Hot Shots

Duo Pete & Brian and trio Hot Sauce make experiments and video sketches work within live shows.

Performing at the UCB Theatre October 5 in tandem with sketch group Hot Sauce, the duo of Pete & Brian (Pete Karinen and Brian Sacca) presented an inventive show with an amusing story.

The duo takes a minimalist approach, featuring black t-shirts with their names, soon switching their names off, and sporting t-shirts with different names to add characters into a loose story around an awkward teen’s plans for a sock-hop and hopes to kiss a girl for the first time.

Seeking wisdom, the teen (at this performance named Brian, but played by Pete -- they possibly switch this around each performance) turns to a crass father and a needy (and possibly gay) best friend who respectively suggest he try kissing a small dog or his own arm first, as practice.

Pete & Brian further innovate in the show with the use of video segments that tie into the story, with the two of them previously filmed delivering some material on a screen on the rear of the stage and at times interacting with their live selves on the stage to put more characters into their scenes. Surprisingly with such an experiment, there were no missteps and it carried the audience right along while serving the story.

With this show, the duo make a mark as gifted comic performers who know how to experiment successfully within a show without going off track.

Hot Sauce, previously reviewed on this site for a few segments of their current show previously presented as hosts for another group, as well as their own show nearly a year ago, have progressed significantly and now have a solid set of sketches on their hands. Like Pete & Brian, they have become confident and skilled in their use of video -- their filmed sketches are presented as films because they just wouldn’t work on stage, such as their portrayals of Eastern Europeans doing a basketball video with public service messages for kids that get a bit garbled by their language barrier, shall we say.

Hot Sauce’s now signature show closer, in which they literally have to break a few eggs to perform the sketch, seemed a bit rushed through this time, and could be wearing out. But their opener, for example, proved more flexible, as Adam Pally and Gil Ozery, as characters, heckle Ben Schwartz from the audience. Their insults keep to a loose script, but the references and specifics are changeable -- and at this show got even edgier than before. A sketch in which the trio played hapless bank robbers who unwittingly give away their identities also worked well.

Framed by snippets of Beastie Boys songs, Hot Sauce’s sketches reflect an idiosyncratic take on sketch comedy not unlike the increasing sophistication and complexity of their musical inspiration.

Both Pete & Brian, and Hot Sauce return to the UCB Theatre Thursday, October 12, paired with other acts in two separate shows.