Alex and Taylor Come Up With Characters
2021 · 10m · USA
Directed by Alex Ateah, Taylor Rivers
Genres: comedy
Tones: absurdist, humorous, whimsical
Two roommates improvise absurd comedy characters around their house, ad-libbing rapidly while props appear from nowhere. They grow visibly more breathless as the bit accelerates.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Refreshingly stupid in a landscape of self-serious shorts. Two people committing fully to nothing — which is, paradoxically, the bravest thing on the platform.
The structure is identical to the bit it depicts — Ateah and Rivers escalate by getting genuinely winded, which is a formal idea I respect even when the bit is thin. Tim and Eric with asthma, fair.
The structure is identical to the bit it depicts — a sketch that escalates by getting genuinely winded. That's a sweet self-aware formal move at sketch length, but it's also two roommates doing bits, and that has a known ceiling.
Reviews
It's hilariously hyperactive — by the end, both performers are fully out of breath — and calls to mind teenage sleepovers and simpler times.