Cherie C.
Yelp
::sits slackjawed for a moment::
::shakes head, comes to, tries to speak::
Uh, er...whoa. I visited Bug Theatre for Freak Train after months of missed attempts. I had my own ideas about what the night might be, and all of them were wrong. It was a wild, free-for-all open mic theatre night. With free beer. GOOD free beer.
My friend had forgotten her wallet, so in solidarity I passed on giving my ID to get my hand stamped. Later, I saw people in the concession line with beers already in hand. "They must sell really good popcorn!" I joked. Little did I know, those folks were in line for more free beer from Breckenridge. Dang; shoulda gotten that stamp.
On to the show. The premise: arrive early to get on the list to perform in this un-juried open mic. You get 5 minutes to do your thing (think "America's Got Talent" with no censorship at all). There were good performers (including a regular musician who really impressed us), funny performers (a man and his puppets lip-syncing some hardcore), magicians, offensive stand-up, and a tall, skinny, bearded guy wearing nothing but a tube sock while running around playing a flute. That last one prompted me to apologize to my guest, who alternated between looking away in fear and laughing nervously. But at Freak Train, we learned, all are welcome.
The most impressive aspect of the evening was the emcee. She was fantastic. She kept things going, was respectful to all performers and demanded the audience be the same, and had a great sense of humor about it all. She handled hecklers quite well and really made the evening work. She even maintained some composure after the tube-socked flutist.
The venue is rather worn, the seats have seen better days, and I foolishly left my purse on the floor to get soaked in spilled free beer which ran down the sloped floor. But if the rest of the performances are as smooth and well-managed as Freak Train (judging by the emcee and the sound A/V guy), I'd definitely give a Bug Theatre production a try.
And if you're looking for a wild mixed bag of performance (and free beer!), check out Freak Train on the last Monday of every month. Thanks to Freak Train, my visiting friend will not soon forget Denver.