‘Triple Espresso’ brings upbeat and clean humor

Much like gourmet coffee beans, the cast members of “Triple Espresso” are hand-selected to ensure the highest quality of humor for every performance.

“Triple Espresso”

Running until Jan. 9

CLO Cabaret

Tickets $34.75-$44.75

www.pittsburghclo.org

Pitt Arts tickets $15

www.pittarts.pitt.edu

Much like gourmet coffee beans, the cast members of “Triple Espresso” are hand-selected to ensure the highest quality of humor for every performance.

The comedy, appearing at the CLO Cabaret now through Jan. 9, involves a special skill set for each character. That makes it difficult to find individuals like the current actors, Brian Kelly, Christopher Hart and Dane Stauffer, by chance.

The show follows as three friends reminisce about their first meetings and the lengths they went to trying to get their comedy act off the ground. Through songs, stories, magic tricks and shadow puppets, they tell their comically unfortunate tale to the audience, even including viewers in the action at times.

Though the play has three characters, Hugh Butternut, Buzz Maxwell and Bobby Bean, there’s a whole pool of actors to play each character and at times there are multiple shows buzzing at once in different locations. Though it seems as though the show could never be the same twice, the actors are vigorously trained so the performance runs smoothly.

“This is sort of meant to look off-the-cuff but it’s very tight … It’s like a well-oiled machine,” Stauffer, who plays Hugh Butternut, said, “There’s a standard we’re trying to hit each time,”

Playing this character involves the use of specific skills, like piano playing and singing in the midst of acting, as Butternut is the resident songbird and frequently breaks into well-known tunes. Stauffer, a seasoned actor, has participated in improv at the sketch house Dudley Riggs’ Brave New Workshop in addition to numerous other stage and commercial productions. These experiences prepared him for the some of the unexpected moments that go along with live theater.

“I’m often grateful for my improv experience,” he said.

Stauffer isn’t the only veteran improv performer who has had to use his resourcefulness on the fly. Brian Kelly, who plays Bobby Bean, recalled once when, right before a skit where he was supposed to bring up an audience member under the pretense of needing someone to hold up lyrics for him while his hands were occupied with his guitar, couldn’t find his guitar in the prop area. He quickly decided to conduct with his hands and the audience members were none the wiser.

Kelly finds those kinds of saves extremely entertaining. In fact, he enjoys watching how his stage-mates deal with having to work through issues.

“I love when stuff like that happens … it’s fun to watch a fellow actor struggle,” he said.

This sort of working under pressure has been a staple on Kelly’s resume. He’s participated in shows like “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” as well as in improv organizations like ComedySportz. However, he found that his background hadn’t quite prepared him for the stringent training required by the CLO performance.

“It’s some of the most intense rehearsal I’ve ever been through. I’d always been pushed into shows with one rehearsal, paraphrasing my way though,” he said.

The third actor, Christopher Hart, who plays Buzz Maxwell, had an even more interesting transition. He went from a magician to an actor playing a bad magician. At the beginning of casting, the show’s organizers were seeking actors whom they planned to train in magic. They soon realized that it worked better to have magicians train as actors. Though he is skilled at sleight of hand, Hart still had some difficulties to work through.

“Figuring out my comedy timing was the work I had to do. You have to be a really good magician to kind of do magic badly. You have to have a really good understanding of what you’re doing to look like you’re messing it up,” he said.

However, his stage experience helped the acting to become natural to him. Soon, the actors, who have to argue, laugh, and eventually bond over their ridiculous past, were on stage working together as though they really were these characters.

“The three of us have done the show together quite a bit … and we like each other as people. I think that’s reflected in this … because we’re friends and we laugh … it’s believable that we could have been in this relationship because we are legitimately friends,” he said.

And at it’s core, the show is really just plain funny. Though the actors bring up participants from the audience to play on stage with them, the humor is clean. And even though the show touts that it’s for anyone from “ages 6-106,” which makes it seem as though it might be cheesy, the actors all agree that the show is downright hysterical for everyone.

“It’s the funniest show I’ve ever been a part of and I’ve done a lot of funny shows … it resonated with audiences in a way that’s different than any comedy show I’ve ever done … I think part of it is that there’s a lot of credit for it being a clean show, being a family show,” Kelly said.