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How Was the Show?An open thread for reports from tonight’s Cinematic Titanic show in D.C.
14 Replies to “How Was the Show?”Commenting at Satellite News
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Great show, despite the video problems… In fact, riffing their own “Spinal Tap” moments got some of the biggest laughs of the night.
Great fun, and I hope they come back to DC (or nearby) again soon!
Hilarious show. The venue, Lisner Auditorium at (The) George Washington University, is best known to a certain breed of political types as the home of the live-audience version of CNN’s “Crossfire.” There were only a few empty seats in the back.
Things kicked off with J. Elvis doing stand-up, followed by Mary Jo reading a few words from her new book (like “the” and “lawyers”). Trace then read a couple of poems from his book, followed by Frank’s stand-up and Joel’s newspaper-shredding magic trick.
The movie, “Rattlers,” is a choppily edited, low-budget piece of ’70s semi-horror, and thus prime fodder for the CT crew. Basic plot: Rattlesnakes are ganging up on the type of people who hang out in the desert, and it’s up to a David Hartman-wannabe herpetologist and his women’s lib-spouting photographer sidekick (who, of course, eventually succumbs to those Hartman-esque charms in a plot cul-de-sac) to figure out why. Safari jackets and bad toupees abound, as do military men who are only slightly more competent than those in “Attack of The (The) Eye Creatures.”
Best riff I can recall: During the climactic gun battle (yes, a movie about snakes ends with a gunfight): “Is this Rick Perry’s new debate format?” There were even callbacks to “Mitchell” and “Eegah.”
There were a few technical glitches in which the video froze or, at a couple points, shut down completely. The crew didn’t miss a beat, kept cracking jokes all the way through the dead space, even quipping at one point, “I think Rifftrax sabotaged us.”
I didn’t stay for the meet-and-greet, but I did pick up an older CT DVD at the merch table (“Doomsday Machine”) that’s no longer sold on the CT website.
All in all, a hilarious night. Thanks, guys!
It was our 5th live show and they seem to be getting better all the time. Really fun pre-show as usual by the cast members. There were some technical problems, but the jokes during the DVD glitches were some good improv. The movie was dreadful, Joel referred to it during the pre-show as “a shi**y movie about snakes” and he wasn’t kidding, it was dreadful but in that special good way. In fact, many shots and lines of dialogue in the movie got laughs without any riffs they were just so poorly done or bizarre. Really funny show and it just flew by. In fact the end of the movie was so anti-climactic it was hard to tell if it was over. We dashed out as the Titans took their bows so we could be near the front of the meet-and-greet since our son has to get up really early for school tomorrow. We brought a bunch of old “MST3K Info Club” merchandise to be autographed such as the movie sign viewer, an MST3K logo folder and a lyric sheet for the original theme song. A really fun evening and we hope to see another show again by next year.
Let’s say that you choose to watch a movie about snakes. The snakes are clearly monsters. There are several scenes with them attacking innocent people, including children and a woman in a bath tub. The protagonist studies snakes and has a scene where he captures a dangerous one.
So naturally the movie ends with a shoot out with a crooked general. I mean, why not?
Other random thoughts (Sorry, it’s late):
The “liberated” reporter was so useless.
There is a scene where it is implied that a snake bit a tire of a car. While someone was driving it.
The funniest scene in the movie was when the snakes attacked the protagonists in their tent and some soldier just burst in and started shooting the snakes. Followed by that one guy’s toupee, which led to many a great riff.
That trick by Joel before the show was neat. I’m going to go to youtube to see how it’s done.
Best riff of the night (During one of the technical difficulties) MJP: Did Rifftrax sabotage us?
I agree with everything posted above. It was a great show. The DVD gliched about three times. Once the screen went black for maybe a minute. Everyone just improved until it could get back on screen. It was some of the funniest jokes of the night.
I asked Josh if a glitch like that ever happened before. He responed “Never that bad.”
Overall it was fun, wonderful show.
The show was hilarious, especially the ad-libs during the DVD malfunctions. I loved Mary Jo’s lines about the general’s candy corn teeth, plus the Rifftrax joke mentioned above. This is my 3rd live show (after DC last year and the Princeton NJ show in April) and the first time I stayed afterwards to meet the crew. I was kind of tongue-tied but they were all so nice. The opening bits were new (Mary Jo’s book), repeats from other times (Frank and Trace), and a mix-Josh did the MST theme song as Elvis Costello. I still love Joel’s newspaper trick! No Gruber this time though, I missed him.
I hope they come back to DC soon!
Favorite riffs: anything related to the military dr’s toupee (from Joel): “Nice hat!” “When we get behind closed dooooors…and I get my wig on right.”
