THWAK

Wednesday, 15 December 1999

Last night Lise had another of her group theatre nights. We saw THWAK, a show by a pair of guys (David Collins and Shane Dundas, the Umbilical Brothers) who do for mime what Penn and Teller did for stage magic, only that doesn't do them justice. They start out with Collins doing physical comedy while Dundas provides sound effects using only his mouth and a microphone, the two of them creating all sorts of imaginary objects and situations with just their bodies and sounds. Then Collins gets control of the mic, and they switch roles. Then they both have mikes, and they duel. It's like watching a Warner Bros. cartoon on stage with most of the action projected into your head.

Did I mentioned that Chris and I are getting back together? Well, we are. Sort of. In a non-cohabiting, non-exclusive kind of way.

This week's selection of comics was dull. Gloomcookie #3 was the best of the lot -- the plot seems to be moving, and the several storylines converging in ways I didn't expect. The Blair Which? by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier was a clever idea -- showing us the innocuous actions of a troop of camping scouts that the protagonists of The Blair Witch Project are misinterpreting as spooky goings-on -- but parts of it are too pat and obvious, and Evanier didn't pay enough attention to the movie to get the details right. Preacher: Tall in the Saddle had all of the worst that Preacher has to offer (gratuitous bloodshed, reflexive jingoism, unexamined worship of the cowboy ideal), and none of the best.