The Great Cheesy Movie Circus Tour Write-Up!
So, it's been a while since I posted anything. Life has been crazy this year, and has only settled down recently. But, I also saw the latest MST3K live show this past weekend, and since I never did a write-up on last year's, I figured this was a perfect time to get the blog going again, and a way to have some much-needed fun.
The show's set up was very different from the 30th Anniversary show's, with the movie screen above an in-set host desk in shadow, allowing the puppeteers more freedom, but hiding them kind of behind and off the stage. Also, instead of riffing in silhouette in front of the screen, this time Joel and the Bots watched from a smaller desk on stage looking up at it. It was weird, and didn't feel as fleshed out as last year's set. But, the increased range of motion for the bots was fun, especially as the circus theme had them playing with fire and weightlifting, much to the chagrin of the very safety conscious Crow.
Speaking of, I loved Crow's safety speeches and ditties, especially when he would smile awkwardly and freeze looking at the audience like in a TV PSA. Him giving up on it, and then joining in on the hijinks, was a nice touch too. As for other changes, we got Emily, a new character acting as, according to the show's site, "circus rigger and maintenance worker", was a fun new addition, as was Mega-Synthia, a clone of Pearl and Synthia who has all the stature and crazy of both. And if the show isn't BSing, we might be seeing more of both in the future.
But c'mon, we're here for the movie riffing! Our showing in Dallas only had one, 80s Karate Kid knock-off No Retreat, No Surrender. I wish I'd been able to see the more thematically appropriate Circus of Horror, but considering NR, NS was about a young, bullied boy befriending the ghost of Bruce Lee to eventually fight a young Jean-Claude Van Damme to stop his mafia-backed karate school takeover scheme...yeah, the movie was a damn fine fit for MST: wacky side characters, parental figures who are bullied and saved by their son, and a finale that barely involved the main character until the end.
The main character spends time hanging out at Bruce Lee's grave, and when the camera cuts to his picture on the tombstone, I think Joel yells "Leave me alone!" Then, at the obligatory dance scene, we have the nerdy DJ wonderfully referred to as "Normal Al Yankovic." This was hilarious and, as I felt after watching The Brain last year, I HATE I probably won't be able to re-watch this show again. That said, I'm glad I went to see it, and hope another showing isn't too far away. And more importantly, it's good to watch some MST after a while.
Also, when Joel threw in a pause for the "la-la-la" in the theme song sing-a-long, I too was tricked into putting one where there wasn't. How dare he!
Show in a riff:
"When two bad guys fight in the ring, it's hard to know who to fight for when your main character is in the audience!" -Joel (I belive)
