Review: WILD THINGS at Shadowbox Live

Shadowbox Live has a very skewed view of the afterlife. In its sketch, “Welcome to Heck” from its latest offering WILD THINGS, Heck ambassador Katy Psenicka explains to the recently deceased Jimmy Mak, “Well, heaven is for saints and hell is for killers. Heck is for people who were like you – you know, kind of a dick.”

“So, am I going to be tortured forever?” Mak asks.

“No, just kind of irritated,” Psenicka explains.

WILD THINGS, which runs 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 29 at the group’s theater (503 S. Front Street in downtown Columbus), is about as far away from Heck as humanly possible. In its two-act, two-hour performance, the troupe places a wide range of targets - millennials, Batman, police shows, Karens, quota hirings, and abandoned puppy commercials – in their crosshairs. And it hits most of them.

SBX’s recipe for success seems simple, yet effective. Stir in sketches written by Mak, Brendan Barasch, Ash Davis, Robbie Nance, KJ Queener, Zach Tarantelli, and David Whitehouse, with video parodies of advertisements, news breaks, and movie trailers, and generous portions of the house band’s blistering soundtrack. Let it simmer for two hours and you have the makings for an enjoyable evening.

While not all the sketches are home runs, most offer a solid chuckle to nearly everyone.  

One crowd favorite is a spoof of SPCA/Sarah McLachlan weepy ads to end animal cruelty. As “The Arms of the Angels” plays, McLachlan (played by Amy Lay) pleads with the audience that they can prevent zombie mistreatment. Adding in eye-drops to produce tears, Lay states the facts: “Did you know every 45 seconds, a zombie is shot, decapitated, or forced to share screen time with this annoying kid? (The video cuts to Carl, the loathsome child on “The Walking Dead).”

The commercial then goeson to state that donations go to help zombies find meaningful work such as working at the Department of Motor Vehicles and the drive-through window at McDonald’s. Another “worthy” recipient of donations is the “Feed the Zombies” program, which allows the undead to feast on the brains of people who aren’t using theirs as pictures of the Kardashians and the cast of Love Island are projected up on the screen.

Another grand slam was the sketch “Off the Spectrum.” Chris (Tom Cardinal) experiences an acronymous, “It’s not you; it’s me” style breakup with his internet service provider. However, he is later seduced by a Spectrum customer service representative (Michelle Daniels) into making a life-long commitment. The ground is hauntingly familiar for anyone who has tried to get a living, breathing person on the other end of the phone: “For questions about your bill, press one. For installation, press two. To speak to a customer service representative, please play Beethoven’s Fur Elise on your keypad.”

As per usual with Shadowbox, the rotating players (Brandon Smith on drums, Matthew Hahn and Jack Walbridge on guitar, Buzz Crisafulli and Andy Ankrom on bass and Rick Soriano on keyboards) and singers (Ankrom, Lay, Jamie Barrow, Leah Haviland, Mary Randle, and Brea Romer) provide a rocking soundtrack ranging from Ozzy Osbourne to ZZ Ward, from Pink’s “Just Like A Pill” to Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat,” to The Escape Club’s “Wild, Wild West.”

Ankrom’s powerful reading of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” is complimented by video clips of television couples, from “I Love Lucy’s” Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz through “Happy Days’” Marion Ross and Tom Bosley and “The Jeffersons’” Sherman Hemsley and Isabel Sanford and then closing with “Roseanne’s” John Goodman and Roseanne Barr.

Apart from the cringe-worthy video “Jack OFFice Supplies,” WILD THINGS is a bit of a misnomer for this offering. The show is less raunchy than the innuendo-laden BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, which ran from April to June.

It may not be an event you can feel comfortable taking your grandparents to, but maybe you could bring a drunk Aunt Martha and Uncle Bill this time around.

If there’s a knock on the show, WILD THINGS covered a lot of the similar ground as BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, which also lampooned telemarketers, streaming services, and Sarah McLachlan.

That being said, WILD THINGS is a lot closer to comedic heaven than it is to the blasphemies of hell or the tedium of Heck.

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