Frank: For me, performing to a packed house in my hometown, NYC, on Broadway no less, was a definite highlight.
Trace: After years of writing and performing in a little room, getting immediate feedback from a live audience is a great reward.
Mary Jo: For me, it was doing our first “official” live performance at the L.A. Film Festival in the John Ford Amphitheater. It was beautiful – albeit hot – night, and getting to do it live made me realize how it could all gel. Before that, I’d been operating in a vacuum on our studio DVDs. Getting that immediate reaction struck me to the core of my performer soul. Also, that whole weekend was wild because Roger Corman had pulled a cease and desist about 24 hours before we were to do the show. We’d been slated to do “Wasp Woman”, his horde of lawyers descended, and we were able to switch gears immediately. All very thrilling! I still have the emails from his legal team, sent to each and everyone of us.
Josh: I couldn’t narrow it down to one, so here’s my best memory of each year we’ve been doing live shows:
2008 – Our show at the John Anson Ford Amphitheater. I’d wanted to play this venue since I first moved to LA and saw Elvis Costello play there. I always thought I’d have to rent it out myself to make it a reality – this was much better. That night was a huge confidence booster for us – both from the really fun, sold-out show, and for our ability to handle the legal curveball thrown at us from Mr. Corman and his legal team.
2009 – The Pastrami at Kenny and Zuke’s Deli in Portland. I’m sorry, but of all the fun we had last year and all the cities we visited, that’s the memory I return to most often.
2010 – Our trip to New York was packed with fun memories: visiting MAD magazine and having them know who we are, appearing on Keith Olbermann’s show, playing a sold-out show on Broadway, and the look of sheer joy on Frank’s face as he ate a chopped liver sandwich at the Carnegie Deli.
Also, I’d like to thank Dave (Gruber) Allen for being there at all our live shows the last few years as our opening act. His presence has added mountains of joy and fun to the adventure that has been CT Live.Joel: I think some of my favorite moments were the special events we did for different
groups: such as our shows for Industrial Light and Magic, The USA Film Festival in Dallas, as well as performing at Pixar. These “out of the ordinary” events are a bit out of context as the expectation from the audience is never exactly clear – that is, until you’re right in the middle of it, also, at these demonstrations, it feels as if you’re being observed sort of academically: the audience is there to appreciate your craft as well as your ability to be funny. I like these events as they also include Q and A so you feel like you get to go a bit deeper with the audience explaining the story and hard work behind the making of a riff.
I have two most memorable moments from all the DVDs. From the live videos, the brilliant “group spit-take” in ‘East Meets Watts.’ Classic. For the studio titles I’m going to go with the first 15 minutes or so of “Doomsday Machine.” Some of the tightest, funniest riffing EVAH (in my humble opinion).
What would you pick?
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My favorite moment was CT’s first visit to San Francisco, when they did “East Meets Watts” (formerly The Dynamite Brothers) for the first time. When they did The Spittake Heard Round the World, that made it a special night. :mrgreen:
At the beginning of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians when Trace ran screaming from the group and they had to send security after him. Just a funny piece of physical comedy. :mrgreen:
As a team the infamous spit take is tops with me. As an indivisual riff there are two, both by Mary Jo. In The Alien Factor where Mary Jo does her “glug, glug, glug” is just pure and perfect riff. The other is the “that was quick even for you” riff. That is bullseye standing on one foot, shooting over your shoulder and blind folded. There are so many great riffs but these really stand out with me. Thanks to the whole team, you are are all doing a great job! ;-)
I’ll cite the gift-giving sequence for Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, where Joel pretends (among other things) that he’s getting Mary Jo a Tesla Roadster for Christmas. When she points out that there was a huge waiting list, Joel gets hilariously smug: “I made a few calls. I am Joel Hodgson, after all.”
I’m in full agreement with #2.
The moment in “Alien Factor”, where Trace is doing his voice of police officer Pete after he’s talked to Mary Jane at the station. He’s going on and on about his conversation “being a real live date”. Then, as Pete sits down and makes a face, Trace mumbles “Uh oh!”. The reaction of the other Titans as well as the audience makes it seem improvised, even though it was probably scripted.
On a side note, I’d just like to say that if CT continues to deliver with these live shows on DVD, I have no problem with them staying with that format. Great job guys!
