On Stage
THE LATE, LATE HORROR SHOW
Sat 11:30pm; Indefinite run. $5. The Bad Dog Theatre, 138 Danforth. www.baddogtheatre.com
Shawn Browning's The Late Late Horror Show is a delightfully offbeat and low-key late-night comedy revue. Browning and a rotating cast of 15 regular performers improvise a live play using the clichés and characters of the horror genre. The macabre theme and near-midnight time slot facilitate the use of gross-out gags, sexual innuendo and, yes, even naughty language that should appeal to the giggling adolescent inside everyone. The show is certainly not high art, nor does it pretend to be. Browning and co.'s modest ambition is merely to entertain or offend their audience as much as possible and on this level, the rag-tag collection of comedians succeeds admirably.
A show like this lives and dies by its cast and while it's impossible to uniformly judge the entire ensemble from a single performance — only five players appeared in last week's show — the actors on hand were quick-witted, versatile and shared a chemistry that only grows out of camaraderie. Browning serves as the master of ceremonies and is ostensibly the star of the show. He is fairly open about his love of horror and it shines through the lovingly lampoons the genre. His enthusiasm, fine comic timing and willingness to be drenched in stage blood all contribute to his ability to carry the show without dominating it. Improv is a team sport and Darryl Pring, Mitch Risman, Jedediah Smith and Jeremy Schultz all contributed to last week's performance in their own way. While each member garnered his share of laughter throughout the night, it was probably Pring who stood out from the rest of the supporting players. The actor's willingness to throw himself into bizarre characters and engage in disturbingly lewd acts (such as graphically breast feeding other cast members) is ideal for this type of humour and rarely did he appear in a scene without stealing it.
That being said, The Late Late Horror Show is hardly perfect. An over-reliance on cheap props and silly sound effects becomes a little distracting and the occasional scene or character will fall flat. However, inconsistency is an inevitable part of improvisation and these results are to be expected. One of the virtues of using the horror genre is that anytime a character fails it is possible to instantly kill them off in a brutal manner with full audience approval, a technique the cast have no problem exploiting. The show is also undeniably immature, but in such an affectionate manner that it's not a problem. As Browning himself said in his introduction, the show is intended to be like a group of friends getting together to make each other laugh. While that philosophy could easily lead to self-indulgence and an abundance of inside jokes, with a group as funny and likable as this it is easy to join the party. The Late Late Horror Showis an enjoyable, bloody, late-night guilty pleasure with material sure to offend every member of the family.