Delocated is a show on Adult Swim about a family in the witness protection program that is moved to New York to appear on a reality show where they have their faces covered the entire time. Simple premise, but a difficult one to transfer to the stage. Also, the Sketchfest version of the show, which has been dubbed Delocated Witness Protection Program Variety Hour we are missing, well, most of the cast. So, the real question is, what happened on that stage?
Well, Jon Glaser, the star of the show, appeared in character to host the event. He had the signature ski mask over his head, but also wore silver shorts and a white dress shirt. He opened the show singing a song about partying by Kevin Eubanks, and my internet search of this song has been a bit of a failure, so if any readers were at this event and know what he did, please post it in the comments.
His voice was disguised, and although I won’t reprint any of his jokes, I’ll just say that he was pretty funny. He then proceeded to take the show in, well, a very traditional direction. It turned into a typical night at a comedy club. Glaser was the MC, and he often exceeded the regular comics in terms of comedic ability, but the show itself turned into a sampling of stand up comedy plus a few weirder surprises.
The first comic to take the stage was the amazing Eugene Mirman. To the unfamiliar, Mirman is a dry comic from the school of Mitch Hedberg or Steven Wright, but he likes to add props and other whatnot to his set. His set was far too brief (barely ten minutes), and consisted was solid. He pulled out a brilliant sketch where he shared Facebook ads that he bought that were silly, and it seems he actually did buy them. In an even more brilliant move, he posed as an alien to ask a member of the crowd to explain speed dating, and in a comic moment that could not be planned, he pulled what could have been the one person on earth out of the crowd that did not know what speed dating is. Brilliant, but far too short.
Next up was Andrew Daly. He did impressions. I can honestly say that he didn’t do anything for me. Celebrity impressionists, in my humble opinion, just aren’t usually that funny. To be honest, when he was introduced, I actually was simply expecting somebody to paint something that looks like this.
For some variety, since it is a “variety show,” he brought out burlesque dancer Mynx D’Meanor. She did an amazing set of dancing, starting out in a catsuit with a bag of money, and it evolved into a brilliant bit of strip tease that incorporated an all cash boa, a string of money, and pure athleticism. It was refreshing, and the crowd ate up every minute of it.
Next up was Larry Murphy, posing as a “future comic.” His act was kind of one long, drawn out bit specifying one particular thing. He went on, probably far too long, about how in the future, adultery will be accepted and encouraged. Meh. He did discuss one future invention that tickled me: Triple Sided Tape. So it was 7 minutes with one chuckle. Eh, when you get 8 acts in one show, there will be some clunkers.
Far more superior was Todd Barry, who was in an especially ornery mood tonight, which only helped kick the punchlines harder. He did, however, manage to kick out a friend of the aforementioned “guy that didn’t know what speed dating was” for talking during his set, but after that, it was all grumpy humor, which is always fun.
The defacto headliner, based on crowd response, was Kristen Schaal. She still only got a few minutes, but thrilled them. She made very clever use of props, including a wonderful story about posts & pans, and even told an adorable story about her taint. She had they crowd in tears, and like Mirman, definitely left the crowd wanting much, much more.
The last major set of the evening was by former Superconductor/current New Pornographers frontman AC Newman. He was, of course, the musical guest. He played two songs that I was unfamiliar with, complete with ski mask. (It seems that he is the only other person in hiding this evening.) As with most of Newman’s post-Superconductor work, the songs were very bright and catchy, but it was kind of boring to hear this after Schaal blew the crowd away.
The set closed with Glaser and Will Forte coming out to duet a karaoke duet of Bonnie Raitt’s “Something To Talk About.” Forte can definitely sing, but I was sad that he didn’t do anything else. They did apologize for Maya Rudolph’s cancellation, which I’m sure bummed a lot of people out. All in all, it was a fun, albeit uneven show. But, not to fret, this is early in the Sketchfest, and there is much, much more to come.
Actually Andrew Daly did the future segment. Great review though!