Killing My Lobster Hits the State's Funny Bone

California-themed comedy production is a fun, funny show.

California is the theme for San Francisco-based sketch comedy troupe Killing My Lobster's new production, Killing My Lobster hits Highway 101, and the show doesn't pull any punches with its material. But the nice thing about Highway 101 is that it's equal opportunity fun-making: KML goest after all aspects of the Golden State, from SoCal materialism to NorCal food & wine elitism to California's movie star governor with his goofy accent. (There's also a couple of well-placed jabs at the East Bay, including a very funny mock tourism video poking fun at Oakland).

Overall, Highway 101 is a really fun performance that is packed with short (generally no longer than 5 minutes) comedic sketches. The show centers around the Schacters, a fictional Danville family that takes to the road in their RV after the bank forecloses on their home. As you'd expect from a younger, SF-based company, the humor is edgier, R-rated stuff—definitely more Conan O'Brien than Jay Leno—and tends to play off broad contrasts for laughs. A few highlights include a sketch involving a Sonoma wine tasting room owner dressed like someone out of Mad Max's Beyond Thunderdome and a hilarious skit involving two men stuck in traffic, one of whom is on the run from the police for murder.

There are also more subtle sketches sprinkled into the mix. Those include a delicate, strangely poingnant, interpretive dance scene involving two highway-stuck cars (driving and traffic are a definite theme here) and a goofy skit about two talking redwood trees who have been in a relationship for more than 500 years. Music is a running theme as well, with periodic interludes by an excellent on-stage four-piece band, and a few song-and-dance numbers popping up throughout the 2-hour performance.

While obviously a small operation, the show's acting was great, particularly actors Emily Morrison and Leslie Waggoner, as well as Nick Olivero, who's comedic use of his large frame provided several laughs.

Staged inside San Francisco's cozy Zeum theater (located near the carousel in the Yerba Buena Gardens), Highway 101 is totally worth a trip across the bridge, and if you're offended, just remember: odds are, everyone else in the theatre is too, so just relax and enjoy the show.

Zeum Theatre, Yerba Buena Gardens, 221 4th St. (at Howard), San Francisco.

Tickets cost $20 ($15 for students), and runs Thursday–Sunday, through June 14. To purchase tickets, go to killingmylobster.com/tix or call (415) 558-7721.

 

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