Invite Them Up, night 1 of 3 final shows (pics & recap)

words by Jon Roren, photos by Marianne Ways

DOWNLOAD: Cobra Krames – What More Time! (MP3)

Karin, Bobby and the time capsule @ Rififi, Feb 25, 2008
Invite Them Up

Invite Them Up has been a mainstay on the Downtown comedy scene for about six years, and has played host to many great talents. This week sees the end of ITU’s run as a weekly show, with shows on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night to celebrate more than a half-decade of fart jokes and fireballs. If you’re coming on Wednesday, bring something for the fancy time capsule.

John Oliver
Invite Them Up

Host Bobby Tisdale got night one-of-three underway with his patented rubbing of the microphone on some dude’s balls before bringing up opening comic Greg Johnson – the co-host of the ECNY award-winning Rififi variety show ‘Greg Johnson and Larry Murphy Show’. Johnson was followed by Michael Showalter whose set consisted of one of his trademark “showbiz rants” – this one about how he was only 3rd-to-last-night material and that he clearly wasn’t good enough for Wednesday night before trying to tell jokes about shows nobody in the audience had seen.

Greg Johnson
Invite Them Up

Michael Showalter
Invite Them Up

Heather Lawless
Invite Them Up

The charming Heather Lawless made jokes about being uncomfortable about her body and was followed by a Jon Glaser conceptual performance as “The Man in the Green Mask” – complete with his own theme song; a metaphysical analysis of which became a chunk of his routine, which ended with a hysterical Q & A session.

Jon Glaser as Man in the Green Mask
Invite Them Up

Seth Morris and Seth Herzog
Invite Them Up

Bobby Tisdale and Seth Herzog
Invite Them Up

Brett Gelman and Seth Herzog
Invite Them Up

Seth Herzog finished the first half of the show with 30 Seconds of Standup as an Iona College student named Dudley. Craig Baldo started the second half of the show by inviting audience members up on stage to get down to his dance remix of the classic “30 Seconds of Stand-up Chant.” Eugene Mirman read a letter to a spam solicitor that he wrote in broken English and played a clip of his being interviewed on the red carpet for the Oscars.

30 Seconds of Dance Party
Invite Them Up

Bobby Tisdale and Craig Baldo
Invite Them Up

Eugene Mirman
Invite Them Up

Daily Show correspondent John Oliver closed the show splendidly; having walked onstage in a purple velour sweater he clearly regretted buying. After deriding his choice of outfits and commenting on the free market perhaps being too free, he ended his set by introducing the audience to his prototype of a talking Noam Chomsky doll. An audience member would ask a question, and the doll would respond with a comment about Iran. That is, until the 4th audience question, about said sweater, was met with an incredulous “Are you crazy? That’s just nuts?” from Mr. Chomsky.

John Oliver and Emergency Noam Chomsky
Invite Them Up

Bobby Tisdale
Invite Them Up

one night left to go.