Sunday, January 25, 2009

SF Sketchfest: A Staged Reading of The Hills

You will probably not be terribly surprised to hear that I found the staged reading of The Hills funnier than Celebrity Autobiography. You may be surprised to know that Ed agreed with me!

There weren't any big surprises, though. If you've seen The Hills and find it amusing, it's pretty apparent that a staged reading of the dialogue has the potential to be hilarious. And it was. I especially liked Rob Huebel's Spencer impression. He was able to scrunch up his face in a hilarious approximation of Spencer's freakish face to head size ratio. Rob Riggle was great as Brody Jenner, and I also enjoyed the stand-up routine he did prior to the main part of the show. Also, the narrator, Tom Kenny, who is apparently the voice of Spongebob Squarepants, is amazing. I want him to be my friend.

Everyone was great and had some very funny and accurate impressions, with one unfortunate exception: Janine Garofalo as Lauren! In a Q&A after the performance, she admitted that she had never seen a full episode of The Hills, only clips, and that she found Lauren difficult to imitate, so she resorted to twisting her hair and speaking in a deadpan voice. Honestly, I'm pretty sure that I could come up with a passable Lauren Conrad impression in under an hour. The show is so funny and everyone else has clearly put some effort into their characters, so I was disappointed that Janine Garofalo didn't bother.

Nevertheless, it was a great show, a packed house, and Ed and I both had a great time.

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