Neil Diamond Slept Here

Before the city became so famous for Silicon Sorcery (hey, at least it's not silicone), San Francisco was known for seafarers, seafood, and great comedy. Poised at the tip of what may be the sixth or seventh wave of laugh-producing Bay Area theater companies is Killing My Lobster, a sketch-comedy troupe of nine mostly Brown U transplants who won Best of the Fringe two years running and are proud to call the Fog City their own.

Juliet Gray

The Lobsters get out of control in Hot August Nights.

Details

Plays Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 8 p.m. through Aug. 13 at the Victoria Theater, 2961 16th St. (at Mission), S.F. Tickets are $12- 15 sliding scale; call 267-0642 for reservations and information.

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• Marc Vogl

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In fact, picture them on that wave, happily rowing their boat with imaginary oars, while a director shouts, "More to the left! No, right!" That's approximately what a Lobster show is like: a big party, part props, part imagination, no one actually in control, but everyone happily contributing. "We're a bunch of funny people throwing a lot of ideas out," says Marc Vogl, one of the group's founders and producers. "Everybody in the cast is a writer. The director is a shepherd, as opposed to someone who tries to get their vision across."

What distinguishes KML from the comedy crowd is its adherence to a unifying thread through each show. "So it adds up to something satisfying," Vogel explains. In Hot August Nights the group offers summer camp, kiddie pool, and camping trip adventures, an Inside the Actor's Theater spoof, an action-packed extreme chess trilogy, something mysteriously titled "Meat Yogurt," and much, much more.

Promises Vogl, "We're going to throw a lot of stuff your way in an hour and a half. You're not going to laugh at all of it, but hopefully you're going to laugh at some of it."