Chicago Theater Review: AIRPORT FOR BIRDS (AND OTHER GREAT IDEAS) (UP Comedy Club)

AIRPORT FOR BIRDS FAILS TO TAKE OFF

In their sketch comedy show Airport for Birds (and Other Great Ideas), Team StarKid seems to have wracked their brains to come up with as many reasons as possible for the performers to scream: There’s a pair of fitness enthusiasts who think that it’s part of doing yoga properly; a magical tree loudly begging for his own destruction; and an utterly earsplitting skit with a bank customer trying to be heard above the racket of absurdly noisy machines. It’s a gimmick that gets old fast, producing a show more likely to induce headaches than laughs.

Raising the volume isn’t the only part of Airport for Birds that gets played out. Sketches are often drawn out, bringing to mind the beating-a-dead-horse mentality of Family Guy. In “Christmas Lights,” a man who is taking down his holiday decorations in February gets berated by people walking past; the workable premise gets bogged down as it transitions from relatable to absurd when Santa himself tries to stimulate the economy. It’s worse when the initial concept is weak, such as “Sully’s,” in which a bar owner is trying to court a ballerina who keeps throwing up in her mouth; Meredith Stepien and Brian Holden put on an enjoyable performance with their over-the-top delivery reminiscent of a 1950s film, but the gross out humor doesn’t improve over time.

The reprise is a staple of sketch comedy, but in this show that tradition too often exposes the first version’s flaws, especially when it comes back not twice but three times: To wit, a series of sketches starring Denise Donovan as a stripper taking on the role of Chili’s waitress, lawyer’s intern and delivery room nurse becomes redundant.

Team StarKid is best known for its musical parodies on YouTube, but Airport for Birds’ musical numbers feel stale. “Bacon,” a mournful song by two Jews about how they can’t eat the titular food, culminates with them chewing on a singing, dancing and eventually screaming in pain strip, defeating its own premise. “Nintendo,” which has a trio singing about the people they put up with in order to access to a Nintendo 64, is weirdly anachronistic, referencing a system that hasn’t been top of the line for more than a decade while also making fun of Tom Cruise’s marriage to Katie Holmes.

The show does have some redeeming moments. Its female cast is universally more enjoyable than their male counterparts, in no small part because they rarely raise their voices. They get to show off together in “Perfume,” a Calvin Klein ad parody where a woman spritzes herself with his new “Practical Advice” scent and conjures a trio of tittering pixies who offer their concerns about her pet’s stool and tell her to call her mother. “Dragonheart,” a particularly cute and nerdy sketch where Lauren Lopez tries to sexily dance to the themes for Jurassic Park and Lord of the Rings is the sole bright light in the otherwise horrible second act, which kicks off with “Mr. Wingly Comes To Call,” a sketch about a traditional English family trying to set up one of their daughters with a wealthy gentleman, who turns out to be an eagle – some of the animal gags might be funny if the eagle’s hideous screeching didn’t make the sketch so painful to watch. Team StarKid would be well served to turn down the volume. Until then, seeing Airport for Birds really isn’t a very  great idea.

photos by Corey Lubowich

Airport for Birds (and Other Great Ideas)
Team StarKid at The Second City’s UP Comedy Club
scheduled to end on March 31, 2013
for tickets, call (312) 662-4562 or visit http://www.UPcomedyclub.com

for more info on Team StarKid, visit their site