Production of ‘BOO!’ improves on improvisation

Friday, Aug. 23, 2002 | 9:05 a.m.

It could have been the offer of a free ride on New York-New York's Manhattan Express roller coaster following the show, but the Cabaret Theatre's late-night production of "BOO!" was packed earlier this week.

I would prefer to think there were no empty seats because word is beginning to spread about the offbeat improvisational show, which is produced by Martin Bergman.

The 425-seat Cabaret Theatre is taking on an air of nepotism. Bergman is married to Rita Rudner, the comedian for whom the showroom was built.

Rudner performs her popular stand-up act at 8 p.m. and her husband's production begins at 10 p.m.

When the busy couple have time to get together, their household must be like Comedy Central. Both have excellent comedic instincts.

Bergman is a writer/producer with more than 25 years of experience in film and television work, most of it comedy-related. That experience shows in "BOO!" -- a tightly woven series of scripted skits and improv bits whose theme is the macabre.

"BOO!" debuted Aug. 1 and should give The Second City improv group at the Flamingo a run for its money.

Bergman brought in five members of the Los Angeles Theatresports improv troupe, including Theatresports co-founder Dan O'Connor, for his 70-minute show. O'Connor was artistic director of the Los Angeles-based organization for 12 years.

Other cast members, all of whom bring with them years of improv experience, include Brian Lohmann (co-founder of Bay Area Theatresports), Edi Patterson and Kelly Holden. David Keeton is music director.

"BOO!" is being billed as "spine-tingling fun." But there isn't much to be frightened of in this production, although the show opens with a severed head falling from the rafters -- gross, but not scary, which may be said of a number of scenes.

After setting up the show's premise of shocking humor and eerie tales, it quickly moves to two skits, one involving the eating of human flesh and the other a drawn-out scene in which a daughter away at college for the first time writes home about her disturbing experiences (which turn out to be made up, to soften the shock that she failed a couple of courses).

Scripted scenes are scattered throughout the show. One involved a dog who was choking on two fingers bitten off the hand of a burglar; another featured an actor running out of gas and using a hose to syphon from the gas tank of an RV -- but it turned out to be a septic tank.

A personal favorite segment involved the cast relating supposedly true stories taken from the Darwin Award website, which features bizarre tales of death -- such as the movie patron beaten to death by ushers after sneaking popcorn into the theater. Another involved the owner of a heavy-equipment training school killed while making a video on how to operate the equipment safely. And then there was the absent-minded terrorist who opened a package returned to him for insufficient postage and blew himself up.

The troupe of actors shone brightest when the show moves into its improv segments, such as a bit in which a ghost story is created out of suggestions from the audience. Being improvised, naturally the story changes every night -- recently the cast created a tale about an evil pine cone that had a colostomy bag attached.

Another improv standard has a cast member being taken offstage and the audience coming up with a crime, a location of the crime and a weapon. The actor is brought back onstage and has three minutes to guess the three elements of the skit, using clues supplied by fellow cast members.

Recently, the actor had to guess the crime of scurvy committed in a laundromat in Alaska using a lobster.

To be successful, improv requires actors who not only have a smattering of knowledge about a broad range of subjects, but also have the quickness of wit to bring forth that knowledge and to make it funny.

The cast of "BOO!" succeeds on all levels.

The question is, is Las Vegas big enough for two major improv shows?

And if they both are successful, will they spawn more improv shows -- the way magicians and tribute artists have proliferated?

Now that's scary.