Henchmen
Improv Boston, 40 Prospect Street, Cambridge
8pm, $16 / $10 seniors and students
[Tickets]
Since July, Improv Boston has presented Henchmen each Friday. It's an improv comedy series focusing on the little guy in the evil villain food chain. From Tarantino to Batman to Bond, this improv series has spanned criminal and crime-fighting genres. The series finishes this Friday in outer space with tributes to Star Trek and Star Wars. Bostonist had the opportunity to chat with Henchmen director Kevin Harrington about the development of this improv series.
Bostonist: What inspired this show? Too many hours spent as an office drone?
Harrington: I am a huge fan of Venture Bros. and Frisky Dingo, which are animated satires of the Henchmen genre. I originally performed Henchmen with two of my friends at an open mic night at our theatre. The idea was that we were three Henchmen perform monologues and little scenes inspired by the name of a villain and a potential scheme that we would have to perform. This notion was actually inspired a bit by a previous job I had. I used to work in a staffing firm, and I held out about as long as most Henches do. I think the cyclical nature of being used, abused, and recycled as a Hench parallels how it is to work as a temp. I started out as a temp, and was asked to become a recruiter. Later, when I was being let go, I was actually offered a chance to work on one of their temporary contracts until I found a new job. Can you taste the sweet irony?
Of course I am a huge fan of comics and sci-fi, so I am constantly looking for fun things that can draw on these as source material.
How much is decided before the show? How much is improvised?
We map out the genres that we want to play with in advance of the show. We actually had these set about two months before we opened, right around the time the rehearsal process began. Then my two prop and costume mistresses, and myself, got together and brainstormed what we want the look and feel of the show to be like.
The show is essentially a role reversal, where the villains and heroes are now the side stories and we are focusing on the other dimensions of people who are typically the lackeys. The costumes, props, and set design that we give the actors informs them and gives them additional inspiration to create in a show. Think of it as providing the backdrop or setting that the improvisers play in. The show is very much inspired by movies, so I wanted to give the audience the feel that this whole experience is like going to the movies.
More hench wisdom after the jump!
How much changes from show to show?
We always have the same three Henches from week to week: Hannah Foell, Matt Kapolka, and Jason Constantinou. The villains and heroes will shift around, so different people get to be the "big boss" at different times. I like to have everyone who is not a set Henchman get a shot at being the hero or villain. The idea is that the Henchmen provide a grounding for the show through its various twists of genre or boss. The Henches have lives and families outside of the the group they are serving, so certain fun characters or neighbors do pop up again and again. Jason's Hench has a family, and it has become a running joke that he is the hardworking middle class father who just wants to see more little league games, but is constantly working on another plot to control the world, etc. The world around the Henches will change, but the characters' traits and personal lives will often be uniform--unless they get vaporized and need to be cloned.
Which genre has the best costumes?
That is tough. I like them all. I think the Tarantino shows had a really slick style and presentation to them. We had everyone wearing white button shirts and all black, so they looked just like gangsters from Reservoir Dogs. We also had some very realistic fake, or boffer, guns that we have used through out the show. We made these guns out of foam and duct tape, so that people could use them safely for stage combat in show. It makes things look cool when you actually pistol-whip a spy, and even better when my actors don't really get hurt. I am a total soccer mom when it comes to my shows, I am always worried my kids will play too rough and get hurt. The great thing about these guns and other props is that we didn't have to sacrifice look with safety. It would look pretty retarded if everyone had to run around with dayglo nerf swords for the show. I think the Batman shows had my favorite props, so far, because the "bang" "pow" signs are so clutch. The audience started to lose it when we pulled those out. I don't want to give anything away, but I am a big fan of the things we have in store for our space shows. (cough cough) Death rays... robots... troops.
Is it harder out there for an evil genius or Henchman?
I think I would have to pick an evil genius. An evil genius knows how bad he is screwed because of the profession he chose. Most Henches have a short life expectancy and low IQ. Maybe I should reverse that because I believe the latter determines the former. Ignorance is bliss; if you don't know you are in trouble or how bad you have it, then you don't really complain. Of course the threat of being cloned, mutated, disintegrated, or flattened can make most Henches "happy" to serve. Also, can you imagine the cost of rebuilding or repairing a lair? How about the cost of recruiting or rebuilding an army? Temps can get expensive, especially if they are constantly being "downsized," and good help is hard to find, especially when you are evil.
Full disclosure: Bailey Triggs is a member of Improv Boston's sketch comedy troupe The Latchkey Kids.
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