Last Tuesday, students gathered in the Busch Student Center for an improvisation-based Tim Meadows comical performance that left viewers less than impressed with its lack of creativity.
“[The performance] was so highly advertised, but overall, it just wasn’t worth the time I spent to watch it,” said freshman Jordan Graham. “Number one, it was completely planned out, even though it was meant to be improvisation. Second of all, Tim Meadows did not play nearly as large of a role in the act as you’d expect from looking at the advertisements. The other two performers played larger roles than Tim Meadows did.” Meadows and two other comedians covered topics in their improv ranging from illegal dog racing in alleys, Michael Phelps at a party and Miley Cyrus on a coke binge to more student-oriented jokes surrounding the popular, local Laclede Street Bar and Grill. The comedians performed a wide array of continuous scenes.
“What we call it is a montage. What you guys might call it is a shit-load of scenes we are about to do for you,” Meadows said as he opened the act.
Meadows went on to talk about having sex with his Guitar Hero.
“After seeing the Heidi Klum Guitar Hero commercial, I don’t know the message they were trying to send, but after seeing it, I had sex with my Guitar Hero. I got electrocuted.”
Students seemed to really enjoy the Laclede Bar and Grill scene. One of the actors portrayed a bartender and the other one acted as an underage student trying to purchase alcohol.
“Clearly I am 21,” said the underage drinker.
“Obviously you’ve never seen The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” responded the supposed bartender.
The audience was acknowledged numerous times throughout the act, but very little humor came through the comedians’ interactions with the students. The show incorporated student involvement by asking a student on stage about his day, and then the comedians imitated what the student’s dreams would consist of based on his narration of that day.
Meadows also had about 20 students write any dialogue of choice on small note cards to be incorporated into the first five minutes of the act.
“The student involvement was limited. They only let a certain number of people participate and it seemed as if they had chosen those people before the show. The student involvement failed to achieve its goal,” freshman Maria Muldoon said.
The two comedians working alongside Meadows both forgot they were speaking with an accent at times, starting the scene with an accent and ending it without one.
Meadows had a couple mishaps as well, almost falling off chairs twice while trying to appear taller. The audience gasped as Meadows swiftly shifted each chair under his feet while moving toward the edge of the stage to what he called “the crevice.”
Overall, the show had its bright moments, but the lack of spontaneity damaged the effectiveness of the improv comedy.
The show might have benefited from a few more of those narrowly averted chair mishaps. After all, improv comedy is supposed to be about making the best of an unpredictable situation, isn’t it?
