Word: comically
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Unfortunately, the other comic stars of this production are inadvertantly so. Monica Ferrell as Mina and Chris Cocks as her fiance John are so excrutiatingly bad, they are wonderful. Granted, it would be hard to overcome the handicap of their particular roles, bland characters who speak tritely at best. Yet John's sullen sneer is so completely out of place, and Mina's cooing sweetness rings false. Ferrell. only comes to life when she sheds the veneer of pure innocent for that of vampire seductress...
...begins between the life-size Nutcracker and the Mouse-King. Many surprises and creative additions strengthen this central Battle Scene. Mice jump from the stage out into the audience. A dramatic pause after the death of the Mouse-King adds drama and a touch of sorrow, followed by the comic relief of Red Cross arm-banded mice attempting CPR and carrying him away on a stretcher. The battle itself is fought with gigantic forks instead of swords, and cheese bits serve as grenades. A child dressed as a gingerbread cookie gets her arm bitten off by one of the mice...
...artistic ambitions was the door out of orthodoxy. Kelley's work is larded with references to early eccentrics from the Surrealist pantheon, like the suicidal dandy Jacques Vache and the writers Raymond Roussel and the Comte de Lautreamont. On the other hand, his drawing is almost entirely derived from comic strips. Both confessional and obscure (why else would the museum have served up no fewer than 17 catalog essays to explicate it?), his work can nevertheless pack a flailing, provincial-surreal wallop -- now and then...
When Neil Simon and other such budding comedy legends as Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Larry Gelbart wrote for TV comic Sid Caesar in his 1950s heyday, they rarely put anything on paper. Instead they sat in a room trying to top one another, shouting out situations and one-liners. Periodically Caesar would halt the schoolboy jockeying to read aloud what they had so far. "Read what?" Simon recalls asking. "We haven't written anything yet." But Caesar had culled the best of their ideas as he heard them and, by a wink or nod, had ensured they were recorded...
Other talented Latinos seek the big break. Actress Marga Gomez's one-woman show, Memory Tricks, which deals with her father, a Cuban comic, and her mother, a Puerto Rican dancer, has been praised for its humor and startling candor. Gomez helped found the Latino comedy group Culture Clash (the troupe has a new series airing on Fox TV, where Gomez has made guest appearances), and she is adapting her show into a screenplay. "I think the essence of my $ work is that I come from some very strong backgrounds -- gay, Cuban, Puerto Rican," says Gomez...