Word: improve
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...comes as a surprise that last week Ornstein and nine other serious people took the stage at the Improv on Connecticut Avenue to vie for the title of Washington's Funniest Celebrity. Obviously the fact that it was all for a good cause, to benefit the Child Welfare League of America, gave the would-be comics flop insurance, but none of these people came to have their efforts patronized. They were in it for the glory...
...next contender was Matt Cooper of Newsweek, the odds-on favorite to win (though, having actually performed at the Improv, he was regarded the way Soviet-bloc Olympians used to be: as suspiciously professional). The round, bald Cooper suggested that Al Gore might try to copy Bill Clinton's formula for success and have an affair, then dismissed it with a riff on the media's skeptical reaction. "How do we know?" he had scornful reporters saying. "There's no DNA on the dress! Prove it!" Alone among the contestants, Cooper could do passably good imitations, including of Clinton...
This pseudo-square offers two entertainment options. The first is Improv Boston, which has performances Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 8 and 10:30 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. The other is Ryle's Jazz Bar, which is billed as a neighborhood jazz bar, although top acts occasionally appear to secure its reputation as a top jazz venue in the city. A jazz brunch is offered on Sundays form 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Another night spot is the requisite Irish pub: the Druid. Its decor pleases the eye as much as the Guinness slakes the thirst...
Though the script has been in existence for over fifteen years and has traveled several continents, it continues to have about it an air of freshly improvised parody. As with improv, the humor has an underdeveloped quality--potential jokes are left unexploited while the existent ones lack the sharpness of revision. Like the movie Wag the Dog, the premise of Compleat Works is loaded with humorous potential that remains largely unmined. Lines like "a nose by any other name would still smell" are funny but pale when compared to the sardonic text-twisting of Tom Stoppard's comparable Rosencrantz...
Couldn't push your way into last weeks jam-packed OTI performance? Satisfy your comedy craving and drop by the Improv Asylum. 8 and 10 p.m, Tonight and tomorrow, 216 Hanover...