Last night, I went down with friends to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Chelsea to check out Horatio Sanz’ Christmas stage show. This was my first time in the UCB Theater and having spent some time in the Chicago improv theaters, it looked very familiar.
The show itself was somewhat funny — hilarious if you appreciate the fact that the performance was emulating a bad television Christmas special. Horatio acted as the host interacting with guests in a few sketches while playing a couple of characters (pissed-off Santa out to kill his cheating wife, John Wayne Gacy, etc) in a few others. I was disappointed though that Sanz used cue cards the entire time while the other performers performed, like most stage actors do, from memory. I think Sanz must have spent too much time on SNL.
Edgar Oliver, who I’ve heard referred to as the “Edgar Allen Poe of the East Village” read a creepy and uncomfortable poem about an “ugly boy” who meets a “beautiful boy” and lures him into a motel room, hogties him and stabs him several times while imaging “kissing his beautiful body”. Yet another hilarious performance in the counterpoint/context of being a Christmas special. I can only imagine what he can deliver in a Halloween special — I will be on the lookout next year for some of his work.
David Bazan of Pedro the Lion played a couple of Christmas standards on his acoustic guitar in between sketches which was a real treat for everyone who knew who he was. But there was a group of drunk/pretentious Upper West’ers sitting behind us basically heckling through his performances which killed the mood. I don’t think they realized the joke was on them for taking the comedy too seriously.
At the end of the show, I overheard a member of the UWS group, clearly a flamer with a powerful lisp say “We’re sssssworn to ssssecreccccy”. I think that was a clear contender for best comedic performance of the evening.
I was just listening to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Going Under