Revue to the Infinity, Part I

The show’s over. I’m going to miss Law Revue something fierce for a long time to come. This was the first time I’d gotten into acting/comedy since the last Saturday Night Live show ended about a year and a half ago, and I loved it. This time, instead of my high school friends, I had my law school friends along side me – Chris, Ryan, Kristen, and Andy (who was there in spirit, as well as in person for part of it), and I made some new friends through it - - Mackenzie, Becky, Jon, and others. Last night was the big show, and I think it went beautifully. But for those of us who were in the show, it was an entire process, not just the one performance. So rather than reviewing the performance, I’ll give my thoughts on the show in its entirety.

1. The producers – Jon Hendrix, Mackenzie, Becky, and Kristin – all did a great job. They had a much harder job than anyone realized - - all the administrative details like fund-raising and coordinating the performance that most of us didn’t see. They also had the unpleasant job of telling the performers what works, what doesn’t, and what’s not funny. We didn’t always agree with what they said, but someone had to be there making that type of hard decisions, and overall they did an excellent job, as evidenced by the performance.

2. The firm’s contributions – MZRM rocked the shit, simply put. We all contributed in big ways, and were integral to the entire show being as funny as it was. The MZRM sketch, for instance – I may have compiled it, but that was a team effort all the way. From the rejection letter that started it all, to the numerous Zacharisms, to Real Ultimate Power, to the multitude of gender, ethnicity, and race jokes throughout – we all had a major hand in it. That being said, I have to take credit for “alleged vagina.”

Ryan had an absolute stroke of genius to have Kreple as Weston singing “Anything Goes.” To have her belting that out in Weston’s gravel voice - - that just killed me every time. And the “Step one: Clickers. Step Two: Hmmm? Step Three: Profit.” That may have been borrowed from South Park, but hearing the “Hmmm?” was hilarious.

Zachar gave us “Saved By the Bell: The Law School Years,” which was unfortunately nixed by the producers. I thought it was great, and others will attest to this (particularly the Cliff joke and the student lounge reference – brilliant). With a little revision, it should be back next year though.

My other contributions – Community Justice Commandos and Hardball. Others came up with the Commandos idea, and I ran with it. It turned out beautiful, but more importantly, it was cathartic – beating the crap out of all the people and things in law school that ruin the experience - - let me tell you, there’s something to be said for vigilantism. And Hardball was great because I took a potentially show-killing sketch and turned it into something sharp and funny at the last minute.

Then there were the characters – Ryan’s Walter Dickey. Chris’s Tom Palay. My Cliff Thompson. Chris’s Leonard Kaplan. Solid gold.

I only wish Andy could have been more involved, but alas, he was doing something ambitious and academic. Still, he was always there with ideas, as well as a wicked 12(b)(6) for that ass.

3. The cast – with one glaring exception that I’ve already voiced privately and will not go into, I think the entire cast was phenomenal. Hendrix as Church and Ohnesorge, Kristen as Weston, Beidelschies as Smith and Clauss, Chris Anderson as Macauley, Mackenzie as Althouse, Stiles as Erlanger – all very funny. And they all provided great ideas throughout, particularly “Joel” (the life-sized Peter Griffin cardboard cutout). And Texas Scott stepped in for Andy in the MZRM sketch admirably. We all had our doubts about him, but at the final performance he was flawless. Fantastic jobs, all-around.

4. The Big Day. I thought having an entire day of rehearsal was going to get tedious and pointless. In reality, that was the best part of the entire thing, I think. By then we all had everything down, so we’d run through the shows, and suddenly realize how funny everything was really going to be. Before it was all ideas – things we were kicking around, things we had seen a million times. But to the audience, this was all going to be new and exciting. And during these rehearsals, I was starting to see it through their eyes. Like the ninja fight in MZRM – we had never practiced it before – it was all on paper. So when suddenly there was an actual ninja fight going on, that’s a whole different ballgame. And we knew the material so well, we started throwing in ad-libs and little things to keep it fresh. Little moments like Mackenzie pretending to lick the microphone in “Family Feud,” the reactions to Palay’s statements about grading in “Gunners in Love,” that type of stuff was all kinda last minute, and it made the shows even better.

Next up: The Performance