Last night, after failing to obtain the Ben Kweller Ticket from the box office at Irving Plaza, I dropped into Cosmic Cantina to drown my sorrows in a giant burrito. It improved my mood, but also made me a little lethargic. But I had a mission: Do something awesome. So scanned the nonsense mailing list, realized that people are still crazy, and threw a dart at my computer screen. It left a scratch next to the description of a puppet show. So, after recovering from the burrito, I grabbed my coat, gloves, camera, and umbrella and went down to drag Jeff off to see what promised to be a saucy puppet show.

From the email (Also on the Jollyship website):
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Jollyship the Whiz-Bang Presents:
The Plunder of Party Island

A special performance of underwater musical cabaret. Featuring the wayward Black Sea magic of Magic Brian, the chameleon-like, wind-burned comedy skin of Chris Rozzi, those favorites of fish and squid, the Randy Brothers, the hilarious enigma that is Jed Clarke, all hosted by and featuring new material from the pirates of Jollyship the Whiz-Bang. Including the songs Monitor vs. Merrimack, H.O.N.O.R., and the first part of our short film project Greenland: My Wind Doth Fail Wherewith I Burst My Gall, and more! And whatever! A night of plunder and mayhem! A fantastic way to shake off the horror of the work week, and act inappropriate appropriately!
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As you can imagine, it was strange. I saw a man escape from a straight jacket, some crazy piratical songs, and William Shakespeare. Below you will see a time delayed picture of the lead singer/puppeteer, the pirate band rocking out with an accordian (but this isn't a musical entry, it's too cultural!), William Shakespeare lecturing the puppets about why education is important, the girl helping the man into his straight jacket, and finally the potato soliloquy. All of it touched my heart and made me laugh.



Overall, I'd give it a 5.4 out of 7. It's a must see, but you probably do not need to see it twice. The comic timing was good, but it was sometimes hard to hear all the jokes in the movie and during the songs. I blame two things, the acoustics and the amount of nervous laughter from those in the audience who weren't sure if they had just missed a joke. The stuff was good though, and I would say that it is worth seven bucks. If you don't laugh at the absurd, you may get less out of this show.

As a side note, last night's show was somewhat different than previous shows, from what I have gathered from the website. (Go click the link I provided earlier. They have some better pictures if what you you want is close-up nude puppet shots!) Normally, the shows actually advance a plot about a small clown puppet that was rescued from a slave ship and is now starting to grow into a man. Tonight was sort of a variety show with puppet interludes that did not advance the overarching plot of the series. They did show the first clip from their upcoming DVD, so it looks like the entire story will eventually be available to the public. I think I might have enjoyed the more focused pirate story more, but I do now have a 80 second video of a man escaping a straight jacket on my computer and one really bad knock knock joke in my head. Also, I will plan on purchasing the DVD if I remember all this in a month or year.

(Knock Knock - Who's there? Marble? Marble who? Marble-ous to see you, do you want to get lunch?)