Make Em Laugh

The Carnegie Hall Show, an improvised comedy show by Matt Baram, Naomi Snieckus, and Chris Gibbs, ran for 3 years at the now defunct Bread and Circus Theatre in Kensington. Having been on hiatus, with a one-off now and then at Second City, it made its returning debut at The Drake Underground Wednesday night.

As a pseudo variety show, the evening started with Brandon Firla of comedy duo Rumoli Brothers. Along with Waylen Miki on piano (who provided musical accompaniment the whole night), Firlan sang the satirical Mrs. Worthington (Noel Coward). After taking some audience suggestions, the trio acted out a series of improv scenes around the theme of "water". They shone with their ability to take on a variety of persona, voices, and accents. With their dads in the audience, a second theme of "father-child" arose organically, often hilarious but also poignant. The first set ended with an original song by the Rumoli Brothers about their love life.

The second set didn't fare as well. It started promisingly enough with a funny sketch between Baram and Snieckus. Two classmates met at their 20th high-school reunion. The running gag was that every joking tease about another classmate turned out to be true: "Where's wild-man Tom? Did he die in a car accident? haha ... oh, he did. Sorry." But the main piece, an improvised "radio play" ran on too long with a scattershot of hits and misses. Most importantly, it lacked actual "special effects" sounds and optionally, old-timey radio play voices. So it became an improv piece with people standing around talking into mics. There were still some laughs but several lulls.

It was a funny and promising return of this show. They plan on performing every 1st Wednesday of the month. But the $22 ticket price is too expensive for me to make it a regular event.