It was a fun evening! The guys and MJ put on a terrific show and couldn’t have been nicer at the meet and greet. Legacy of Blood is my favorite on DVD so far and there were a lot of new jokes for this 1st time live riff.
Man, this movie is twisted but I love these kinds of movies anyway so this was right up my alley. Dave Allen Gruber was funny as well and Dana Gould was good, too. All in all, a great evening!

I think it’s remarkable that they hit all their lines without the benefit of seeing time code. Josh and Trace told me at the meet and greet that they practice to time code and memorize the lines that way. I do not begrudge them for using scripts for what is basically 90 minutes of material. That’s a lot of jokes and it’s not like they do just one movie over and over. I would need a script for sure!

They’re doing 5 different movies in L.A. alone, not to mention the others that they rotate into the lineup for other cities. No offense, but you seriously expect the Titans to have them all memorized? Bottom line: The presence of a script never hurt the funny back in the MST days, and it certainly doesn’t now.

Meadows: Yes, they did have scripts for the Rifftrax event.

Temple: I didn’t stick around, but I saw Gould as I left and it looked like he was staying for a while. The other warm up guys were also hanging.

Others: I did mention that I was nitpicking. But yes, I do find it both lazy and somewhat offputting that they’re standing there with scripts. One of the problems with CT is that their delivery is vastly more obviously scripted than MST ever was (not to say that they weren’t reading scripts on MST, just that the delivery of the jokes was much more natural.)

Tell me, how would you feel if you went to a play and the actors were using scripts? And they have vastly more lines than the CT guys do.

Do you guys mean to tell me that you couldn’t memorize the placement of 10 great jokes and simply work with another dozen or two as best as you can? Really?

Perhaps I’m just too demanding for my own good. It is certainly a criticism that has been leveled upon me before, but I am firm in my opinion that a less scripted feel to CT would be a vast, vast improvement.

Scripts or not I think these folks are just plain, darn funny. As long as they keep the funny coming they can present it however they like. Close captioning might be a little disruptive, but otherwise…

Just got back from the Monday night show, “Danger at Tiki Island.” I love Gruber as the warm-up, but this time he only did about 10 minutes of material. They brought out Andy-somebody who did almost 20 minutes of not-so-funny material.

Then came Joel who introduced the CT crew and they got right into the movie. It was a truly bad film and truly great jokes. I think seeing it live really does add to the flavor of what they’re doing. You could tell this cast really enjoys what they’re doing and they even cracked each other up on occasion. There were also some moments where they clammed up and let the audience laugh at the absurdity of what was happening on screen.

The meet and greet was great and much more formal than when I last saw them at the Ford Theater in ‘08. I was surprised more people didn’t stick around to greet them, but they seemed happy and pleased to meet everyone who stayed. I even got to talk informally with a few of them after the formal signing was over.

The only complaint I had is that the sound mix was a bit off. A few times I just couldn’t make out the riff over the sound of the film, especially when there was music in the soundtrack.

Regarding the script/no script controversy, speaking as an actor, a play is quite a different beast than what CT does. It is much, much easier to memorize a 2 hour play that has a plot, character development and structure than it would be to memorize a 90 minute, random, riffing script. It’s the difference between memorizing the balcony scene in Romeo & Juliet and in memorizing the 50 states and their capitals.

Actors in a play don’t carry a script around because you’re focused on what they’re doing and they’re trying to immerse you in the world of the play. With CT, the focus is mostly on the screen (although it is fun to watch them perform.)

And don’t forget that actors have plenty of rehearsal time to get that script memorized, usually a few weeks or months. While I’m sure the CT crew could put in that rehearsal time, that would leave them less time to work on new material.

So, bottom line, you can either have no scripts and less CT material or scripts and more new CT material. I vote for the latter.

Hi BG! Understand how you feel relative to script reading but it is simply not practical when trying to maintain quality in a multi-quantity enviorement. Besides these many different shows they are conducting at the moment, I am sure they are also working on future showa as well. I’m getting a migraine just thinking about keeping all these hundreds of wisecracks straight and timed! Lessser of the two evils my man.

Another thing to consider concerning scripts: there are five people there with 600+ jokes very specific to certain times in the movie. Memorization in this situation would be problematic. If one of them flubs, they could ruin the next person’s joke - or even the next ten jokes. What if they forget which line is theirs, and two people try to deliver the same line at the same time? With the scripts they can always get back on track, and reliably deliver the majority of the jokes the way they intended. I imagine having the script there also takes a lot of pressure off the performance, allowing them to relax and have fun with it. At the shows I attended they seemed to really enjoy themselves and that spilled over to the audience.

