Spring Break
"Grounded" no punishment for "Indefinitely" attendees
by Sarah Bayer
Assistant Arts Editor
Arts | 4/28/09
Posted online at 10:32 PM EST on 4/27/09
/ Last updated at 7:31 AM EST on 4/27/09
"Is this comedy?" a man asked nervously at the box office before the performance of Boris' Kitchen's semester show Friday evening. He and his wife were about the right age to be pre-frosh parents, although a son or daughter was nowhere to be seen. Upon being assured that Boris' Kitchen was a sketch comedy group, they each bought a ticket and went inside.
Whether audience members were prospective parents looking for a wholesome atmosphere to entrust their child to or alums looking to relive their glory days may have made a big difference in how they received the show. Titled "Grounded Indefinitely," the 90-minute program offered a half-nostalgic, half-subversive take on adolescent boredom. For example, in one skit, Paul Gale '12 played Pinky to Sam Roos' '09 Brain, asking, "What are we doing tonight?"
To which Roos answered, "Same thing we do every night," and whipped out a bong.
In "There's No Such Thing as a Free Meal," Lydia Flier '09 played an apathetic daughter forced to watch murder mystery dinner theater only to end up murdering the performers. "No one suspects the wet-blanket sibling!" she proclaimed.
Fittingly for a show with such nostalgia for childhood, the group skewered a few almost too-familiar targets, such as zombies, transgendered individuals and Sham WOW. "Woah, Man," a skit in which Charlie Kivolowitz '11 volunteered for a transgender operation, provoked mostly groans as his character Fred cast off his womanizing ways and experienced a gruesome first period.
Sex and romance won many laughs throughout the evening. "That Guy Olympics" sent up pretentious, rude men who still manage to get laid, "Frank's Bar and Grille" depicted dysfunctional couples meeting in a seedy alternative to eHarmony, and "The Way I Aren't" showed Ron Kendler '09 on the waitlist for a girl's affections.
As with most Brandeis comedy, the skits were even funnier if you knew the people in them. As Kendler delivered an impossibly speedy and elaborate send-up of recent political news, some in the audience laughed before he even got to the punch line. Kendler's litany was part of the evening's longest skit, "The News," in which Roos and Mike Martin '09 offered their takes on the latest world events. It wasn't quite The Daily Show, but it was a lot funnier than Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and may have earned the most resounding laughter.
Whether audience members were prospective parents looking for a wholesome atmosphere to entrust their child to or alums looking to relive their glory days may have made a big difference in how they received the show. Titled "Grounded Indefinitely," the 90-minute program offered a half-nostalgic, half-subversive take on adolescent boredom. For example, in one skit, Paul Gale '12 played Pinky to Sam Roos' '09 Brain, asking, "What are we doing tonight?"
To which Roos answered, "Same thing we do every night," and whipped out a bong.
In "There's No Such Thing as a Free Meal," Lydia Flier '09 played an apathetic daughter forced to watch murder mystery dinner theater only to end up murdering the performers. "No one suspects the wet-blanket sibling!" she proclaimed.
Fittingly for a show with such nostalgia for childhood, the group skewered a few almost too-familiar targets, such as zombies, transgendered individuals and Sham WOW. "Woah, Man," a skit in which Charlie Kivolowitz '11 volunteered for a transgender operation, provoked mostly groans as his character Fred cast off his womanizing ways and experienced a gruesome first period.
Sex and romance won many laughs throughout the evening. "That Guy Olympics" sent up pretentious, rude men who still manage to get laid, "Frank's Bar and Grille" depicted dysfunctional couples meeting in a seedy alternative to eHarmony, and "The Way I Aren't" showed Ron Kendler '09 on the waitlist for a girl's affections.
As with most Brandeis comedy, the skits were even funnier if you knew the people in them. As Kendler delivered an impossibly speedy and elaborate send-up of recent political news, some in the audience laughed before he even got to the punch line. Kendler's litany was part of the evening's longest skit, "The News," in which Roos and Mike Martin '09 offered their takes on the latest world events. It wasn't quite The Daily Show, but it was a lot funnier than Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and may have earned the most resounding laughter.
Be the first to comment on this story