How bizarre can the oddest of science fiction go? Kevin Maher strives to demonstrate this to us in his monthly program, The Sci Fi Screening Room, an hour or so long showing of clips from the best of the worst in aliens, monsters and super heroes.
Wednesday night, after canning the anticipated Best Of The Sci Fi Screening Room in lieu of Passover, Maher hosted a Grab Bag Show at Under St. Mark’s Theater in the East Village. In whirlwind of John Candy as Orson Wells, Adam West and Ghetto Man, I am still not entirely sure what happened. Almost immediately we were swept up in a whirlwind of ghouls, sups and a bag of candy as the night opened with a scene from the 1970s movie Trog with Joan Crawford. Following that was the last scene from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes with Roddy McDowall. Next we were treated to The Beyond, which has the original Joe the Plumber and he isn’t the all-American man of the McCain-Palin campaign.
I figured the “Grab Bag” title came from our ability to vote the next clip. This was done in numerous ways, from clapping, cheering, a show of hands, to rooting for our beer (or in this case Moxy) guzzling champion. From the unified chants coming from the sparse audience, I think these contests are common on Maher’s night, which stemmed from his science fiction series on American Movie Classic’s website. The show got picked up by the Horse Trade Theater Group and has been running since November 2007. The theme for his next one on May 20: Robots. Prepared to be annihilated with glorious geekyness.
