TALK ON THE WILD SIDE
Reviewing an improv show on the basis of one viewing can be risky: everyone has an off night now and then. The success of an improv troupe lies in its ability to foster a regular following more than in the quality of any particular performance. The Free Associates, a young and rather raw company in residence at Kill the Poets coffeehouse, is building an audience fairly effectively, judging from the performance I caught last weekend. Despite the cold and snowy weather, the room was full, the patrons acted like regulars, and the interaction between audience and actors was casual, playful, and fairly intimate. The Free Associates’ improvised shows, about 40 minutes in length, depend heavily on viewer participation, a good way to assure audience satisfaction: the more a customer invests in a show (whether it’s $50 per ticket for a Cameron Mackintosh musical or a few suggestions to an improv group), the more satisfied he’s inclined to be.
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So if Talk on the Wild Side, the Free Associates’ parodic tribute to Nelson Algren, was less than first-rate the night I caught it, it at least made for decent party entertainment. It helps of course that Kill the Poets is located in the Damen-Division area, near the heart of Algren territory, and that its clientele claim familiarity with Algren’s mystique and material.
The same company’s The Jo Anne Worley Family Christmas Seance takes far fewer risks and produces a few more laughs. Unlike the fully improvised Talk on the Wild Side, which at least has the element of chance going for it, this is a prescripted TV-show put-on whose content is exactly what you’d expect from its title–a mock Christmas special in which loudmouthed comedian Jo Anne Worley welcomes guests from has-been heaven and hell. Aided by her star-struck mother Shirley, her best friend Shari Lewis, and song-and-dance diversions from Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, Jo Anne plays host to such drop-ins from the dead as Paul Lynde, Liberace, and Andy Warhol. “I feel like an old fag hag,” moans Jo Anne. “You’re not old,” says Shari soothingly. Later and straighter guests include Bert Convy and Bing Crosby (“Borrringggg!”); Pearl Bailey, Janis Joplin, and Karen Carpenter pop by as well. (What? No Mama Cass?)
