RiffTrax Christmas Shorts Live (For Real) review by Jeyl

[Jeyl]

You ever get excited about taking your friends or family out to see something really cool that you hope they would like? That was the type of excitement I had when I took two of my friends to see the first RiffTrax Plan 9 Live show. Unfortunately the show sucked and my friends didn't speak a word about it to me afterwards. I felt like I had given them a bad impression on RiffTrax which was not my intent. Mike and the crew were not at their a-game and a lot of stuff that wasn't riffing was down right dull and not funny at all. Song performances? Unless it's Mike, Bill, Kevin or both are doing the singing, it wasn't fun. That guitar player was one big mood killer.

So when the time came to see the second live event, I decided to go alone because I know my friends wouldn't be interested, and that I shared their disappointment from the first live event. So I drove 35 minutes to the theater, purchased a ticket from the fandango machine, walked right into the theater and watched the show.

Wow. I don't know what kind of powers RiffTrax has, but they took everything I hated about the first event and totally rectified it. This is exactly what I wanted from a RiffTrax event. No 'uninterested' host who couldn't keep her eyes off her cue cards, no guitar playing musician who stalled the time to get to the riffing and no lag interruptions. Mike, Bill and Kevin walk onto the stage, give their seasons greetings, point out the contest winner and immediately jump into the riffing. It didn't take five minutes! And once a short was done, the transitions were quick, to the point and were never dull. Weird Al didn't overstay his welcome and was quite funny to listen to.

I honestly can't think of anything bad to say about this event. It was wonderful fun! That moment with the shovel ("Haha! Jerk is getting a shovel") brought the house down, the special appearance of "Prince of Space" got an applause from the audience and Santa Claus' telling Rudolph "I need you tonight" was the funniest out-of-place moment nobody saw coming as evident with Bill's "We just missed three lines because of that, but it was worth it.".

Great fun. Even the audience didn't get a bad case of the coughs, so that's a plus!

[JonnyFrag]

Werd.
I would have rearranged the shorts a bit...the second short much later in the show. Maybe it was just me, but I thought it was the most consistently funny. It was a train wreck (without the actual train wreck sadly) start to finish and hysterical. The swimming one started to stall the whole night until Larry and Henry were up...

100% concur with the more riffin', less stage show vibe. I was there at Nashville so I didn't feel it as much, but seeing it on the DVD (and what theater goers saw) I can see how that would drag it out badly. My biggest gripe perhaps? Felt a bit short....could have had maybe 2-3 more short shorts there....

[JWC]

Great show! Here's a raw photo from my cell.  I'll try to clear them up later in photoshop.

[Darth Geek]

This was an awesome show. While I don't share all of your criticisms of the first live riff, this was definitely better. The host (as hot as she was) was useless, and although I found Johnathan Coltan a bit funny, he didn't seem to fit with everything else. Glad they stuck to the basics on this one. ALthough I didn't think they should have literally butted two shorts together so much. A little banter between them might have been good.

Great job, guys. I will go to any and all future live riffings.

Also, no feed problems on this one at all in my theater. Anybody have issues?

[TheGiant]

Honestly, compared to the other one, I was actually a little disappointed in this one, the other one Jonathan Colton was part of the reason I even went, and sorry, but if you're going to have Weird Al as a guest, then he should sing more. That's what he does, and he happens to have a few Christmas songs even.

We didn't even get to see the first short, our theater had a problem with the feed, but other than that there was no interference.

Talk about the cue cards, did anyone NOT notice that Weird Al was looking down at his the entire time?

I wouldn't call it awesome but it was fun none the less. I guess I had slightly higher expectations than maybe I should have. 
Everyone has their own taste though, for me I liked the other one better.

[ShadowDog]

This was awesome!  They definitely saved the best for last because that Rudolph short had me in stitches.  Damn that was funny!

And then we had that gift giving scene for the closing credits.  ZOMFG!  Kevin!  Oh my gawd that was fucking hilarious!

The only bad thing was the fact that, though I went to the same theater both times, the first time it was packed to the gills and this time it was only half full.  I don't know what was up with that.  But whatever, whoever didn't come this time missed a HELL of a show!

