As you’re probably aware, the movie that was to be riffed this evening was WAR OF THE INSECTS. This was actually an alternate title and the film still retained its original title card of GENOCIDE. Both titles make sense (sort of) after you watch the picture.
Rather than write a lengthy report, I’ll just let the captions for the following pictures tell the night’s story. But there was one bit of good news worth noting: even with this down economy, the attendance for this year’s show beat last year’s…by one ticket. Good job, CT and Family Arena!
As always, if you attended the show please feel free to share your thoughts about it in the comments section.
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- The Family Arena welcomes Cinematic Titanic
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- The calm before the storm
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- Josh and Grube oversee the stage setup
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- The Family Arena, ladies and gentlemen
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- The movie reminds the crew of the time
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- The movie is amused by this whole “Cinematic Titanic” business
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- Ladies and gentlemen, WAR OF THE… Ummm, GENOCIDE!
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- It’s GENOCIDE! GENOCIDE! (This makes sense after you see the film)
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- The soundcheck begins
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- Joel, Trace and Mary Jo
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- Josh and Frank
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- It kind of makes you feel insignificant, doesn’t it?
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- Grube sets up for his check
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- Josh joins in on bass
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- Frank makes it a trio…
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- …and becomes Convoluted Man!
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- Showtime! The crowd behind me.
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- Back, and to the left.
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- And to the right
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- Gruber introduces Mary Jo
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- Mary Jo introduces Gruber
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- Gruber does a little light reading
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- Highlights Magazine has changed over the years
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- RAD joins the show
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- Rock and roll!
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- Trace joins Grube
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- Trace is underwhelmed to be there (it’s part of the act)
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- Josh as a washed-up rock star
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- And a whiny one at that
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- "RAD Ron" models the latest CT merchandise
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- You look fabulous, darling!
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- Grube and Josh perform a musical number
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- Josh is relaxed on bass
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- The Grube keeps it mellow
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- Frank provides some topical humor…
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- …and becomes Convoluted Man!
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- Joel takes the stage
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- And reads this year’s attendance figures. We’re Number One…more than last year’s figures.
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- Joel, Trace and Mary Jo riff the movie
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- So do Frank and Josh
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- Spotlight on Frank and Josh
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- Spotlight on Joel, Trace and Mary Jo
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- The movie graphically portrays the audience’s feelings about it
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- The end. Or is it?
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- In case you were thinking of sitting here
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- Waiting for the crowd
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- There they are!
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- And even more of the crowd
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- The line continues around the corner to the right and stretches back into the arena
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- RAD sells 8×10 photos, posters and DVDs
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- Trace and Josh
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- Frank prepares to sign a photo
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- Satellite News is always delighted to feature Mary Jo Pehl.
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- Joel’s always good with kids
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- Josh signs a DVD cover
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- The line comes to an end
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- Congratulations on a job well done, RAD and Grube. Goodnight, St. Louis!
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Thanks for sharing these. I wish I could have gone. I am such a huge MST3K fan. Now I’m catching up on Rifftrax.
NOTES:
Josh and Trace switched sides of the stage.
Gruber’s “Highlights For Children” bit was hysterical — one of the best things I’ve ever seen him do.
Everybody there was so lucky to be able to be the first audience to see them do this film! Congrats!
EXPLANATION: I was not there — I saw Highlights in Chicago their last time through.
Great pics! Thanks so much for the report. Looks like a great show.
Great pictures! I was there last night and I think I may have seen you taking them during the meet and greet (I assume you were the one with the really nice camera and flash moving throughout the line taking pictures of them signing things).
I had a great time. It was all pretty hilarious and the movie was definitely bizarre. Made me wish my hands were more absorbent.
I asked Joel afterwards if they were going to come back again next year. While I obviously didn’t get a definitive answer, he said both parties (CT and Family Arena) were really happy with how everything has gone both times so it’s certainly a possibility.
I got to be a part of the Q&A session at the Tivoli Theater the previous night. Everyone from CT was great fun to talk with. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the live riffing on Saturday.
My brother and I were at last nights performance and it was great as usual. However, I think they missed an opportunity to riff on the fact that the actor playing Charly, the bug phobic guy, looked a lot like actor Reginald Van Johnson from ‘Family Matters’. I would’ve liked to hear them make a reference like “I’m being killed by poisonous insects, but at least that Urkel kid isn’t annoying the crap out of me!”
I was also hoping to meet you Erhardt. I was the guy last year who had brought the model of the SOL. I would’ve liked to swap stories with you.
Last night was so much fun! The show was great. The pre-movie stuff with Gruber and members of CT was hilarious and the movie jokes were so entertaining. To me, the movie itself was kind of a cross between “Mighty Jack”, “Fugitive Alien”, “Phase IV” and “The Deadly Bees”. Also, as always, it was an honor to get to meet this group of people who have brought so much joy and laughter into my life for so many years. Thanks to everyone involved for putting on another great show!
