CLICK BAIT & SWITCH written and performed by Leigh Cameron, Kyle Dooley, Becky Johnson, Etan Muskat, Kirsten Rasmussen and Kevin Whalen (Second City, 51 Mercer). Indefinite run. $16-$35. secondcity.com. See listing. Rating: NN
True to its amusing title, Click Bait & Switch, the Second City‘s latest revue, is a bit of a tease. You go expecting the first-rate laughs the company usually delivers, but you end up with only a couple of chuckles.
It’s not that the troupe isn’t talented. A few performers get to shine, particularly Kirsten Rasmussen, whose wordless sketch about a woman grooming herself is a nice throwback to the classic Tim Sims sketch set in a shower. Later, she lets loose as a woman celebrating her birthday at a dance club, and she gets lots of laughs as a hoodied, googly-eyed boy who brings his dad (Kyle Dooley) to class for show-and-tell.
Newcomer Becky Johnson‘s strong acting skills add zest to all her scenes, particularly one about a domineering mother on a road trip with her son (Kevin Whalen).
And Leigh Cameron, who’s got the sunny disposition of a Muppet, triumphs in the show’s two best sketches. The first is a song about… well, I don’t want to ruin the surprise – let’s just say it’s perfectly baked. And the second features her and a partner (Whalen), both in wheelchairs and speaking in computerized voices a la Stephen Hawking. The set-up is sweet, and the payoff is hilarious.
As with most weak revues (this one’s directed by Paul Bates), there’s more emphasis on visuals than writing. An ultrasound reveals a couple’s baby to be a demon who speaks to the father-to-be’s fears three female roommates share a tiny bathroom patrons in a restaurant choke on something and spit it out into other people’s mouths like a hot potato.
A send-up of trendy restaurants is initially amusing, but the satire soon devolves into insensitivity.
An interesting sketch about a guy (Etan Muskat) who decides to “come out” as white is intriguing, but it needs polishing, and it underlines the whiteness of the cast itself.
And both improv sequences are uninspired.
More than any other Second City revue in recent memory, this show just… stops. There’s little buildup. Nothing funny about that.
