Photo Credit: Sara Bill
When “Bob’s Burgers” premiered on Fox’s Animation Domination programming block in 2011, there were reasons to be hopeful. For one thing it had the simple virtue of not being yet another Seth McFarlane production, but beyond that it boasted a killer comedic cast and was created by Loren Bouchard, who, along with Brendon Small, also came up with the criminally under-appreciated “Home Movies.” Sadly, in network television the same qualities that suggested such promise—its offbeat blend of subtle humor and gross-out gags, the quirky characters, etc.—are also sometimes indicators that a series will get canceled before it can find an audience and fulfill that potential. But “Bob’s Burgers” survived and has flourished for five seasons, largely thanks to a rabid cult following, many of whom turned out to pack the Riverside Theater Saturday night.
The first half of the program consisted of short, but satisfying, standup sets from each of the five principal cast members that make up the burger-slinging Belcher family. First was Dan Mintz, voice of the exceptionally awkward daughter Tina, who, yes, really talks like that and uses a deadpan monotone to deliver finely tuned one-liners; followed by John Roberts, who explained how playing matriarch and lovable dingbat Linda hasn’t exactly helped his sex life; and Kristen Schaal, who fills the role of psychotic kid sister Louise on the show but here committed to an entertaining bit as Emily Dickinson. Rounding out the segment was Bob himself, H. Jon Benjamin, with a hilarious dissection of the worst band bio ever; and Eugene Mirman, voice of fart-obsessed son Gene, with some absurdist ways to have fun on LinkedIn.
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After each had their turn, the audience was treated to clips from a couple of upcoming episodes, some still only roughly animated, and Bouchard joined the cast to sing a few of the show’s many musical numbers as well as lead them through a table read of yet another still-to-be-broadcast episode (well, two-thirds of it anyway—no spoilers here). While the cast are all great comics in their own right, together they’re funnier than they could ever hope to be individually, especially since the live setting allowed for plenty of spontaneous, ad-libbed digressions from the script. Lastly, there was a brief Q&A session, which provided some further opportunities for off-the-cuff jokes and closed out a show which should serve as proof that, even five seasons on, “Bob’s Burgers” still has a promising future ahead of it.