Ditto with 2, I will never forget how much I laughed when Trace ran then got dragged in kicking and screaming.
Live DVDs are fun, especially when the audience laughs out loud. However, there’s something nostalgic about the studio DVDs, most likely the sillouettes and the thought that they may be being tortured by bad movies again. Whichever way they go, I guess I’ll be happy. Though I like to see their little studio plot go on so I can find out exactly what’s going on with their saving movies from that digital storage leak (or whatever it’s called, it’s been so long) so far.
Huh… I might have to find that pastrami Josh liked…
My most memorable moments came from the Portland show: Trace substituting “Torchlight parade” during the parade sequence in “Tiki Island” got a huge reaction (Portland’s Rose Festival parade was going on at exactly the same time as their show), and then getting Mary Jo to sign my copy of “I Lived With My Parents” afterwards.
Hmm, lots of good moments on the DVDs, I’ll have to watch one of my favorites over again to pick a favorite. Doomsday Machine is probably my favorite DVD episode so far. I do have a personal favorite moment from post live shows. In Oct. 2008 we flew to Minnesota to see CT live for the first time. We did the meet-and-greet after the show. In July 2009 we drove to Philly to see the two live shows there. At the first meet-and-greet Mary Jo actually remembered us and told my then 12-year-old son that he was “her favorite fan”. Really looking forward to the live show in D.C. next month and this time no long distance travel!
From DVD, definitely the group spit-take when Aldo Rey drops the “n-bomb” in “East Meets Watts”, especially the couple miss-fires in the moment.
Personally, meeting them all at hotel check-in in North Hampton. All at once was over-whelming, then they were cutting each other to shake our hands. Unbelievable in awesomeness, and how friendly they were! After that, chain-smoking with Josh in the parking lot. :cool:
Seeing the live showing of “Dynamite Brothers” (aka “East Meets Watts”) with my brother-in-law, meeting the riffers, and getting my “Doomsday Machine” DVD signed in Austin, TX.
As for riffs, the group spit-take in “East Meets Watts” and the “Uh Oh” in “The Alien Factor”.
I was at the USA FILM FESTIVAL Q&A and it was definitely a highlight. As to the actual jokes, either the crack Frank made about the Texas Schoolbook Depository at the Dallas show, or the group spit-take from the live EAST MEETS WEST in Austin. Brilliant stuff.
“Jackpot!” – Danger on Tiki Island. Just the very first of so many moments that spring to mind. Rock on, CT!
The New Years Eve show at the Keswick Theater in Philly.
Cramped into tiny theater seats for close to six hours and seeing 3 movies. Joel came out to begin the third movie after midnight and said “I can’t believe you people are still here!” I had a great time finally getting to see my favorites in person. The bummer was that because the show was so long that they did not have a meet & greet after the show. I don’t believe they have ever done a triple movie show anywhere else.
Number 3 and 6 you beat me to it!! :shock:
I agree with number 15 about number 3 and 6,too..How about when Joel does his Drake Unger bit in “The Alien Factor” when the girl is in the shot,then she’s gone and when she’s close up,then back again..
Spit take, obviously.
Trace running away when he hears they’ll be riffing “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”
Anything involving the blackfaced servants in “Blood of Vampires.”
My favorite individual riff has to be Josh’s in “East Meets Watts”: “Oh, ****. He just walked into a Journey video.”
Attending the outdoor Ford Amphitheater in 2008 was an outstanding experience with much jaw-aching laughter but it also offered a totally unexpected and most memorable surprise after the show. While I was heading out toward the parking lot, one of my daughters came bounding down the steps and drug me back up to the outer part of the venue where the Titans were casually strolling about among the remnant crowd under the stars, meeting, greeting, signing and posing for pics.
I didn’t want to bother *anybody* and was just floored to be within reach of any of them. As soon as I arrived, my wife introduced me to Mary Jo causing me to go straight into George Jetson, “I feel, I feel, I feel, I feel” mode. Another daughter was chatting with Joel who very sternly glared over at me and motioned with his index finger for me to get over to him RIGHT NOW! I thought I was in some kind of big trouble but then he broke out into a big grin and put his arm around my shoulder and posed for a picture. Meanwhile, my youngest daughter and Trace were in deep conversation about zombies. ?? A wonderful hot summer So Cal night never to be forgotten.
