Team StarKid Soars In New 'Airport For Birds' Sketch Show
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Team StarKid[/caption]
It's almost shocking that Team StarKid hasn't done a sketch comedy show before, that's how well the medium suits the troupe. After honing their skills on YouTube and through national tours of their parody-based musical comedy works, they've now undertaken a limited-run at Chicago's famed Second City with their newest project, Airport for Birds (And Other Great Ideas.)
You don't need to understand Harry Potter or the Batman universe to appreciate this new show. Likewise, there are no puppets or singing genitalia. Airport For Birds is StarKid's most accessible production to date, a fast-paced set of sketches that allows all the performers to shine. When we talked to director Corey Lubowich during the show's development he promised it would cover anything "from yoga to banking and MMA to Taylor Swift.” The group follows through on all those promises -- a YouTube confessional death-match between Taylor Swift's two biggest fans played by Lauren Lopez and Jaime Lyn Beatty, a banking commercial featuring doctor and a competitive doctor-farmer showcasing Joe Walker and Meredith Stepien -- as well as unexpected joys like parody that features a bald eagle in the middle of a Downton Abbey-esque parody. The StarKids shine most on the quicker sketches - set up and knock down with a pithy punchline. The longer takes are hit or miss, but definitely weighted more to hits.
The crowd at Second City on Sundays features not only diehard StarKid fans -- this weekend despite stormy weather in the northeast there were at least two separate gaggles of fans who had eschewed flight plans and driven or taken the train from as far away as Boston -- but also new converts. Getting into StarKid fandom can be a daunting task when faced with such a lengthily canon of YouTube content to explore, Airport For Birds offers a shortcut to getting the humor of Team StarKid without the need to digest an entire 7-book series of knowledge in addition. The only limitation is location on this version, but hopefully success at Second City will lead to offshoots elsewhere. This is the StarKid for all of us.
Airport For Birds (And Other Great Ideas) runs through March 3 at Second City's Up Comedy Club in Chicago.
