Played Like Heroes
Yes Diggity brought a ton of energy to the stage and continued to crack up both the audience and themselves as the show progressed. Many of these players are on teams all over the city and bring years of experience and a ton of talent to this Incubator Playground team. This specific evening, they took us on a journey through intercourse at Jiffy Lube, a movie theater, a lingerie shop, Wolf Lodge in Vail and special appearances were made by Jesus Christ, G.E. Smith and Iron Man, more or less.
Yes Diggity consists of Becca Barish, Paul Chimko, Sean Cooley, Mary Catherine Curran, Mark Denny, Harrison George, Kelsey Kinney, Eli Mandel, Tyler Parker, Tanner Tananbaum and Dan White. For the performance I saw, they received the suggestion of “plastic.” Mary Catherine and Mark started a scene about how they met on a sales trip. He worked for GE for 26 years and he “found” her on a sales trip, while he was scuba diving. Fourteen years later they got married and she still didn’t know what GE was or what they did. There was a witty line mentioned about how they drove a Lincoln Towncar, which Mark referred to as “business upfront and a party in the back” which was, conveniently, also how he referred to her. Nicely placed pun.
Tanner had a fun scene with “G.E. Smith,” lead guitarist for SNL in the 90’s at a TCBY. G.E. explained how he now plays backup music at the Wolf Lodge in Vail and, as a very stunned and excited fan, Tanner expressed how much he would love to play backup music with him. G.E. extended the invited and then offered to share an ice cream, to which Tanner exclaimed, “Share a cream with the GE!?” in disbelief.
Stemming off of disbelief, Mary Catherine found herself as an unexpecting father-to-be when she realized she didn’t use protection with “Darlene” (played by Paul). To which Darlene was amazed by the miracle of pregnancy and went into a whole Mary and Joseph rant in the middle of Jiffy Lube . Mary Catherine exclaimed, “Miracle!? It’s not a miracle, Darlene. Jesus Christ! I-I-I mean, not Jesus Christ… I can’t be the father of a fucking Mesiah.” And Darlene responded, “I bet Joseph and Mary had this same conversation…”
We then found ourselves in La Perla, a lingerie shop that also sold pashminas. When Mark edited the scene and coyly asked Paul what he bought him, Paul revealed he bought him (his wife) an Iron Man costume. This scene cleverly transitioned into employees working at a discount movie theatre where we discovered that the only thing that brings people to this theatre are the employees in costume and the overall experience. Mary Catherine stepped in and asked the manager of the theatre if he had any nativity related costumes she could wear. Brilliant, great callback.
Next, we are in a movie theatre where Mary Catherine was inquiring if she could just be treated as an equal to her date. “Can I sit? This just indicates how you see me as a person – I’m always standing for you.” As she marches out of the theatre, the next scene is the same character with her mother. To which mother says, “As your mother, I’m proud of you that you took a stance, but…I want grandkids…Have you tried getting fucked at a Jiffy Lube?”
Mary Catherine transports right back to the Jiffy Lube, where she expresses to Sean that she just wants to get fucked in a Jiffy Lube and that, sadly, she’s “Just looking for love in all the wrong places.”
The show winds up by running into Kevin, lead guitarist, from Marsalis’ band on Jay Leno. GE Smith and Kevin end up working together as backup musicians with Tanner at the Wolf Lodge. They also happen to be wearing Iron Man costumes. And what ties ends things up better than Iron Man costumes? Nothing. That’s right.
Yes Diggity has great chemistry on stage and is a great pleasure to watch. Mary Catherine had an incredible show, landing line after line. Yes Diggity has shows coming up at the end of May on the 24th and 29th, so if your schedule is open, please take a few minutes to check out the fun these players bring to the stage. Thanks for having me guys!
