Normal Humor performed Illinois State Night Live (ISNL) at the Center for the Visual Arts last weekend, and it was quite entertaining. The sketches were well-written and the performers were clearly passionate about their craft. The show also featured performances from Drag Royalty.
Some of the best moments of the show came from the sheer absurdity of the various sketches, such as one in which turkeys rule the world and cook up humans for Thanksgiving.
The concept of the sketch satirizes the hokey, melodramatic nature of dystopian stories in modern media to great effect.
One recurring gag throughout the sketch was the fear of basters: in this world, it’s a clear sign that the turkeys are about to feast on some poor person. The sketch also pokes fun at the cloying nature of these stories, such as when one of the protagonists retells his terrifying encounter with the terrible turkey threat.
The protagonist barely escaped after his mother was killed, and he was taken in by a group of “vegan turkeys,” giving him a second lease on life. He tells this tale to a fellow human with her own reservations about turkeys, and in a Hunger Games-esque story, the two heroes march to take out the turkey president and save humanity once and for all. Unfortunately for the man with the horrifying backstory, he is betrayed by his companion and is sent off to be unceremoniously eaten.
As for the betrayer? She gets to be the annual human pardoned by the turkey president, rewarding her for the betrayal.
The ridiculous role reversal works effectively as a parody of the young adult dystopian novels of the 2010s, and the dispassionate, matter-of-fact nature of the betrayer works well with the histrionic nature of the betrayed.
Another great moment of the night featured a frustrated Edward in a parody of “Twilight.” The sketch parodies the famous scene where Bella finds out Edward is a vampire. In this version of the scene, Bella believes Edward to be a merman, and she refuses to accept reality.
The sketch was not performed live, but the awkward shots and choppy editing only added to the faux-cinematic mood.
I’ve never seen "Twilight," but at one point in the sketch, Edward chucks a stock photo of a deer into the air, and that almost makes me want to check out the infamously corny movies. Unfortunately, the sketch stopped playing about four minutes in due to technical difficulties, but I was too entertained by the spectacle not to mention it.
An additional sketch featured a cockamamie court in which two defendants for vehicular manslaughter rattle off a series of unprintable insults at one other. The judge gives up trying to control the bickering siblings, and the only juror in attendance literally pulls out a bag of popcorn while watching the fireworks. The brother and sister duo bring up increasingly ridiculous childhood stories, humorously revealing that both of the defendants are quite messed up.
One moment earlier in the sketch before the chaos perfectly summarizes the peculiarity of the two defendants. When the sister addresses the judge, she bizarrely calls him “Your Majesty.” When she is corrected and asked to address him by “Your Honor,” she calls him “Your Majesty Honor.”
The two defendants end up ratting each other out in the midst of their heated argument, achieving a narratively fulfilling end to the sketch.
The final sketch I would like spotlight was perhaps even more absurd than the first, but still effective, nonetheless. A customer walks into the “Men’s Warehouse,” and is quickly confused by the strange nature of the establishment. It’s not the store which sells a variety of suits, but one that literally sells men.
The premise is made funnier by the owner channeling the energy of a bodega employee, complete with a cheesy New York accent and an inflated sense of superiority. They repeatedly emphasize that they are not a “schmuck.”
The owner brings out a few of the men for sale, and they both have a wooden personality, perhaps due to the fact that they are made on an assembly line.
The bizarre situation is amplified by the owner’s flighty attitude. They reject the customer’s first request to see a tuxedo and outright denies the existence of such a thing. After scaring off the customer with a rapid increase in the price of the men, they are resigned to the reality that perhaps they are a “schmuck,” after all.
After watching the show, it’s clear to me that ISNL is a criminally underrated event. There were even more sketches than the ones I mentioned, and I enjoyed those too. I plan on going back for the spring edition, and I’m excited to see what the individuals of Normal Humor come up with.
