The Idiotic Death of Two Fools, Annoyance Theatre.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
I hope actors Eric Hoffman and Mike Monterastelli and director Gary Ruderman don’t think this one-act comedy, created through improvisation, is anything close to original. It’s not just that the premise is an obvious steal from Waiting for Godot: two guys spar and banter while awaiting the arrival of a mysterious third person, illustrating the futility and foolishness of life through their absurd interactions. The problem is that the whole dynamic of the show is familiar. Yet another retread of the two-man clown format, The Idiotic Death of Two Fools simply recycles routines you already know from Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello movies, not to mention more recent fare like Wayne’s World and Dumb and Dumber. Even making the two fools gay is just a lift from the Akbar and Jeff cartoons in Matt Groening’s “Life in Hell”; so is the deadpan illogic of the characters’ repetitive, obsessive exchanges, though Groening’s comic strip is considerably wittier and wiser.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): Photo/Ken Manthey.
