Cinematic Titanic

Any show that describes itself as jackass-ery from a group of proven smart, funny friends has potential. When the group of friends has a devoted cult following, watch out for how much the audience loves the silly fun. Such was the case with the Cinematic Titanic,which recently played at the Somerville Theater, where the audience was clearly in on the joke.

What is "Cinematic Titanic" and why is there a cult following? Think of robots in space watching and commenting on bad movies.

Mystery Science Theater 3000's original conceit was man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a satellite in space by an evil scientist and forced to watch a selection of terrible movies. "Cinematic Titanic" is the touring successor, a feature-length movie-riffing show from the creator and original cast of MST3K. Here, the actors deliver their lines live from both sides of the screen.

Like MST3K, the show was created by Joel Hodgson and features the same team that first brought the Peabody award winning cult-classic series to life: Trace Beaulieu (Crow, Dr. Forrester), J. Elvis Weinstein (Tom Servo, Dr. Erhardt), Frank Conniff (TV's Frank), and Mary Jo Pehl (Pearl Forrester), Cinematic Titanic continues the tradition of riffing on the undecipherable and so-bad-they-are-great B films from the past.

After funny, rapid-fire warmup bits by Dave "Grubber" Allen, J. Elvis Weinstein and Frank Conniff, Joel Hodgson (on his birthday) queried the crowd: "You guys ready to see a really crappy movie?"

The crowd was more than ready and loved the night's selection "Blood of the Vampires," particularly for the hammy character actors efforts to pull attention away from the over-the-top racist makeup on the Philippine actors portraying black servants.

It would be criminal to try and wreck the jokes by recounting each or even the best riffs. Rest assured that Chinese toy manufacturers, Matthew McConaughey and Ponce De Leon all come in for some well-deserved ribbing.

Mary Jo Pehl, the single gal serving as the Elaine of MST3K (to the rest of the Seinfeld gang of boys), had several of the night's laughs. It's the small throw-away asides that often were the funniest, like Mary Jo's reaction to an awful party scene with a dead-pan "This is worse than one of Mary Richard's parties."

"Cinematic Titanic" is a fun evening out even for non-rabid MST3K fanboys (although the fanboys were ready to laugh before some jokes even finished). Smart, silly jackass-ery-filled fun. At the Somerville Theater, February 20 & 21, but traveling to various smart towns in America.

More information on the Cinematic Titanic Tour. More information for the Somerville Theater here