O.C.Y.C.’s Midnight Is the Day I Go Crazy, O.C.Y.C. Productions, at Heartland Studio Theater. O.C.Y.C. isn’t really funny in the traditional sense, though the troupe’s most recent sketch revue, Midnight Is the Day I Go Crazy, has its laugh-out-loud moments. But troupe member Amy Gard parading around the stage in a bear suit throwing confetti and issuing death threats in a little girl’s voice isn’t one of them. The form that comedy takes here is one big, non-traditional in-joke–O.C.Y.C. couldn’t care less whether the audience gets it or not.
They’re more concerned with how much energy they bring to the stage and with provoking a response, not necessarily laughter. Practitioners of a confrontational style, they favor the over-the-top theatrics and stunts of the Upright Citizens Brigade. But O.C.Y.C. aren’t just artful rip-off artists or heirs apparent; with their seamless integration of audio and video clips, they’re on the road to something daring of their own.
What the troupe needs is a small dose of humility, a lack especially apparent in the opening sequence when the performers pump themselves as “the Velvet Underground of sketch,” among other things. Still, when everything comes together–as it does in the show’s bizarre final scene–O.C.Y.C. proves itself deserving of its own hype. –Nick Green