Paranormal Stupidity
Paranormal Stupidity
By Brian Flaherty
Directed by Joel Warren
Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, Red Venue</strong>
Who ya gonna call? Not this crew of horny, drunk Ghostbusters. Nick (Brain Flaherty) drags his crew of spirit chasers into the house of feared confederate General Thomas Armstrong, a man who killed a few union soldiers and most of his family. Using a branch of stage physics only available to ghost hunters, all active ghosts emit radio waves that can be detected on iPhone. That whole transparent wavering bed sheet thing is SO 1962. These guys and gals are well equipped with wacky theories, modern electronics and a case of Yingling and no possible observation does NOT indicate paranormal activity. Still they come up empty handed until the ghost is turned on by Tara’s (Savanah Simerly) sex rays. Brad (Joel Warren) has a better idea: film a cell phone porn flick. They’ve got two gals and three guys and that gives you enough for a “Shaman’s Delight” which I’ll let you Google that one. If there is a ghost it manifests itself through Coleen (Lauryn Ford) and at that point, I think the script got scared and ran away to hide. All that remains is a silly, slightly disorganized comedy that packed with gags that occasionally work and keep the audience giggling. The WHY of the story is less organized, people enter and leave arbitrarily, romances are made and broken on whims, and what plot there is serves mostly to give the gags a place to roost. This is a light weight piece with an improv skit feel to it, although it’s done with decent timing and lots of beers on stage. See if you can beg one before the preshow announce rolls.
This commentary was based on a technical rehearsal.
This production is part of the 2014 Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Information on tickets and show times may be found at http://OrlandoFringe.org/
