The Harvey WALLbangers at Carnegie Stage

            Prior to Sunday’s performance of The Harvey WALLbangers’ “We’re Inside You Now,” I had not seen any of their previous performances. After attending, I am grossly disappointed that it’s taken me this long to get on board.
            This year’s performance by The Harvey WALLbangers left me wanting more. I’ve always been a sucker for sketch comedy; I watched SNL long before it became cool for kids my age to stay up to watch it. But I think even if I had not been a fan beforehand, I would have enjoyed the performance just as much.

The Harvey WALLbangers

            “We’re Inside You Now” was presented and paced perfectly. It starts off with the seven WALLbangers introducing themselves and what they like to do in their free time, while generalizations and stereotypes associated with their various activities flashed on the screen behind them. The opening of the show was perfect; it made the audience feel like they knew the performers, but more important than that, it also made me feel like I was allowed to laugh at them. This is so important in sketch comedy. Too often, comedic performances fail because there are topics that audiences feel should not be mocked. Maybe it’s because most of the time, comedy makes fun of things that some people do not feel comfortable laughing about. But by starting out by making fun of themselves, the WALLbangers eased any tension right out of the gate, creating an atmosphere in which they were able to execute successfully.
The ninety-minute show encompassed a wide variety of material, from a colorful musical number about the banning of the holiday practice of re-gifting to a pantomime joke about Donald Trump. The performance married subtle satire and classic humor to deliver a well-rounded, enjoyable experience from start to finish.
Some of my personal favorite moments included the performance by special guest Laura Barletta early in the show, during a sketch involving classic high school stereotypes, in which Barletta wears all black, gets angry about The Wrath of Khan, and delivers lines at exactly the right moment with equal parts desperation and sarcasm. Another of my favorite sketches involved three of the male performers wearing dresses identical to those worn by Barletta and actress Monica Stephenson and performing a choreographed, feminine dance routine, because I’ve always been a fan of men half-heartedly wearing women’s clothing that clearly does not fit, purely for comedic effect.
But my absolute favorite sketch of the night came during the second half of the show, in which actor Matt Butoryak plays the apostle Peter, working the gates of heaven and calmly explaining to incoming souls that everyone is welcome in heaven, regardless of respective religious beliefs. Hilarity ensues, as a disgruntled and self-righteous Christian arrives in heaven, searching for his wife who has begun an intimate relationship with Jesus himself.
This sketch made the show for me and underlined exactly why I love sketch comedy. I am a devoted, happy Christian, and have been for my whole life. Some might have found the sketch offensive, because it mocked the idea of a moral code being the key to paradise after death, but I found it downright hilarious. Part of the reason sketch comedy works is that it takes something that’s widely accepted or understood by society and pokes fun at it. In America, everyone has been exposed to the obnoxiousness of organized religion, and so when the WALLbangers made Jesus a slob with a girlfriend and put the apostle Paul on a podium, texting the apostle Matthew and laughing at a confused Christian, it was easy for everyone in the room to laugh. I find religious humor hilarious, and in this performance, it was done exceptionally well.
Overall, I thought the show was a roaring success and will be anxiously awaiting the next performance by The Harvey WALLbangers.

Blog entry by Elizabeth Beck