Review - Booth & Pat: Slow Children Playing

The last time I reviewed the cabaret antics of singing comedians Booth Daniels and Patrick Frankfort, a/k/a Booth & Pat, the description, "The Smothers Brothers on crystal meth," entered the picture. In their new gig, Slow Children Playing, which has one more scheduled performance at The Duplex on June 20th, it seems the boys have upped the dosage.

The combination of Pat, the dim-witted guitar player with a goofy smile and a delusionally high regard for his appeal to the ladies, and Booth, the hyper-intense voice of reason and understated sarcasm, was merely very, very funny six month ago. But now, like a classical duo that just needs time in front of audiences to evolve their playing into making music, Booth & Pat are developing into a well-oiled laugh-riot machine. The quirky absurdity of their verbal give-and-take slickly glides on new layers of polish without losing any of the spontaneity that made it work so well in the first place. These guys are hilarious.

When they do covers, there's always a twist, like their riff on Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback," where they imagine all the out-of-style things they can bring back. ("I'm bringing dial-up back / Those slow connections are where it's at.") What seems to begin as a normal rendition of Lennon and McCartney's "Let It Be" turns into a medley of every imaginable song with the same chord structure. Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" is slowed-down and sung with such heartfelt sincerity that the song itself becomes the joke.

They also do Frankfort's original tunes, the best of which has him emoting, "Where have all the straight girls gone," (sounding just enough like Paula Cole's plea concerning cowboys) after a history of girlfriends break it off with him by saying they're lesbians. I can't give away big joke from Frankfort's new idea for a wedding song, but it's extremely inappropriate and extremely funny, as is Daniels' shocked reaction.

The pair keeps topping themselves with a medley of popular songs that feature nonsense lyrics ("coo-coo-cachoo," "hi-de-hi-de-hi," "doo wa ditty ditty dum ditty doo," etc.) and a big Spice Girls medley is terrific fun.

But what makes the act really work is the frequently hilarious between-song patter that establishes the on-stage personas which carry over into the musical performances. With nary a punch line they deliver solid character humor that brings a 21st Century edginess to the old tradition of comedy duos.

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