It's amazing that the actors of Parks and Recreations are ever able to get through a scene without cracking each other up repeatedly.I had the good fortune of attending Saturday night's Tig and Friends show at Largo at the Coronet, where The Sarah Silverman Program's Tig Nataro hosted an evening of comedy centered around the cast of NBC's hysterical comedy Parks and Recreation.
Needless to say, I never never laughed quite so much or so hard in my entire life.
Parks and Recreation's Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aubrey Plaza, Aziz Ansari, and Retta were on hand to treat us with everything from songs to stand-up routines, and a Donohue-style talk show setting where Notaro and the audience asked them a range of inappropriate, offensive, and hilarious questions and the cast made some startling confessions. (For example, Plaza told us that she was an NBC Page and recounted a situation where she had to attend sensitivity training; in another anecdote, she told us about her involvement in guerrilla political campaigning techniques.)
The event was introduced by Sarah Silverman herself, who popped in to introduce "Mr. Tig Notaro" (note: Tig is a woman, despite the boys' department blazer), before turning the event over to the gleefully hilarious Notaro herself, an adept comedian with an off-hand manner and a penchant for non sequitur and biting remarks. But before the entire cast assembled on-stage--including Amy Poehler, who claimed to have not been invited and was sitting in the audience after she failed to get an introduction--several of them had prepared solo performances for us.
Offerman regaled us with two songs, including the dirty lyric-rife "The Rainbow Song," written for his wife Megan Mullally's 50th birthday, and "Jesus Take the Weed," a marijuana-fueled satire of Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel" that had the audience in stitches. Offerman also gave us some unique insight into his upbringing as he told a story of his high school girlfriend, a born-again Christian who was, uh, less than virtuous than she initially appeared to be. Duke Silver, eat your heart out.
Up next was Retta, who performed a hysterical stand-up set in which she talked about how she was lazy yet still went to the gym (hint: it involves elevators and recumbent bikes), being forced to participate in a friend's wedding (her stipulation: her dress couldn't be sleeveless, strapless, or have spaghetti straps), singing opera in the car (and freaking out racist white people), the lack of service at McDonald's, white girls singing the wrong Gwen Stefani lyrics to "Hollaback Girl" at valet stands, and much, much more.
Aziz Ansari then took the stage to offer up an explosive and raucous stand-up set about everything from R. Kelly online dictionary entries (after he took to the internet to define "echo" in a YouTube video), stealing handbags from women who are rude to him at bars, Hollywood bodyguards, Paulie Shore, his favorite ethnic slurs, and more.
The trio then reunited with Tig Notaro, Aubrey Plaza, and Amy Poehler for a bizarre and mirthful group session in which Notaro repeatedly commented on the softness of Plaza's hands and in which they talked about Parks and Recreation, the canoe Offerman had made for someone in New York (an audience member asked just how it was going to get there), how Plaza landed her role on the show ("I texted someone," she claimed), and how Poehler likes to poop in other people's pants (a joke!). Retta said that she wants to see Donna get a boyfriend (though she stated that in a very different way), Ansari talked about the rednecks in the town where he grew up and the math and science boarding school he attended as a teenager, and they all made Poehler crack up repeatedly.
And, oh, a virtual doppelganger of Aziz Ansari took to the stage and switched places with the South Carolina-born comic at the very end of the show.
All in all, this was one of the most painfully hilarious evenings of my life and an absolute joy to be a part of. The cast was charming, witty, and hysterical, Notaro the perfect host, and the entire evening had the exact right about of chaos, precision, and comedic timing necessary to pull off a living piece of comedy such as this one, especially in such an intimate space as this one. Thanks to Tig and the cast for such an incredible evening, one that I won't soon forget.
Parks and Recreation airs Thursday evenings at 8:30 pm ET/PT on NBC.
Comments