ComCo’s show last night featured nine ComCo players clad in ridiculously precious holiday sweaters to embody the winter/holidays/December spirit. With each player introducing themselves as “Carol” in the opening number only to sing a tune that mocked traditional Christmas caroling and music, the Carols brought great joy and laughter to the full house at Angel Hall’s Auditorium A.
While many of my favorite jokes are too dirty for me to repeat, ComCo not only excels in crude humor but simple humor anyone can laugh at. In a game called “four square” where different scenes are assigned to players two at a time based on suggestions from the audience, “sand” came to give life to a story of a man and woman growing sand in order to make a profit, and describing their frustrations when the sand wouldn’t grow. While trivial and somewhat elementary, the absurdist nature of much of the sketches and games makes the show lie on a high level of fun.
My favorite game the players do is “I like my men like I like my blank,” which uses audience suggestions to fill in the blank and then explain in the tag line of the sentence. For example, “I like my men like I like my sandwich—covered in mayo.” Many responses used hilarious euphemisms in order to complete the sentence.
Another crowd favorite was a segment where one player would be the hands for another player speaking. Somehow the two men, a foreign exchange student and his host father, ended up in the Arb looking for a Christmas tree to chop down for their home. This in itself was particularly funny considering cutting down a tree in the Arb would just be something someone would never do. The physical comedy this game lends itself to let the audience see the bodies of two people figuratively hopping and chopping on an imaginary tree. Quite comedic material here.
At the end of the show the ComCo players lovingly tossed an assortment of stuffed animals and plastic toys into the audience for their appreciation of attendance. I earned a toy Sully from Monsters, Inc. While this was the material reward for attending the show, I also earned the nonmaterial award of joy: a full 90 minutes of holiday laughter and cheer.
I recommend going to the next ComCo show and every one after that if you have not yet. It’s truly a great experience that’s all about making the audience feel good, and of course, laugh.
