COMEDY REVIEW: The Waitstaff @ Helium Comedy Club, 3/16

On Wednesday, sketch troupe The Waitstaff rocked Helium Comedy Club with their St. Patty's Day edition of the Real Housewives of South Philly.

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COMEDY REVIEW: The Waitstaff @ Helium Comedy Club, 3/16

POSTED: Friday, March 18, 2011, 12:00 PM

Filed Under: Comedy

(thewaitstaff.com)

On Wednesday, sketch troupe The Waitstaff rocked Helium Comedy Club with their St. Patty's Day edition of the Real Housewives of South Philly.

With a slew of sketches ranging from love and relationships to Rachael Ray, it was really the titular housewives who stole the show. With no offense to the gentlemen — who were all very funny, especially Eric Singel who would sometimes lay patiently dormant for long stretches with coiled-up sketch-making punchlines — the stars of last night were definitely the ladies.

The South Philly satire was tremendously on-point; the idiosyncrasies of the baby-pumping loud-mouthed South Philly pizan housewife were wonderfully exaggerated in three installments throughout the show. Acting and sketch writing proffessor Gerre Garret played the alpha housewive — the loud scary one who wouldn't hesitate to cut a bitch over a parking spot. At times Garret's face alone was potent enough to split sides. A part-time voiceover actor, she could easily be a comedic face-actor, if such a sector were to exist (silent films are on their way back, no?).

CP's own Sara Carano played off Garret as the slutty, wine cooler-drinking pregnant housewife. The bubbly and energetic Carano, who stole the show during the non-housewife sketches (I heard more than one "She's so funny!" exclamations from the admittedly talkative crowd), donned a hilariously huge pregnant belly as she got bullied around by Garret, only to have frequent make up sessions with her fellow housewife.

Joanne Cunningham may have been the most important housewife — her role reflects the reason Larry was my favorite stooge. It's easy for talented comedic actors to draw attention to themselves, but it's far more difficult for them to create 'straight-man' ambiance, effectively supporting the scene. Cuttingham did exactly that and more, getting laughs while developing the other characters and their conflicts. With virtuoso drawl on all her South Philly vowels, every long "o" out of her mouth was a hilarious shard of glass on my central nervous system — which would normally be torture, but tickled in the context of Real Housewives.

Check their website to keep an eye out for upcoming shows.

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Featuring everything from event roundups to concert reviews and sex talk, City Paper's Critical Mass is a space for off-the-wall coverage of Philly's A&E scene.

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