:mrgreen: Show was AWESOME!!! If you weren’t there, you missed a great show. I love they always riff a movie we haven’t seen before. :mrgreen:
The show was great as far as the movies goes. The riffing was funny and I really enjoyed it. If they do this again at the same place I suggest sitting back, not on the floor. Sit in the bleachers, because they were the most uncomfortable chairs I have ever sat in. It was also really hot down there. The seats were so close together that it just kinda sucked, I would not want to sit there again. It was awesome to see a live show but that venue was just rough. It kind of hindered my experience of the whole event. Overall good show.
Thanks for all the wonderful pictures! The event was a blast! Great to see you again, Erhardt!
I was in attendance and it was hilarious and great to see everyone in person as this is the first event I’ve ever been able to attend.
What made the night great for me were the seats. The tickets were my wife’s wedding gift to me but we didn’t know where they were until we picked them up at will call. We were in the front row!! I was very excited.
Great show, the riffing was extremely funny. Only thing I’d like to have seen was more from the CT crowd on stage. I realize they probably haven’t done alot of standup in a long time, but that would be a great addition.
:cry: I was not there and that’s real “deep hurting”
Thank you so much for posting these! This was my second trip to see CT Live (the other being in September at the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago), and I had an absolute blast.
That is MY ARM extending a picture to Frank Coniff there in the autograph line, by the way. No Big Deal.
The entire Cinematic Titanic cast are such sweet, open people, but I still manage to become completely tongue-tied when it comes to meeting them! Everyone takes their time in the autograph line, so you have a nice chunk of time to stand and stare at them and/or squeal. I do both, and it turns out I can go on awkwardly for about 5 minutes. I worry about becoming “a known nuisance” (not really).
(well, maybe..)
My husband and I loved the show (he’s in one of your audience shots)! It was so cool to see them riff the movie live for the first time — you could tell they were working out a few kinks, but that kind of made it better somehow. I loved Frank’s spit-take.
We love the Family Arena for having them there (the event coordinator is a big MSTIE) but man alive I had forgotten how painful the seating is. I understand packing folks in to maximize seating, but , no offense meant because I am one, but MSTIEs are generally larger folks and all of us Americans are getting bigger all the time. Give us some breathing room next year please?
This was my first Cinematic Titanic experience and it totally lived up to my expectations. My wife, who wasn’t an MST3K fan, also enjoyed it quite a bit. I guess being able to give her undivided attention as opposed to watching MST3K at home where there could be numerous distractions, helped her to appreciate the humor. Hope there’s a return perfomance next year.
Only one question though: Why was the merchandise only sold after the show and only in the line for the meet and greet? I wouldv’e loved to pickup a couple of DVD’s, but didn’t have the time to wait in the line.
Wow! Mary Jo is smokin’!
A superb night for one and all at the Family Arena. Dave “Gruber” Allen did a great job of warming up the crowd with the help of Mary Jo, Josh, Trace, Frank and RAD.
The film “War of the Insects” (originally released as “Genocide”) was a clean, Cinemascope print with dialogue out of synch–so what else is new? The comments by the Titans came and furiously (it was really hard to tell that it was the first time they had performed it in public). I did notice that every time a joke got a great response Joel would look at Josh and Frank and nod his head, as if to say “That one stays in.” But when a joke bombed he would just laugh. During the film one of the female characters announced she was pregnant and Frank delivered a spit- take that would have made Danny Thomas proud. All in all a wonderful night. Oh and thanks to Erhardt for the photos, for the second year in a row my wife and I are in the crowd pictures posted above.
I wish I could have been there! I really want to see them riff this movie!
They need to come back to Minneapolis. Or Des Moines. Come to Des Moines.
I’ve got some additional pics up from the show at ReviewSTL.com.
This show was the first time I had the chance to check out CT, and it was great! I would recommend to everyone!
Thanks for the great show everyone! And if you haven’t gotten to read the Q&A we did with Joel, you can catch it at the site.
I second the Des Moines request, we must both live in the Big, uh, City.
I was there and the show was terrific! I noticed, too that they switched Josh and Trace, I wonder why?
My favorite part was that even though I’m sure they’ve rehearsed this one, every now and then (actually more often than you might think) someone would deliver a line that would get a huge laugh from the other riffers. And I loved when someone said something that got a groan from the crowd, the other riffers would chastise them, generally this resulted in lots of “Mary Jo!”
I enjoyed the show immensely and appreciated the infectious laughter that comes with a large viewing audience. There was one thing that irked me though. There were three truss lights that were hanging within the shot of the projector. It didn’t affect the movie too much since the shadows mostly fell within the black area of the letterbox format but you can really see them in image 44. Since I work as a stagehand I may have been the only one there who was even remotely bothered by this but obviously you don’t want objects blocking your projection.