Trace: (the snake dr. and army pilot are in a helicopter) “Let’s go follow Ray Liotta around Long Island.”
(when the DVD glitch made the screen pause on the army pilot): “Well, I bet this actor is thrilled to get so much screen time.”
Frank: “Washed out for snakes…oh, I feel so empty inside.”
I had a great time last night, I now understand why the love doing the live shows and why they moved in this direction. If you have a chance to see them live: Do it!
Oh, and Rattlers was a tremendous find for them. Just terrrrible. The riffing was great and the movie was so bad it riffed itself along the way. The technical glitches actually worked out well because of the bonus laughs (the Rifftrax line was the line of the night – well, except the Mitchell reference ’cause man I love me some Mitchell references). It was also fun to watch them scroll quickly down their laptops to find their place after one glitch that skipped a minute of movie.
Speaking of that, it got me thinking: Are there examples of MST3K scripts on the internet? I know there are plenty of transcripts, but any actual scripts? I’m intrigued in how they format them, is it movie dialogue on one side of the page and their dialogue on the other? I should have asked Frank for a peek.
I can’t believe I wrote “laptops” instead of “iPads”. Sigh.
@8: Go to bed old man! :)
@ #7: The explanation of MST3K scripts given years ago and shown in some of the behind the scenes stuff available explained that it was done by RTC (running time counter). Jokes were entered into a computer along with the associated RTC cue during screenings of the movie in the writing room. The final script would display the RTC next to each joke and the name of the person saying it. When the riffing sequences were recorded, Joel (later Mike) and the ‘Bots would be looking at these scripts and the RTC on the movie would provide the cue for each joke. The movie was actually watched on a small monitor that displayed the RTC with the film in front of the cast sitting in the theater silhouette set. The large format film was added into the shot later on.
@8 Ha!
@7 That’s right, I remember hearing about that now. Seems like doing it that way would be tough, but they obviously got used to it. Interesting. Thanks!
I enjoyed it immensely!
Stuttering my way through meeting Frank, I regrettably said, “Now I’m getting giddy!” Joel leaned over and added, “You’re making him giddy, Frank.” 19 years to practice meeting them all and that was how it turned out!
For the record, I brought my 9 year old daughter, having bought the tickets as a combined birthday present/celebration of our shared love of MST3K. Having never seen CT, I browsed this site looking for insight on how appropriate the show might be for the younger fan and felt pretty good coming into it. I have no regrets, and my daughter had plenty of laughs – but I think if I had to do it over again, I wouldn’t have had her see the show.
In case anyone else is looking for advice on bringing a young fan to CT(and in case it wasn’t spelled out strongly enough elsewhere on this site), take heed: it’s a strong PG-13. Brief nudity and profanity in Rattlers notwithstanding, CT’s riffing is adult stuff; lots of sexual themes and strong language. Lots of blue standup from Frank, too. I’m not complaining – I took a risk, and I feel comfortable that what I couldn’t cover up with distractions went pretty much in one ear and out the other – but it’s not a high mark on my parenting record. I would have hoped for a couple of extra years before explaining furries to my firstborn. :)
That being said, the cast was wonderful toward her during the meet & greet, and it’s something I’ll remember forever. Very special props to J. Elvis, Frank, Mary Jo, Trace & Joel for making her feel special in such short little moments. It was a great end to a great night! I was glad to see it so well attended!
#12 That’s a very good way to put how you felt and how others should feel when thinking about bringing young ones to a live show. If you think about it things have changed over the years such as ratings on movies and t.v. Movies that were R-rated in the 60’s and 70’s now are PG-13. Not all movies but some (The Graduate I think is PG-13 now.) Things change and these folks are very tame, when you look at some of the things they talk about on afternoon late afternoon T.V. I love the live shows but you really have to understand that this is how they present their comedy, not to shock anyone but make us laugh. As a side point my wife worked at a video rental store (remember those?) and during the summer kids would come in and try to rent R-RATED horror films, 9,10,12 year old kids and she would say I cant rent this to you and she’d call to speak to a parent and the Mom would say it was okay for them to rent it. The owner of the store had parents fill out cards saying it was okay and the info was put into the store computer. Times have changed and every parent has to have an opened mind about what their kids watch on T.V. at the movies or even on their phones. I hope this didn’t come off as some guy on a soap box. All I wanted to say to #12 was don’t feel this was a bad thing you did you had fun and your daughter had fun too.
I had a great time. I’m a fan of both CT and RiffTrax, and this is my first live show of either. It was really fun and hilarious; the only stuff I’ve seen from that part of the crew was of the MST3K-era, so the updated pop culture jokes were cool. They all seemed to be having a good time and really in their element.