>>REVIEW
IN FINE FORM
Runs until November 11
The Pajama Men
One Yellow Rabbit
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
It took two Pajama Men shows – last season’s Stop Not Going and this month’s In Fine Form – before I could put my finger on it. There’s no question that the Albuquerque-raised Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez are a masterful comic pair, able to command a stage with nothing but the pajamas on their backs, their elastic bodies and voices, and a pair of folding chairs.
So, what is it?
Simply, The Pajama Men bring improv comedy with all the garbage stripped straight out. Losses in momentum, jokes that don’t work, even plotlines that don’t follow through – they’re all gone. What’s left is improv’s mania and the sharp intelligence of well-crafted comedy. In Fine Form is a fast and furious hour that leaves the most palpable comedic endorsement possible ringing on your face: the dull, sublime pain of a smile held long enough to burn calories.
While it wouldn’t be impossible to explain the show’s twisting, interwoven plots, it doesn’t make very much sense to try. Characters like a horse intent on murdering his grotesque owner, a pair of doddering Southern ladies, and two brothers each named "Nigel" certainly appear periodically with their own continuities, but it is in the ebb and flow of their disappearing and reappearing that the show becomes so deliciously fun.
Set in a haunted house that attracts a gaggle of absurd characters, In Fine Form sees Allen and Chavez playing at character-based comedy with amazing agility. Their faces, voices and bodies twist in a moment, with the pair changing roles and assuming new ones, sometimes in the same moment.
Lest audiences should think that The Pajama Men are simply about gymnastic character changes, the two also provide comedic moments of such simple but demented brilliance that it isn’t difficult to believe they were composed in fevered improvisational creation. Those who doubt it would do well to watch Allen and Chavez turn a spitting scene into side-splitting comedy, or the Nigel’s, when they come upon a Jack-in-the-Box, painfully grinding out the plinking sound of "Pop Goes the Weasel."
"I love doing things I hate," says one.
"Me too," replies the other. "After, let’s go out and eat some sticks."
It isn’t difficult to see why the Chicago-based Second City seized on Allen and Chavez, bringing them into the fold after the pair changed their longstanding moniker from "Sabotage." The brevity of their show speaks to the pair’s long Fringe touring history, and their presence proves they deserved the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Double Act Award.
Though exactly what the pair is doing may be difficult to define, it’s certainly fun trying to catch up to this brand of improv comedy – faster than a locomotive and just as directed. Description may have its place, but Calgary audiences are far better served seeing comedy this damned good. |
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