TRIPSAVVY.COM
December, 2016
By KAYTE DEIOMA
Bob's Holiday Office Party: A Los Angeles Holiday Tradition
Bob's Holiday Office Party has been making the Los Angeles Christmas season brighter since 1995. The show dishes up a hearty helping of irreverent, intoxicated debauchery. The writing is smart, intensely funny, and exceedingly crude. The acting is spot on.
The setting is Bob Finhead's E-Z Insurance office in Neuterberg, Iowa. The small-town characters are interpreted to perfection by the veteran cast, including co-authors Rob Elk and Joe Keyes.
Elk plays insurance man Bob Finhead, who, despite coming from a long line of insurance agents, longs to break out of the mold to move to the big city and become an inventor. Keyes is priceless as his long-time friend, the heavy-drinking, droll town sheriff, who wants him to stay right where he is.
Bob's clients/friends gradually show up to the office party - the physically diverse, yet stereophonic triplet farmer ladies in their matching Christmas jumpers and red-tipped cowboy boots, the town stoner/thespian straight from a car accident, the flaming gay mayor, and separately, the mayor's uptight wife who is having a fling with Bob. Ann Randolph is perfectly over-the-top in the dual role as the unstable minister's wife and Brandy, the barely-clad town slut/lush with severe bed-head.
As the drinking commences, inhibitions are out the window and Bob's guests get sloppy and raunchy, yet not slapstick.
A party-crasher from the past shows up to add some drama to the mix.
It's sometimes a risk to see small theatre productions in LA, because you could just as easily find a really bad one as a really good one. In Bob's Holiday Office Party, Keyes and Elk have created a winner that stands the test of time and hopefully will remain an LA tradition for years to come.
The play changes venues from year to year, but you should always be able to find the most current information at www.bobsofficeparty.com.
This is definitely not a play for kids. If you are easily offended, you might prefer some of the more traditional Christmas Plays and Performances around LA.