Bards reveal more than comedic improvisations

Most UCLA students use index cards as a means to memorize
material covered in class.

Well, four UCLA alumni are using them as a material to cover
something quite different ““ their genitals.

Stripping down to their birthday suits, with only index cards to
shield the audience from an X-rated display, is just the kind of
daring, line-crossing humor the UCLA-based comedy troupe the Bare
Naked Bards exposes to its audience.

Starting tonight, the troupe will premiere its brand new show
“The Hollywood Bowl of Chicken,” which consists of 15
sketches and two songs that aim to keep the audience actively
involved.

“In our shows, there is very little separation between
audience and performer ““ we use audience members in a lot of
sketches,” said Bards member Ryan Green.

Even though the show is scripted, Bards member Matthew Harris
admits the actors do employ some improvisational tricks to mess
with the audience.

But hey, with song titles like “Hamlet’s Love
Song” and “Ballad of a Rejected ’80s Love
Child” who wouldn’t want to be involved?

Well, Cornelius the Dancing Chicken, for one, is always
involved. He’s the robotic chicken that opens all of the Bare
Naked Bards’ shows. Cornelius stands in a spotlight, wears a
microphone, and dances and sings the chicken song.

Bards member Jason Medbury reveals that the automaton was
originally started as a quirky device to distract the audience.

“We needed something to keep the audience busy while we
were getting ourselves together. It slowly became our thing,”
Medbury said.

Unlike the troupe’s prior comedic shows, “English as
a Second F*cking Language,” “Acting Good,” and
one the troupe chooses not to cite because of copyright laws
(let’s just say it was Shakespeare oriented), “The
Hollywood Bowl of Chicken” does not have a concrete
theme.

“It’s more of a gala performance,” Medbury
said.

And so the question looms, can a robotic chicken and a themeless
play keep audiences entertained for an hour and 10 minutes? Bards
members claim yes.

“What we’ve heard in past shows is that the audience
didn’t realize an hour had gone by,” Green said.
“It went by so fast that they couldn’t laugh until the
end because we were going from sketch to sketch.”

One reason the Bare Naked Bards can create such lightning-speed
humor is that they’ve been laughing and acting together since
their freshman year in UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and
Television.

“It’s really cool being friends and doing something
like this because nobody takes offense to anything or worries about
what someone else does,” Green said. “We all direct
ourselves and each other.”

Other bard members include Jenn Wong and Jake Bern, who will not
be appearing in this weekend’s performance.

Nine days before the show’s opening, Bern was hired for an
MTV commercial to be filmed in South Africa. Even though the troupe
completely supported his decision to be absent, the actors have had
to spend the last week frantically making changes to the
script.

Without ample time to test the final product, the show should be
an adventure, if nothing else.

“We have no idea what we’re stepping into. In all of
our other shows, we’ve had test audiences,” Medbury
said.

But like any respectable comedy sketch troupe, improvisation
will be key. Sometimes the best art is created unexpectedly.

“We all play different ends of the spectrum so you never
know what you’re gonna get out of us,” Green said.

The show will run Oct. 17-20 at 8 p.m. at the Complex Dorie
Theater located at 6476 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Tickets are
$7 presale and $10 at the door. For more info, call (310) 351-7773
or log onto www.barenakedbards.com.