OF A GOLDEN AGE

My original plan was to see now-confirmed-poofest 2012 on my birthday, which happened to be the movie’s opening day, but when I found out it was TWO AND A HALF HOURS LONG and the friend with whom I’d intended to go turned out to be busy, that plan went out the window. Instead, by pure serendipity, I learned ATHF Live was happening and the 7:30 show was not sold out. A prompt excited text message was sent.

The Lakeshore Theater is small, and they packed us in one party at a time to avoid people leaving a seat between themselves. My knees bumped the seat in front of me and a cupholder dug awkwardly into my leg the whole time. They were also rather liberal with some blinding disco lights and a smoke machine. The “preshow” previews, shown on an automatic pulldown screen from a projector in the back, were embarrassingly bad in every way: unfunny comedians, poor video quality, even worse postproduction. They also wedged in a dumb intermission about 3/4 through the show for no reason. In other words, I hated this venue and would have to be lured back with another incredible act or group.

“Why isn’t Frylock here?” Dave Willis and Dana Snyder asked, rhetorically, at the beginning. They said something about appearance fees, and it may have been a joke and maybe not, but really . . . Three out of four ain’t bad. Dave does Meatwad and Carl and Dana does Master Shake, so there was plenty of voice variety, and a Meatwad voice contest at the end of the show where the best contestant was voted out because he admitted that he’s an auditor. Whoops.

There is something wonderful, surreal, and certainly memorable about seeing regular people and hearing your favorite cartoon characters coming out of their mouths — At first I couldn’t stop laughing even when nothing was funny, because of the plain incongruity. Dana (here on the right; picture from online) wore a tuxedo and Dave had on bright green preppy pants and the whole evening had a good feel to it. The Meatwad contest was judged using kazoos.

Dave and Dana showed two brand new episodes that won’t air for a few months, and they were both amazing. A guy in a porkpie hat stalked around the theater yelling at people for taking photos or recording during these, and Dave made a throwaway remark about them ending up on YouTube tomorrow.

There aren’t a lot of things I like or think about that my parents aren’t at least passingly familiar with (recent exception: My Halloween costume was a Fraggle, and they don’t know Fraggle Rock at all), but besides vaguely knowing that Adult Swim exists, they didn’t know anything else about it — so I found myself explaining about Aqua Teen and hearing it in my head and thinking, “This all sounds so ridiculous.” Which is, I think, its appeal.

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