A 'smorgasbord' of sporting comedy

FRIDAY, JAN. 18: Two writers from the Reduced Shakespeare Company just so happened to be in London on July 6, 2005 — the day the city was named host for the 2012 Olympics.

It was amidst the celebrations and hysteria that followed, that Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin hit upon the idea for their next production — The Complete World Of Sport (Abridged).

Seven years after the epiphany, the pair, as well as actor Matt Rippy, found themselves performing the new comedy in London during the Olympics — one of the greatest sporting events on Earth.

Tichenor told the Bermuda Sun: “We said, wouldn’t that be great to bring it back during the Olympics how cool would that be, and that is exactly what happened. The main genesis for the show was on that day. Sadly, we were also part of the madness then as the London bombing took place the next day.

“During the Olympics, London was the nicest the city has ever been — for the three weeks London was really on its best behaviour. We performed at the Arts Theatre just off Leicester Square on Great Newport Street. We had to compete, I’m sure the famous shows did better, but we had a great crowd of folks from all over the world.”

That same show is coming to the island as part of the Bermuda Festival Of the Performing Arts Festival later this month.

As with all Reduced Shakespeare Company productions, the structure is a hyper-condensed, hyperactive version of events whether they be sports, the history of America or even The Bible.

Zany and wacky with a nod towards Monty Python style humour might describe this show which is brimming with skits about every sport that ever existed — or possibly never existed at all for that matter. The play stretches back to the dawn of man when Neanderthal In The Middle was all the rage, through to the classical wizardry of Quidditch, right up to modern day sports such as soccer, snorkelling and, of course, cricket.

“It is a fun show because we’re covering every single sport ever played on every continent and different countries have different sports that are their favourites. In Bermuda, as in England, we will probably favour cricket over baseball. We are not only playing the athletes in all these sports but we are also the American sports casters doing the commentary.”

Among the most popular parts of the show is the mini-Olympics at the end of the show according to Tichenor.

“We finish the final quarter of the show with our reduced Olympic Games except, because the International Olympic Committee is so litigious, we don’t call it the Olympic Games — we don’t want to invite a lawsuit — we call it the Olympish Games. It concludes with 32 sporting events in like three minutes — it is very popular.

“Our take on soccer is very funny and popular because it is as much a celebration of the sport as it is an indictment of Americans who don’t appreciate it as much as they should.

“There is also a rugby scrum where one of us receives a very, very serious injury which I won’t reveal. We also have the reduced fight song which people like.”

The Reduced Shakespeare Company is a three-man comedy that “takes long, serious comedies and reduces them to short, serious comedies”. You do not need to enjoy the works of Shakespeare to enjoy them. Originating from California the troupe has created seven stage shows, two television specials, numerous failed TV pilots and radio pieces. They have performed all over the world including prestigious venues such as the White House, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and London’s West End.

Tichenor added: “We are built up of many backgrounds. Reed and I are both professional actors and directors and have worked in real theatre, not just comedy, but we like all forms of comedy.

“Reed was a professional circus clown with Ringling Brothers — we are both fans of the old silent movies, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python and Albert and Costello or the sort of mind comedy of The Goons. Some of the sitcoms references are either Faulty Towers or the Dick Van Dyke show and also a lot of improv.

“When all of these different influence come to bare we have a mixture of high comedy and low comedy — verbal wits and physical prat fall, it is really a smorgasbord of comedy.”

The Complete World of Sports (Abridged) takes place at City Hall on January 24 and 25 from 8pm. Tickets are $65 for adults, $25 for students and are available from www.bermudafestival.org.