Review: ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION at The Joint Comedy Theater

My favorite comedians are at it again, except this time they have a political theme in honor of the upcoming elections. The Main Thing Comedy Trio at The Joint Comedy Theater, 301 Main St #102, in North Little Rock, bring to you ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION, and you have one more weekend, Aug. 23 & 24, to catch it. In fact, this one is so popular, it is selling out, and I’m as serious as a little baby owl. 

Opening up, Steve and Vicki Farrell, along with improv extraordinaire Brett Ihler sing “Wish That You Hadn’t Voted at All” setting the tone for the evening’s performance. Before I go any farther, these three are just as musically gifted as they are funny. They perform original work in many different styles, and I love the music segments as much as I love the skits. Ok, back to the show breakdown. 

Spy Eye News brings the news including reports on people getting hit by the trolley, traffic on I-30, and comments about Dog Spranger running for office. Then Uncle Dan sells his leaning bench. Y’all, Uncle Dan (Steve) is so funny. I love how he demonstrates his furniture then does these little jerky moves when he is excited and ends with a little dance at the end. Uncle Dan is a commercial celebrity. I’m pretty sure the audience and I would buy anything from him.  

Then we move on to the Dillard Devotional Center where meet the leaders of the mega church calling the Pentecostal church along the interstate cute. As the show progresses, we hear about some accusations about Dillard (Steve) along with his plans. 

When the news heads to the Little Rock Pork Rind Festival, we meet the Jones family who is divided politically. Bert (Brett) is definitely a Trump supporter and even shot part of his ear off in solidarity. Mary is a Kamala fan and insist that her name be pronounced correctly, and son Richard Peter (Steve) hates his name and has 420 paraphernalia hanging from his genitals.  

As the show progresses, they rotate through these themes, blending them together at times. The Jones’ family is put on the news to discuss their political differences through a debate with Dog. Oaf endorses Dog and so does the Jones’ son. Dillard has a scandal about a two-headed call girl, and we learn that he wants to grow so big that his congregation can take over the world. Somewhere in there they have an opinion segment in the news from Dam Mad, with my favorite one being about his complaint about the topic of sexual harassment and how he wants to be sexually harassed, and then they end with the “Time to Get Real” song.  

This one really cracked me up. I always expect something crazy, slightly inappropriate, and tongue and cheek humor from these professionals, but I was laughing so hard this time, I had tears. Their relevancy was on point. We all had a great time watching them make fun of every political faction, and they are great at including local details making each show unique. But the skill that impresses me the most is how they seem to not only embrace each character in mere seconds, but their commitment to them is so much so that their physical appearance changes with the mannerisms. I am now at a point where I can tell who they are going to be before they even say a word through their body language. I love it! I love them all! We are so lucky to have this caliber of talent so accessible to us. Go see their show! 

Before the performance, I chatted with Steve and Brett about ELECTILE DYSFUNCTION and other events at the Joint. 

BWW: I can’t wait for the show tonight. Why this particular theme? 

Steve: The elections are certainly THE topic of interest to the majority of people right now to the exclusion of everything else it seems, but we won’t be doing this show after this for four more years.  

BWW: So, we tweak it a little bit every four years? 

Steve: We tweak it a lot, because like the first time we did it, it so many elections ago, but then the first time we did it with Brett here in 2012, that was Obama and Mitt Romney. So, think how dissimilar that was to what we’re doing here. We have the same characters, the same family, but what's coming out of their mouths is, of course, about this election, and not the previous, so it changes dramatically, but the entrances and exits in the characters remain the same. 

BWW: Well, I’m happy to be here for it. How’s the improv shows going? 

Brett: Fabulous. It’s going great. We have our 20th anniversary show coming up Saturday, October 19th. Right now, we will have 20 people on stage. If I can get everybody, it will be 27 people in the show. We'll try to figure out how to fit 27 people on that stage, but we'll figure it out. It’s gonna be a blast bringing back everybody from the OG group...everybody that's still alive. I've only got one kid that's not gonna be able to come back because he's got a show, but everybody else is down. It's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna be wild.  

BWW: Cool. I’ll put that in my calendar. Are y'all still doing the concert series?  

Steve: Yes. There is Jazz Night and the Singer-Songwriter Night are still happening. There is also the burlesque company from Hot Springs. So, there is something almost every night here at The Joint.  

For more information, check out their website at thejointargenta.com. 

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