THE
BEST OF THE BEST SKETCH FEST 2008
APPLE
SISTERS PUT SHINE ON SKETCH COMEDY FESTIVAL
Monday, August 11, 2008
Marty Hughley
To borrow a phrase from a group
of unintentional comedians, the rock band Kiss: "You wanted
the best, you got the best!"
That's the idea behind the Best of the Best Sketch Fest,
which presented seven intentionally hilarious acts on
Friday and Saturday nights at Artists Repertory Theatre.
Compared with the mammoth Chicago Sketchfest, for instance,
which fields about 100 troupes, Portland's six-year-old
event is highly selective and subjective: It's "the best"
as determined by producers Ted Douglas and Andy Buzan and
the other members of their group, the 3rd Floor.
Subjective or not, though, I can scarcely imagine there's
any funnier, more creatively inspired act out there for the
handpicking than the Apple Sisters, known in real life as
New Yorkers Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Johnson and Sarah Lowe.
I might have laughed more at the trio's Friday night show,
but only if my jaw hadn't kept dropping at the brilliance
of the concept and writing and the happy audacity of its
execution.
Like a crisp, sweet McIntosh with a razor inside, the act
is a 1940s radio variety show that revels in its homespun
innocence ("Heck's bells!," one of the sisters exclaims)
and cornpone humor (Seedy Apple: "You're so dumb." Lusty,
busty blonde Cora Apple: "I ain't dumb! I can hear just
fine!"), but sneaks in shards of political and sexual
commentary. Facing the prospect of joining the war effort,
Seedy remarks, "We know that war isn't all raindrops on
roses and whites-only drinking fountains." And then there
are the references to Candy Apple's mysterious husband
"Cheryl" ("It's not like I'm hiding Cheryl in a closet,"
Candy says.)
With the help of a pianist, they performed Andrews
Sisters-style songs in sweet three-part harmony, with sharp
choreography and unexpected twists, such as quaffing soap
and blowing bubbles while singing a dreamy tune with the
evocative couplet, "Everything's fine/pink wine." They have
such a firm grasp of their characters (antique Midwestern
accents and all) that they can ad lib parts of their patter
skillfully, even at a madcap pace. And you probably
wouldn't think that women spitting corn at one another
could be as hysterical as these three make it, in a plug
for their show's sponsor, Corndy ("the candy that tastes
like corn!").
The festival's single most impressive performer, though,
had to be former Portlander Livia Scott, who kicked off the
weekend with "Biz" Ellis as Dirty Jeans & Thunderchief
(presenting a loose story that blended a '70s action-show
parody and the sexual frustrations of suburban mothers)
then showed her range repeatedly in a reunion of the
much-loved quartet Meat. Her astonishing vocal facility let
her shine as anything from a crude Lothario, to a squeamish
old lady at a movie theater, to a drunken Brit in an a
cappella punk band, but she was sharpest as haughty film
critic Cynthia Falconcrest, savaging Seth Rogan while
sounding like a cross between Joan Crawford and Cruella de
Vil.
Meat's Saturday night performance may have drawn the
festival's largest audience, and probably was in close
competition with the high-energy finale by the 3rd Floor
itself -- highlighted by the enactment of a paper airplane
crash as an aviation disaster to paper dolls -- for most
raucous ovation.
Like Meat, the Los Angeles troupe Troop! marked its fifth
visit to the festival, and like the Apple Sisters performed
a single, cohesive and extended sketch. Instead of the
falsely idyllic past, they explored a post-apocalyptic
future in which ketchup packets are the main form of
currency and the hero's brave quest is a search for toilet
paper.
The members of Pangea 3000 are writers for the satirical
website The Onion, yet their writing seems much less
developed than their physical skills as comic actors. Their
best moments came in a spelling bee for which the winning
word was spelled "fff hhbvhhh" and a goof on early-'80s rap
as an educational tool ("Brainbusting Beat Boys").
Similarly, Becky & Noelle, another offshoot from Meat,
was at its best satirizing the attitudes and performative
cliches of pop music.