Slow Children At Play Provide Free Fun at BU Central

Slow Kids Poster
Slow Kids Poster
This photo was hastily taken on my iTouch after I realized the abysmal seating in BU Central would prevent me from taking a decent photo. | Photo by Lauren Michael

I firmly believe that every person could use more comedy in their life. Those who attended the free Saturday night performance from Slow Children At Play, BU’s premier sketch comedy group, have obtained it.

On October 15 at 8:30pm, Slow Children At Play (aka Slow Kids) performed a series of sketches at BU Central. The show featured returning cast members Hollywood Santa Fuego (Heather Potts, COM ’12), Major Foxhound “Fox” Grenadino (Kyle Sauer, COM ’12), Mr. Business DeLuxembourg (Martin Nolan, COM ’13), Plutonium “Pluto” Jumbojetski (Jason Weitzman, COM ’13), and Razzle “Razz” Kangaroozevelt (Samantha Reyes, COM ’14). This year’s new members are Kevin Flynn (CAS ’14) and Dylan Geswelli (COM ’14), though only Flynn performed in Saturday’s show. Apparently, the new kids have yet to have awesome nicknames bestowed upon them.

Preceding the main event was a long-form improv demonstration from the NYC-based US National Improv Team. I didn’t know this group existed, but my life is better because of it. Like the Slow Kids, they know how to balance sex/drug/alcohol jokes with more intelligent humor, catering to a brand of comedy much more tasteful than most of the humorists on Comedy Central. The little things really made this brief performance; actions as simple as miming the opening of a jar I felt best demonstrated the strength of their acting skills.

Next, the Slow Kids performed ten sketches, varying in length between two and ten minutes. The first two were by far the best; the one that took place at a poster factory (“Click Click Boom”) had a majority of the audience doubled over. The innovation behind the writing in that scene sets Slow Kids apart from other groups, since they thoughtfully steered clear of pop culture references. I never heard one mentioning of Kim Kardashian or Jersey Shore.

About halfway into the show, it became unfortunately obvious that the funniest scenes had already passed. The fifth sketch, “Eatin’ Hood in the Hood: A Tyler Perry Commercial”, centered on an unexpected reality of food advertising. Like most of the audience, there were times during the sketch when I could tell where the jokes were supposed to be; however, I felt no motivation to laugh. Sometimes I noticed the actors relied too much on noise and confusion to elicit laughter. If anything, errors like this should help the Slow Kids figure out which kinds of jokes do and don’t work. Also, had the show been ordered differently, the gap between the strongest and weakest scenes would have been much less obvious.

Despite a few sketches that struggled to incite uproarious laughter and a slight issue with the way the scenes were ordered, the audience and I were delighted to spend two-and-a-half hours sitting in chairs that were organized in a way that made it very difficult to see the stage. I attribute the viewing issues to BU Central. But when a group has as much comedic talent as Slow Children At Play, the audience doesn’t really need to see to believe.

Slow Kids At Play will perform on Friday, December 9 at 8pm in the Tsai Auditorium. Tickets will cost $5. For more information, like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Slow-Children-At-Play/93051834035.

 

About Lauren Michael

Lauren Michael (CAS '15) is majoring in international relations and minoring in French. She's working on her Keystone project in the Kilachand Honors College--just ask her about Scotland! She adores The Mountain Goats, the Song of Ice and Fire series, Amsterdam, and a lot of other things. Her goal in life is to flood the Internet with corgis. Watch out. DFTBA!

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