Hot Lips, Cold Cuts make for big laughs

ANDREW CLARK
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

April 11, 2005

Sketch comedy is leaking into the alternative theatre scene. Case in point: the Boiled Wieners, a Toronto sketch trio whose show, Hot Lips, Cold Cuts opened last Saturday at the new Alley Theatre Workshop off Queen St. W.

Normally, such a small-black box venue would house angst ridden one-man shows, not goofy sketch comedy, but the Boiled Wieners are booked for a four-week run of Saturday-night shows running until April 30.

The Boiled Wieners — Melanie Hunter, Ben McLean and Paul Snepis — formed in 2003. All three come from the improvisational comedy world of Theatresports Toronto and Bad Dog Theatre.

The trio also approaches comedy as entrepreneurs, and they spend a fair amount of time on the road touring their shows. Hot Lips, Cold Cuts is the product of such a process. The troupe toured it for five months through Ontario before opening it in Toronto.

The result is a polished, well-paced piece that presents the Boiled Wieners, gentle but at times twisted, style of comedy. Hot Lips, Cold Cuts, for example, opens with a cute take on cheerleading.

Two friends are at a Leafs game and look to the cheerleaders to bump up their sagging spirits. Instead, they get Boiled Wiener Melanie Hunter playing a depressed, half-Satanic version of the Dallas Cowboys' Cheerleaders. The Leafs are encouraged "Give me a `P', give me an `A' give me a `I' give me an `N' what does it spell? Pain!" Finally she comes out with slit wrists and proceeds to drink her own blood while making reference to the "Dark Lord."

Another bit explored the medieval feud combat "Paper/Rock." Said the king of the rock team, "Nothing can defeat that smothering mass!"

Hot Lips, Cold Cuts features a fair bit of musical comedy, including "Sex on the Beach" a duet about the realities of the romantic cliché: "I hope none of these bugs get stuck up my ..." Well, you get the idea.

There is also a whimsical ditty called "Sixty per cent are Gay," sung by Goran (Snepis), a janitor who looks after a building near Church and Wellesley Sts.

As a cast, the Boiled Wieners are a nice mix. Snepis has a good knack for building quirky characters, while McLean is a talented physical comic with a deft sense of timing.

Hunter is the firecracker of the bunch. Her comedy is explosive and over-the-top, spiced with wry barbs.

While Hot Lips, Cold Cuts contains some dark comedy and the odd bit of profanity, it's a fairly straightforward mainstream show. Most of the material could be transported to television without any severe editing for content.

It is a good reflection of the kind of aesthetic one builds touring. Nothing is better at helping a comedian find the point of mass appeal. The Boiled Wieners' typify this approach and it is working for them.

The Boiled Wieners: clever sketch comedy and no transfats.

BACK to reviews.