If toilet humor, wild drinking and sexual mayhem are your cup of Xmas grog, get yourself to the Pico Playhouse for the current edition of Bob’s Holiday Office Party. The show, which began as an improv exercise back in 1995, has played in L.A. every year since then, drawing big, raucous laughter from the packed houses in attendance.
The simulated office party takes place at Bob Finhead's E-Z insurance agency in Neuterburg, Iowa. Small-town America is one the show's many comic targets; fun is poked at the narrow-minded, bizarre behavior of these rubes (many of whom still worship Sarah Palin and the Tea Party). Also coming in for a ribbing are UFO freaks, people who believe you shouldn't drink and drive, and the gay mayor of Neuterburg.
Politically incorrect, bawdy as a burlesque show, sublimely outrageous, Bob’s Holiday Party pulls no punches: everyone in attendance at the party comes in for a ribbing, starting with Bob himself (a wanna-be inventor played by one of the show's creators, Rob Elk). His dense sidekick, sheriff Joe Walker (co-creator Joe Keyes), is the next to be lampooned, followed by the Johnson sisters (Linda Miller, Melissa Denton, Maile Flanagan), three overweight, horny gals who cackle and carry on like demented hens. The other characters include a pompous and rapacious businessman, the local sexpot and vamp, and a stoner who crashes cars and vans for a hobby.
Bob’s Holiday Party has a thin storyline, but mostly it is a series of sketches, shticks and gags held together by binge drinking, mass fornication and food fights. In short, like every good holiday show it has something for everyone.
