The Drama Nutz brought a little magic to the NAAG Gallery, June 7 for a magic themed episode of Bring a Chair Improv.
They didn’t have a lot of people but opening act “Mental Magician” Jeff Newman, performed some impressive tricks to warm up the dozen or so people there. One of the mor eimpressive tricks was gettign a girl from the audience to choose a random book and choose a word, which appeared on a slip of paper in a blown up baloon another audience member was holding.
The Drama Nutz are always a lot of fun. This time, David Gabert was the host, while Rayne Anne Latchford, Jon Kirsch, Mark Ogle, David Adie and the always hilarious Hanna Rud supplied the laughs in a variety of improv games while Erica Barr supplied the music. They added a couple new games and joined them together with a running game called Namaste during which the cast came up with humourous yoga positions in a yoga class while Mark Ogle insisted he wanted to be in a pottery class.
They did this one while various cast members put on costumes, hats and props from the Table of Contents, which the audience bought for them. As always the deaf, blind and dumb “cripples“ provided lots of funny fodder.
Hanna Rud shone on a variety on bits including “Slideshow,” where she wore a Storm Trooper‘s helmet and talked about her vacation while the rest of the cast acted out what she was saying. She also shone while “deaf” during a game of CD release, where the cast was asked to make up songs about a magic wand. David Adie also shoneon a couple of games, where he was deaf and had to be the “director” in “Director’s Cut”, not to mention guess what game they were playing.
“I knew it was directors cut when I saw them listening to me. They never listen to me,” Adie quipped when Gabert asked him when it was he knew what game they were playing.
The Drama Nutz will be back at the NAAG tonight, with special guests from Calgary improv troupes Half Her Age, The Kinkonauts, Loose Moose Chop Shop, U of C Improv plus the Swamp Donkeys, Ella Jean Haggis and Ben Cannon. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The show begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $10 without a chair, $7 if you bring one. The NAAG Gallery is located at 255 12 C Street North.
— By Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor