Butch LaRue presents:
Mexicans, Jews and Muppets
Written by Butch LaRue Improv Group
Directed by Tim Sozko
at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map)
thru Feb 4 | tickets: $15 | more info
Check for half-price tickets
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Cookie monster explodes!
Butch LaRue presents
Butch LaRue presents:
Mexicans, Jews and Muppets
Review by K.D. Hopkins
Their parents were "livin’ on reds, vitamin c and cocaine" and selling spaghetti dinners in the parking lots of Grateful Dead shows. The kids that I call Generation Z have brought the chickens home to roost with Mexicans, Jews, and Muppets. Wayward political correctness and breaking of ceilings – glass and otherwise – of the Boomers has spawned a new generation. This generation is subsisting on Red Bull; so much that the show title is spelled out in cans, regular and sugar free. There is a splendid and oddly appropriate quality to the caustic and biting wit of Butch LaRue. The skits are both profane and refined with sly winks all around. Everybody in this show is out-on-a-limb funny. There are no sacred cows and truly the writing is no holds barred.
I am willing to wager that this was not what parents had in mind when plopping little Colleen or Mikey down for three hours of Cookie Monster and the Count. The result is hilarious! Cookie is in a 12-step group for overeaters. The Count is an accountant with serious OCD and strokes out when the client becomes impatient and won’t let him count and evoke the thunder. I love the baser stuff as well as in the costume party skit. Let’s just say that you have to see the swords crossing and try not to spit your cocktail laughing.
Butch LaRue performers have great timing, which is essential to sketch comedy. A skit can fall flat with one missed beat in the dialog. The skit about an unnamed plague that causes humans to explode is a zany romp, with three styles of character wanting to consummate their love before blowing up. I was pleasantly surprised at how far the laughs could go with a fake severed hand being tossed about in the pseudo carnage. It was Irwin Allen disaster flick meets a zombie movie.
Butch LaRue hits some of the hot button issues of the day as well as how people think in bad screenplay terms rather than connecting with another human being. A sardonic skit about the police pulling over a kid who just got his license takes on the rash of mercenary films.
If you are a fan of Mad Magazine or National Lampoon you will appreciate the spoofs and perhaps pick up a naughty thing or two. Generation Z is livin’ on Red Bull, vitamin D, and Adderall. It’s fresh, funny, and a bawdy good time. Forget about so called cold weather and go see it. The fresh laughs will do you good.
Rating: ★★★
Butch LaRue presents: Mexicans, Jews and Muppets continues through February 4th at Stage 773, 1225 W. Belmont (map), with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. Tickets are $15, and are available by phone (773-327-5252) or online at Stage773.com (check for half-price tickets at Goldstar.com). More information at ButchLaRue.com. (Running time: one hour with no intermission)
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