[MADtv] Frank Caeti at Chicago Improv Festival

[Frank Caeti]

Hi everyone-

Wanted to say hello and say if you're near Chicago this week I'll be performing 4 times at the festival. Info is below as well as a review from FrankenMatt. We just got back from performing in Charleston, South Carolina and the review is from there. They grade the shows there and we got an A+. Yay! Also, the reviewer got Matt and I mixed up. Boo!

FrankenMatt is every saturday at The Studio Theater at Second City in Hollywood. Ditka performs around town and will return to a regular run in Late June at the Second City Hollywood.

Wednesday 8:30pm
FrankenMatt, an improv duo with MADtv and Second City alum Frank Caeti and Second City alum Matt Craig as the headliners, and Second City alum Brian Gallivan opens the bill by performing his new one-man show.
Second City ETC
1608 N Wells
Chicago, IL 60614
(312) 337-3992
Tix are $15

Friday Night 8pm
Ditka at the Lakeshore Theater at 8pm. w/ Improsia and Razowsky and Clifford
3175 N. Broadway
Chicago, IL
Tix $20

Saturday Night
10pm ComedySportz Alumni Show-$19
12 Midnight The Hot Karl-$10
929 W. Belmont
Chicago, IL

Review from Charleston City Paper by Meaghan Strickland
Frankenmatt take audiences on a whirlwind journey through their overactive imaginations

A+

Repeating the lines of a performance during a performance is a major faux pas, don't you agree? But throughout Frankenmatt Present: Pilgrimage, the long-form road trip-inspired improv show brought to Charleston by Frank Caeti and Matt Craig, several audience members, most notably the gentleman with the voice immodulator sitting just in front of me, found approximately 85 percent of the show worthy of repeating in full volume to his neighbor.

Others in the audience, despite Craig's very specific opening request for only the audience's laughs of delight or shrieks of terror,€ could not help but provide frequent uncalled for contributions to the off-the-cuff dialogue.

Such is the effect of Frankenmatt and, surely, Caeti and Craig are used to it. (Confession: I, too, repeated one particularly hilarious line aloud immediately after it was delivered. I also guffawed the gum out of my mouth twice during the show.)

Caeti and Craig are so comfortable on stage, they softly rock the whole audience into their world and almost force inappropriate reaction/participation, which they then expertly adjust for and seamlessly tie into the action. During car-trip scenes, for example, overzealous audience members were treated as outrageously clairvoyant hitchhikers (how clever!).

The improv duo, both Second City alums with primetime television experience, performed like the seasoned professionals they are. The funny men just let the show come to them, beginning and ending scenes with perfect comedic timing.

The dichotomous duo (Frank is easily 7 feet tall, where as Matt clocks in at around 5'3") never stayed with an idea too long. On Saturday night, they crafted a show in which the perfect amount of time was spent with all the characters they created. Their renditions of gay dinosaurs and pervy senators never felt stale.

It is, however, hard to imagine getting any more from Caeti and Craig. Their all-over-the-place hour-long performance included quite a bit of musical entertainment, thanks to the melodic stylings of Mr. Matt Craig who, at one point, seemed to answer every offer with a song, not to mention dancing, fighting, a chase sequence, and over-the-top journeys into characters' imaginations.

All things considered, pilgrimage is far too sedate a word for the mile-a-minute journey Caeti and Craig take you on. Their long-form improv show goes here, there, and everywhere hilarity and instant replay included.