Layers: WET TUX – A Red Carpet Late Night Affair

It’s a simple conceit:

In the aftermath of the apocalypse, those who are useful – scientists, doctors, engineers – set out to build a better world. Those with no skills, the dregs, the bottom of the barrel, become society’s entertainers.

They’ve decided to put on a late night talk show.

If you’re not laughing yet, let me let you in on where my head is at:

Viewers are migrating away from cable television to online content, where people like former late night host David Letterman await them with open arms. Late night cable shows are also migrating online, though chopped and clipped in the baler of Youtube and promoted by San Bruno’s powerful algorithms — a pivot Google has put into play ever since their blond-tousled star infamously filmed infamous events in an infamous forest.

So then, maybe, this is the great meta-joke of WET TUX: the one thing that survives the apocalypse is this dying media format. The once venerated late night show is now the cockroach of comedy.

The leader of the cockroaches is Thomas Fricilone, the co-founder of Ground Floor Comedy. His intuition was to playfully break the rules of sensible television production. By doing so, Wet Tux welcomes you into an environment that can be every bit as creative as it is destructive. An experience in equal measures nostalgic as it is pioneering; a show as much Johnny Carson as Cowboy Curtis.

One of the show’s great strength is the wonderful cast Fricilone has assembled including Adam Bangser, Kelly Cooper, Caitlin Dullea, Mac Edgerly, Rachel Kaly, Tim Lamphier, and Ian Lockwood.

They wear bad 80’s prom outfits, dance like St. Vitus, and are very, very sweaty— highlighting, I think, the soppy, desperate underbelly of the glitzy entertainment industry.

To the cast’s charming credit, I can reasonably say that never before has a live audience become so divided over the life of a plant.

Further complementing the cast are a delightful blend of commercials by Tynan Delong, Caroline Yost, Keaton Monger, Andrew Benedict, Colin Burgess, and Maya Sharma.

Rising comedians Julio Torres (SNL) and Ana Faberga (The Chris Gethard Show) greatly helped to open the night.

Wet Tux will feature a second showing again at Film Noir Cinema(122 Meserole Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222) this Friday, July 20th at 7PM.

If you can’t make it to the show, the episode should be available online soon.

However, if you can go, you should.

The night of the premiere, at Greenpoint’s wonderful Film Noir Cinema, I was greeted by a snazzy red carpet, a wonderful crowd, and a free drink I probably should have paid for.

I can’t guarantee all these elements will be there again.

But the show will be. And it is a thing very much worth seeing.

Mentions: The next showing of WET TUX will be on Friday, July 20th at 7PM at Cinema Noir.