[ATTENDED: October 26, 2019] MST3K Live
I didn’t realize it was exactly one year ago that I went to the previous MST3K Live experience. How funny.
I have enjoyed both of the two previous MST3K Live shows quite a bit. So when it was announced that they were going to do it again and this time it was going to be in New Brunswick instead of Glenside, PA, I got tickets right away (and wound up in the third row). I only wish I had picked the other side of the stage, because Joel and the bots did their movie watching from over there.
I have been very lucky to have gotten two movies each time I’ve seen the performance. It seem like a lot of locations get only one movie. I’m not sure why I’ve been so fortunate. (And State Theatre offered a discount if you bought seats for both movies!).
Last time the riffing was done by Joel Hodgson and Jonah Ray as well as many of the actors from the show.
This time things were very different.
Jonah Ray was not there. Nor was Rebecca Hanson as Synthia Forrester. And of course, no Felicia Day nor Patton Oswalt (not even on video).
But the big announcement was that this was going to be Joel Hodgson’s last MST3K Live tour. I don’t know if that means there will be more, or if this is the end of them entirely.
Joel came out with a guitar and sang the opening theme song (in a very high register). [I felt less concerned about taking a few videos this year and no one said anything.] He had us sing the “la la las” and had fun yelling at us when we sang out of place. Then he did a Robot Roll Call.
Out first was Cambot! Cambot has morphed over the years and it appears that maybe Cambot is more visible in the most recent Netflix season? I haven’t watched the Netflix shows only because I never have time to watch a 90 minute episode of anything. Some day I will.
Then out came Gypsy. But Gypsy wasn’t Gypsy. She was a smaller, more portable version of Gyspsy called GPC (although she was powered by the original Gypsy as you can see in the picture at the left). She was voiced by Yvonne Freese.
Then came Tom Servo, looking suave and cool like usual.
Then came Crooooooow. But Crow T. Robot did not look usual at all. Because Crow T. Robot has legs! Mind blown. And just to prove that point, he came in riding a pogo stick. When he showed off his pogoing skills, they had to whisper that “your operator is showing.”
Then we met Emily Crenshaw. In real life Emily Marsh is a puppeteer on the show, but she was great live with excellent comic timing.
When Joel was finished singing he asked if anyone had any requests and of course someone shouted “Freebird” and Joel proceeded to play the first verse pretty well.
For this tour, it felt like everything was a lot more low budget (which is saying something since they pride themselves on low budget). The Satellite of Love set didn’t take up the whole stage like the last tours. In fact, the curtains were mostly drawn for the skits, with just a small center part open.
This opening allowed for a very small set that the puppets could hide behind. It worked fine, but it just felt so much smaller and darker than the previous years. Again, nothing wrong with that, it was just noticeably different. Also different was that when Joel and the bots did the riffing, they weren’t silhouetted like in previous years (and, you know, like the iconic picture always shows). Rather, they were off to the right of the stage and were vaguely visible the whole time.
It really didn’t affect anything because you’re not looking at them you’re looking at the screen, but it was surreal enough for me to take a quick snapshot of them just to prove they were there. It also meant they couldn’t do any silhouette “jokes,” but that’s okay too.
When we were told that a movie was coming for Joel, he had to explain that the evil overlords were actually now Pearl Forrester and Synthia … but in puppet form. They zoomed out on a screen and told everyone that teleportation always causes some degree of puppetization. Ha.
However, they were going to be sending a human clone of both of them (what?) known as Mega-Synthia as played by Yvonne Freese. Freese was hilarious. She was a foot or so taller than Joel and had a great evil characterization down. She never broke character but was somehow funny and evil at the same time.
Since the theme of this year’s tour was a circus, the “host segment skits” were all going to be vaguely circus themed (they joked about how tangential some of those ties would be). But the big thing this years was that Crow T. Robot, original devil-may-care daredevil, has had a change of heart (hey, a character has to grow) and was going to be the circus’ safety monitor. This meant over-the-top restrictions on anything that Tom and GPC planned to do. He wanted to make sure that no one could possibly get hurt. He even sang a (hilarious) safety song before each skit.
Like the first one in which Tom was going to put his head in Lion GPC’s mouth. I love how Gypsy (and GPC) are always super sweet and yet somehow sinister because of that large mouth.
In another skit, GPC wanted to swallow fire. I cracked up that Tom Servo’s head had those glowing paper flames and then Joel lit a “torch” off of him, before Crow came out to stop things.
Later, Crow also got to show off his legs a bit more when he rode a unicycle!
The first movie was No Retreat, No Surrender. I don’t know how I didn’t realize this was the Jean Claude Van Damme movie. This was his first movie where he had a somewhat large part (although, it was surprisingly small given that he would later have movies built around him).
