Lounge Lizards

Live 'Double Date' show hosts bring light personality comedy to People's Improv Theater

Pictured: Ethan Fixell and Dave Ahdoot.

The duo of Dave Ahdoot and Ethan Fixell, who will bring their show “Double Date Us” back to the People’s Improv Theater on January 10, have honed their onstage personalities to complement and contrast each other in the long tradition of classic male comedy duos.

Dave is the lounge lizard, perhaps a sweeter and more bumbling version of one of the “Wild and Crazy Guys,” while Ethan is the earnest, sensitive suitor. This is all perfectly highlighted in their show as they sing a duet toward the end, rhyming Dave’s horndog lyrics with Ethan’s caring and chivalrous lines.

But this is skipping ahead. The duo built up their act by setting out to conduct double dates with women through MySpace and Craig’s List as fodder for their show, and appear at colleges dispensing dating advice, or at least a parody thereof -- including video from a recent Philadelphia appearance in their current show. This also fuels their show with re-enactments of incidental stories, like getting invited to a frat party while in town.

Dave & Ethan do veer off their dating focus a little bit in the show, also showcasing a video from Philadelphia where they run shirtless in the cold up the Art Museum steps a la Rocky, and try to make time with girls by asking for directions to the Rocky statue.

In this performance, seen December 20 at The PIT, Dave & Ethan lucked out in their choice of audience members to bring up for a “date” onstage, getting a guy who was a perfect straight man for their clowning as they arranged him with a girl from the audience for the date.

“Dave & Ethan: Double Date Us” is a light entertainment, but deceptively so -- one that covers the intricacies of its construction of comedic personalities very well. Its stars still seem to be ascending the mountain of what they can do, but in the meantime, they are amusing to watch.