Austinist Comedy Review: Whirled News Tonight

The lady who takes our tickets invites us to take an actual newspaper clipping from an actual newspaper (they have several laid out for us to chose from) and place that clipping on a peg board. Without reviewing this material – at all – the brave company of performers will attempt to come up with amusing, off-the-cuff scenes based on said clippings. How clever, we think to ourselves – how novel indeed.

Unfortunately, we don’t find ourselves thinking that very often during the performance. It’s not a train wreck or anything, but to call it clever would certainly be a stretch. After a slow intro, however, the troupe gets a couple belly laughs, (ourselves included), and we think things might be settling into a rhythm. But the jokes…just…aren’t…quite…there.

One actor picks a news clipping off the post board. A scene ensues with whatever performers are brave enough to lead things off. When that scene starts to suck wind, these first actors are ushered off by a new set of actors who will do a completely different scene loosely based on the originally plucked news clipping. This goes on until yet another actor determines that the gags have gone stale, at which point he or she picks an entirely new clipping off the board to start another series of short scenes.

We want chaos. We want energy. We want the quick-wit and break-neck pace that make great improv. But the actors seem unsure of themselves – not knowing when to cut off one scene, or where to take the next. Improv is a lot like, say, surfing – the wave comes and you have to jump on it, trusting that your fellow performers are going to jump on the wave with you. You’re all working together to make sure no one nosedives -- left hung out to dry, looking like an ass all by him/herself. But, we think to ourselves, that’s what’s missing – trust. Subsequently, everyone manages to avoid looking like an ass -- but that chaos we mentioned is nowhere in sight.

And to be fair, there’s plenty to be worried about. For one, news isn't supposed to be funny in the first place. (Not that it can't be, but it's an obstacle.) Beyond that, each segment of the show starts with an actor reading, verbatim, a few paragraphs of whatever news clipping the group is meant to satirize. Not only is this recitation of deliberately un-funny material hard for us to sit through, it brings the energy in the room down to zilch, making it very hard for any group of improvers, no matter how talented or funny, to go out on a limb, make big choices, and raise that energy up to a laugh-inducing level.

But it's not all doom and gloom. We certainly don't sit there stone faced for the entire hour. In fact, we discover, a few members of Whirled News kick some serious ass. Dave Buckman, Erika May and Bob McNichol are hysterical. Good jokes, great timing, believable, and convicted character choices in the moment. We identify and empathize with every character they come up with -- and, as a side note, wish they were on stage more often.

So, as the lights come up, and we make our way out of the theatre, we think to ourselves, well…maybe it was just an off night. Because honestly, our three favorites (Buckman, May and McNichol) could probably carry an entire improv troupe under a less-demanding pretense. And who knows, with more rehearsal, Whirled News might come together, learn to work off each other, and come up with some really great stuff. They’ve certainly got potential, and we’re a long way from writing them off – but for the time being, when we want funny news, we’ll still just have to turn on Fox.

Photo by Marcin Wysmulek at Stock Exchange.