For me, their physical arrangement on stage - the separation - is what makes the delivery appear less natural than MST. We’re used to seeing them all sitting together. When I concentrate on watching the film rather than them, they sound just as natural as they ever did.

Boggy Geek, that would be A LOT of riffs to memorize and get the timing down pat for…and for 5 different 90-minute+ movies! No, I don’t mind that they have reference scripts in front of them (I’m naturally drawn to watching the movie anyway, not the CT performers), but I do agree with you that their delivery FEELS more scripted than MST3K did. I feel the same way about Rifftrax.

It astounds me that Joel, Trace, Mike, Bill, et al did MST3K so perfectly for years, but haven’t quite recaptured the casual “living room” feel of the show with their respective riffing ventures. Even though you knew the MST3K guys had probably seen the movie half a dozen times before they taped the episode, it really did seem like they were watching the movie for the first time, and the riffing was happening spontaneously. (Even with a script in front of them!) For me, neither CT or RT has duplicated that sense of the guys just putting their feet up and “having a go” at the movie. It all feels like their putting too much EFFORT into it, if that makes sense.

Strangely enough, the best riffers on CT in my opinion are the ones who were not regular riffers on MST3K: Frank, Mary Jo, and Josh (his one season as Servo not withstanding).

That said, they are all very funny, and I still love what they do, and I think they’ll get it right eventually. In fact, I’m going to the Wednesday AND Thursday night Largo shows, and really looking forward to them!

Can’t we just to the topic at hand,which is HOW WAS THE SHOW?? Instead of all this nit-picking and arguing? It would be nice for a change.Listen,if I wanted to,I could do the same thing,but that still wouldn’t matter because I LOVE the show!!! Script or no script,that is the question.As long as they’re funny and keep coming up with new jokes,then that’s all that matters to me.Didn’t anyone ever feel that The Film Crew wasn’t up to par and felt like they were repeating the same old jokes? I know I did,but I still supported them.Since MST3K is no longer on the air,then CT and Rifftrax is all we have,right?? Can’t we all just get along??

Wow..it sounds like fun…wish I could have been there

Another favorite moment was when two girls were splayed out on two wooden Xs…waiting for the monster to come for his sacrifice. The riff was something about how the new Dos Equis ad campaign wasn’t quite working. Too funny.

How could they name themselves after such a tragedy?!

Oops, wrong thread.

A great orchestra, with accomplished musicians, always has their sheet music in front of them when they perform. These guys are an orchestra. I saw “The Alien Factor” last night and it was funnier even than when my partner and I went to see them perform “The Doomsday Machine” last year. There was one thing in particular where I think Trace caught the rest of the Titans off-guard and cracked up everyone on stage and off. It was a wonderful spontaneous riff that I’ll remember always. I spoke with MJ afterwards and she said she was really happy with this one in particular. The folks signed autographs afterwards and as everyone has already said, they’re the nicest people to meet. They all signed my DVD cover of “The Oozing Skull” and I’m still in the afterglow!

I remember the Chevy Chase line, too. My boyfriend nearly choked with laughter. Wish I were going tonight but he’s got a work thing to go to.

I know that tour shirts exist for East Meets Watts, Alien Factor and Tikki Island because they were selling those in Philadelphia back in the summer tour.

I am still heaving nerd sighs. It was something to be surrounded by hardcore MSTies and watch The Alien Factor. It happened to have all my favorite elements - Thorazine-soaked acting, laughable monsters (3 of ‘em, they called the hairy one “Fauxbacca”), 70s beards/clothes/references, and a twitchy Moog soundtrack.

Joel came out and introduced the cast, and gave a very earnest thanks to everyone for “supporting Mystery Science all these years.” Faint.

Gruber was a GREAT warmup, too. Did a whole thing on how lyrics and jazz don’t mix. Amen.

Joel’s brother, Jim Hodgson, also promoted an upcoming event benefitting the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles, of which he is the Senior Director (http://www.dsala.org). These people are nonstop amazing.

It was beyond great to see the cast cracking each other up; at one moment Mary Jo would barely be holding it together, at another it’d be Frank. Josh really kicks ass with his line reads, but they all are awesome in their own ways.

Trace! Trace! Trace! There. I hadn’t mentioned him yet.

I stuck around for the signing stuff and have never felt so at ease doing something like that. The titans are as nice as you’d hope.
Oh, about shirts: I’m a lady, and planned to buy every shirt in Small and chew up the scenery with ‘em where ever I went. But they only had a Small of East Meets Watts. I was a little bummed, but that’ll happen when you like stuff with merch mostly geared towards guys. Am I right, ladies ? Kill me.

The synchronized spit take during East Meets Watts was one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. I missed a couple of the riffs after that because I was laughing so hard.