8.24.2009

You Had To Be There: The Rifftrax Live Revue Review







Thursday August 20th 2009 a friend and I were witness to a simulcast event put on by
Fathom Events for the MST3K spinoff "Rifftrax" which appears to be the Mike Nelson sect of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The riffers were Mike Nelson (Mike), Kevin Murphy (Tom Servo), and Bill Corbett (Crow Season 5-8). The Rifftrax Live boradcast was a "live" event in the same fashion as being at home watching the big game in HD from your couch. It had an aire of "I feel like I'm really here..." sitting not at the event on a staggered multi-rowed couch with 200 of your aquaintences having a borg-like super nerds collective enjoyment sitting and laughing remotely at the riffs and performances over probably THE worst movies of all time. It was the worst movie ever, what a great time!

We got here early assuming the 30 something crowd that has even seen MST would come out in droves and come out early. So we we're witness to a new batch of refreshing pre-show placards. They took the form of the seasonal theater "Did You Know" slideshows seen before except they we're very informative and quite hilarious.

The show was emceed by Veronica Belmont of Tekzilla fame, who did a good job of not showing her nerves considering the heavy tension of the nerderati's perfectionism and high hopes we're staring her down wishing her harm because they probably thought she was just in the way of the riffing. So began the introduction of the nights guests and Jonathan Coulton who performed the touching nerd soliloquy "Future Soon" that tells the tale of a nerd who's all growed up and in charge of the robot rebellion that has taken place but has replaced his muse's eyes with laser beams. He closed with an audience participation number "Re:Your Brains" which tells a tale of two office workers that are at odds regarding the dilemma that one side is locked inside a mall fighting off the incoming zombie rebellion and the co-worker outside having an intelligent debate from outside the mall doors. He is deconstructing his office worker's zombie resistance talking points and weapons will eventually run out and they should amicably end this disagreement so he can come in and eat his brain. The participation was from the audience's refrain of the chorus "All We Wanna Do Is Eat Your Brains." Next to the eloquent geek humor hidden in the acoustically accompanied dulcet tones of JoCo, were the cameras display of the numerous self parodying fans lypsynching along to each of the songs, which pleased the eager audiences's contemptful gazes with riotous mockingly delightful laughter.


The JoCo performance was followed by some giveaways and an Eric N Tim style random short sketch from Something Awful, which I thought they were...

I entered to the start of the short "Flying Stewardess" a training film from the 50s when a short flight from New York, NY to Chicago included a 4 course meal, and an overnight stay complete with complementary pajamas.

Favorite Riff: "The captain wishes to thank you for keeping this flight snake free"

This was again followed by another "sponsor" from Something Awful again which was for "Berry Alert" where there's a convoluted system that will notify you that you're out of berries in your fridge. Wasn't exactly my cup of tea.

Just before the movie the riffers sang a song called "Plans 1-8" and then onto the show which i would call THE WORST MOVIE OF ALL TIME and i've seen many bad movies over the years on my own as well as MST3K! So many great mockings of the movie that was so bad it mocked itself so it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. The night wrapped up in short order and fizzled a bit at the end because rather than a "THE END" placard we were shown the link to the rifftrax website for some free downloads which i'm sure anyone can now get... ;)

Enjoy and I can't wait until the next live show! =)





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