“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”
These were supposedly the last words of Sir Donald Wolfit, a British actor & director who passed away back in 1968. Though I’m sure that there’s a few Imagineers at Walt Disney World right now who – after five weeks of watching their CG performers repeatedly die on stage during the initial testing phase of the Magic Kingdom‘s new “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club” show – who would agree wholeheartedly with Wolfit’s thoughts on comedy.
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
This new Tomorrowland attraction was originally supposed to end its test phase on January 1st and then begin presenting dozens of performances on a daily basis. With the really-for-real grand opening of the “Laugh Floor Comedy Club” being scheduled for January 27th as part of WDW’s annual press event.
But now … While the members of the press are expected to get a walk-through of the revamped “Timekeeper” show building next month (as well as perhaps the chance to do an interview with a “live” CG version of Mike Wazowski) … As for the official opening of the “Laugh Floor Comedy Club” … As of yesterday, that’s been pushed back to the Spring of 2007. And perhaps maybe later, if the current rumblings coming out of WDI prove to be true.
“So exactly is wrong with the ‘Laugh Floor’ show?,” you ask. To be honest, it’s not really a case of anything being wrong with Tomorrowland’s new “Monsters, Inc.” -themed attraction. At least from the tech side of things, this “Living Character Initiative” show has been performing as expected. With its trio of computer generated monster comics coming “out” on stage, interacting with the audience and then cracking a few family-friendly jokes.
If anything, it’s the test audiences’ rather tepid response to the “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club” that has caused the opening of this new Tomorrowland show to be pushed back by at least four to five months.
As one WDI insider yesterday told me:
“It’s not that people disliked ‘Laugh Floor.’ They just didn’t love it. Right now, people seem to think that this is a very middling show. And we don’t want middling. For the amount of money that we’ve already spent on this Tomorrowland attraction, the thousands of hours devoted to R & D, we want a smash. Which is why we’re going to shut down now and retool for a while.”
As to why the “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club” has been getting middling scores from these early test audiences … The Imagineers have a number of theories about that subject. These include:
- While the audience is familiar with Mike & Roz from the “Monsters, Inc.” film, they don’t really know the trio of comics that WDI has specifically created for this new show: Buddy, the two headed Sam & Ella as well as Mike’s nephew, Ike. And given the limited amount of stage time that each of these new characters get during the “Laugh Floor” show, the test audiences were having trouble warming up to Buddy, Sam, Ella & Spike. Which is why they weren’t laughing & enjoying this new Tomorrowland attraction as much as they should.
There are two possible solutions that the Imagineers are reportedly considering to address this particular problem:
1) Cut the number of “acts” featured in the show back from three to two. Thereby allowing the remaining performers more stage time. Which (in theory) will then give the audience more time to warm up with these new characters. Which will then make it that much easier for WDW guests to just sit back and enjoy the material that’s being presented to them.
2) Drop Buddy, Sam, Ella & Spike from the “Laugh Floor” show entirely and instead bring in other, more familiar characters from the “Monsters, Inc.” film that audience members will immediately recognize & warm up to. The theory here is that people will be much more likely to laugh at jokes being told by characters that they already know.
Getting back to those middling test scores … Another contributing factor here to those test audiences not fully embracing the “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club” show may be the size of the crowds attending these performances and/or the venue itself.
Think about it, folks. Those first two wildly successful “Living Character Initiative” shows – “Stitch’s Picture Phone” at Disneyland and “Turtle Talk with Crush” at Epcot‘s Living Seas pavilion – were fairly intimate experiences. With one being presented in a very confined space to just 5 – 8 people at a time while the other is staged in low light in a small room with just 100 people huddled in front of that faux aquarium window for each presentation. Which makes the whole experience seem that much more magical.
Whereas the “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club” show … It’s presented in the cavernous old Circlevision 360 theater to 400 people at a time. Which is hardly an environment that’s conducive to an intimate, magical experience.
Copyright 2006 Disney Enterprises
Sadly, at this point, the Imagineers really can’t do anything about the size & scale of the venue that the “Laugh Floor Comedy Club” is being presented in. They’re pretty much stuck with their retrofitted Tomorrowland location. Though – in future versions of this “Monsters, Inc.” – themed show (Should “Laugh Floor” ever be cloned) – they’ll supposedly make an effort to make sure that this “Living Character Initiative” show is presented in a much more intimate performance space.
The WDI insider that I spoke with yesterday made a point of stressing that this isn’t the “Stitch’s Great Escape” revisited. That no one on this project is in panic mode right now because they’re struggling to make a fundamentally flawed show work.
As they put it:
“Look, we already know that this show works. The test audiences that we’ve been running through ‘Laugh Floor’ have been enjoying themselves. Just not as much as we had hoped they would.
So we’re going to shut down and retool for a while. Maybe audition a few new monster comics or just write the ones we have now some funnier jokes.”
Let me add here that just because the Imagineers suddenly push back the opening date of a new attraction doesn’t automatically mean that the Walt Disney Company now has a disaster on its hands.
I mean, let’s remember that — back in 1966 — Walt Disney personally pushed back the previously announced opening date of “Pirates of the Caribbean” because he thought the Imagineers could do better. That Walt wouldn’t settle for just a good show. He wanted Disneyland visitors to experience a really great attraction.
So to have the Imagineers looking at the test scores for “Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club” and thinking “You know, we can do better …” That’s a good thing, folks. The sort of attitude that the online Disneyana community should be applauding. Rather than continuing to carp about how this new attraction should have never be built in Tomorrowland in the first place.
So please don’t be like that so-called expert who briefly appears in the newscast portion of “Monsters, Inc.” You know? The one who looks so seriously into the camera before he says: “It is my professional opinion that now is the time to PANIC !!”
Anyway, that’s a brief update on the whole “Laugh Floor” situation. Your thoughts?