I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 26, 2018] MST3K Live

A year ago I went to see MST3K Live and it was a ton of fun.

I assumed it was a one-off thing, but they announced a 30th Anniversary Tour this year and came back to the same theater I saw it at last time.

Once again, I got tickets for both movies.  This year’s turkeys were to be The Brain and Deathstalker II.

When the show started, Synthia Forrester (Rebecca Hanson) came out on stage and introduced the cast.  But this time there was no Joel Hodgson.  Could they really do this with no Joel?  Last time, Joel came out from time to time to mess with audience.

Then she gave us the surprise: Joel was going to be a part of the riffing!  For the first time in forever, Joel Robisnon was shot into space to riff on movies.

The other (somewhat stranger) difference was that Kinga and Max (Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt) did not appear–even on-screen. Last year they made an on-screen appearance which was pretty funny.  I’m not sure why they didn’t shoot a scene for this tour.  (Crow joked that they couldn’t afford Felicia or Pat’s salary).

Rebecca Hanson was great as Synthia and as host.  She was clearly having so much fun (and her Instagram account of the tour is always fun to check out).  She really got into the shtick and was clearly having a blast.

The first movie was The Brain, a 1988 Canadian movie, with terrible acting, terrible effects, and an overall enjoyable style.

But before the movie was screened, the premise of the evening’s riffing was set up.  It was going to be a contest between Joel and Tom (in red) and Jonah and Crow (in yellow).   Obviously the voice of Crow and Tom are not the original (or apparently even the ones on TV now).  Crow must be the easiest voice in the world, because the riffer nailed it.  And Tom’s smug charisma still comes through.

Each movie segment would have certain “joke styles” that each team had to meet, with a winner decided by the number of “dings.”  The premise felt a little forced to me but it was still very funny, and allowed a certain style of riffing to work for a few minutes before moving on.

I also appreciated the way the two teams squabbled with each other–Jonah asking: “Who are [the audience] going to root for, Papa Bear or Not-Mike?”

The movie was one of those classic 80’s era cheapo films that I think MST3K does so well.  There were so many great jokes about things that you might not notice on first viewing (like how many times they ran up and down the staircases).  And of course, the highlight of the night is Sodium!

The structure of the contest allowed for them to specify the kinds of jokes the hosts would make.  Again, not necessary, but it allowed for a lot of bell ringing when one of them met the challenge–which led to some more humor.  It’s really impossible to talk about the jokes and make them seem funny, but the jokes about 80s references were hilarious as was the expense made of out of shape cops and stupid henchmen.  I also really enjoyed the callbacks to earlier riffs.  BANG!

There is something wonderful about the live experience, as well.  Hearing other people get jokes either before or sometimes right after you is a fun way to judge your own quick wittedness.  Just when you feel smug that you’re getting all the jokes (or even anticipating them), they riff one that you have no idea about until you hear the guy next to you explaining it to his son).  The guy next to me was an original MSTie and he brought his ten-year old son, the next generation of MSTie!  (His wife and daughter barely tolerate the show).

And of course, there’s the weird thrill of seeing the puppets “live.”

Like last time, there were home made puppets.  But this year I saw one of each puppet, which was really cool.

It’s amazing the amount of detail that went into this Crow T. Robot.  And I love that even while he’s not operating it, it is still rolling its eyes at me.

Last year, I saw someone with a Tom Servo.  I believe this was a different guy with his Servo.  Which means that there are at least two people within driving distance who have made a Servo.  Which somehow makes me very happy.

Between movies, they cleared the theater.   Last year there was ample food to be had, but this cold, rainy weeknight saw very few places open.  I had gone out the side door and went to the pizza place which was closing shortly.  It was definitely funny watching them realize that dozens of people wold be coming over momentarily.  I managed to get one of the last slices that was still out.  And then I heard her say, “Put more pizzas on!”

Soon enough, it was time to go back in for the second movie.  The second movie was Deathstalker II.  This sequel is so good, no one from the first movie came back for the second (not even the director).

My big takeaway is that cheap 80s Canadian films look very different from cheap 80s American films.  I wonder why that is.

As this one started, Synthia came out to introduce everyone again, because of course there were people who came to the second movie and not the first.

The intro and end credits to each movie showed the history of the cast which was fun to see.

The host segment features a Q&A which was kind of an interesting idea except that no one had a good question.  Someone even asked what Tom’s favorite movie was.  The team did a good job of turning lame questions into funny answers, but it was definitely less inspired that some of their other host segments.

Deathstalker II is meant to be funny, I think.  Which makes riffing it a little weird.  There was some genuinely funny stuff in the movie (the terrible acting and plotting were well mockable though).

There were a lot fewer people at the second show (it was a weeknight after all), so I  was happy to sneak some pictures of the screen, just to get the iconic silhouette.

It must be a bit tiring to do two shows in a night, but I think everyone fed off the energy of the crowd (who were consistently awesome).   Everyone I talked to was cool and fun, and everyone had a favorite episode to talk about.

There may have been some drinking between shows as well.

I feel like I laughed more at The Brain, but there were some definitely hilarious moments in Deathstalker II as well.  I may have some minor quibbles with this year’s shows compared to the last one.  But I laughed constantly for the entire night and it was, once again, fantastic.

I feel lucky to be able to have a theater that screens both movies, although I do wish it was less than an hour from me.

The merch was cool (some movie posters for fake movies starring Jonah and the Bots.  And I bought a tour program, which it turns out was from the previous tour.  Wtf?