Checking in with Riggles and Roberts

DECEMBER 20, 2003

I've been to dozens of shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) Theater, and this was the first one that I genuinely despised. There were times when two sketch shows would be grouped together and one of them was just average, but they were never painful. This show was, most definitely, painful.

The premise is simple; actors improvise a live radio program for the audience. Imagine talk radio but the hosts are actual comedians and not two dudes with smooth tenor speaking voices. Unfortunately, these three comedians were not funny this particular night. The jokes, when they told jokes, were stale or drawn out. Without the funny, this left you with a few radio show hosts who were neither entertaining nor easy on the ears.

The oddest part of the performance was when they brought out their guest, Scot Armstrong, who was a co-writer of Old School and Road Trip. He is a regular performer at UCB and is hilarious. Unfortunately, the hosts asked him serious questions, which were followed by serious answers. His commentary would have been great, if I wanted to know about the trials and tribulations of a screenwriter. Instead I came for the funny, as advertised, and I received none of it.

All of this being said, the two male hosts, who were the central performers, were definitely very funny people. It seemed that the structure was to blame as an AM radio with only one station isn't easy to bear for seventy-five minutes. Instead I'll go back and see Asssscat 3000 or Feature Feature to really get a taste of the talent on that stage.

Posted in Live at 5:38 pm.