Why not an intermission & ending skit?

[CJSchmidt]

I brought a bunch of newbies to Manos & Birdemic and they all had a blast. On the car ride back we talked about what they liked and didn't like and we brainstormed a few things. I don't want to complain or tell the guys how to do their job, but I thought it was interesting to hear from people who had no idea what they were getting into and how a lot of what they were describing existed in MST3K.

The big one was that no matter how great the riffs are, the movie can really drag on (Birdemic specifically). Why not save some of the skits/shorts/banter for an intermission? People would know the characters at that point, so they could dress someone up for a skit. Maybe throw in a short to mix things up? Some banter about the film with interesting trivia? I think this would really help with the pacing and keep the feature from dragging.

The other suggestion that I had was that the guys have a brief written feature to end the show on. Maybe "What We All Learned Tonight"? The people I came with were sick of Birdemic by the time the show was over (not the guys fault) and the goofing off on stage was fun, but the endings always feel a bit like everyone is just ready to go home. A polished recap skit and goodnight message might inject some much needed energy into an audience.

My last thought is that they're missing a great opportunity to advertise and explain RiffTrax.com. There are always new people in attendance who might not get the whole mp3 + DVD thing or slacker fans who don't know about all the recent VOD releases. Why not show some clips from recently released or upcoming videos to use that coupon code on? Announcing the Halloween show after Manos made a huge difference for my group (the whole theater lit up from people excitedly adding it to their cell phone calendars), but I know that isn't always possible.

Anyway, those were the suggestions we came up with. All of the newbies I brought along plan on coming back for the next show (as long as it isn't as painful as Birdemic) and went home with various MST/Rifftrax DVDs from my collection.