>>PREVIEW
IN FINE FORM
The Pajama Men
One Yellow Rabbit
Runs until November 11
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
"Comedy snobs get a little jumpy at the term ‘skit,’" says Mark Chavez of The Pajama Men when I gaff by asking him whether the duo’s association with Second City has led people to apply the "skit" label.
"A skit is something put together by coworkers in an office illustrating proper conduct in the workplace when dealing with sexual harassment. Or perhaps a fireman might come to a school and present a ‘fire safety skit.’ If you really want to piss off a sketch troupe, ask them this: ‘Are you all still doing your little skits?’"
In fact, the duo of Chavez and Shenoah Allen can’t be classified neatly as skit, sketch or improv. Just as a sketch troupe would take umbrage at having their work referred to as "skits," The Pajama Men are hesitant to label the interweaving narratives, sketch-style vignettes and sheer absurdity that comes from the pair’s improvisational creation process.
Currently based in Chicago, the pair have been making a scene at Fringe festivals and major international stages for the last eight years, recently abandoning their old "Sabotage" moniker after signing with Second City – ironically one of the best known sketch troupes in the world. Now their work will open at the Big Secret Theatre almost a year after the pair performed at the 2005 High Performance Rodeo, as One Yellow Rabbit hosts a remount of In Fine Form.
But, in the context of The Pajama Men’s unique style, "remount" seems inadequate. In fact, in addition to the improvisational elements that make each performance unique, continuous touring and audience reaction continue to shape The Pajama Men’s shows.
"It’s always evolving," concedes Chavez, "but it started with the idea of setting in and around this haunted mansion, and that’s where it still is. The locations are the same, but it’s a very different show, different jokes."
Audiences who were able to catch last year’s Stop Not Going will find at least a few familiar faces, including a pair of British twins named Nigel, a young girl and her father, and two old ladies named Lindy and Margaret. The return of familiar elements, the signature element of the pair’s performance, gives the audience a quality of continuity that sketch comedy does not have. Rather than one-off characters and situations, The Pajama Men opt instead to weave their shows from a series of throughlines that, though conceived in the improvisational creation process, are deliberately planted through their shows.
"When a bit comes up through improv, it’ll sort of manifest itself, and then when we go back to rehearse it we’ll plant seeds that can be brought out later," says Chavez. "It’s not like we go and plan every little bit – if we find something that works we’ll find a way to make it work and get that earned laughter by getting that idea in earlier. It’s like an inside joke, everyone gets it."
Even with the show’s rehearsed structure, Chavez and Allen’s improvisational background is still an integral component of their shows. Before their run in Calgary, for instance, the two will have completed a three-week run of their two-man improv show, Improvizzo, in their hometown of Albuquerque. Far from being a diversion, this regular improvisation keeps the pair’s interaction sincere and their material growing, even if it sometimes means exceeding the show’s ostensible 65-minute running time.
"When it’s really long it’s when it’s really happening," says Chavez. "We were born and raised on a Fringe circuit, so 60 minutes is a place you can’t exceed. But with this, it was going so long we decided to make it a longer show.
"We always wanted to leave the audience wanting more rather than full and exhausted, tired from laughing but also going, ‘Wow, I’ll go back and see them.’"
Certainly, One Yellow Rabbit’s co-artistic director, Michael Green, thought enough of the pair to bring them back after their hilarious High Performance Rodeo run, and audiences who have already seen the pair’s madness have an entirely new show yet to see. So, between sketch and improv, The Pajama Men leave only one question for Calgary audiences to answer: "Are they still doing their little skits?" |
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