This goes over fabulously, but not every part of the Cabaret is received as well. A duo calling itself "The Doctor and Captain Show" organizes a laborious multimedia game involving members of the audience playing a variation of Scrabble. The video screen is blurry, and the game drags out for more than 15 minutes.
Comedy perfection is not the Cabaret's aim, says Gabe Weisert, an admirer of the variety show before he joined the Lobsters. "They take risks; they're not afraid to go out there and bomb in search of something different. They're not afraid to die for their cause."
Anthony Pidgeon
Rene and Pedro go at it in rehearsal.
Anthony Pidgeon
Tales of a Lonely Planet director Daniel Lee
says the troupe tries to offset its cerebral humor with
some "naughty, dirty sketches."
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Bewley gathers much of the talent for the Cabaret through connections made from his day job as program director at New Langton Arts, an art gallery and performance space South of Market. Other Lobsters work as waitresses, freelance writers, film and video teachers, and in public relations for the American Conservatory Theater, among other professions. Although none of them has been able to quit a day job, almost all the Lobsters have been able to avoid desk work of the downtown, mind-numbing variety.
Instead, they satirize it.
Their short film 8+4, which aired on Comedy Central's Web site, recalls the movie Office Space in its "Why are we here?" ponderings of corporate life. But the Lobster critique is more ruthless.
In the first scene, an anonymous and slightly dim office worker played by Wolanske is taking an order from a corporate client. The caller says that he wants four more "units" to go along with the eight units he ordered last time.
"OK," says Wolanske, thinking hard. "That's just simple math."
He writes "8 + 4" down on a scrap of paper. "OK. Just need to run the numbers now." A confused look comes over his face.
"So you ordered eight last week. I'm just trying to, you know, sort this all out now. Trying to get a good picture of where you're coming from." Under his breath: "Eight, and then, you're calling back because you need four more ...."
He takes out a set of Popsicle sticks. "Just walk with me here for a second. Because oftentimes when you do the math, you forget that you're working with real things." He counts out sticks for a few moments, but this doesn't help either.
"It could be a negative number, couldn't it?"
He looks around frantically for assistance.
"Can I put you on hold for a second? I just want to run it through our accounts-receivable department and get a more accurate number from them. OK? I'm just gonna put you on hold for one second. I think it's some nice music today, Yanni at Red Rocks."
Someone from accounts receivable enters, and then soon the head of accounting. The group discusses possible methods for determining the sum, including the use of multiplication, subtraction, and Venn diagrams.
Eventually an entire task force is assembled to seek a solution, but it fails, bounced from one meeting room to another by departments that have already reserved the rooms. Meanwhile, the client stays on hold.
It's a simple joke, and over the course of the 20-minute video, it gets pounded into the ground, again and again, in unconscious reflection of the Lobster comic aesthetic and work ethic. They may seem like slackers, but they're not going to quit telling jokes until you start laughing.
