How Was the Show?

Posted by Sampo, on April 21st, 2012

An open thread for reports on tonight’s Cinematic Titanic show in Princeton. How did Gruber do?

11 Replies to “How Was the Show?”

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Joseph Nebus says:

April 21, 2012 at 11:34 pm

Gruber was warmly received by the audience and slipped in very nicely. The jokes still sounded like J Elvis’s screen personality, but Gruber sounded like he’s been riffing at movies forever.

I missed the J Elvis/Gruber duet of “Year of the Cat” in the warmup, but it’d probably be extremely trying to do that solo.

Once again the Princeton show brings rain to New Jersey. I don’t understand why that keeps happening.

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Kenneth Morgan says:

April 21, 2012 at 11:43 pm

Great show!

While Josh was missed, Gruber did a great job filling in. He also had some good bits during the warm-up, like his extended poem, “Four Points”.

Other highlights from the pre-show were Joel’s appearance in his Gizmonics jumpsuit, Trace’s Q&A segment (which consisted solely of one audience member proposing marriage to another), Mary Jo’s reading from her book (and brief dissing of my beloved Rutgers), and Frank’s letter routine.

The movie was “Astral Factor”, just like at NJPAC. However, I think they did a better job this time. There were fewer dead spots and the riffs had been refined. They even covered a brief video problem very well.

I wonder if/when this is released on DVD if they recorded some of Gruber’s riffing for inclusion.

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Joseph Nebus says:

April 21, 2012 at 11:46 pm

I would have gotten all huffy about the dissing of Rutgers, since I went there, but since I went to Rutgers, I haven’t got enough alumni pride to get huffy about the dissing of Rutgers.

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evilkoala says:

April 22, 2012 at 12:06 am

Gruber did a great job! This was my first Cinematic Titanic, I hope they come back around next year!

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GregS says:

April 22, 2012 at 9:50 am

Agreed; Gruber was GREAT, as usual!

The Astral Factor is a dog of a movie, and even the gang seemed to hit a few dead spots in the middle of the show, with some stretches of silence. Did I say that the movie was a real dog? Also, for the first time, I had a difficult time hearing many of the riffs. I don’t know if that had to do with our seating location, or if they were having audio difficulties. As was noted in another post, there were a few technical issues.

I loved the pre-show graphics, with trivia items about the CT crew, and other 50’s-60’s era type PSA and snack-bar blurbs!

It was great to see the crew again, although I was a bit disappointed in two respects:

1. A bit more foul language, especially from Frank. There were a number of under-18 year old types in the audience, and it was poor form.

2. A bit too much one-sided political commentary. Hey, I’m as down on politicians as the next guy, but let’s keep it even-handed, shall we? Not everyone in the audience shares the political viewpoint of the CT crew, and it usually is not a problem as long as the mocking is aimed at both sides of the aisle. It clearly was not last night. There are only so many “Chris Christie is fat” jokes you can take before it becomes dreary (this is the SECOND year that Frank made this observation – we get it, Frank). ‘Nuff said.

The other couple we attended with couldn’t hang for the meet-and-greet, so I was disappointed there as well. Oh well, next year!

Overall the show was great fun, and I even scored a few CT DVDs that have been MIA for a while (The Oozing Skull, and Legacy of Blood).

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MST3K Brooklyn says:

April 22, 2012 at 5:26 pm

Please tell me that someone has a picture of Joel in his suit. It’s also great to hear that Gruber did excellent.

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Matt D says:

April 22, 2012 at 6:24 pm

Yep, Gruber did a fine job. Some of the jokes you can hear J. Elvis in them, but other ones made good use of Gruber’s vocal inflections. I enjoyed it a lot. I had seen the movie before, but it did feel fresher than the previous time, so I was not disappointed in this repeat. I was able to pick up the live version of Danger of Tiki Island.

Fantastic job, and now I can only hope for an east coast showing of their new riff when they come back around.

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Dave says:

April 22, 2012 at 8:33 pm

After putting off seeing CT over the past few years, I finally made it a point to catch this show. Seeing my heroes live in theater full of fellow fans is an unbelievable experience (and here I had wondered if people still cared ). From the moment Joel came out in his red jumpsuit, I knew I was in for something special. “The Astral Factor” is a disgrace to the term “movie” and the Titans really came out firing (I was feeling a little queasy from laughing so hard) , but unfortunately for them, the crowd was noticeably fatigued by the last 15 minutes or so, which is no fault of the writing, the movie is just THAT bad. Everything else was just perfect, zero complaints. Worth every penny, and I can’t wait until they come back around again. The two friends I convinced to come both agreed this should be a yearly tradition as long as the crew is willing to come back.

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Cyanide says:

April 23, 2012 at 12:15 pm

Gruber was really great! And he had so much fun with it.

Astral Factor’s riffing has been improved upon- it was more entertaining than the Kezwick’s show a few months back.

I disagree that the film’s that badly slow. There really arent’ any protracted slow scenes (like walking through the woods in Alien Factor) and the film’s plot (mostly) makes sense.

All around great time again!

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