Review: Het Parool (In English)

Me, MySpace and iPod
BY MERIJN HENFLING

Het PAROOL
September 26, 2006

Boom Chicago has a new show cleverly titled Me, MySpace and iPod. After two shows about politicics like integration and terrorism, this show deals with the influence of modern technology.

What is the down side of living in a fast world? Anonymity, shallowness, lack of privacy and strange encounters: Boom Chicago incorporates all this in short skits.

Compared to previous themes the topic of technology is a bit light. The show is funny entertainment, nothing more, nothing less. Considering Boom Chicago's young audience it's a great choice. The people in the audience do relate to the theme.

Every audience member the actors randomly picked to talk to seemed to fit in this target group. The first made radio on his web log, the second worked for MTV while the third just got an iPod for a birthday present.

What is it that Boom does again? Their show is a succession of scenes, songs and improvisations. Long before the Lama's started improvising for BNN, Boom Chicago 's American comedians where doing it in Amsterdam for years, combining them with sharp skits.

Thankfully these open improvisations have moved more to the background and were replaced by scripted scenes. Classic improvisation games that need the participation of the audience (name a famous person, location, or action) sometimes miss a clear direction and aren't always as sharp.

Better is when the improvisation fits the theme of the show which is more and more. A guy in the audience is interviewed and Boom creates a live video blog of his life. The scene where the comedians randomly pick five friends from an audience member's MySpace site is also genius. The actors then act out what would happen if these five friends would meet. Also strong is the scene in which never before found songs of Bob Dylan en Andre Hazes are watched on a video iPod. It is up to the audience to come up with the song titles after which these songs are performed by the comedians: a perfect combination of a scripted scene and improvisation.

Still, sometimes the use of technology is far fetched. A scene about the abuse of a credit card needs too much explanation with computer images. But then again, when Boom Chicago presents Anne Frank's video blog, we are once again grateful that they decided to make Amsterdam their home.