Headlining the penultimate night of Toronto's ten-day JFL42 Festival, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim brought their "10 Year Anniversary Awesome Tour!" — celebrating a decade of the duo's warped sketch show, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! — to the city's regal Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.
Opening the evening's festivities was long-time Tim & Eric tour mate and Awesome Show editor DJ Douggpound, who warmed up the 3,100-seat theatre behind his DJ setup, punctuating his supremely droll humour with absurd air horn sound effects and purposely lame song drops. After a much-too-brief ten-minute set that featured his "new" character DJ Darkkpound (which consisted of Doug delivering jokes wearing a mask with his voice pitched down), the comedian brought Tim & Eric out onto the immense stage, causing the already energized crowd to leap to their feet (as per Heidecker's suggestion).
Entering the stage wearing white top hats, tuxedo blazers and spandex shorts, Tim & Eric greeted the crowd with a hilarious sendup of a musical revue honouring their aforementioned milestone. After speaking with the crowd and hyping (in very Tim & Eric fashion) the upcoming debut of Heidecker's new character, Troi, the duo directed the crowd to the stage's big screen for a sneak peek of the very disturbing "Butter," the season finale of their latest program Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories.
The duo would return to the stage to bring back some of their greatest hits, including the German industrial band Zwei Dunkel Jurgen and Uncle Muscles, before Heidecker and Wareheim wrapped up the evening with the reveal of Tim's absurd Troi character and a closing bit that found Wareheim strutting around in a tiny silk bathrobe and Heidecker stripping down to just a padded thong.
Since their screened episode of "Butter" took up a third of their 60 minutes of stage time, and with the duo trotting out of old bits (plus, the fact that not nearly enough general festival pass holders walked out in confusion or disgust), Tim & Eric's "10 Year Anniversary Awesome Tour!" seemed much too conventional, predictable and well-behaved to properly honour such a ground-breaking television program whose original purpose was to break every conceived convention in the medium… including anniversary celebrations.
Opening the evening's festivities was long-time Tim & Eric tour mate and Awesome Show editor DJ Douggpound, who warmed up the 3,100-seat theatre behind his DJ setup, punctuating his supremely droll humour with absurd air horn sound effects and purposely lame song drops. After a much-too-brief ten-minute set that featured his "new" character DJ Darkkpound (which consisted of Doug delivering jokes wearing a mask with his voice pitched down), the comedian brought Tim & Eric out onto the immense stage, causing the already energized crowd to leap to their feet (as per Heidecker's suggestion).
Entering the stage wearing white top hats, tuxedo blazers and spandex shorts, Tim & Eric greeted the crowd with a hilarious sendup of a musical revue honouring their aforementioned milestone. After speaking with the crowd and hyping (in very Tim & Eric fashion) the upcoming debut of Heidecker's new character, Troi, the duo directed the crowd to the stage's big screen for a sneak peek of the very disturbing "Butter," the season finale of their latest program Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories.
The duo would return to the stage to bring back some of their greatest hits, including the German industrial band Zwei Dunkel Jurgen and Uncle Muscles, before Heidecker and Wareheim wrapped up the evening with the reveal of Tim's absurd Troi character and a closing bit that found Wareheim strutting around in a tiny silk bathrobe and Heidecker stripping down to just a padded thong.
Since their screened episode of "Butter" took up a third of their 60 minutes of stage time, and with the duo trotting out of old bits (plus, the fact that not nearly enough general festival pass holders walked out in confusion or disgust), Tim & Eric's "10 Year Anniversary Awesome Tour!" seemed much too conventional, predictable and well-behaved to properly honour such a ground-breaking television program whose original purpose was to break every conceived convention in the medium… including anniversary celebrations.
