Golden Globe
Opening night of Bad Dog's comedy showdown featured improv at its best
by Sean Davidson
No matter who wins this year's Globehead competition, the losing side will include anyone who was not at Bad Dog Theatre opening night for the face-off between Sensei Sensibility and 3 Dudes From the Future. It's not every day that you get to see three guys — naked but for flesh-colored briefs, bound together with plastic kitchen wrap — take on an improv team that includes Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mickey, the Popeye-esque boxing trainer from the first few Rocky movies.
So, sorry, everyone who stayed in two Fridays ago. It was one of those blink-and-you-miss-it moments that makes improv and — at its best — this month-long competition at Bad Dog so much fun.
I'm told that the 3 Dudes (Kris Siddiqi, Alastair Forbes and James Gangl) didn't come up with the idea — time-travelers, fused together by some sci-fi mishap — until shortly before the show. But their four-armed, five-legged monstrosity showed huge spirit, teetering into the crowd as they struggled with improv standards like "Entrances and Exits" and "Sit, Stand, Bend."
The staid mentor characters that made up the other team looked to be outclassed, though spitfire scene thief Ken Hall and Brandy Huff, as Mickey and Martha Stewart, enjoyed a high-energy bit as a husband and wife desperate to escape each other — spinning 'round the stage like they were at a square dance.
It was a heartbreaker, but when the points were tallied the time travelers were left behind while the Senseis graduated to the quarterfinals, where this weekend they will face the not-to-be-trifled-with likes of Kurt Smeaton and Alana Johnston.
Johnston, together with Kayla Lorette and Ian Rowe, put Death Ray Cabaret to shame last Friday with a lot of help from the latter's Brad Sayeau, who seemed to shoot down every idea thrown at him by troupemate Kevin Matviw.
"No, I'm not. No, we aren't. No, they didn't," was all Sayeau had to say during their scenes, leaving his partner hanging.
"Oh my god, you're an asshole," Matviw blurted at one point, bending character.
It's possible that Sayeau was just messing with him — Globehead isn't exactly a high-stakes contest and the judging is really just a talkative crap shoot. Or maybe the Rays aren't the same with out their third member, the aforementioned Alastair Forbes, who ditched his usual partners to be the meat in a Kris Siddiqi/James Gangl sandwich.