Seth and Ed's Puppet Talk Show

(I'm kinda rusty ... haven't written in a while. Apologies to the show, which deserves a fantastic write-up.) 

After spotting the date for Seth & Ed's Puppet Talk Show on the UCB Theatre site in August, I sent out a (half-joking) "hey, what about a road trip?" email to a few friends and kinda dismissed it. A month later, I was on a solo mission to L.A. on one of the hottest effing weekends in recent memory. The 12 hour round trip adventure? Totally worth it.

To begin, the name of the show is basically the description of the show. Seth and Ed, with puppets behind a curtain, host their own talk show, as their puppet selves, wherein they discuss whatever's on their minds that particular moment. Then a special guest comes to the stage (as themselves, not a puppet) for a bit of standup. Then said special guest joins Seth and Ed behind the curtain, with a puppet, and the three talk, as puppets. That guest leaves, Seth and Ed (as puppets) chat some more. A second special guest performs. And so on.

I'm describing it accurately, but I'm doing a s*#t job describing it adequately. The important thing to say is that it was hilarious, and charming, and the hosts are smart and quick, and I giggled (and occasionally guffawed inappropriately and had to cover my mouth) for a little less than 2 hours.

It's a fantastically intimate setting. The capacity of the UCB Theatre is a little less than 100, making the fact that the puppets are projected onto a screen almost unnecessary. I liken it to watching some pals put together a show in the garage, if Seth and Ed are your pals, and you have a garage. (I can only claim the latter.)

Seth and Ed chatted it up, with Ed puppet coming out the gate about Rep. John Boehner's insistence that he doesn't spend any time tanning. (Shout out, Buckeye state.) Somehow, it evolved into a discussion about the outrageousness of Japanese game shows and Japanese porn. At one point, Seth made a reference to Kurasawa films, which elicited a laugh from about 5 of us, after which Seth puppet turned to the audience and said, "Thank you, smart people." (hee.)

The first special guest was Sean Conroy, who looks nothing like the photo to which I just linked, but I'm working with what I've got. Anyway, dude's funny. He shared some tales of his dermatologist and his mole photo albums, and other stories of his visits to his dental office, which has a sketchy collection of films he can watch while in the chair. Summation: Sean Conroy has some really questionable doctors.

After Sean departed, Seth and Ed puppets introduced the second special guest, Craig Robinson. For those speculating at home, he is that cool. Craig strode out onto the stage with a half-filled black trash bag tossed over his shoulder, like a Santa with gifts or a killer carrying around dismembered body parts. (Choose your own adventure.) He put the bag down, and began to walk around the stage, sans mic, just telling stories at random, while most of us (I think) were all wondering what was in the bag and if he realized he was on stage.

He finished chatting with us, picked up the bag, and made his way back around to the puppet stage. A wave of laughter broke out from Seth, Ed, and the group who could see the back of the stage, and a few moments later, an impossibly large, freakishly realistic puppet was being forced through the small puppet stage. It was so big, that it didn't actually fit through, so it looked to us like a big puppet head on some legs wearing nice church shoes. (Mystery of the bag contents = solved.)

I was pretty doomed for the rest of the show, because I couldn't even look at the Craig puppet without laughing. So, as a bonus, the Seth & Ed Puppet Talk Show is also a good ab workout.

Some other highlights:

• Seth was quizzing Ed about some article he'd read about hybrid animals, having Ed guess the name of the animal. A few animals in, it was apparent that all you needed to do was just combine the names of the animals, making for a less than exciting game. But then Ed started referring to the wolphin (whale + dolphin) as "Dale," like he was a bully in a school yard, throwing insults. “Hey Dale! Your mom is hanging out with the humpbacks!”"Hey, Dale! Your dad went down on a dolphin!" It was completely random, and completely hilarious.
• Craig revealed he'd special ordered his puppet from some guy in Maryland as soon as they'd finalized his puppet show date. He said he kept responding to the puppet mock-ups, telling the guy to "make the eyes deeper."
• The discussion of Craig's puppet segued to the creation of The Office bobbleheads. Apparently, the cast got approval on them (though Ed speculated the first sketches were created by 2nd graders.) He revealed that the first attempt at Phyllis' bobblehead looked just like Bruce Villanch. Which, that ain't right. (That was one of the times I laughed a little too loud and paid penance by covering my mouth with my hand.)
• Craig revealed that he once played the Tin Man in a school production of The Wiz. This led to Ed (with Craig eventually joining in) singing a rendition of "Ease on Down the Road." Have you ever had a dream fulfilled that you didn't even know you had?  I think Ed Helms singing songs from The Wiz is one of those for me.

Bonus feature: We ran into Craig Robinson on the sidewalk after the show while he was waiting for his car. I was still in my post-puppet glow, so my shyness wasn't present and I excitedly approached him with, “Your puppet is AMAZING.” He was kind enough to chat for a bit, and pose with his (not so) little friend.