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"Fact in the Head" Was a
Pain in the...
Jason Block
The chill of a cold October
Monday Night set in as a friend of mine and I set out to
experience "Fact In The Head" at Rififi, a bar/club on
the east side of Manhattan. It is billed as "The Game
Show for the People Who Hate Game Shows". And the best
part...the admission was free.
The pedigree of the producer of the show is pretty good.
Jamie Greenberg co-created MTV's "Lip Service" and PBS'
"Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego?". So I went with the
high expectation set by this pedigree and the incredible
stage show out in Los Angeles by J. Keith Van Straaten's
"What's My Line".
That is why it was such a big disappointment to see what
happened. The performance space is very small, so the
max audience is about 30. Greenberg plays Hosty Hostman,
a parody of all bad game show hosts. His lovely hostess,
Thistle was the typical vapid game show hostess in a
dress with no brain and semi-witty banter. This was
billed as an "all-out battle of the sexes". Two
contestants, one male and one female were battling for
prizes for their sex in the audience.
Some elements of the show worked. The "wheel of topical
monologues" was cute. Using Snapple bottles to form a
question was a nice touch.
But the main problem of the show was that the game show
element was a vehicle for comedy. And the comedy was
bad. Really bad. One comic seemed to do a stream of
consciousness routine that wasn't there and another was
just filthy. And the prizes for the audience
were...condoms. I am not kidding.
I wish I could recommend "Fact In The Head." But it
seems that the game show element, which is somewhat
touched on, is not respected. It is a device for bad bad
comedy.
"Fact In The Head" just gave me a headache.
Jason Block has many facts
in his head. E-mail him another at jb.regis@verizon.net. |
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