Going in to Secret Saloon on Saturday, June 16 at Theatre SKAM’s Satellite Studio on Fort Street, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was the first live comedy show, let alone musical improv comedy, I’d been to.
The set was absolutely adorable. The lighting and furniture pieces were both visually appealing and versatile; the actors cleverly opted to turn different lamps on and off to signal setting changes rather than moving the set pieces around. Neither of the two actors—Islay McKechnie and Ciarán Volke—changed costumes despite playing several characters each, so having obvious lighting changes for different scenes was helpful.
The show began with the actors having a casual conversation onstage with an audience member. Although this conversation became the foundation of the show—several bits became major plot points in later scenes—it was a little slow.
Despite the slow start, once the show got going, each scene flowed smoothly and the pacing was great. The actors did a great job at keeping all their characters distinct enough to keep track of easily. The physical comedy was great, too; just enough energy to be lively, but not so much that it felt slapstick.
Although the show had a noticeable formula for building scenes and easing into musical numbers, the actors didn’t always stick to it, for example, ending a song abruptly with “—anyway, you were saying…” and leaving scenes unresolved, which kept the show from feeling too formulaic.
I appreciate that the jokes didn’t get very dark. Almost in spite of the content warning that started the show off, the jokes were much tamer than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise. Despite (or perhaps because of) avoiding darker jokes, the actors had no trouble getting laughs.
The musical aspect was cool as well. They used a variety of instruments, including a saxophone and track looping. It was impressive how well they were able to improvise lyrics while staying in character. There was one song where the actor struggled to find a line, but they took it in stride and kept going strong.
Although the main show was well paced, the ending did seem a little abrupt. A couple of scenes near the conclusion didn’t really resolve, so it felt like there were loose ends left untied.
Overall, this was a lovely performance, which I’m glad to have seen before they take it to the Saskatoon Fringe Festival this August.