Karaoke Night at Al Capone’s House of Pancakes

Or: Crazy for you

To paraphrase an old saying, “G-d made some hands great and some hands small, but Karaoke made us all equal.” No matter how good of a singer you are, or how awkward a sod, you’re still a brave soul doing your own hasty cover to canned music and reading words off a screen in front of strangers. What could be better designed for instilling humility or bringing people closer together?

In their inaugural performance Coffee and Whisky Productions invite us to a fun, kick-off-your-heels evening at Chicago’s only BYOB pancake house. Dinner is sadly not provided (though booze is (!) with the purchases of an additional drink ticket) but the show is tickle-some. Casey (Mary Iris Loncto) is heartbroken, having lost her best beloved a month ago, and her friends Jamie (Jesek West), Addison (Wesley James), and Taylor (Kelsey Erhart) have taken her out to buck up her spirits. Unfortunately, Casey’s ex-best beloved Flynn (Michelle Limon) has also chosen this evening and flap-jack house (in all the towns, in all the worlds) to treat her (delightfully) horrible date Charlie (Hannah Williams). Casey, not in the best of headspace, offers us all an object lesson in how love makes you, crazy, stupid, and evil (yet might, maybe-just-maybe, redeem us all in the end.)

The script itself is a little oblong, but sparkles with many a fine witty zinger (plus extra points for nigh on total gender neutrality). Loncto and Limon keep things bubbling with their volatile chemistry. Limon manages a cool and smooth affability (and is the proud possessor of an excellent singing voice) which warms or cools or gives way to the harsh earnestness of the broken-hearted. Loncto sweeps the piece along; leaping Casey from the high highs to the low lows. She wrings out laughter both by her high-horse pronouncements or curling up inside a bottle (I say Schaden, you say Freude!) but always makes us care.

The long and the short of it is, it’s a fun time. The set of songs changes every performance so each night is a unique experience (though tonight’s addition of CeeLo Green’s “Cuss You” was particularly inspired). The audience is encouraged to clap, sing along, and whoop it up. It’s certainly a shot in the arm for the broken hearted and good reminder that no matter how much of an awkward clod you might be, however unhinged you might become by life’s accidents, no matter how many bridges you might drop your torch on, there is still hope. With a little humility and at least a stab at frank communication and a willingness to grab a microphone and bare your meter soul, absolution can still be found. Unless you’re like scunner Charlie, in which case you’re pretty much irredeemable. So don’t be like Charlie.