REVIEW: PowerPoint Karaoke

I saw PowerPoint Karaoke at Bryant Lake Bowl last night for the first time.  PowerPoint Karaoke involves four people giving PowerPoint presentations to the audience in improv fashion.  The presenters do not get to see the slides before the show and they are goofy and random nonsense.  Each presenter draws a topic from the audience at random and then tries to base their presentation off of that suggestion.  Because the slides have no running theme or any consistency, the presenters are frequently quite challenged.  I’d say about half of the humor is seeing what goofy slide is up next and the other half is watching the presenter try to make sense of it.  Each presenter is ranked by a panel of comedian judges based on flow, audience reaction, sticking to the theme and being able to get through all the slides in the given time allotted.  At the end of the presentations, a winner is announced and the audience member who provided the topic gets to share a fabulous prize.

Since PowerPoint Karaoke is improv, each show will likely vary substantially based on the slides, audience-selected themes and participating comedians.  Last evening, one presenter was clearly much more talented than the rest (I’m talking about you, Jill Bernard!).  Jill nailed her perfectly selected biz-cas attire, demeanor and her act was unwavering.  Her hilarious character was totally believable.  She really sold her presentation of nonsense, which made it all the funnier.  The comedians that didn’t completely get into an act of presenting were the weakest.

PowerPoint Karaoke is a pretty short show, finishing up in at just under and hour.  It’s a great event for getting out of the house and getting a laugh.  I wish the show wasn’t so late, though, as the 10pm start time is challenging for early-to-bed types like me.

PowerPoint Karaoke typically is held once a month at the Bryant Lake Bowl Theater.  Keep reading phenoMNaltwincities and I’ll keep you updated on future performance dates (and may even have some more tickets to give away!).