Through that experience, I introduced myself on the CT forum website that night in order to gush to anyone who might be interested about the unbelievably kind, gracious and humble way that these people treated everybody, going out of their way to make us all feel special. Over time, a bunch of us on the forum became quite close. Close enough that a good-sized group of us “centrally” met up from across the states at the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago, September 2009 to “officially” meet each other as well as to take in “Alien Factor” and “Danger On Tiki Island”.
Wonderful and talented are the writers and performers of MST3K/CT/Rifftrax/TimmyBigHands..etc. to be sure but I equally salute the caliber of the fans who follow them. SAAALUTE!
My favorite DVD moment – “They brought Stiffy Pop!”
My favorite thing overall – seeing how friendly they are at the live shows, especially Gruber and RAD.
Glad to hear that Josh liked Kenny & Zuke’s. Their pastrami is indeed fine. The next time the gang is here, maybe Josh can try Kornblatt’s, and see if he likes that as well.
Two from “East Meets Watts”: Frank’s “DON’T TOUCH THAT!” and Joel’s “Joel is the King of Internal Dialog” – I also love the “walked into a Journey video” – but I don’t know why I find it so funny. My wife and I never laughed as much as the July 2009 two shows in Philly. Alas, we cannot make next month’s DC show :sad:
I haven’t seen any CT DVDs yet :sad:
The show here in NYC earlier this summer (“Tiki Island”) was my first time to see them live and the whole evening was a highlight. From celebrity-spotting in the audience — Keith Olbermann slipping into his seat a few rows behind us just before the show started (“Hey, we have better seats than Keith Olbermann!”) and Jon Hodgman holding court after the show; realizing as the movie started that we actually owned the damn film as part of a John Ashley Filipino monster movie boxed set; then regretfully deciding to forego the meet & greet when we calculated that it would probably take us about 7 hours to get to the front of the line (it actually appeared that there were more people on the meet & greet line than could possibly have fit in the theater!); it didn’t matter it was all good.
But specifics? When the gang were making Zoom! and Vroooom! noises every time the little people were running around the screen, I thought I was going to choke on my own laughter.
Meeting them! A couple of times! (does that count?)
A picture of me and Joel on the first night of a show didn’t come out. We attended the next night’s performance and the line was again long, we were tired, and I thought: I’m not going to get that picture of me and Joel again. Anyway, we were hanging around the line and my girlfriend said, “wait a sec”, ran off, and came back with…Joel (who had stepped out for a second). Turning around and seeing a beaming Joel arm in arm with my girlfriend just about killed me. And he was kind enough to let us take the picture again. That and the other titans’ hospitality…especially Gruber who is just awesome.
Definitely the highlights for me were going to the live show in Boston (Somerville) and seeing “Dynamite Brothers aka East Meets Watts” and “Blood of the Vampires”, and meeting the Titans and Gruber and RAD (hi, RAD!), and getting “live” autographs (including a little drawing from Gruber)as opposed to just buying some from them online, and getting some pictures of them. I have to say they are a very friendly and patient group. :mrgreen:
Some fave lines from the DVD’s:
Not a line, really, but, of course the synchronized spit-take was great. (And kind of special for me, since, as many of us have come up with re-union shows in our heads :roll: , I always imagined in my Alternate Universe episode where the ending in Laser Blast didn’t quite cut it, I had Joel and Mike in an ep together – long before Soul Taker ever aired – and though I didn’t have a specific movie in mind, I always thought it would be fun if they did a synchronized spit-take of their own).
From “Blood of the Vampires”, when the priest says, “Adios, Eduardo”, Josh says, “San Diego, Padre.” :smile:
From “East Meets Watts”, when the girl gives the two fugitives a ride, Josh says, “This is how people get laws named after them.”
In “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”:
The scene where Trace tries to escape, of course.
Joel: “Some of us have seen this movie before.”
Josh: “Not me – HAH HAH.”
Frank: “Stop referring to this as a ‘film’.”
Joel: “You know, I remember it used to be hilarious that Pia Zadora was in this, but I can’t remember why.”
Trace: “I wonder if the wardrobe wife knows about the wadrobe mistress.”
There was a Mary Jo line from “Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks” that I thought was funny, but I’ll have to watch that again to get the wording. It was in the grave robbing scene, when after they’ve dug a body up, one of them swishes some dirt around, and Mary Jo says something to the effect of, “Now they’ll never know we were here.” Or something like that.
