(I put in all the names of the cast because I know some of you are going to google yourselves and see who's talking about you and the show. ;p )
I went twice - Thursday night, I had my anxiety attack and got emotional; Saturday night, I went and appreciated the show again.
Stage highlights for me? Billy The Tallest Kindergartner In The World (a one joke sketch that doesn't overstay its welcome); The Joke Shop Sketch (deconstructural humour at its best); Crime After Crime (a very funny and beautiful ballet); The Garden Of Eden; Pride And Bias (a Jane Austen-ish period drama scene breaks the fourth wall until the whole house comes down).
A sketch about a solicitor getting dumped by his clients didn't work as well on Thursday night, but was fantastic on Saturday night.
Low point? The staff sketch was poorly and hastily written in my opinion - it was akin to Meet The Spartans and Epic Movie in the sense that there was no plot, no story, no forward momentum, just a parade of impressions of staff saying who they are - "I'm ... " - "Hey everyone, it's ... !" - "Harrrrooo... I'm .... ". You may as well have had them come out, say their name, they get them kicked in the balls, or run over by a bus. The lack of plot made it seem nastier than usual. But I liked the gentle ribbing of Russ Hinchy's way of telling students to write things down and then suddenly change his mind and "just listen". That was cute.
It was probably the most self-referential revue I'd been to - with injokes, references to past shows. After one sketch where this ran rampant, someone behind me exclaimed quite loudly "I don't get it!"
The choreography was excellent (well done Ev), particularly in Crime After Crime and a reworded version of Feist's 1,2,3,4. Sound issues meant a lot of the lyrics for the faster and/or louder songs were not always clear e.g. Fall Out Boy's Thanks For The Memories (Thanks For The LLB), Mamma Mia (My Career), a Girl Band Medley. I was humming Mika's Happy Ending (Revue Is Ending/SWOTVAC's Pending) for two days after - a very sweet and vocally impressive finale.
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And then the videos...
Now, I did the videos for the show for three years, and they were pretty successful, both at the show and on YouTube. I got a job or two out of it. I was the Revue Video Guy. I got a rep. This year, Ryan Van Dijk took over. I met Ryan at Tropfest this year, he'd auditioned for the show a few years back, now he was a fifth year law student who made short films in his spare time. He did a quite funny Tropfest entry called "Right Hand Man" which I saw and laughed at - I told Jo to get in touch with him, he could be useful.
The predominant reason I had an anxiety attack Thursday night was because I was floored by how good they were.
Ryan and his brother Shaun (co-director) knocked it out of the park. Armed with a six grand camera and a Mac to edit on, Ryan produced some very slickly planned, shot and edited videos that ranged from the gutbusting hilarious to the subtle and quite sweet. It convinced me I need to get a better camera. I'm shopping this week.
Massive congrats to Ryan - from one revue video director to the next, I feel like the torch has been passed now. I have closure. :)
Ryan's started posting the videos on line (in both standard and high definition). I'll post the links as they come online...
- The Lady In Red - this and Ibises were the two standouts for me
- Ibises Stole My Pie - I wanted to film this last year but ran out of time, I'm so happy it finally got done and people flipped for it
- UQLS Suggestion Box
- Staff Puns
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So yeah - that was my first revue back that I wasn't involved with. It was a fantastic two nights out. A suitable mix of laughter, regret and a little bit of judgment. It was a shame that, unlike last year, there wasn't one big ex-revue group going to sit in the audience - just another indication of the passage of time. I hope this group of revue kids keeps on doing it for some time.
It makes you again wonder why people want to be lawyers, when they could be doing this. :)
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