REVIEW:
'Shim & D'rothy'
Thursday nights at Go Comedy! currently begin at 8 p.m. with "Go Comedy! Showcase," followed at 9 p.m. with "Shim & D'rothy" and "Richard Myron's YouTube Bonanza" at 9:30 p.m. Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale. Tickets are $10 for the night. 248-327-0575. http://www.gocomedy.net.
