by Chris
Rich, award-winning comedian from Comedy Central
Last night the side-splitting
musical comedy team of Tom Orr and Meagan Hill took a packed room of
shopping-weary, well-behaved parents and professionals and
transformed them into a playground of singing, swaying kids whose
only mission statement now was their burning, oft-repeated
determination to be "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."
Like two fantastically funny, but
somehow forgotten Dickens Spirits, Meagan and Tom guide us past the
commercialism of our holiday lives with natural healing exercises
like "Frosty the Beer Mug" to dispel the horror when you open your
big gift to discover "It's a Fruitcake!" Failing that, it might be
time to feel closer to god by getting up on the roof with "O
Tannenbong."
Tom and Meagan are so hypnotically
entertaining throughout the high-energy, consistently hilarious show
full of powerhouse parodies, props, and puns, that when they
suddenly switch gears to a simply lovely non-parody, like their
reverential "Christmas Time is Here", a gorgeous blending that
instantly made me picture the Ferro-Rocher ad that shows a smiling
chef pouring together the two swirls of velvety chocolate. The
clowns had big-shoe shuffled off the stage and in their place stood
two sparkling-eyed children gazing at their first Christmas Tree.
The same feelings soared with "We Three Kings" and "Put a Little
Love in Your Heart." The traditionally presented Carols were
stunners, heart-stopping time machines zooming back to childhood.
Meagan and Tom are performers of
such high caliber you're reminded of the Carol Burnett Show, and at
one point the regular cast is ably aided and abetted by the
"surprise guest" of "Bad Santa", the mercilessly funny Steve Lobis,
playing the neighborhood Santa we all remember who smelled an awful
lot like an elf drinking from the lower shelf. Everyone's timing and
control was wonderful, each time Tom and Meagan swayed their hands
it was like they had puppet strings on the audience.
In the midst of our relentless,
repetitive consumer's education from TV and print ads that the
holidays are only merry if we "spend without end", the almighty
dollar School of Thinking, thank god Tom & Meagan are here to take
us to recess!