[JWC]

The David Lynch Santa line had me crying,  I was thinking the same thing at the time

[NYFalcon1981]

ShadowDog I noticed the same thing about my crowd(s) in Rochester NY.

For the Planet 9 riff, the theater was FULL, while tonight it had a nice crowd with good energy it was only 2/3rds full at most

I had a great time at Planet 9 (I do think the "experience" of enjoying riffing in a large group falsely inflated my initial thoughts) and I had a great time at this one, and we had a perfect feed this time.

Well done to everyone involved!

[FaesOne]

I loved it, and it was so fun to meet all the guys afterward, they  were so gracious and sweet.

[ShadowDog]

ShadowDog I noticed the same thing about my crowd(s) in Rochester NY.

Dammit, I hope the issues and miscues with Plan 9 riff didn't have a negative word of mouth spin nationwide.  Mainly because they fixed all the problems they had the first time around and it was just about as perfect a show as possible.

[Moleman]

Full?  2/3rds?

I'd be shocked if we had as many as 12 people where I was at.


I liked this one way better because they just got right down to the riffing.  I too expected Weird Al to do one song and was surprised but not disappointed.  I came to watch riffing and I saw some excellent riffing.  I can always put in one of my many CD's or find the video on Youtube if I want to hear Weird Al.

[vampirehunter42]

True that....

Yea we had more than 10 but less than 15. But that is good for this town. But it was less than the Plan 9 show.

[Jonny Jit]

You ever get excited about taking your friends or family out to see something really cool that you hope they would like? That was the type of excitement I had when I took two of my friends to see the first RiffTrax Plan 9 Live show. Unfortunately the show sucked and my friends didn't speak a word about it to me afterwards. I felt like I had given them a bad impression on RiffTrax which was not my intent. Mike and the crew were not at their a-game and a lot of stuff that wasn't riffing was down right dull and not funny at all. Song performances? Unless it's Mike, Bill, Kevin or both are doing the singing, it wasn't fun. That guitar player was one big mood killer.

So when the time came to see the second live event, I decided to go alone because I know my friends wouldn't be interested, and that I shared their disappointment from the first live event. So I drove 35 minutes to the theater, purchased a ticket from the fandango machine, walked right into the theater and watched the show.

Wow. I don't know what kind of powers RiffTrax has, but they took everything I hated about the first event and totally rectified it. This is exactly what I wanted from a RiffTrax event. No 'uninterested' host who couldn't keep her eyes off her cue cards, no guitar playing musician who stalled the time to get to the riffing and no lag interruptions. Mike, Bill and Kevin walk onto the stage, give their seasons greetings, point out the contest winner and immediately jump into the riffing. It didn't take five minutes! And once a short was done, the transitions were quick, to the point and were never dull. Weird Al didn't overstay his welcome and was quite funny to listen to.

I honestly can't think of anything bad to say about this event. It was wonderful fun! That moment with the shovel ("Haha! Jerk is getting a shovel") brought the house down, the special appearance of "Prince of Space" got an applause from the audience and Santa Claus' telling Rudolph "I need you tonight" was the funniest out-of-place moment nobody saw coming as evident with Bill's "We just missed three lines because of that, but it was worth it.".

Great fun. Even the audience didn't get a bad case of the coughs, so that's a plus!

Interesting point of view.

I was the opposite of you (I alone on the first time and a large group this time ((none of which were Weird Al fans)) but this was great and more like the "real" live shows I saw by them early on (minus the Q and A sesh). 

I prefer the feature length presentations myself but I thought the gift "intermissions" kinda made it feel like the old puppet show of old that we all hold so dear.

This show was great!

[Jonny Jit]

The only bad thing was the fact that, though I went to the same theater both times, the first time it was packed to the gills and this time it was only half full.  I don't know what was up with that.  But whatever, whoever didn't come this time missed a HELL of a show!

same here

[Sharktopus]

For those who are surprised that fewer people showed up than for Plan 9, remember that there's another showing Thursday night. That might be more convenient for the people who weren't there Wednesday. Also, some might expect there to be less chance of technical glitches in the rerun.