Pre-kids, happy hour means two-for-one drinks; post-kids, it’s that 15 minutes between them falling asleep and you or your spouse crashing on the couch. But now families can enjoy Happy Hour together, at Chashama in Times Square. Happy Hour is the three-man clown group which combines physical comedy with slapstick and the occasional curse word. The troupe guarantees “laughs or your money back!” and they have never yet had to pay up. The show is outrageous in the best sense of the word, and a little bit sexy, but Sunday matinees are less risqué than evening performances; kids 10 and up will love the show, and their parents will get a good laugh, too. The vaudeville routines fall somewhere between The Big Apple Circus (in which one of the members starred) and the movie Jackass. There is a running gag about toilet paper, and an extended one involving a whoopee cushion; what makes the whoopee cushion routine even funnier is when the rubber breaks, and the bereft owner lip synchs Michael Jackson’s “She’s Out of My Life”. The guys make use of their physical differences: there is Ambrose Martos, the skinny one with Bozo hair; Mark Gindick, the short one with great pecs; and bald Matthew Morgan. Morgan has one routine where he attempts to toss a toilet plunger onto his head; each time he misses, he has to do push-ups. Then, an audience member tries to toss a ring around the plunger. Morgan, about a foot taller than Gindick, wears a dress (exposing his tattooed back) and wig, then tangos with an increasingly terrified Gindick. When the trio tries a rap number, Martos is unable to handle the physically demanding dance; he collapses and pretend to vomit, leading the other two to “follow” his moves. Audience participation, willing or not, is a big part of the show. One woman is selected to hold a rose while the flower is sliced off by a whip; another is given a whipped cream pie to throw in Morgan’s face. My daughter was handed a Polaroid camera and encouraged to take pictures of the guys posing as cheerleaders and doing an acrobatic routine, complete with a trampoline and a somewhat unreliable mat. The only routine I thought fell flat was one with Gindick in a leather jacket, safety glasses and bicycle helmet, entering the “danger zone”. He runs around with scissors, drinks a soda with a mouth full of Pop Rocks and puts a plastic bag over his head. Maybe it’s the Mom in me, but I didn’t think this kind of stuff — particularly putting a plastic bag over his head — was particularly funny. But that is the exception. The hour-long show has enough variety to tickle the funny bone of, and mildly offend, all who attend. Even the recipients of the slightly deranged Easter Bunny’s eggs (they were covered in spit, sweat and underarm effluvia) remained good-humored. As we went to the subway after the performance, my daughter noticed the New Victory Theatre and said that Happy Hour reminded her of something she might see at the New Vic. From a New York City kid, that may be the highest praise of all. Happy Hour runs through December 22. Reservations are recommended.
Info: Where: Chashama, 135 West 42nd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway When: Thursday-Saturday, 8pm; Sunday, 3pm Tickets: $15 For more info: (212) 631-5819; www.chashama.org
