Comedies With Balls

John Ahlin and Christopher Patrick Mullen are the creators and stars of Chip & Gus: A Comedy with Balls, an amazing two hander in which the two title characters resolve the crisis in their relationship while playing ping-pong at the same time. John and Chris discuss how their shared expertise in table tennis and experience as actors led them to create this unique theatrical event; how the play both is and isn’t autobiographical; how they navigate “the Wild West of entertainment” that is the Edinburgh Fringe; how, like Harpo Marx playing the harp on screen, the playing of ping pong onstage also requires no acting; what has to happen when you introduce “Chekhov’s Balls;” how the characters of a drowning man and the person least qualified to save him became the subject of their play; multiple sport, game, and Sondheim references; comparisons to the RSC's The Complete World of Sports (abridged); and how, in all the years they’ve volleyed together – both onstage and at table tennis – they’ve never played a competitive game to win. (Length 23:00) The post Comedies With Balls appeared first on Reduced Shakespeare Company.