Are you in the mood for a movie? KPBS film critic Beth Accomando has a recommendation for an action film that’s free but it’s in a bar and all the roles are read by comedians. CLIP Interior… Whistle Stop Bar… night… Ryan Hicks had an idea: take a classic action movie script and do a live table read with stand up comics. RYAN HICKS: If you pick the right script -- the three films we’ve done Die Hard, Top Gun and Back to the Future -- some of the comedic elements are there on purpose but some aren’t. If you get the right comics to do the right kind of read, you can really find comedy gold in there. Hicks and his company A Modern Profession will be mining for gold in Terminator 2 tomorrow night at the Whistle Stop. The read will be accompanied by music, video, and even special effects. So come with me if you want to live, I mean laugh. Beth Accomando, KPBS News.
Are you in the mood for a movie? How about an action film that’s free but in a bar with all the roles read by comedians? Get ready for "Tabled: Terminator 2."
A voice in the dark at the front of the bar reads: "Interior… Whistle Stop Bar… night…"
So begins each edition of A Modern Profession's "Tabled."
"Tabled" is the creation of Ryan Hicks. He had an idea: take a classic action movie script and do a live table read with stand-up comics.
"If you pick the right script — the three films we’ve done 'Die Hard,' 'Top Gun' and 'Back to the Future' — some of the comedic elements are there on purpose but some aren’t," Hicks said. "If you get the right comics to do the right kind of read, you can really find comedy gold in there."
Hicks and his company A Modern Profession will be mining for gold in "Terminator 2," the next action film they have selected for comic assault. But Hicks said it's not just a bunch of folks sitting around reading.
"We also incorporate audio visual elements to make the production more exciting for the audience," Hicks said. "While the comics are reading the parts of the script we also have a giant projector of still images from the movie that are accompanying their reading. So whenever a comic is reading a character, you see that character from that scene behind them on the big screen. We also have the score and the soundtrack and some special effects playing through the speakers at the same time to make it as exciting as possible when it’s just people reading."
It takes a lot of work to put the show together. Hicks and a creative partner need to select a script, edit the script (which includes researching out older versions to find scenes that did not make the final cut), and figure out how to re-imagine the film for the show.
"What’s really great again is the twist we can give on the original character or the original scene or original idea," Hicks said. "In certain cases I will go directly into a more traditional interpretation of a character but there have been other cases where we will have a woman read a man’s role, we will have someone from a different age group or race read, it really adds to the fun of the show."
"Tabled: Terminator 2" starts at 8 p.m. at the Whistle Stop Bar. So come with me if you want to live, I mean laugh.
