Show: 23
Title: Pants on Fire
Category: Improv
By: The Project Factory
Created by: Sarah Broude
Location: HUGE Theater
Summary: A game show in which two teams try to guess if the story someone is telling is a weird truth, or an elaborate lie.
Highlights: What a great idea for a show. If you've heard of "two truths and a lie," it's like that, but each participant only has one chance at a story, with the opposing team guessing if it's true or a lie. It's a nuanced game, in which the storyteller not only has to tell the (possibly made-up story), but make the others believe it's true when it's a lie, or vice versa. And the even trickier thing is that sometimes part of the story is true, but not all of it. The evening is hosted by Sarah Broude, with help from Music Director Chris Perricelli and a delightfully bored assistant (whose name I didn't catch), throwing snacks at the guests, changing outfits frequently, and giving occasional side eye. Each performance has different guests, all pulled from our talented comedy/improv scene. I went (not coincidentally) to the show that featured the Four Humors: Ryan Lear, Brant Miller, Matt Spring, and newest Humor Allison Vincent. This group never fails to crack me up, and this was no exception; in fact I think it's the hardest I've laughed at Fringe this year. They were split into teams with captains Dale Peterson and Katie Kaufmann (who I gather are at every show), and each one got to tell a story, from getting kicked out of a Bozo the Clown show, to being part of a pregnancy reveal gone wrong, to childhood pranks. Watching these six weave a tale on the fly, and the others respond to it and ask questions, is sheer joy and hilarity. Highlights of the evening include watching Matt mime milking a cow, Brant reenact a Santa Experience, and hearing Ryan recite all the books of the Bible, after making us think he couldn't (but of course he can). The point system is a bit suspect, with math and word problems thrown in arbitrarily, but it's all in good fun. Great fun actually.
