Some of the best fun to be had at an improv comedy show doesn’t necessarily have a whole lot to do with the comedy itself. Some of the most interesting aspects of improv rest just beyond the moment. Outside the jokes themselves it’s fascinating to watch the creative mind at work onstage live and in the moment. When it’s just a performer, as stage and Whatever Comes Next, a performance can be kind of a breathtaking metaphor for life itself. I figure this must be the main appeal for the relatively recent phenomena of performance competitive pun slams. I figure this must be it. There’s no way it could actually be the puns. It’s difficult to imagine people getting all hot and bothered by puns. With competitive punmanship popping-up on stages all over the country, I genuinely hope that it’s not the puns themselves that are bringing in such large audiences nationwide.
In any case, the latest local exhibition of the phenomenon comes to Milwaukkee this coming weekend courtesy of Pundamonium: The Milwaukee Pun Slam. One by one ten contestants have two minutes to make puns based on prompts that they have been given. Each contestant is immediately judged by five members of the audience who have been selected before the show. Each poem is assigned a number between 1 and 10. Then there’s a lightning round where each contestant gets 30 seconds after the prompt. The top four contestants then compete in a final head-to-head pun-off.
The latest Pundamonium ricochets into Shank Hall on 1434 N. Farwell Ave. May 21. The show starts at 7:00 p.m. For more information, visit Pundamonium online.
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