Torgo!

Last night’s Shadowbox Cabaret show with Mike Nelson was a blast! Mike is a very, very funny guy. He was only in a couple of the skits, but it was clear that his presence strongly influenced the rest of the troupe for the night.

Three brief highlights: After intermissions Mike announced that he’d brought with him some of the worst movies ever made – ones so bad that even MST3K couldn’t air them! And it was to be our special treat that he’d give us a sample of how bad they were, along with some of the jokes that they’d never have been allowed to use. First up was the opening scene from Taxi Driver, to which Mike quipped “Filmed in Fog-O-Vision. Gee, the camera man really needs to stop smoking!” Cut to the famous “You talkin’ to me?” scene, which Mike played off of pretty well. Next was Midnight Cowboy. Mike wrapped it up with a few scenes from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

In Mike’s last skit, a faux radio drama called “Doctor Mystery”, about an action hero scientist, one of the other cast members played Dr. Mystery’s henchman / sidekick, named “Viggo”. Toward the end of the skit, Mike said “Come along, Torgo!”, which brougth howls of laughter from the audience. As Carina later said to Mike, that joke alone made it worth having watched Manos, Hands of Fate. The movie is absolutely abysmal – do yourself the favor of not watching it.

Finally, the evening closed with Mike perfroming a song called ‘Sci Fi Girl”. He had a terrific singing voice, and the song was, of course, full of typical Mike humor (“You’ll beat up Ripley in a fight!"). It was a really enjoyable song in its own right, and also laugh-out-loud funny.

Carina and I had a really great time. If you ever get the chance to see Mike Nelson doing anything, I strongly encourage you to go!