World of Weird Al Yankovic

I also checked the forum, saw the post and impulsively headed for Hollywood. Parked oh, about 0.3 miles from the theater, put my name on the waiting list, and got some sushi next door (California roll topped with broiled salmon and mustard sauce, not terribly Japanese but quite tasty). Big line. I was #26 on the waiting list, which is not a particularly auspicious number. I got lucky though, because a guy in the reservations line had somebody in his party no-show, so the line-wranglers called out for singletons, and I was the most ruthless single elbower within earshot. And I realized later that I forgot to offer the guy his five bucks. So I saw the show for freeeeee.

The framing device for the show was... interesting. You go expecting a show about a health club and there are a couple of folkies singing "Two Brothers" and "Shenandoah." Oh and another couple of guys prowling around with oil lanterns. Apparently God has granted, er, Grant, plus some other random Civil War guy the chance to choose just one wrong on earth to set right. Naturally they choose to use this unique opportunity to expose the horror that is the 24 Hour Fitness in Koreatown.

I'm not going to list everybody who was in it, you can go look at the cast list yourself. I will only say that Chris Hardwick in a wifebeater and huge red boxing gloves would have been worth the price of admission all by himself, if in fact I had paid admission. I will also say that Al is going to be in excellent voice for the Oz tour. The provenance of the one-star reviews of the Koreatown 24 Hour Fitness that were the basis for the script was, we were told, Yelp.com but I think they found some for Al from Howl.com instead. He really raised the roof. At first I thought they were gonna pull a little joke on us and give Al what would amount to a one-word part (that word being "GROOOOOSSSS!!!!") but most everybody cycled through several times and I think he had three opportunities to rattle the rafters.

What really surprised me was how much characterization they managed to put into the reviews. As I was driving home, it occurred to me that it was kind of like "Our Town" or maybe "Spoon River Anthology" translated into 2011 Los Angeles. Or not. But the actors managed some vivid portraits.

In closing, I would like to say that if I ever again have a gym membership, it will not be in Koreatown. And wherever it may be, I promise never to bring a box lunch into the sauna. The end.

Edited to remove the "t" from Chris Hardwick's first name. He's a nice guy and all, but not THAT nice.

The comics took turn giving angry, tossed-off reviews of this 24 Hour Fitness (which, btw, is three blocks from my apartment; good thing I don't work out) the emotional gravitas of Civil War letters. Matt Mira was dressed as the ghost of Ulysses S. Grant, Tom Lennon the ghost of a random Civil War soldier. A couple comics did their readings with fake casts on, and Al had a fake bloody bandage wrapped around his head. In total, Al read the following reviews, copy/pasted from yelp.com:

"gross"
"I... can't... find... anything... Big... fat... mess..."
"yuck yuck yuck yuck YUCK!!!!! Need I say more?"
"If you like the combination of smelly and grungy, enjoy. The end."

But in print I simply cannot do justice to how beautifully over-the-top he delivered these phrases, with loud screaming righteous anger combined with a dollop of Uncle Muscles gravelly-ness. It changed my life.

At the end, they did a bit where all the readers came back on stage to sing "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and after finishing the first chorus, Al starts singing the second verse but awkwardly stops after realizing nobody knows the second verse. So they all finish the song in "bla bla bla."

Incidentally, despite what the link said, Patton Oswalt, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh and Cedric Yarbrough were NOT part of this event, though the unbilled Paul Scheer and Scott Aukerman were.

Great photos! and great reviews, thanks