Kosher Theatresports: more laughs than you could poke a shtick at!
In what was the closest finish ever seen in 22 years of Kosher Theatresports at Sydney’s Bondi Pavilion Theatre.
Geoff Sirmai, Dave Bloustien, Joel Goodman and Jon Williams Photo: Ben Apfelbaum
The team of Surfin’ Sephardi (Dave Bloustien, Joel Goodman and Jon Williams) won the coveted “Kiddush Cup” after a dramatic final round tie-breaker against eventual runners-up Nippers with Kippers (Dave Callan, Liz Hovey and Mack Callan). Both had finished the scheduled rounds of impro comedy scenes equal first on 56 points; the Nippers had earlier already won a tie-breaker ‘statues’ scene to nudge Slip Slop Shlep (Adaya Turkia, Dave Borowski and Oliver Burton) out of equal 2nd place to qualify for the final round. Fourth on the night were The Beach Goys (Matthew Friedman, Philip Feinstein, Scott Brown and John Knowles) with Judah Maccabeach (Paul and Liora Baram, Michael and Jordan Gregory) fifth.
The tie-breaker was played as an “I can top that” scene with players taking it in turns to outdo each other; the played a hilarious scene suggested by an audience member: fighting over the last car parking spot at Westfield!
Earlier highlights included the winners doing an entire scene in faux Yiddish – which had the large crowd in stitches. An accent roller-coaster scene by Slip Slop Shlep covered the globe including another audience suggestion: a Moriah College accent! There were Emotional Replays, Songs, a scene entirely in Rhyming Couplets, Mime, a film noir Typewriter scene… plus a joyful skit about same-sex marriage in a synagogue that had the crowd cheering. In one scene, Matt Friedman delivered all his
Theatresports Photo: Ben Apfelbaum
dialogue from a page out of a Chekov playscript… and another saw the entire cast throwing together short, lightning-fast scenes on the theme of Travel.
Moment of the match was a ‘Death in a Minute’ – with a surprise resurrection twist – by Judah Maccabeach’s Liora Baram . Best and Fairest was Dave Callan with visiting Israel-based Aussie Adaya Turkia awarded Rookie of the Year.
MCs Ewan Campbell and Geoff Sirmai kept the night flowing with musical improviser Benny Davis (from The Axis of Awesome) providing amazing improvised accompaniment and effects from the keyboard. Judges were Theatresports doyen Lyn Pierse, actor-director Tanya Goldberg and composer-performer Joanna Weinberg. Sirmai joked that a judges’ chambers of Goldberg, Weinberg and Pearce sounded just about right!
Prizes for players and audience members include hotel packages from TFE (the Vibe/Medina group) theatre passes to the Ensemble, Glen Street, Griffin and Sport for Jove theatre companies – among others – plus Five Stones kosher wine and Sweet William kosher chocolates to dai-dai-dai for!
A thorougly enjoyable and hilarious night. My only regret is not attending the earlier 21 epidodes of then event from previous years. I’ll be there next year for sure.