geekent’s stuff’n things

A strange bit of commotion as we arrived at Massey Hall about 90 minutes before showtime. There were assistants of some sort instructing the crowd in line to pick up their already-ordered tickets that if they were in Rows A through O they would need to have all of their party members with them and that once they picked up their tickets they would not be allowed outside again (well, not to reenter anyway). I guess it was some form of scalping counter-measure but at the same time it seemed kind of arbitrary (why only A through O?) and a little frustrating since we were planning on grabbing a snack after picking up the tickets.

Anywho. Eugene Mirman, a man whose stand-up work I am familiar with, as well as for his roll as “Eugene” on the Flight of the Conchords television programme, was the crowd warmer for the tour. He’s a presence comedian, his unusual appearance accentuated with an offbeat delivery style, a half snicker caught in his throat while he tells his stories or futilely holds up some images on letter-sized paper to a theatre-sized crowd which, naturally maybe the first dozen rows (at best) could actually focus on. Mirman dropped a few minutes of Toronto-specific improv, hardly refined yet welcoming in his seeming unsureness of what was coming out of his mouth. He had jokes and bits, and stories, a diverse array of comedy, most of which elicited hearty laughter from the audience. He closed it off with his true story of his vendetta against Delta Airlines, an anecdote that’s amusing in its own, but accentuated by Mirman’s delivery and embellishments, and pushed over the edge into comedy by his absurd “I hate you letter” followed by his post cards handed out to the crowd. Did he kill? While not everyone was laughing, he got at least 70% on the ride along with him, so I’d say that’s at least a maiming.

The Conchords took little time getting out on stage, the audience of primarily 20 - 30 somethings, majority hipster-esque, erupting in cheers. The younger audience members screamed their “I love yous”, while the older members clapped politely. A rave-tastic rendition of “Too Many Dicks on the Dancefloor” kicked off the show in an unusual fashion, as the vocals were drowned out by the pulsating beat (not necessarily what you want for a comedy song), and nobody stood up to dance (which is just weird in a seated theatre anyway).

Bret and Jemaine’s stage presence was everything I’ve come to expect from them, a huge fan of their shows, their music, and their performances. Their stage personae are seemingly unrehearsed, unprepared for between song banter, and somewhat demure, timid before the crowd. But there’s no mistake, they have the audience enraptured. The first person to shout out from the crowd was dubbed a heckler, and the joke of the evening was then that any calls from the audience were heckles and would be handled appropriately.

I realized as they made their way through their near 2-hour set that they have a rather large stable of songs, since so many that I could immediately recall were still left out. A couple new tracks that seemingly wouldn’t fit into the Conchords’ HBO show were also on display, including a Johnny Cash-style story about a bad western gunfighter named Stana. This, as with most of their songs, found Bret and Jemaine embellishing in the lulls, giving the tracks a unique new life on stage.

An eager audience member turned the show into a “Rocky Horror”-esque participation project as she threw an assortment of items upon stage (toothbrushes during “Business Time”, gumdrops during “Alby”, a stuffed monkey during “Think About It” and an eyepatch during “Bowie”). It was actually a charming bit of unanticipated audience participation, and Bret and Jemaine’s surprised reactions to it all were priceless (they loved the eye patch).

Tracks from the latest season were played in equal measure as those crafted and honed long before they appeared in the first. As Aden and I haven’t seen season 2 yet (and have only occasionally caught up with clips on youtube) we weren’t too familiar and thus there was a largely fresh component to the set. Good jokes can be told and enjoyed over and over, but nothing beats the surprise of a fresh one. That the Conchords are talented musicians and by and large great songsmiths, their music is enjoyable for it humour but also makes you want to sing along with it (and I did). Aden I think was laughing too much to sing along.

The capper of the opening set was an R. Kelly inspired rendition of “Sugar Lumps” which was absolutely genius, and the encore, six songs deep included a largely unprepared rendition of “Foo de fa fa” which probably plays better with a Canadian audience than an American one.

My immediate sense was that this should would be so much better in a smaller venue, with more intimacy and even more audience interaction. The duo are so affable that you can’t help but be swayed by their New Zealand charm (just don’t say their hair is greasy else feel the sting of their Kiwi ire).