Sarah Gluck
Review
May 3rd 2015
Who: The Iron Mule
What: Short comedy screening series
When: Sunday, May 3rd 2015
Where: Symphony Space
2537 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
Everyday I pass the Symphony Space
theatre on my way back to my hotel and check what shows are going on later that
night. Normally after I get off the subway on 96th St there is a
huge crowd of loud people lined up scattered outside the door making it
impossible to even walk down that street. But there wasn’t today, so
suspiciously I was even more interested on what was going on tonight. The Iron Mule May 3rd 2015
was listed – starts at 7:30pm. I had exactly an hour to get to my room, drop my
stuff off, change, and go and buy a ticket for the show.
Mission accomplished. 7:30 rolls
around and I have my ticket and program in hand walking down the stairs to the
theater. Without having any idea what
the show is going to be about, I am gradually getting more interested as the
time passes. The screening room was quite a bit smaller than a normal movie theater,
but comfortable and cozy. The place itself reminded me of a high school drama
theater, compact, amateur, but exciting and having potential to be
entertaining. The two hosts were two funny looking men dressed exactly in the
same clothes (which I didn’t somehow catch on to until later when they told the
audience they do that every show) wearing tight long sleeve stripped shirts and
very tight khaki pants. The two men Jay Stern and Victor Varnado are the co –
producers of Iron Mule, which is a monthly short comedy film festival event
born at NYC improve theater, Chicago City Limits. The first weekend of every
month they screen the best short comedy films from all around the world.
All of the different shorts were
thoroughly captivating. One of the funniest ones was “Batman & Jimbo”
directed by Angus Mullane. The story is about a 30 year old man who is still
desperately in love with his ex-wife. He enlists his friend to commit a mock
robbery at the store that she works at, so that he can save the day as Batman
and win her back. But when he gets there an actual robbery is taking place with
an armed criminal. Since his friend accidentally dressed as a ninja instead of
a burglar, Batman uses his swords to slay the real-life villain. At the end of
the day his true courage is put to the test in Batman tights.
There were several other memorable
shorts, but my favorite one of the evening was an Australian film called
“Granny Smith”. When the main character calls out of work with the excuse that
his grandmother has died, he is put in a sticky situation when it turns out
that his boss and all his coworkers insist on attending her funeral. With
limited time and without a dead grandma, he picks a random funeral from out of the
newspaper. To his surprise, it is obvious that the deceased woman is not
related to him: he and his boss are the only white people at an Asian funeral.
It goes smoothly as his boss is completely oblivious to this farce. Then the
next morning at work, he is told that his actual grandmother has passed away.
After all of the viewings, the
audience gets a choice to vote on their favorite one. “Granny Smith” won the
honors for the night. It added to the intimacy of the experience as each of the
directors said a few words about their films after they showed. The director of
“Granny Smith” was particularly interesting as the director’s brother was
getting married and brought seemingly their entire (and intoxicated) family to
the theatre. When the director won the award he made his way up to the stage. His mother who was very proud of her son also followed while then breaking out in the tune "We Are Family", inviting the whole wedding party of stage. This definetily added to the comedy of the night. It was, in a sense, croikey
mate.
The films varied in their subject
and quality, some more entertaining than others. But having no expectations
going in to the event, I left surprisingly entertained and with lifted spirits.
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