Hgeocities.com/jw372.geo/18mmw.htmlgeocities.com/jw372.geo/18mmw.htmldelayedx[J OKtext/htmlb.HSun, 08 Apr 2001 19:44:30 GMTPMozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *[J 18mmw     First off, one thing must be said:  The 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors is one of the funniest comedy troupes currently in existence.  Their over the top performances in skits like "The Feminine Evolution," where a women, portrayed charmingly by Rhoda Gravador,  wrestles with a red demon representing her period, aided by various feminine hygeine devices, are filled with a joyous abandon.  That said, they would probably benefit from a little polishing.  While their grasp of physical comedy is unparalleled, they seem to feel that every joke that comes along must be milked for all it's worth.
    It's hard not to compare this group to Monty Python, whom they cite as a comic ancestor of sorts.  Like Monty Python, some skits seem to drag on - most notably the "Political or Paranoid" skit.  At the end of this skit, much of the applause, one suspects, came from relief;  although comically perfect, the denouement could not entirely salvage the rest of the lengthy-seeming skit.
    But Monty Python, and most notably John Cleese, had two gifts that the 18MMW could benefit from.  The first is the ability to make a joke come out of nowhere.  Cleese would throw lines like "Don't touch me, I don't know where you've been" out to hysterical laughter, mainly because of the unexpectedness.  While sitting in the audience at Gammage on Friday, I would occasionally overhear the (rather rowdy) group sitting behind me murmur the punchlines before they came.
    The second of Monty Python's great gifts was the throw-away joke.  They would take a moderately amusing line, throw it out there, and then ignore it, thus doubling its comedic value.  The 18MMW seem to hold a uniquely egalitarian idea that all jokes are created equal and must be milked for everything they're worth.  They occasionally overcome this, to great effect.  In the self-defense class skit, members of the class performed hilarious bits of comedy amongst themselves.
    Interestingly enough, the self-defense skit contained the one bit that made me feel like an outsider.  At one point, the self-defense instructor pretends to be an attacker by saying, "Hey you little gook, I'm John McCain."  I personally found this attack on one who has suffered so much in the service of his country tasteless and offensive.  John McCain may be a racist, but he certainly has one hell of a reason to be.  Further, I suspect that Senator McCain's anger is pretty much limited to the North Vietnamese people, rather than being a wide-spread hatred of Asian people.
    In the second part of the program, they turn to the history of a fictitious country called Sukiprata.  The framework is clumsy, and unworthy of the group's talents, but within it are several hilarious skits, including Harold Byun's delightful turn as "Pork".  Byun actually turns in one of the funniest performances in the group.  He seems highly charismatic, and attractive, and it would be worth the money for the ticket (had I actually paid) just to see him act.
    Reading over this review, I seem to have a lot of negative things to say about the group, but this maye because it would take far, far too long to enumerate the number of things they do pants-wettingly right.  Just go see them, OK?