The MST3K Live website summarizes
In “No Retreat, No Surrender,” a self-conscious teen becomes a martial arts master under the tutelage of Bruce Lee’s ghost. Featuring fresh-faced Jean-Claude Van Damme as a brooding hit man and a Bruce Lee lookalike, who looks nothing like Bruce Lee.
But Wikipedia gives a bit more
Jason Stillwell is a young karate student and Bruce Lee fanatic who trains in his father Tom’s dojo in Sherman Oaks, California. One night after a training session, the dojo is visited by members of an organized crime syndicate looking to take over all the dojos in the country [BECAUSE OF COURSE THEY ARE]. After refusing to join the organization, Tom’s leg is broken by a Soviet martial artist named Ivan Kraschinsky, one of the boss’ hired thugs. [JEAN CLAUDE VAN DAMME]
The Stillwell family relocates to Seattle, where Jason meets R.J. Madison and they become good friends. Jason reunites with his old girlfriend Kelly Reilly, who lives in the neighborhood with her brother, local black belt Ian. Despite this, Jason has a hard time adjusting, as he and R. J. are constantly beaten and harassed by the local bullies led by an obese boy named Scott and arrogant martial artist Dean Ramsay. After getting beaten up and humiliated by Scott and Dean at Kelly’s birthday party, Jason visits the grave of Bruce Lee and beseeches him for aid.
This movie gets surprisingly good grades on some sites (although a 53% on Rotten Tomatoes).
Joel and the bots have a field day with it. In part because the first time Jason meets R.J., R,J. starts rapping and break dancing to cement their friendship.
The movie is also a blatant rip off of The Karate Kid, and makes it seem like karate is far more popular that it ever was (especially in 1986). The bully also looks a lot like Francis from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (but isn’t). And of course it is utterly implausible that Kurt McKinney could ever defeat Jean Claude Van Damme, with the help of Bruce Lee or not. The Bruce Lee character also looks remarkably nothing like Bruce Lee.
In fairness, Kurt McKinney does get pretty ripped by the end and can do some pretty impressive moves. McKinney later went on to act in Guiding Light for many years.
As any good comedy should do, the jokes had me in tears for nearly the whole movie and, of course, I can’t remember any of them.
I loved that they threw in a few references to New Jersey (New Brunswick specifically) in both the movie riffing and in the host segments. I realize that they do the same jokes every night, but it’s nice that they personalize it a little bit.
Before the intermission, the skit was Crow as a weightlifter. He stood with a barbell in front of him. As he lifted, he strained very hard and all manner of things fell “out of him.” Primarily they were balls from a play pit. But when he did his final lift, a while bunch of things came out which turned out to be…merch that was available to buy . It was a blatant and cheesy cash grab, but hey, if they don’t deserve some hard-earned money, then who does?
The merch was crazy expensive though! I was okay with buying a $15 keychain, but shirts and such were way put of my range and forget about the red jumpsuit (which I love and really wanted) which would set you back over $100. Although i did see some people wearing them,
But again, I love the show and it has given me literally years of pleasure, so I’m willing to allow Joel and the creators trying to make some money.
When the movie was over they brought out all of the performers (it was surprising how few there were).
Nate Begle as the lead puppeteer, playing Crow.
Yvonne Freese as Gypsy, and a new character, Mega-Synthia, who happens to be a clone of both Pearl Forrester AND Synthia. Yvonne did not include this in her bio, but she was a runner up for Princess Kay of the Milky Way at the Minnesota State Fair, and hence has had a butter sculpture made of her.
Emily Marsh is one serious puppeteer, and by serious, I mean really talented, and really funny. She’ll be behind the scenes performing Cambot, and doubling Tom Servo, Crow, and Gypsy. She’ll also be playing the part of “Crenshaw” who is our resident Circus Rigger and maintenance woman.
Conor McGiffin is new to puppetry but did somethings when he auditioned with Tom Servo that really made us laugh. And he has a wonderful singing voice, and we really wanted Tom to have great vocal chops.
The show was great and it was fun having a 3PM show so it still be light out when it was over.
So then I had this huge debate going on in my head because I had two events lined up for that evening. I could either stay for the second MST3K movie or go see Starcrawler at Boot & Saddle. Starcrawler is a band I’ve wanted to see for about a year. I was supposed to see them this summer but the show was cancelled. I was so excited to hear that they were playing at Boot & Saddle because their stage show is incredible and I could have been very close to the stage. I was undecided until pretty much the end of the first movie when I had to decide if I was going to drive to Philly or not.
I had told the family I would come home between movies. But once I decided that I would watch the second movie (it was Joel’s last ever tour, after all, and I hope that Starcrawler comes back soon), by the time I got home, I had only about 15 minutes to say hi before I had to go back. (No one in my family wanted to go with me when I ordered tickets, I did offer)…
So I got back to New Brunswick in plenty of time and I was delighted to walk behind someone actually wearing the jumpsuit! I was disappointed that no one had made a Tom or Crow like they had in Glenside. Although I did see plenty of people with VIP passes (for meet & greets).