I’ll have to rewatch some eps for more. I haven’t watched these to death yet like MST3K, so I can’t really recite all these from memory yet. ;-)
Meeting the Titans for the first time in Seattle, and getting my Tom Servo signed. :D
The high points to date, as determined by a panel of totally impartial Russian judges bribed by me, are:
Legacy of Blood: a stellar outing. This was the first release that I think really shines from end to end.
Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks: When J. Elvis says, “Reminds me of my last day at MST,” I busted a gut and half. The reaction of the others makes that quip shine, a mix of genuine and almost embarrassed laughter.
Seeing Santa Claus Conquers the Martians live at the now defunct Lakeside Theater in Chicago.
All the live DVDs. I have watched the first two at least three times, Tiki Island twice. Everyone goes for the spit take as the best moment, but I have to go with Trace’s premature ejaculation joke. That floored me.
Randy
I’m with ety, the blackface moments during Blood of the Vampires comes off as made exclusively for future riffing. “Ay carumba! I mean…Yo, what’s up with this $#!+” especially.
For me, it has to be the first show I went to, the ones in Boston. Everything about it said, “This is right.”
For me, it was finding my seat at the CT show the USA Film Festival in Dallas and looking ahead a few rows ahead of us and seeing five empty seats. Then one in front of us said “Joel Hodgson” on the back with a script on a stand in front of it.
My favorite riff so far is Josh’s rambling dialogue as Goro crosses the field in Danger on Tiki Island.
The ultimate though was seeing my name in the credits in The Oozing Skull. Knowing I was getting to work with five very funny people who I have admired for a very long time.
My moment is strictly personal: It’s the first time I ever saw them live. It was “Santa Claus Conquers The Martians!”
I realized immediately that fans should see them live, and also realized that they are damn good performers — ESPECIALLY live!
Singing Happy Birthday to Joel on his 50th earlier this year in Milwaukee
As soon as I saw the headline, I knew mine and multiple people have said the same: spit take.
I haven’t bought any of the “live” DVDs so I don’t know what this alleged “spit take” is. And, honestly, I don’t think I care. Anyway, my favorite studio moment is Mary Jo going to pieces over why she can’t get any decent moisturizer. I can sympathize with that.
Spit take.
Fave riff: “Body by Charles Atlas, head by Mel Brooks.”
Fave host segment: Joel interupting Trace in Doomsday Machine. “I’m pretty much committed to the bit.”
Alien Factor: Those moments when the Titans, the audience, and myself had a hearty laugh at the horrible scenes with no riff required.
In St Charles, MO at the Family Arena when Joel and J Elvis signed my SOL model, completing all the major cast members signatures from MST3K on it. Now if Jim Mallon and Paul Chaplin would just visit the St Louis area…
Gotta go with the group spit take on “East meets Watts” too.
The live show I attended in June 2011, they riffed “Sampson and the Seven Miracles” (I think that was the title).
The riff that will always stick in my mind is, during the LONG, BORING, DRAWN-OUT Funeral scene, there was actually quietness amongst the Titans for a few moments, and then Mary Jo just blurts out, “Jeez, Michael jackson’s funeral didn’t take this long.” Half the audience cheered, half went, “OHHHHHHHHHH!” And, Mary sits there, looking out with this innocent, ‘What?” look.
I then got to tell mary Jo after the show, while they were signing autographs, that I thought it was funny. I didn’t care what anyone else’s opinions were.
It would have to be the San Francisco show from last year when I wound up stumbling into having a conversation with Trace and Joel about how to make a homemade Dr. F lab jacket.
Unfortunately my most memorable CT moment was when I got an email informing me that the show at the Grove at Anaheim had been canceled! :sad: Hopefully they will do another show in these parts soon.
My favorite event was definitely seeing them riff on
Dynamite BrothersEast Meets Watts in Boston. It edges out the other performance I’ve been to (Danger on Tiki Island, Northampton) solely by virtue of coming first.My favorite line comes from Mary Jo, riffing on the same movie: “Oh, I miss the word ‘honky’!” She delivers that line with a perfect mix of sarcasm and genuine nostalgia.
And my favorite visual comes from the same movie again: little man, HUGE desk!
