freak engine
You know that gal or guy at work who you really like in spite of the
fact that they can’t pass up the opportunity to make an incredibly bad
pun and causes company meetings to go on three times longer than they
normally would because of a congenital urge to crack jokes about
everything productive anybody else says or does? Now imagine the
absolute chaos of 20 such wiseacres inhabiting a single room trying to
accomplish a simple straightforward task, and you’ll have some idea of
what it’s like to watch a rehearsal for an improv comedy cage match
featuring members of Memphis’ three long-running comedy troupes: the
Wiseguys, FrEaK EnGinE, and Running Gag. No direction goes underided;
no statement is left unsnarked. Every comment results in 20 quips, and
even the best questions are met with an un-straight answer.
Miraculously, in spite of the relentless goofing, decisions are made
and work is accomplished.
Cage Match III, a one-night-only event on the NextStage at
Theatre Memphis, finds Memphis’ most spontaneous funny people going
head to nerdy head in a series of predetermined games testing both
their comic skills and their knowledge of pop culture. Games like
“Oscar Moment” allow comics to improvise scenes from fake films in
popular genres and ham it up for the imaginary cameras when somebody
calls out “Oscar moment.” Prepare to see ninjas dying of some rare
ninja disease, wookies coming to grips with their past, and action
heroes crying because bullets are a lousy substitute for love.
Other games like “That Sounds like a Song” find the comedians
spontaneously composing music and lyrics based on some completely
random thing somebody recently said. This year’s cage match will
conclude with an epic “rap battle.”