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Wednesday, March 12,2008
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More Hits than Misses
Theater Reviews
Sketchcomedy is never consistent but the format is universally familiar: A series of brief, light comic interactions hit the stage. Some moments are good; some are bad. The mind is gradually pummeled into a generally pleasant state. Of course, if it’s bad sketch comedy, the experience is altogether unpleasant. Running through March 16 at the Alchemist Theatre on South Kinnickinnic Avenue, local comedy group Broadminded’s sketch comedy program Cookie! rests somewhere comfortably between extremes. It’s successful enough at dodging the mindnumbing tedium of painfully obvious jokes to make it well worth the price of admission.
Broadminded
consists of four women: Stacy Babl and Megan McGee who graduated from
the Second City Conservatory program and Melissa Kingston and Anne
Graff LaDisa from ComedySportz, Milwaukee. The four women drift from
sketch to sketch, occasionally striking a brilliant moment of comedy.
The
recurring segment featured a certain cookie monster from a certain
children’s television show trying to rehabilitate from a dreadful
cookie addiction. It represents humor one may have felt more inclined
to cringe through than actually laugh at. Scattered amongst the less
entertaining bits was some pretty good stuff about the ever-present
clash between left and right on the political spectrum, pregnancy and
that nauseatingly precise person at the office everyone hates. One of
the best moments of the evening was a twowoman piece entitled “Anything
You Can Do.” Its roots go back at least 40 years to the type of comedy
popularized by John Cleese, Graham Chapman and company in Monty
Python’s “Four Yorkshiremen,” sketch. In that sketch, four men brag to
each other about how bad their lives were growing up, each one trying
to establish his childhood as the worst. In “Anything You Can Do,”
Broadminded takes a brilliant modern twist on the sketch with a pair of
office employees trying to outdo each other by comparing how bad their
lives are now and how completely unaffected by it they are because they
are just so completely well-adjusted.
The piece is clever on
many levels. Broadminded would have done well to expand it to include
all four members and discard something else that didn’t work as well.
With about a dozen sketches that hit more often than not, Broadminded
shows a great deal of promise. The show runs through March 16.
Also in Theater:
Elections 2008
Obama seeks greater rein on financial institutions
(AP)
AP - President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to pass legislation giving the government greater regulatory authority over financial institutions like American International Group.
Sources: Pentagon to stop forced tour extension
(AP)
AP - The Army will substantially reduce use of the unpopular practice of holding troops beyond their enlistment dates and will pay $500 to those still forced to stay in the service, defense and congressional officials said Wednesday.
AIG head shares US anger of bonuses but backs them
(AP)
AP - The chief executive officer of failed insurance conglomerate AIG acknowledged Wednesday that the company's multimillion-dollar bonuses were "distasteful" to many and had provoked a firestorm of wrath. "I share that anger," Edward Liddy, chairman and CEO of the American International Group Inc., said in testimony prepared for Congress.
Analysis: White House, Dems backpedaling on AIG
(AP)
AP - For the first time since last fall's election, Democrats and the Obama administration are backpedaling furiously on an issue easily understood by financially strapped taxpayers: $165 million in bonuses paid out at bailed-out AIG.
Pence: Return AIG donations
(Politico)
Politico - House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence is urging politicians from both parties to strongly consider returning campaign contributions from AIG.
..Search Shepherd Express
Top Stories
AIG head shares US anger of bonuses but backs them
(AP)
AP - The chief executive officer of failed insurance conglomerate AIG acknowledged Wednesday that the company's multimillion-dollar bonuses were "distasteful" to many and had provoked a firestorm of wrath. "I share that anger," Edward Liddy, chairman and CEO of the American International Group Inc., said in testimony prepared for Congress.
Obama seeks greater rein on financial institutions
(AP)
AP - President Barack Obama says he wants Congress to pass legislation giving the government greater regulatory authority over financial institutions like American International Group.
Consumer prices rise by largest amount in 7 months
(AP)
AP - Consumer prices rose in February by the largest amount in seven months as gasoline prices surged again and clothing costs jumped the most in nearly two decades.
Crude
