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How Was the Show?An open thread for reports from those who attended the “Best of RiffTrax” show tonight. How was the turnout?
15 Replies to “How Was the Show?”Commenting at Satellite News
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I actually skipped this one since the show is already out on DVD and it wasn’t worth 12 bucks to just see a new short. Hope it was fun for everyone who went, though.
I have the DVD, and it worked waaaay better with an audience than on my laptop.
@1 – What new short?
Dunno what they’re talking about – no new short at my show. The only difference between the version aired tonight and the DVD is that they edited out the bit regarding the iPod contest.
As Bill said earlier on his Tumblr, it is a bit rougher than the latest shows. But I found it much more enjoyable with an actual audience to bounce the jokes off of, and shame on me skipping past the Jonathan Coulton set – he’s good! (Still don’t want to listen to his Tron riff – I’d love MKB to take a swing at it.)
Got there early enough in hopes that they might test out the satellite with other Rifftrax bits, but there was a Wreck-It Ralph screening beforehand, so no luck.
First time attending one of these. I think about 30 people showed up. I had a pretty good time. I liked the pre-movie “slideshow” with funny quotes and the songs they’ve done for various titles. “Missile to the Moon” being especially hilarious done in the style of Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom”.
The stewardess short was in the grand tradition of ephemeral films MST used to exhume from oblivion. (From the title, I was expecting some 60’s or 70’s airline training film for some reason.) I didn’t even know 20th Century Fox made such shorts. Who was the original intended audience for that thing?
The riffing is so fast and furious, one often can’t catch their breath, and as people are still laughing it was often hard to hear the next joke at times. Seeing Plan 9 on a big screen was a revelation. I’ve seen it lots of times since 1980, but the sets somehow look even worse, and Bela’s double is more obvious than on video.
The first fake commercial had me fooled for a while. I’ve seen stranger things on local tv stations. ;)
The audience got a little restless with the fellow singing the zombie song.
It was about a third or so full at Cinemark Cedar Hills (Beaverton, OR). Hadn’t seen this one before and indeed, hadn’t seen Plan 9 in years, so I’d forgotten just how confusing it was at times (did Ed edit it with an immersion blender?). Thoroughly enjoyed it, though, as well as the short. Did anyone else notice that the new “flying stewardess” got onto one plane in Ft. Worth (Flagship New Jersey, I think) and off of another in Los Angeles (Flagship Massachusetts)? Those DC-3s could apparently change in midair, apparently, or she switched planes along the way…
Pretty minimal turnout in Albany, NY. Clearly an early run of the concept; glad they got rid of the idiot MC and ThinkGeek the Musical. I was embarrassed for Kevin doing his zombie dance. No one in the audience sang along, and they didn’t laugh much at the movie even though I thought it was pretty good.
Very sparse crowd here in Birmingham, Alabama. 10 people or so. This was only the second Rifftrax show we’ve seen in the theater; we saw “Manos” live. I can see how the format has changed over the years. We’re huge JoCo fans, so seeing him interact with Bill, Mike and (especially) Kevin was pretty awesome.
Loved the short. “I’m Bob Executive. Which way to business?”
The film riffing was great, too. But the movie is just. so. bad. For me, it resembles the “unwatchable movie” MST episodes. We had a great time last night, though I wish the theater had been fuller. But the movie is so awful, do I have any desire to own this on DVD or see it again? No, not really. (I might buy the short, though.)
Batavia, Illinois had a small screen (maybe 150 seats) at a little under half capacity. I got to talk to some of my fellow early nerds but the music under the trivia cards was too loud for that to continue.
I saw this the first time out, and I’m torn on the difference between this format and the more streamlined one they currently use. JoCo did kind of drag a bit — love the man, but the first time out, I didn’t know the show would be so top-heavy — but with an emcee and a guest musician, it feels like more of an event. Birdemic, on the other hand, felt like just a thing they do (Manos, probably, too, but I was at the Belcourt for that one, and it did feel pretty special — maybe the cast of Manos 2 gave it a bump). I think if the press told us there would be a musical guest, we wouldn’t have been checking our watches during re: Your Brains.
Rifftrax and Plan 9 are the chocolate and peanut butter of movie riffing, and there was no way it wouldn’t be great, but it illustrates the only downside here, and that is that RiffTrax is formula doesn’t lend itself conveniently to re watching as much as MST did. Can anyone think of more than 1 or 2 lines from each RiffTrax (live or otherwise) they’ve seen? The memorable riffs just aren’t here, even with the most riffable movie ever made (shorts notwithstanding). I have enjoyed them all, I just don’t find them quotable. Aside from “seize the bone!” which wasn’t a riff.
Still and all, good times. Worth a second time in theatres, even though I have the dvd.
Oh, wait; thought of another: “where’s my dinners?”
Kennesaw Ga, near Atlanta, the theatre had a good turnout. Sometimes it was difficult to tell if the laughter was coming from the soundtrack or our audience, but I’m pretty sure, a lot of it was from us. We did sing the Zombie song “All I want to do is eat your brains”. Even my reserved husband sang it.
The pre show entertainment was even more enjoyable last night than I remembered it. I was at the live performance in Nashville in 2009, plus I bought the DVD, so this was third time I viewed Rifftrax’s Plan 9. It was very funny. I got (understood) almost all the jokes.
Portland, OR Lloyd Center showing was 2/3 full. More people than Manos, less than Birdemic.
What’s funny is that my friends thought this show was longer than the other two because of what felt like an extended intro, but it tuns out that Plan 9 is sooooooo terrible it actually slows the passage of time!
#5- The travelogue (which is, to a decent degree, what the short is) was something frequently shown as a short subject in the era of the double feature, commercial flight was still something of a novelty in 1940 (the date of the short, based on the copyright at the end), and Lowell Thomas was prominent as a radio broadcaster, writer, and general figure in that period. With that all in mind, it would seem to have been meant to be part of the bill for a general audience.
As for the screening: The Evanston showing had more people than Manos did, but it was still a fraction of the total hall (very cold, which may have been an issue).
I saw it originally as well, and it was of interest, first, to catch a few jokes in the short I missed originally (there were some brief signal cuts), and, second, to note what edits were made (I seem to recall it taking a whole lot longer to end originally).
Here in New York City, the theater was at capacity. The line to get in started an hour before showtime. Seemed to me that the audience was pretty into the short and the main attraction (lots of laughs), but no one was into Jonathan Coulton or the Something Awful videos. I was very pleased altogether.
A good crowd in Charlotte, NC as the theater was over half full. It was weird watching a prerecorded, older show, as usually the audiences here really get into the participation stuff, but knowing it was prerecorded, no one did at our theater (understandably so). However, the short was great and the Plan 9 riffing was great (plus it’s just so easy to laugh at Plan 9, anyway), and I didn’t catch this show the first time around, so overall I enjoyed it very much.
Chico, California had a decent turnout – maybe 40 or 50 people. Yes, this movie is so bad it goes around the corner from being sobadit’sgood to being hard to sit through. I was not happy to see “colorization!” What were they thinking?
The emcee was cute, and thus tolerable, but the music got to be too much. One song would have been enough, although admittedly he was funny. The short and the fake commercials were big hits, and the movie itself? Painful, but still fun, thanks to our commenters. Looking forward to the next show!