I had the same seat, but new people next to me (I enjoyed this couple a lot more, they were funny and friendly).
I was happy to have this second movie, even if it did pose that conundrum I had to solve. Nevertheless, it was a privilege to get the second movie which was the wonderfully bizarre “Circus of Horrors.”
The MST3K Live website summarizes
“Circus of Horrors” is a garish 1960s British thriller showcasing colorful circus acts, plastic surgery, and animal attacks by stagehands in fur suits. Warning: Features pop hit “Look for a Star” over and over again.
Wikipedia’s fleshing out:
In 1940s England, Dr. Rossiter is a plastic surgeon wanted by the police after an operation goes hideously wrong. [LOTS OF JOKES ABOUT HIM BEING A NAZI, OBVIOUSLY] However, believing himself to have brilliant abilities as a surgeon, he and his assistants evade capture and escape to the Continent. There Rossiter changes his name to Schüler, and befriends a circus owner on whose deformed daughter Nicole he operates. Schüler manipulates his way into running the circus, taking it over when the owner dies in a “freak accident” [HILARIOUSLY, OBVIOUSLY A MAN IN A BEAR SUIT]. A decade later, he is running an internationally successful circus, which he uses as a front for his surgical exploits. He befriends deformed women and transforms them for his “Temple of Beauty”. However, when they threaten to leave, they meet with mysterious accidents which raise the suspicions of local police who are soon on his trail.
I have to say that this summary makes the movie make a lot more sense than actually watching it did. In fairness, the audio was such that it was hard to hear the film and the jokes, but at least the audience was good and not over the top or chatty.
Like last time, the show started with Joel coming out with his guitar again. Once again he had us sing the “La la las” and made a nice callback to the earlier performance when he yelled at the people who messed up–you should have been here earlier so you’d know.
Here’s some robot roll call.
Once again, he asked if there were any song requests and of course someone yelled “Freebird.” I’m curious if someone yells “Freebird” at every show so he doesn’t have to know any other songs. Are people that predictable?
Once again, we learned about the puppetization and the arrival of MegaSynthia (hilariously, the transporter was a hotel luggage carrier (awesome use of a simple prop).
But this time when MegaSynthia came down, there was a butterfly that transported with her. She spent the rest of the host segments trying to catch the butterfly (it was great having Yvonne Freese on stage so much as she really was fantastic and funny. She also had great rapport with Emily Marsh.
During one of the host segments we learn that Tom Servo has a deathly fear of butterflies (hilarious).
The movie was quite bad, of course. But in a much darker way than No Retreat was.
I enjoyed that in MegaSynthia’s introduction she even talked about how misogynist the movie was.
The whole thing about practicing plastic surgery on people and then killing them if they don’t obey–with “accidents” during the performances…holy cow.
And of course, the Nazi jokes were very funny too. There was a scene in the middle of the movie where the doctor is standing there with the Circus owner’s staff. He’s wearing big black boots and sort of points to the camera. That scene struck me as being remarkably familiar although I can’t imagine why. I also can’t find the still online anywhere, so maybe it was just a weird deja vu.
One of the host segments was a Q&A with Tom and Crow. I love the concept of these, but they never seem to work out very well. People just don’t have very good questions–especially the adults. If the questions are dumb, the bots are very good at turning the question into something funny (especially if the answer is a simple one). But it’s always fun when a little kid asks a question, which happened this year.
But one of the most shocking things ever happened during one of the host segments.
The shock of Crow T. Robot having legs was pretty heavy back in the first movie, but this shock was even greater. Tom Servo revealed what was under his hoverskirt! Yes, Tom Servo has legs, too! This was all connected to that pop song that is “featured” in the movie, “Look for a Star.” I have no idea if this was an actual popular song (it’s awful), or what, but it is played many times during the movie. So Tom wrote his own version of it and did a dance with Crenshaw, which was all so bizarre and hilarious. And maybe a little upsetting seeing Tom with legs.
Thankfully for everyone, Tom overcomes his fear of butterflies by sitting on it and feeling the warm tickles up in his hoverskirt.
But as fortune would have it, there was a problem with the transporter. And you know what happens when two objects enter a transporter together.
At the end of the performance, we find out why “we really wanted Tom to have great vocal chops.” Because he sings a beautiful (yes, really) song as the closing number.
I really love the MST3K Live experience. It’s a lot of fun and a great way to spend a couple of hours. The writers do a great job and the performers are all performing wonderfully.
I’m curious if there will be another Live tour and who could possibly be on it?
If there is one, I hope it comes back to New Brunswick.
Oh, holy cow, I just saw that they are going to be showing “Circus of Horrors” at the Wellmont Theatee in Montclair in March 2020. Are you telling me I could have gone to Starcrawler and still seen that second movie in New Jersey?! Oh man.
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