Cranston Cup: Theatresports Grand Final

Cranston Cup: Theatresports Grand Final

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Posted 2013-12-04 by Erica Enriquezfollow

Sat 30 Nov 2013

I've seen a lot of comedy shows and acts in my time, and the 2013 Theatresports Cranston Cup Grand Final , held at the Enmore Theatre on Saturday, 30th November, was one of the funniest nights of comedy I've witnessed in ages.

For the uninitiated, The Cranston Cup Grand Final was the culmination of two months of gruelling, no-holds-barred rounds of improvised comedy played out for the Theatresports competition. Think Thank God You're Here or Who's Line Is It Anyway, but funnier because it's live and YOU get to make suggestions from the audience. Teams compete against each other to make it through to the next stage of the competition, facing challenges as directed by a referee (Marko) and the audience. Hosted by Jim Fishwick, the night was crazy, it was fast-paced, but it was always entertaining.



The Grand Final Event started with two rookie teams, The Browntown Three and Kavalier, battling it out for the Junior Cup. Kind of like watching the undercard event before the main event, to use a reference from the ever-graceful sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Challenges in their rounds included Talk and Touch (you couldn't begin talking until someone on your team touched you) and Time Travel (where the referee would give you a period in time to start from, and then jump backwards and forwards in time so that you were constantly trying to keep the scene intact whilst also blowing your brains out trying to remember what exactly happened 5 years before the French Revolution, and how you would keep this storyline going in the present day). At the end of this portion of the night, the judges decided they were an even tie, and both teams won the Junior Cup.

Then the Main Event, the battle for the Cranston Cup, begun. Four teams competed in the Cranston Cup Final this year, and by the time they started their competition, the audience was geared up for an amazing night of comedy. The four final teams, Yay! It's Pat Magee and Friends, Middle Rage, Bridie of Frankensteen and Hans and Otto, were equally hilarious and interpreted the referee's suggestions and challenges so well, it made me jealous. Who wouldn't want to be that quick-witted and entertaining! Highlights from the main rounds included:

The Spanish Soap Opera round performed by Bridie of Frankensteen, where Bridie Connell and Steen Raskopoulos played characters from a telenovella. She played a woman cheating on her husband with his twin brother, and he played both the husband and the twin brother. High melodrama, many flicks of the head and then a rather entertaining portrayal of two characters by the one man took place.

A brave young audience member willingly giving up her phone to Lisa Ricketts from Yay! It's Pat Magee and Friends so that the contents of her text messages could be used for lines in their scene. It's as horrifying and hilarious as it sounds. Imagine you are a 20-something year old girl with text message conversations stored on your phone between yourself and your best friend. Imagine the content of those messages, everything from dates to general girl talk. Imagine them onstage, read out in front of a packed theatre, Cringing yet? I cringed and laughed the whole way through.



Middle Rage (Dave Bloustien, David Callan & Scott Hall-Watson) – the name alone deserves some sort of award! This group was high energy, in it to win it, and man can they (pretend) skate!

Hans and Otto (Edan Lacey and Nick O'Donnell), my favourite team this year, had me in hysterics, and that was before they even uttered a word. Dressed in black spandex – with hoods – they spoke with German accents and improvised scenes that included a rebirth (picture it!) and retelling a story involving a lost wallet using only one word at a time, per person. Lacey also won the night's award for Best Player of the Tournament.

In the end, it didn't matter who the winner of the Cranston Cup was to me, because it was such an entertaining event, but if you must know:

Middle Rage came in 4th place
Yay! It's Pat Magee and Friends came in 3rd place
Bridie of Frankensteen came in 2nd place
Hans and Otto came in 1st place



#comedy
#inner_west
#newtown
#theatre
#theatre -reviews
#theatres
#november
!date 30/11/2013 -- 30/11/2013
%wnsydney
216257 - 2023-06-16 07:24:31

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