Brandon (#38) — I hope you meant June 2010, or I’ve really lost track of time! :oops:
June 2010! D’oh! Sorry.
Mine was kind of a weekend-long affair here in Portland. My favorite line was from the Friday night show of “East Meets Watts”, from Mary Jo: “So, I’m guessing when she became a mute, her decorating skills weren’t heightened.” But most of it was the thrill of being in the fifth row (thanks to some usher who gave me a better ticket than my low-budget one) and seeing everyone up close (I even think Joel looked at me oddly after a particularly loud laugh). I didn’t stick around to get anything signed, though…
…because they were having a signing at Videorama Saturday afternoon. Catch was I didn’t have the car (my wife was at her crossstitch group), the store was in North Portland, and I live in Cedar Hills, so a longish MAX ride and then a longer bus ride. But everyone was there, very social, everyone signed everything, I picked up a couple of DVDs (“The Wasp Woman” and “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”) and since few remained at that time, I had enough time to spend a while with them. Found out, among other things, that Joel went to Bethel College (which used to beat my alma mater in football–but, then, since I went to Macalester, everyone used to beat us in football) and explained why I wouldn’t be at the Saturday show.
Why? Because in an only-in-Portland moment, there were three unusual film options that interested me that evening; the CTers, a showing of “Truck Turner” at the Hollywood Theater, and the eventual winner, a showing of “Training Rules” at QDoc–the documentary about former womens basketball coach Rene Portland, who had a no-lesbians policy on her team in defiance of all anti-discrimination rules. When I mentioned it to Mary Jo, she noted in that understated Minnesotan way, “That’d be difficult.” She asked for the title; wonder if she ever rented it.
As for the riff, I go with the (paraphrasing) “Nice of them to get in a straight line for the monster buffet” line during the live show of Alien Factor in Philly.
As for personally, I have two. First, and like #14 said, seeing them do 2 and 1/2 movies on New Year’s Eve in Northeast Philly was a huge treat (I left before the end of the third movie). And the second was back in Philly for The Alien Factor when they signed both my shirt and my copy of the Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks DVD I had just bought. Over time the signatures on the shirt have faded (except for the JH from Joel), so I’m glad I have the DVD signed to make up for it.
#34 – Interesting comment. “I like the studio DVDs, but I know I wouldn’t like the Live DVDs and this ‘Spit Take’ you speak of.” I bet you hate either all the Mike episodes or all the Joel ones.
My favorite moments are from several installments where one riffer will just laugh at a comment from another. My fave of these is from “Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks” where the eponymous Dr. F is kissing the young lady and Trace says “I have not had this taste in my mouth since…Mitzi Gaynor.” His delivery makes it hilarious and MaryJo unabashedly laughs at it. I love it.
#34 And #46 – The live DVD’S are cool, They give you a great view of 5 very funny people doing what they do best — trashing trashy movies. As far as the ‘Spit Take’ goes back on MST3K (not sure which movie) Joel showed Crow and Tom what a “spit take” was and I even saw Tom Bergeron on AFV show an audience member what a “spit take” was. We experienced it at the CT live show in Boston during East Meets Watts (Dynamite Brothers) and we were in the front row. My wife and friend got water spit on them by Joel when someone in the film used a bad word. Perfect comic timing because all five CT members were taking a drink of water at the same time when the word was said and they all spit the water out as in shock! It was really funny and it’s on that DVD – East Meets Watts. Check it out! As far as my favorite moments, I will post later. There are so many.
Since the odds of my actually being anywhere near a live show are vanishingly close to zero (truck driver), I’m more-or-less over CT until they put out studio DVDs again. I’m beginning to wonder if there will be any more, though. How long has it been now since the last studio DVD? Two, three years? I’d like to see more from The Film Crew too…looks like that’s un-friggin-likely as well.
I think it’s been about a year and a half. It hasn’t even been three years since the very first DVD came out.
Saw them live on my birthday last year in St. Charles, which was awesome! I didn’t stick around for the signing, though which I now regret.
I think the first riff that I really took to was from the first movie. When the imprisoned woman heads up to the door and Mary Jo says, “Are you ready, boots? Start walkin’!” and the rest of the group sing the instrumental part of that song. Then it turns out the door is locked, and Mary Jo says, “Are you disappointed, boots? Well, let’s go back.”