Update: This blog post contains a photo that features James Veitch (at a Conan comedy show) and I have just found a news article about allegations of rape against him. I just want to make it clear that I no longer support him because he is absolutely horrible. I regret how long I supported him because he's clearly a monster.
The year was 2009 and I was 11 years old. It was my first real comedy club experience and the wait seemed to go on for forever. While we were in line to get into the venue, there were several screens that read out that you could text in a joke and it could potentially be read out with your name accredited during the performance. For some reason, my parents had let me have a phone and I texted in a funny little pun. During the show, my joke was picked and read out to a theater of 400 people in one of the hottest comedy clubs in Florida. I am, of course, talking about the Monsters Inc., Laugh Floor in Disney World.
According to a survey at AllEars.net, Disney fans ranked their favorite Magic Kingdom attractions as the Walt Disney World Railroad, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I would personally argue that the best attraction in Magic Kingdom is Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, this weird little comedy club show in Tomorrowland. I mean... it's a comedy club... with animated monsters... what's not to love?
The attraction opened on April 2, 2007, replacing The Timekeeper in Tomorrowland. (It's ironic that this is my favorite attraction since basically anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE American history buff - that's what I essentially majored in in college. The Timekeeper, apparently, was a show that was supposed to make you feel like you were in a time machine and you would journey through important moments of history. Oh and it was narrated by ROBIN FREAKING WILLIAMS.) Soon after Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor moved in, it was nominated for the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project award in 2008.
Basically, the whole concept of the show is that Monstropolis now has an understanding that human laughter is more effective than human screams. Therefore, to power the monster world, Mike Wazowski suggests opening up Monstropolis' first comedy club. In this particular venue, humans will be able to enter the monster world, and Mike himself will host three comedy acts to make humans laugh and have their laugh power collected and converted to electricity.
The beauty of this show is that it's real actors and comedians performing behind the screen and through computer magic that goes way above my understanding of anything, their movements get conveyed through animated characters on the big screen. What's particularly fun about this is that, since it's real actors, the show is never the same. There are always different little improv bits or interactions with audience. Something that they do really well is they will put audience members on the screen with little descriptors like "will treat everyone to churros" or "always hides a third eye." There's even one bit where an audience member can be picked as "that guy." One of the monsters will make jokes about "For Halloween, I'm dressing up as... that guy" and the camera will pan to the same guy every time. It's kind of a cheap laugh, but it's always incredibly fun. Plus, did I mention that the theater is air-conditioned?
During the waiting in line period, audience members can text in jokes that can be used during the show. The show only picks around 3-4 jokes out of a 400 person audience, so it's always pretty fun to see if yours gets picked. I basically thought I would have Tina Fey on the phone by the time I got out when Marty Wazowski, Mike's nephew, read out "This is a joke from Marriya from Virginia (okay yes he said 'Maria' but it's the thought that counts) Why are peppers so nosy? Because they're jalapeno business."
Since this first fake-comedy club experience, I have been to several comedy clubs, including multiple stand-up comedy nights in college and the D.C. Improv Comedy Club, the U Street Musical Hall, the Warner Theater to see Conan O'Brien...
And the Comedy Cellar where we were filmed!
I just think it's funny that the Monsters Inc., Laugh Floor has been my favorite Disney World attraction since I was literally 11. Since I was literally this old:
Liking an animated comedy club is kind of the most 'me' thing ever. I often think that I am a completely different person than I was even the previous year, but it's so funny the things that just stay the same. This was way before I even started trying to be funny or write funny things, but I think comedy has been more of my life than I even remembered. Even though music is a little less my life than I imply in the above photo, I still love comedy, I still love to laugh, and most importantly, I still think that peppers joke kills.
If you're still not getting the magic of the Monsters Inc., Laugh Floor, check out this video of the experience:
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