by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Members of the comedy troupe Eat, Drink and Be Larry are jumping on the Batman craze that's spreading across the country.
"Batman Starts or Something" is a parody following the basic story of Batman.
Jason Witter, director and actor for the role of Scarecrow, said they worked in pieces from the original '60s show, Tim Burton's "Batman," and anything else they thought related to the parody.
"We're inspired by 'Monty Python' and 'Kids in the Hall,'" he said. "We just try to be as ridiculous as possible."
Witter said the show is scripted but kept loose. Actors will go off on tangents if they suddenly have a good idea and the cast may run with it, but it always goes back to the script.
Martha Stewart opens the show as the head of the prison camp where Batman and a prisoner get into a fight. It's Jelly Belly day and each prisoner gets a jelly bean.
Aaron Frale came up with that idea.
"I thought, prison? Martha Stewart? Sweet," he said. "She's really silly."
Aside from the regular villains - Scarecrow, Joker, Riddler, Penguin and Poison Ivy - Superman and Aquaman also make appearances.
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George Bach, who plays Superman, said the play proves that Superman is clearly superior to Batman in a lot of ways.
"Most of all in the way he manifests his homosexuality," Bach said, referring to one of the scenes between the two superheroes.
Batman is played as the serious man while all the other characters are ridiculous.
"I happen to play the straight man very well," Daniel Cornish (Batman) said, "because I'm not the funniest guy in the troupe."
Leslie Nesbit plays both Batman's childhood friend Susie and Catwoman. The two characters are one and the same in this play, which isn't like the original movie versions.
"I don't have hands with my costume which is really funny, so I can't be sleek and stuff like that," she said. "If you saw 'Batman Begins,' she's like the Katie Holmes role, except she turns into Catwoman. The actual Catwoman is angry and mean, but this one is more bitchy."
During the scene where Batman holds interviews for a sidekick, he gets candidates such as a Bon Jovi cowboy in a see-through shirt, a beggar who carries a dead squirrel on a string, and Aquaman, who reminds Batman they met at the Justice League picnic.
Keyboardist Keary Ortiz accompanies the comedy with sound effects and songs from pop culture. Ortiz said the cast gives him ideas for a song and he improvises them. For example, Alfred the butler has the house to himself and the song "I Touch Myself" starts to play. Alfred does a mock strip tease until he's interrupted.
Some people had to double-up their characters.
"They kind of intermingled all the roles," Nesbit said. "I guess they want a lot of villains in it."
Witter said although they jumped on the Batman bandwagon, superhero parodies are always fun to do.
