Last night was the first performance of this year’s third annual Drunk Puppet Nite, brought to you by the friendly folks at Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre, inspired by the long-running Seattle Drunk Puppet Nite, and hosted by Someday Lounge. The concept of the evening is to take all those friendly neighborhood puppeteers who spend their days entertaining children or building enormous props for Michael Curry, get ‘em wasted, and let them perform their raunchiest adult material.
As it turns out, the material isn’t that raunchy, and I wasn’t drunk enough.
While the puppeteers range from professional (Dan Luce, who builds for the aforementioned puppet master) to entirely unprofessional (Brian Adrian Koch, getting oedipal with human “dummies”), each of the eight performances is equally weird. Puppets made of garbage, gloves, paper mache, pegboards, bits of metal, and a Twinkie (seriously) sing, dance, and get hammered.
DPN isn’t the finest example of what Portland puppeteers have to offer, but it’s a pretty good time–just make sure you match the dummies drink for drink.
Tears of Joy Theatre at Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave., 248-0557. 8 pm Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 1-3. $15. 21+.
