Review: VILLAIN: DEBLANKS SPACE HOLE! Has Audiences Laughing to the Moon and Back

On Sunday, Billy Mitchell's Villain: DeBlanks ended a triumphant six-month run at New York City's The Triad. The all-star cast, led by producer Brenda Braxton, brought the house down with Mitchell's latest script, Space Hole!.

Space Hole! is a comedic send-up of murder mystery cocooned in a well thought out blend of Lost In Space, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Spaceballs. For Sunday night's show, Braxton's Captain Zabitsh was a sensational sassy Latina. Doug Plaut's Private Stroker was a bumbling Southern hick with a helpful heart of gold. Randy Graff's Ayn Droyd was an ice-cold robot with a steely demeanor. Kelvin Moon Loh's Orin Spiring was a hapless Asian who was reminiscent of an angry Margaret Cho. Marc Kudisch's Overlord Underhand was deliciously villainous and cocky. Nancy Opel's Oletta Broadtalk was delightfully batty and brash.

For the uninitiated, Villain: DeBlanks (a riff on "fill in the blanks") is a madcap mash-up of hilarious theatrical high jinks and everyone's favorite road trip game, Mad Libs. At the top of the performance, the assembled cast mixes and mingles with the audience. Their purpose? To fill in the blanks. They ask for nouns, adverbs, adjectives, numbers, body parts, and so on, putting their faith and trust in the audience to help write a riotous comedy. Once the blanks in their script are filled in, each member of the cast returns to the stage and prepares to cold read the completed script.

As the script unfolds, magic happens when the mix of audience suggested words blend together perfectly, to create a cohesive joke from beginning to end. Also, the cast is at liberty to create their character on the fly, offer adlibs, and even break character. Needless to say, Villian DeBlanks offers ample opportunities for comedy gold, allowing the cast to be just as tickled by the finalized script as each member of the audience.

As the wacky plot draws to its conclusion, there is a slight break. In this break, the audience casts their votes for who they think did in DeBlanks. A media guest, Michael Reidel at Sunday's performance, provides distraction and entertainment in the interim. The votes are counted live in front of the audience, and which version of the show's conclusion is performed all depends on who the audience selects as the murderer or murderers.

While, Sunday's performance ended the run of Villain: DeBlanks at The Triad, audiences can rest assured that they'll be able to see these shows in the future. Visit http://www.villaindeblanks.com, join their mailing list, follow them on Facebook and Twitter, and be ready to laugh your _________ (body part) off.

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