True Life: My Dad is a Marx Brother

Grade: B+

This sketch again suffers from Lara-syndrome. In other words, Lara doesn’t think about how something will play on stage, and this is again a parody on something that is televised, therefore confusing when put on stage. This works much better than Castrato because it has an easy transitionary character thrown in. The True Life documentarian, played by that really, really tall dude is a funny addition and an interesting way to look at the Marx Brothers. The writing of the Marx bros is also very tight and hilarious. Things like Chico kicking a melon, Groucho ashing his cigar in his son’s waffles, Chico swindling a nickle from his son, Harpo eating his daughter’s drawing, Groucho mugging to an audience while in his home were all funny choices that illustrated in a very funny manner the main concept behind this sketch: that people playing characters should not be confused for real life people.

Utilizing the most famous absurdists, the writer places their fictional lives into the “real” setting of a reality show. This gives the audience the opportunity to question how much of being is reality especially when that being is “art.” I like this. I think this is a clever way to present this question, there are just a few technical issues. The transitions are still hard to follow. Why Karl must be a boy played by a female is not understandable to me. Only My impression of Groucho Marx is a decent Marx brother impression. A Zeppo household would have been funny (I think this was in the first draft, but Lara was told to cut it out, which was probably a good decision, but now I want it back in). Once again, Lara’s care for detail in writing is impressive and care for detail in direction is lackluster and is most noticable in the pacing. I also don’t like the last line by the true life narrator because it starts commenting on how these reality shows are made as opposed to the characters within the reality tv shows and that breaks us away from a much funnier overall message.

Best Actor: Emma’s mouth eating waffles. Best Line: Matt says “It’s a me, Mario!” during the hubbub at the Chico household. Also: “Said that, fat cat, door mat!”