Nerd Stuff: Cinematic Titanic

So I am still new to this whole blogging thing and I will just preface this entry by stating that I don't really have good photos to illustrate this story. This is for a couple reasons, most importantly because I didn't bring my camera (oops), just my iPhone, and I drank too much boxed wine so I decided to go home right when the show ended instead of meeting the guys like a professional blogger would have done (double oops).

My fellow nerds in line

Show poster

How amazing is this theater?

Anyway, last night my husband and I went to see Cinematic Titanic at San Francisco's beautiful Castro Theater. Cinematic Titanic is a comedy troupe of movie "riffers" who are all alums of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Let's back up a little, in case you lived under a rock in the 1990's (or, I guess if you didn't have cable).

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was a show where a guy and two robots watch a "bad" movie (usually an old science fiction B-movie, but there was a variety of genres covered) and crack wise about the movie's crappy content. There is a whole story behind the "why" the guy and the robots do this, but I won't get into all that here. What I can tell you is that when I discovered this show as a teenager I thought "YES! These guys 'get it'!". They referenced everything from pop culture to art and literature and damn it, they were funny. Even my mom liked it and continued to watch it after I left home.

In MST3k, the riffers would watch in silhouette. 

Cinematic Titanic is a live version of MST3k basically (sans robots), and is just as smart and funny as its ancestor. The five comedians sit on either side of the screen as the movie plays and read their scripted jokes off of iPads to coincide with whatever lunacy is happening in the film (Yes, I realize a photo would be helpful here, sorry about that). The theater was PACKED (if you have never been to the Castro, its HUGE) and everyone was laughing hard. Like that kind of laughter that makes your face kind of ugly but you are so happy you don't care. It was a great show, and we had so much fun. 


(Note to Mom: I know last time I saw CT I said I wanted to take you next time, I failed. I will make it happen for next time!)

If you haven't seen Mystery Science Theater 3000, you can check it out on Netflix, many of the episodes are available on the "instant" feature as well.