The Robot Johnson Show
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''The Robot Johnson Show'' is a weekly
sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...
show put together by the members of Robot Johnson, based out of
Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
. The show format consists of sketches, commercial and song parodies and original comedy songs, and lasts roughly an hour and ten minutes. Founded by Sean Keenan and A. Blaine Miller, two original members of Charlotte stalwart comedy group The Perch, Robot Johnson is made up of Perch alumni along with local actors and comedians. Relying on local humor and pushing the envelope on racial, sexual and political issues, Robot Johnson claims to provide "good humor by bad people."


History

The initial concept for The Robot Johnson Show came out of a series of conversations Keenan had with Douglas Young, Director of Theatrical Programming of the
North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center Blumenthal Performing Arts (also NC Blumenthal Center and NCBPAC) is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. It opened in 1992 and is named in honor of the people of the state of North Carolina and the Blumenthal Foundation established by I.D. ...
, of which Spirit Square is a part. Given the previous success of The Perch (which had folded in 2006 after eleven years of performing in Charlotte) and Keenan's national notoriety as the voice and puppeteer of
MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...
character The Talking Baby, Young thought that the time was right to start a new sketch comedy troupe in the city. Although initially reluctant to get involved, Keenan eventually agreed, calling Miller to gauge interest in the foundation of a new group. The Robot Johnson Show debuted in the Charlotte Comedy Theatre on December 7, 2007, with its first show including favorites like "Quay Rogers: Surrogate Black Guy," "Of Maple Leaves and Human Suffering," and "The Incredibly Sad Indian."


Present

Currently, Robot Johnson is performing at Wine Up in Charlotte, NC and is a touring company across both North and South Carolina.


Cast

The current cast and writing staff of The Robot Johnson Show is as follows: *Sean Keenan, producer and co-founder *Candice Cortinas, associate producer *Tiffany Apple, performer *David Golden, writer/performer *Graham Odom, writer/performer *Noah Lemmons, writer/performer *Zaq Rogers, performer *Meghan Lowther, writer/performer *Brandon Ballard, writer/performer *Luci Wilson, performer *Drew Aronica, performer/writer *Field Canty, performer *Ryan Stamey, performer *Tania Kelly, writer/performer * Josh Lanier, writer * Andy Rogers, writer


Recurring characters

*Gordon, the Marginalized Redneck (Sean Keenan) *Becca Norwood, Channel 5 reporter (Tiffany Apple) *Paula and Skalene, the "Double Wide" girls (Tiffany Apple and Luci Wilson) *Gene Shalit (Brandon Ballard) *The Talking Baby (Sean Keenan) *Disembodied Voice (Graham Odom) *Gene and Monty, two '40s-era movie execs (David Golden and Zaq Rogers) *The Guardian Pancake (Sean Keenan) *Kelly Hornsby (Luci Wilson) *Dr. A**hole (Zaq Rogers) *Drs. Howell, Utley, Cornwallis, and Patricks, the redneck NASA rocket scientists (Luci Wilson, David Golden, Tiffany Apple, and Graham Odom) *Shelby Gerkin (Meghan Lowther)


The Talking Baby

The Talking Baby is described by creator Sean Keenan as an "R-rated puppet show," though the baby in question is not actually a puppet but rather an anatomically correct baby doll. During the Talking Baby segments, audience members are able to see Keenan's hand as he operates the baby, changing its hand positions and turning its head. The ostensible function of Talking Baby is to review movies, but the character often goes off on tangents about characters, actors, directors or concepts involved in the movie and quite often has not seen the movies he reviews. The Talking Baby segment is the raunchiest and most profanity-laden of each show, with the Baby promising to "clean it up" for children and the elderly before descending into a tirade of obscenity. One of the most popular sketches in the show, Talking Baby was eventually made the spokesman for
MTV2 MTV2 (formerly M2) is an American pay television Cable television, channel owned by the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. The channel launched initially as an all-music video service, once the original MTV had started to sh ...
in the early 2000s. The sketch typically starts out with Disembodied Voice paraphrasing a pop song to introduce the baby (one segment featured Disembodied Voice singing the entire first verse to "
More Than Words "More Than Words" is a song by American rock band Extreme, released as the fifth track and third single from their second album, ''Pornograffitti'' (1990), in March 1991. It is a ballad built around acoustic guitar work by Nuno Bettencourt and ...
" by Extreme) before introducing the first film to be reviewed.


Partnerships and media appearances

At their July 26 shows, Robot Johnson filmed a national 30-minute pilot.Robot Johnson , Press Releases
/ref> As of February 2009, the pilot is in post-production and there are plans to shop it to two major networks as well as smaller cable stations. Robot Johnson recently launched its own YouTube channel and plans are in the works for a national tour as well as a comedy album. In September 2008, the troupe partnered with Collaborative Arts Theatre to produce ''SITCOMS LIVE,'' which featured three weeks of three separate sitcoms from the latter half of the twentieth century, including episodes of "
Three's Company ''Three's Company'' is an American sitcom television series that aired for eight seasons on ABC from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984. It is based on the British sitcom ''Man About the House''. The story revolves around three single roomma ...
," " The Facts of Life," and " Married...With Children." Robot Johnson performed the commercial breaks for each sitcom, along with a new hour-long sketch comedy show after each performance. The following year, The Robot Johnson Show received the Metrolina Theatre Award (MTA) for "Other Exemplary Performance/Element - Comedy" for its contribution to ''SITCOMS LIVE.'' On September 21, 2008 Robot Johnson announced that they would move back into The Charlotte Comedy Theatre in October of that year to begin workshopping shows for 2009. In February 2009, Robot Johnson partnered with Charlotte photography museum The Light Factory to promote "American Zombie," a citywide festival devoted to the work of director
George A. Romero George Andrew Romero (; February 4, 1940 – July 16, 2017) was an American-Canadian filmmaker, writer, editor and actor. His ''Night of the Living Dead'' series of films about an imagined zombie apocalypse began with the 1968 film of the ...
. Cast members Sean Keenan, Zaq Rogers and Tiffany Apple appeared on "Wilson's World" segments of local news program "Fox News Rising" on opposite sides of the
zombie A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...
-rights argument in order to promote the event. September 2009 saw Robot Johnson's first musical releases. The troupe released free promotional CDs at performances at the
Carolina Actors Studio Theatre Carolina Actors Studio Theatre (CAST) was an independent non-profit theatre company located at 2424 North Davidson Street in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was founded in 1992 by Charlotte acting instructor Ed Gilweit as an actor's teaching schoo ...
in Charlotte, NC and at The Gathering Spot in
Greenville, SC Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...
. The promo CD singles featured members of the troupe performing parodies of "Here Comes the Sun" by
The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, "The Times They Are a-Changin'" by
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, "Islands in the Stream" by
Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...
and
Kenny Rogers Kenneth Ray Rogers (August 21, 1938 – March 20, 2020) was an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013. Rogers was particularly popular with country audiences but also charted mo ...
, and "Disarm" by
The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...
. Also in September 2009, troupe member David Golden released his debut album, "Here's What I Really Think of You," featuring songs he had written for the troupe. In January 2010, Robot Johnson began a year-long run of monthly shows at the CAST Theatre. On February 4, 2010, Robot Johnson performed at the
North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival The North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival is an annual comedy festival in Carrboro, North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the Unit ...
.


References


External links

*
The Blumenthal Performing Arts Center

The official site for "Here's What I Really Think of You"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robot Johnson Show Culture of Charlotte, North Carolina Sketch comedy troupes American comedy troupes Theatre companies in Charlotte, North Carolina Tourist attractions in Charlotte, North Carolina