Show Review: Roberto Alomar @ iO West

Roberto Alomar doing what they do at iO West.

Improv, if you're not familiar, is a pretty scary thing; both for the audience and the improvisors. It's sort of an agreement between the two groups who fully acknowledge that SOMETHING is going to happen, but nobody's quite sure what, and in this regard it is unique to other forms of conventional comedy. And even within improv, short-form (a series of small games - think Whose Line Is It Anyway? or ComedySportz), is much less dangerous than long-form, where only a few suggestions (or perhaps just one) spur an entire non-stop unscripted show. This is real pass or fail sort of stuff. And I am happy to report that Friday night iO West house team Roberto Alomar does quite a bit better than just pass. Often times, they soar.

Roberto Alomar gets its moniker from the long-time MLB second baseman of the same name, and like their namesake they've achieved a bit of a journeyman status. In its original incarnation, Roberto (the improv team) was at Ultimate Improv on the Westside, but have since become weekly regulars at one of the premiere improv spots in LA, iO West. And there is good reason for this, as the team is generally tight, imaginative, and (most importantly) funny.

As the show opens, Roberto needs only three suggestions to get rolling, before embarking on a montage of quick scenes and vignettes that either begin anew or tie into one another in unexpected ways. For the long-form uninitiated, this is pretty standard fare, although the structure can vary greatly. For them, the style is much more relaxed and open to absurdity, while still holding on to the basic tenets of what their show calls for. When an idea is brought up that is worth exploring, it’s done with a fervor and real sense of comedic timing, both of which can be lacking in other teams around town, sadly. The setups are crisp and the follow-throughs well played, including one scene where a player is asked to recall his interpretations of what happened to cause a crime scene, only to have the other players snap into position as the murder scene itself, with a pterodactyl as the main culprit. This type of trust, dedication, and fun really puts teams in a position to score, and when the justifications hit (such as why someone would blame a crime scene on a pterodactyl in the first place), the whole show can really knock one out of the park.

The only real knock on this otherwise solid show is in the details, the smaller things that can help push a team away from an audience ready to laugh. On this night, there were some issues with breaking the 4th wall (the imaginary wall between an audience and the players), wherein one member may comment directly on a scene as themselves, and not as a person inside the scene. This can get distracting and really take some of the steam out of the show, but Roberto did their best to not let it slow them down, thankfully. And as a fun, high-energy montage sort of show the focus can occasionally be lacking, but in such moments where lesser teams may start to spiral downward, invariably one member would jump out and really save the rest. And as scary as it can be for all of us, this is what improv is really all about.

Roberto Alomar performs every Friday night at 11p at iO West in Hollywood. They are: Heather Anne Campbell, Will Maier, Kevin Manwarren, Gian Molina, Jacob Reed, Scott Rodgers, and Todd Wilson.