Who hasn’t heard of “The Have Nots!” ??? Its seems they are everywhere…including all over this year’s festival, calling their shows “Piccolo Fringe” and “Piccolo Cheap Laughs”. Last night I got to see the latter in the last running of “Big Dicktionary” (” Stars Bar”; American Theatre) put on by funny men Timmy Finch and John Brennan, who not only hung out greeting every single audience member as they strode past with their tickets and beer in hand, but afterwards offered up an invite to anyone interested in drinking with them (”So…uh…we like to drink…“).

Sitting on a plush over sized blue couch with their comrade, fellow “Have Not”, Andy, and “Have Not in Training”, Meaghan, I realized how much of a family these guys really are. It isn’t all about the laughs. Its about performing, learning from, and supporting the whole troupe.

“Big Dicktionary”, I learned quickly, was entitled as so because the entire show was based on words randomly selected from a (guess?) big dictionary. Ahem, and please note the spelling. I was simply amazed at how two people could keep an audience in an uproar over the words (in order) Physiological Psychology, Quasar, and Emissary.

Favorite quotes:

“I was down at Eric Clapton’s place in Jamaica where its okay to smoke reefer…just as long as it’s not heroine.”

“Here at Outback we offer the ‘Dingo’ (drink)…it’ll kill your baby.”

A theme throughout the entire show was the significant discovery of the irreversible ailment caused by drinking “Dingos”: Thinking Through Your Thighs (which also in turn causes talking through them as well). Don’t ask…I wouldn’t do it justice.

Best parts?

Eight people arriving late, being put on the spot, having imaginary roses strewn at their feet, and watching Timmy and John recount for them the entire show thus far…in fast-forward (it involved several fabulous impressions of the space monkey who’s head exploded and later was transfered through a telescope, “Coco”)

A standing ovation and the “first ever experienced” improv encore for Timmy and John, rightly deserved because I think they possibly played 15 different characters each, interchangeably, and with great gusto.

If you can’t fit in any laughs in the remaining few days of Piccolo, don’t forget that Theatre 99 regularly hosts improv. Check them out at: www.thehavenots.com

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 12:40 pm and is filed under Festival humor, Performers, Piccolo Fringe.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.