Review: The Oxymorons

So my sisters (and Leigh, who's LIKE a sister) and I decided to have a girls' night.  On a Wednesday.  We're such rebels.

 

I put forth the idea that we should go to improv night with The Oxymorons at Magooby's in Timonium, MD because it would be fun (and because I'm awesome like that!).  Now, in the interest of full-disclosure, I know one of the self-proclaimed "Morons"....but I don't have to tell you which one! ;)  (you can guess in the comments!).

There were 3 other improv groups there but truth be told, I didn't know that going in and consequently....well, my mom brain didn't retain them.  Sorry guys.  (Hey, "mom brain" is one of the few perks of being a mom, I'm going to use it. To. Death.)

Now, the Oxymorons were different from the other groups in that they used a ton of audience participation and model themselves after Whose Line Is It Anway? (one of my absolute favorite shows ever, btw).  My favorite games are the bell game and mannequins.  And they did both right at the beginning of their set, so I was a happy girl. ;) 

The bell game involves two people having a conversation about whatever the audience has suggested and that MC/director Andy has chosen from those suggestions.  Every time Andy hit the bell, the actor speaking had to change the last thing he said.  Of course, it's funnier when the bell is hit a good 3 or 4 times in a row (presumably stressing the actor out but funny as hell for the audience).  For us, it was Randy and Toby as father and son respectively, talking about prom which devolved into a conversation about how mom was a nympho and why the mailman lived upstairs!

Mannequins is the game where two actors are once again having a discussion about an audience-picked topic (disco dancers for this one!) while two members of the audience tap the actors' body parts to make them move.  Hilarious because of course, the actors are trying to keep up with their dialogue and are also trying to match said dialogue to whatever wacky positions their volunteers are putting them in!  By the end of this skit, Andy and Toby were embracing and Andy was remarking on the fact that his hand was not on a disco ball!  (the one I have inserted is not the one we saw last night....just in case you were wondering...cuz it's not.)

My sisters and I were laughing terribly hard, making it difficult to consume the chicken fingers and fries we ordered (which were good!) and after all that laughing and drinking of alcohol (oh, did I forget to mention that?  It's really not necessary to consume alcohol in order to find the actors funny, I swear!!) we were sweating to death and removing our cardys, so layer up for Magooby's!! Where was I?

Oh right. Made us laugh.  Fun audience participation (Andy took my soccer player suggestion for the Gibberish Murder Mystery game; I felt like a rock star!).  As a matter of fact, while the other improv groups were also very very funny, with super smooth transitions between skits, they had virtually no audience participation.  My sister Steph and I (both over the age of 30) found them all funny, but the Oxymorons the most fun.  Kate and Leigh (both 22) thought Oxymorons the best! 

We all liked the audience participation aspect of it. 

All in all, an incredibly successful girls' night and I'm already checking the schedule to see when I can drag other friends to an Oxymoron show!  Who's with me?!

The Oxymorons can also be found on Facebook here.

Magooby's Joke House is also on Facebook. (I mean, who isn't?)