Image via Mystery Science Theater 3000 mst3klive.com
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Time Bubble Tour
Emily Marsh plays Emily Connor in the current theatrical iteration of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K), “The Time Bubble Tour,” coming 7 p.m. Monday, Nov. 15 to The Pabst Theater (144 E. Wells St.). She candid about how her mom just doesn’t get it.
“They had put out a call for a singing puppeteer, and as a long-time fan of the show, I knew I had to audition. I was surprised when Joel [Hodgson, MST3K’s creator] was there in the room for the audition,” Marsh says. “So at the end of my audition, I shared how much the show had meant to my dad, my brother, and me.
“I also decided to share that my mom, on the other hand, when she had heard about the audition had said ‘That show got a national tour?’ Everyone, including Joel started laughing and I walked out the door. A week goes by and I get called back. At the end of the call back, there was an interview portion and Joel told me how funny he thought it was that I had mentioned what my mom had said about the show. I then got to share that I hadn’t been entirely truthful. What she had actually said was ‘That stupid show got a national tour?’ Once again Joel and everyone behind the table laughed, and according to Joel that was when I booked the part.”
The characters portrayed by Marsh, Hodgson and two other human—Mike J. Nelson and Jonah Ray—have all been subjected to some of the weirdest and worst in sci-fi-horror in cinematic history under the twisted premise that has made MST3K such a cultishly beloved show since 1988: a mad scientist forces an astronaut to watch bad movies to test the human brain under such aesthetically dubious duress.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Wisecracking Robots
Fortunately, those human subjects are allowed to snark about the questionable programming alongside wisecracking robots. Dedicated MSTies know of the series’ animatronic co-stars including Tom Servo, Cambot and Gypsy, but Marsh’s AI soulmate is the caustic Crow T. Robot. Of him, she says, “Deep down inside I am a cynical person and sarcastic comedy hits me in my funny bone every time.”
The flick Marsh and her bot buddies have been giving grief to on the “Time Bubble Tour” is 1985’s ventriloquism-and-necromancy-themed Making Contact. It’s not every regrettable reel of celluloid that can make the MST3K grade, but Marsh believes Contact has all the requisite ingredients for prime ripostes.
Painfully Earnest
“The thing that makes it a great movie for MST3K is earnestness, pacing, and ambition,” Marsh explains. “Making Contact is painfully earnest in its attempt to be an actual Spielbergesque childhood classic. Next is pacing, because some movies are just so slow-paced there is no saving them. Luckily, Making Contact has pretty fast pacing. Finally, ambition: this movie is swinging for the fences. Without giving too much away, there are some wild choices in this movie that are hilariously bad, one could even say baffling.”
Far more heartening than baffling for Marsh has been the reception she has received from the show's aficionados “The response has been incredibly kind and welcoming. I think when you become a part of a show that has fans from all the way back to its origins in 1988, it’s easy to worry that the change you are bringing will not be accepted,” she observes, “but the opposite has been true. I have had many fans of the show reach out to say how much fun they have had watching the live show and how glad they are to have me be a part of it. In a recent meet and greet a fan literally said, ‘welcome to the MST3k family.’ It’s hard to put into words how much that meant to hear.”
