Glengarry Glen Beck

Alexandra Centre Society

July 31, 2010

Brush up on your pop culture for this one. Essentially a lightning round of short skits and mash-ups loosely strung together, even the titular skit lasts mere minutes before zipping off to another absurd set.

The Obscene But Not Heard comedy foursome rotate scenarios and costumes like an improv show, and at a relentless hour-long pace, it can get exhausting for even the audience.  Despite some easy cheap shots — Windows 7, Nazi jokes, and yes, even a Christopher Walken impression — there are some flashes of pure wit throughout.

Not every skit works. Some feel like one-joke throwaways (Jim Morrison reading the lunch specials), and some fall flat (a confusing, geeks-only deleted scene from Jaws), but wait a few minutes and something better might come along.

The best are timely topics and acutely observed subcultures. There is the PR rep for BP oil (“We care… Sort of.”), and there is the pretentious wine seller (“this one with grapes squeezed in the cleavage of virgins”). And then there is their climax, or the closest thing to one for a show like this — a bloody, perverted freak show hosted by a German doctor in tight leather.

Evidently a staple of Obscene But Not Heard’s shows, here the ‘obscene’ part of the group rears up loud and proud. But by this point, it’s hard to be offended. You might as well just go along for the ride.