Guaranteeing a terrible movie with constant interruptions hardly seems like a way to gain an audience. Well, if you’re part of Cinematic Titanic, that’s exactly how you fill a theater.
Cinematic Titanic, a troupe of professional movie hecklers, arrived in Los Angeles on its tour on Oct. 25 to riff on horribly cheesy feature-length movies in front of a live audience. The five-night show at Largo at the Coronet features a different movie each evening as audiences experience an unusual blend of film and theater.
“It’s an art form that’s uniquely ours,” said Joel Hodgson, creator and cast member of Cinematic Titanic. “Basically we run an old cheesy movie and we riff on it.”
The cast, made up of Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff, Mary Jo Pehl, J. Elvis Weinstein and Hodgson, sits at either side of a movie screen as the likes of Larry Chin and Stud Brown “fight to clean up the ‘hood and make time for some lady loves they meet along the way,” according to the group’s online summary of the film “East Meets Watts.”
The live performers serve as the film’s peanut gallery, a group of people who provide their own commentary, reading from scripts that boast nearly 600 riffs per film. Whether they’re voicing over dialogue, responding to characters or simply commentating on the on-screen action, it’s all an attempt to get a laugh from the crowd.
“You kind of feel like you’re in on the joke. You’re watching these guys and they’re just making fun of it,” said Branden Karleen, a second-year biology student, “like people at home when they rent movies they know are stupid and they just make fun of it the whole time.”
The original 1988 SyFy television show “Mystery Science Theater 3000″ spawned the comedic art of riffing on B-rated movies and was also Hodgson’s brain child. MST, as its fans refer to it, ran until the late ’90s, but Hodgson hasn’t been able to let it go so easily.
“It’s been 10 years since MST got done. Personally, I really missed doing it,” Hodgson said.
And so Cinematic Titanic was born, but this time the movie riffers aren’t stuck inside the audience’s television and the storyline of a janitor sent into space has been abandoned in favor of letting the audience see the people behind their favorite MST characters.
This reunion of sorts of MST cast members means the troupe tends to attract a large audience that’s familiar with the original television show. According to Hodgson, college-aged fans are drawn to Cinematic Titanic either because they grew up watching MST with their families or recently discovered clips online. Watching MST became a Saturday morning ritual for Karleen, who first saw it thanks to an older brother. And while he still holds that the show belongs back on the air, he’s excited to see Cinematic Titanic’s first live L.A. show in over a year and a half.
This will be Cinematic’s first appearance at Largo at the Coronet despite being long-time friends of the owner and booker, Mark Flanagan. The venue’s old Fairfax location meant there wasn’t nearly enough room for the five-person peanut gallery and its large film screen. However, the new La Cienega location is finally ready to welcome Cinematic Titanic to its stage.
“We expect nerdy people, parents, MST fans, college students with that sort of lost look in their eyes,” Flanagan said. “A real cross section.”
Flanagan is also offering UCLA students a special buy-one-get-one-free offer on Cinematic Titanic tickets if they say “go bruins” when ordering their tickets over the phone.
Hodgson will be the first to say movie riffing is low-profile, but he’s also a firm believer in the inherent humor of Cinematic Titanic whether or not you’re familiar with MST.
“It’s true ”“ none of us is famous enough to be on the surreal world,” Hodgson said. “We’re just really looking forward to performing.”