Friday and Saturday (April 13th and 14th) 2012

With our two regular musicians (Chase Ceglie and Devon Mello) on a brief hiatus, and Boston traffic laying claim to Ryan Hartigan and Neal Leaheey, the remaining Bit Players (Vlad Tenenbaum, Tim Bric, Dylan Eberle, and John Mulligan) were left to fly the ship on their own.  But the show must go on...

In “Word At A Time Story” we learned about Kim and her chair made in Poland.  But as John so deftly pointed out as the story concluded, the chairs were actually made in England.

Vlad selected a very delighted audience member, Erma,  as the topic of a “Doo Run Song”.  Although a social worker by day, Erma’s secret desire was to become a movie star.  Tim, Dylan, and John succeeded in making Erma’s dreams come true in a song all about her life as a starlette.

With our intrepid Bit Players released from the snarls of Boston traffic, Neal and Ryan joined in “Slide Show” where Ryan took us on a trip to Greece, a place where Greek Gods abound, and time (personified by Vlad) stands still. 

Neal Leaheey in "Bartender"

with Vlad Tenenbaum, Dylan Eberle

and Ryan Hartigan on guitar

Tim Bric in "Bartender"
with Vlad Tenenbaum, Dylan Eberle
and Ryan Hartigan on guitar

 In “Bartender” Neal lamented about his job and how he literally ran the place since he was the only employee, but had no time to sleep.  Bartender, Vlad, advised him that this was a good thing since Neal could not only do whatever he wanted, he could give himself raises and go on vacation. Tim entered the bar having a little problem with coping with his Mother ragging on the fact that he was 40, still living at home , and so what, if he boozed it up, right?  Dylan offered Tim some advice of killing his mother and then keeping her body in the house, just like Norman Bates.  Ryan quipped to our bartenders about losing his underwear.  But Dylan didn’t see this as such a problem and he proposed to Ryan that they both go on a panty raid together.

Neal Leaheey, John Mulligan,
and Dylan Eberle with Ryan Hartigan (Host)
in "MoonDoggy"

An audience favorite bit, "MoonDoggy" featuring Neal, John and Dylan, with Ryan hosting taught us a bit about galactic politics as we took a trip into the outer reaches to a planet (Morgan 5) named after our expert, where we learned that voting is done by the planet's inhabitants killing themselves.  This political system enabled our expert to become a Space God.

The Saturday night performance saw lots of new faces.  Joining the Bit Players in a very special guest performance was Gillian Bellinger, who performs improv with Second City in Los Angeles, CA.  The musical accompaniment was provided by Navy Show band members Chuck Malone (on Keyboard) and Mike Sapien (on guitar).

Gillian Bellinger and Dylan Ebere
in "Alphabetical Shakespeare"

Dylan and Gillian knocked one out of the park with “Alphabetical Shakespeare”.  Taking us along on a strange cross-dressing tale of love, lust and murder, Dylan’s conjoined twin was an unwanted third wheel in the path of Gillian’s love/hate desire for Dylan.  Gillian plotted to kill off the twin and satiate her desire.  (Click the link to watch the video: http://youtu.be/Gc7-QS8ZTi4  )

 A bit that we haven’t seen in a while, “Late To Work” captivated the audience as Vlad mimed an excuse to Gillian to provide to Stephanie Conrad, The Boss, as a plausible explanation of Gillian’s tardiness.  We learned of Gillian’s harrowing experience of dealing with her dead cat and putting it in the freezer.  And… naturally, since a freezer is a receptacle for food, this made Gillian hungry for Chinese Food. (**) Then, as if that were not enough reason for her lateness, Gillian found her car had been stolen by Godzilla and had to ride a unicorn to work.  (Note** No cats were actually harmed in the making of this scene.)

 

Stephanie Conrad in "Bartender"
with Dylan Eberle (Alien payed by Gillian Bellinger)

Gillian Bellinger in "Bartender"
with Dylan Eberle

Vlad Tenebaum in "Bartender"
with Dylan Eberle

In Saturday’s  “Bartender” we saw Dylan as the bartender and Vlad, Stephanie, and Gillian were the bar’s patrons.  Stephanie bemoaned her bad luck at having an asteroid hit her apartment and now an alien being was growing out of her head.  Dylan optimistically advised her that she could use it to her advantage as a new villain, much like from the movie “Spiderman 3”.  Vlad sang his tale of woe of losing his hair and teeth after taking small pills to improve his virility that he had purchased from a Canadian Internet site.  Dylan chided Vlad by telling him that "All Canadians lie!" Gillian had a chilling tale about a cheating, murderous husband.  Gillian described her desire to make him pay with his life by using various kitchen gadgets and implements in the demise of her husband.  Dylan commiserated with Gillians' plight, admitting to having a cheating wife of his own.  Not only did Dylan help to plot Gillian's revenge, the two contrived to go on a killing spree of their own together.

Dylan Eberle and Gillian Bellinger

with two audience members

in "Puppets"

Roy and Bobbie, celebrating 20 years together were regaled in “Epic Poem” style as Vlad, Gillian, and Dylan gave Roy and Bobbie a taste of their dream jobs together (and maybe ideas for a little role playing later?) as a pilot and his stewardess. Other audience members got a chance to participate on stage, as well, bending and contorting Dylan and Gillian in a bit called “Puppets”.

The Bit Players perform improv comedy every Friday and Saturday night at 8:00pm at the Firehouse Theatre, 4 Equality Park Place (off Broadway), Newport, RI 02840.  Please call the box office for reservations          401-849-FIRE (3473)  And as always, it is BYOB!