Show: 6
Title: Hugo and Maeve Join A Cult!
Category: Comedy / Horror
By: Alex Stokes / Sky Blue Productions
Created by: Brendan Nelson Finn, Abilene Olson, and Alex Stokes
Location: Bryant Lake Bowl
Summary: Twenty-something friends Hugo and Maeve are seduced by chocolate into joining an Oompa Loompa cult in the bowels of the Mall of America.
Highlights: This is just good fringey fun. Liberally sprinkled with Minnesota references, cult references, and Roald Dahl references, it tells the story of these two friends who go to the mall for some Bubba Gump Shrimp and end up in wigs and cloaks, running for their lives. Exhausted from the forced labor of shrimp farming next to the Rainforest Cafe, they find an empty room and livestream their story in the hopes that someone will rescue them. They tell us the bizarre details of their cult, which really are no more bizarre than the real cults they bring to mind (NXIVM, Scientology, Heaven's Gate). Created and directed by Alex Stokes and performed by Abilene Olson and Brendan Nelson Finn (winner of the 2023 TCTB Award for best comedic performance), you're in good hands - these folks know funny. There's a bit of horror, and a fun voiceover cameo, but mostly it's just these two loveable idiots lamenting their fate. It's a short one at about 40 minutes, and I would have happily spent another 10 or 15 minutes with Hugo and Maeve in the basement of the Mall of America.