Review: Ham for the Holidays: Wham Bam, Thank You Ham! by Lisa Koch and Peggy Platt. Additional material by D.J. Gommels, Michael Oaks, David Koch. Directed by David Koch. With Lisa Koch, Peggy Platt, D.J. Gommels, Michael Oaks. Now through December 24 at Theatre Off Jackson.
I LOOOOOVE The Carol Burnett Show from the Seventies and I rather pity you youngun’s who didn’t get to experience the joys of Carol, Harvey, Tim and Vicki in its original broadcast and the comedy gold they spun for 11 years including the original classic “Eunice” sketches. (yes, I know…many of you have seen the reruns or the Guthy Renker DVD’s or found her on YouTube. Carol Burnett fans come in all ages and forms.) And, it’s very obvious from their writing/performing styles that Lisa Koch and Peggy Platt are charter members of the Carol Fan Club. The duo, who have performed as comedy team Dos Fallopia for 20 years and “Hammin” it up for ten, are the right age and have the same comedic mindset as the cast of the Burnett show. It’s classic, relatively clean-ish, sketch comedy with an emphasis on satirizing pop culture and totally unafraid to “ham” it up with a little classic vaudeville schtick. It’s dated, but it’s still fun to see that style at the dawn of the second decade of the third millennium, and while every joke or premise doesn’t always work, it’s still fun to see them try. The 10th installment of “Ham for the Holidays” is corny fun, even when some of the jokes fall a bit flat…both Ms Koch and Ms Platt are natural born comediennes and it’s a joy to watch them in action.
There’s a lot of action in this “Ham”. We get five sketches spread over two acts and with an intermission the show ran about 2 1/2 hours, (frankly, it could have used a little trimming). Act One opens with “Mud” a sketch featuring Koch and Platt as militant lesbian/eco hippies trying to peddle a new enviro friendly car. I won’t spoil the joke but things do get a little “poopy” in this sketch. It was amusing, but slight, and a little longer than it needed to be. I give it a “B”.
The second sketch, “Deck the Pauls” was a variety show stand by: the game show spoof, with this version aping the old seventies show, Match Game. The premise: Host Paul McCartney (Koch) and panelists RuPaul, annoying politician Rand Paul, and an out of it, Paula Abdul (Platt) try to stump the two audience members acting as the contestants. The winning contestant gets to “deck” one of the Pauls. The premise was a bit hokey, but the sketch itself worked due to Ms Koch’s spirited improvs with the real audience members, both of whom were quite nervous but it led to some funny moments. I didn’t care for the premise but I liked the improv, so this sketch is going to get a “B-“.
The final sketch of the act was a parody of Glee that was mashed up with Night of the Living Dead. OK, I know Glee is a hot show, but it’s rapidly burning its way through the Pop Culture stratosphere and frankly, I’m already tired of everyone jumping on the Glee bandwagon. It’s very “early 2010” and it’s time to move on to new Hot Trends. That being said, the “Ham” cast did have fun with this parody, with most of the quartet playing multiple Glee characters and Koch especially good as Sue Sylvester/Jane Lynch and Platt having a good time channeling her inner Lea Michele. The song parodies were cute, but the whole thing was a bit too obvious for my taste. This is also getting a “B-“.
Act Two opens with the return of “Ham’s” popular sketch, “The Sequim Gay Men’s Chorus”. For those of you new to the area, the joke here is, that Sequim, a tiny town on the Olympic Peninsula famous for its rain shadow/sunlight and large number of retirees, even HAS a gay, male choral group. (It’s only 4 people). In this installment, we learn that one of the two couples in the group has broken up, and one of the new singles is now living in a menage et trois with the other couple and things are tense within the group. It’s a cute bit, with a clever parody of Lady Gaga’s hits and I liked it. It was also the only sketch that felt like it was the right length; it didn’t feel too extended and drawn out. I’m giving this one an “A-“.
And, the big finale of the night also brought back a recurring sketch. “The Spudds” a take-off on the real life mother-daughter country duo, The Judds, features Koch as the “straight man” to Platt’s larger than life, greedy, dumb Mama. In this installment, The Spudds are low on cash, and Mama, desperate for both money and a chance to jumpstart her career, stages a fundraiser for the duo at the local Grange Hall that features Mama as Cleopatra in her special version of the classic film Spartacus, that she’s retitled “Spuddicus”. Mama Spudd is a big, broad, Southern fried, hambone and Ms Platt plays her to the hilt and devours every inch of scenery. The sketch is ridiculous, it goes on a bit long and it’s aimless and a bit sloppy, but it’s also funny as hell. (And, Ms Koch, who tends to under play her characters, and has a cooler, drier sense of humor and performance style, is also very funny as the put upon daughter. Koch and Platt are an excellent comedy team, each performer complementing the other.) It’s ragged, but it’s a hoot. I have give this one an “A”, just based on hilarity.
Who’s this for? It’s an old school comedy show. If you’re looking for naughtier, edgier, or more perverse comedy, this probably isn’t for you. Die hard Carol Burnett Show fans, will eat this up. I love Carol and I was happy to eat this Ham.
– Michael Strangeways
