Typical Thanksgiving dinners don’t conclude with a body bag on the dining room table.
On Friday, campus improv comedy troupe Left Right Tim staged a hilarious long-form Thanksgiving feast that made students reconsider what it means to have a dysfunctional family.
For a group that generally draws large crowds on Friday nights, Hale 270 was especially packed and bustling with energy. Upon entering the room, the group’s logo banner (a huge pair of Groucho glasses) hung behind a modest table, neatly furnished with place settings, drumsticks and sparkling cider. The site of a home-cooked meal served up in the lecture hall roused a few chuckles, as students noisily chatted and filed into their seats.
Soon the lights dimmed and the room erupted in applause. The genuine anticipation of the crowd made it clear that Left Right Tim’s loyal following of comedy lovers couldn’t wait to see what was in store.
Playing the “referee” of the night, member Tom Johnson jumped onstage to explain the unique long-form nature of the show.
“How many of you have families?” Johnson said. The majority of hands flew in the air. “If you don’t have a family, this show isn’t for you. You might as well leave,” Johnson said, jokingly. The audience cheered, lapping up the typical Left Right Tim humor.
Instead of the usual show of short improv games, Left Right Tim instead performed one long, entirely improvised “Family Dinner” scene with a group of eight members. Performing members chose characters out of a hat, and keeping with the spirit of audience interaction, spectators chose the “wild card” dinner guest to be an electrician. With everything set, it was now time for the family wars to begin.
Cheerfully passing around plates, Nick Collins as the dad succeeded in keeping the conversation light and cheesy through short, electricity jokes with his electrician co-worker (Matthew Beard). Kendle Wade achieved a lovable quality as a typical mom, putting on an easy happiness as she conversed with the confused “Papa” (Evan Duggan) about their past lives in Italy.
Duggan adopted an Italian accent as the puzzled, yet well-meaning grandpa. Spewing out random Italian words (and random English words with an Italian accent), his inept, peacekeeping presence was an instant source of light-hearted comedy that allowed other characters to slowly deteriorate in more angry ways around him.
And hilarious anger soon came. Member Camden Johnson embodied an overly protective brother whose object of hatred was the boyfriend (Blair Britt) of his sister (Alison Banowsky). Camden’s tough-guy body language coupled with Britt’s meek fear was an amusing dynamic that kept recurring throughout the dinner.
The real insanity, however, came in Sam Mamaghani who chose to personify the typical crazy uncle, but throughout the scene, slowly uncovered that he had killed someone in a car accident earlier that night. Though his attempts at looking suspicious sometimes felt awkward during completely unrelated conversations, he eventually ramped up the comedy by actually attempting to bury the body in an aisle of the hall.
Overall dinner could have used a little more of everything. Apart from Mamaghani’s growing lunacy and Camden’s furious suspicion of everyone, there were many moments where more scandal could have been introduced. This was largely due to the number of people onstage at once; many times when one actor would attempt to add a new element to the plot, it would go unnoticed.
However, the climax of the ending made up for any could-be plotlines earlier.
After reaching breaking point paranoia about his crime, Mamaghani retrieved the body of his victim and begins walking back to the house. With Britt and Banowsky fighting, Duggan shakily attempting to eat, and Collins, Wade, and Beard yelling at Mamaghani to stay out of the house, the scene was chaos. To shock and horror, Mamaghani finally kicked open the door and dumped the imaginary body on the table and then lights went black.
What Left Right Tim never fails to do is commit. In any improv it’s always important to establish strong character quickly and develop relationships that the audience can believe in. Even when trying new styles of comedy, Left Right Tim does exactly this and that’s what makes them so funny every time.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Stephanie Riesco at Stephanie.riesco@colorado.edu.
