Kaboom! in the New York Fringe

Tonight I went into New York City to see a friend in a NYCFringe show called Kaboom! We saw the final performance of the play. It was a kind of off the wall character driven comedy about a conman who gets himself into a sort of I Love Lucy situation. He's got a different character he plays for each person he meets to try to con his way to the top. It was a cute show. Very kitchy. I felt there was a lot of set-up and punchline jokes. As my old boss would say, a lot of rickety boom. The show was fun, but far too long. Many of the comedic moments were drawn out far too long to maintain their humor. There was some very nice character acting from the entire cast. It was clear that they, especially the lead, had worked very physically on developing the various characters they played throughout the show. That was a lot of fun to watch, but often times I felt myself get ahead of the show. That's my worst fear as a comedian, writer, performer and so on. That the audience will know where I'm going before I get there.

The space itself was sort of wonderful. It was a small house in the Village called Cherry Lane Theater. It was started by a couple of playwrights many many years ago from what I understand, and the theater just finished up a Master Class series with speakers like Edward Albee, Harold Prince, and Isreal Horowitz, just to name a few. It reminded me of the Mumpuppet in the way that the walls were all exposed brick and there was a very homey intimate feel. This was definitely somewhere I would like to work.

The other thing I'd like to note is the use of sound. I thought it was interesting, new, and effective. The designer, who's name escapes me at the moment, used the sound to bring to life set pieces that didn't exist in the space. The design would knock for the characters as they approached, what in reality was an empty door frame. Windows, doors knocking and opening all these things were impossible to do with such a small set with only open frames so the design was very clean and effective in that way. I just thought it was interesting. For more info on the show, which is now closed unfortunately you can click here.