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| The members of Wealthy Bear: Conor Purdy, history student Patrick McGuire, English student Josh Tibbetts and Theatre major Stewart Delo.听 (Nick Pearce Photo) |
Every other Tuesday, from 10:30 p.m. to midnight, AV俱乐部鈥檚 CKDU radio presents 鈥淭he Wealthy Bear Radio Hour-and-a-Half.鈥� Exactly what you will hear during this hour and a half cannot be reliably predicted. Occasionally a counterfeit version of Reading Rainbow will review existential literature. The hosts might engage in recreational time travel. There could be mock-Marxist diatribes. There will be a superfluity of falsetto. It鈥檚 the kind of humor not often achieved without reliance on mood-altering substances, but I sat in on a performance, and no substances were consumed, not even sugar. There鈥檚 certainly nothing like it.
This 鈥淲ealthy Bear Radio Hour-and-a-Half鈥� is presented by the 鈥淲ealthy Bear鈥� improv troupe, which consists of AV俱乐部/Kings students Stewart Delo, Conor Purdy, Joshua Tibbets, and Patrick McGuire (an extra X chromosome is occasionally provided by honorary member Liz Johnston). The troupe began as King鈥檚鈥� improv group; they鈥檝e been performing together since 2008.
Sketch comedy
I sat down with Conor Purdy and Stewart Delo to ask them some questions about Wealthy Bear鈥攏ot so much an interview as a two-man comedy act. The first and most obvious question鈥攚here did the troupe鈥檚 unusual name originate? It was apparently a joke on the group鈥檚 dire financial straits, as far as anyone can remember (they鈥檙e not sure). I 鈥淚t was sort of a play on 鈥榬obber baron鈥�, wasn鈥檛 it?鈥� Mr. Purdy asks Mr. Delo.
Mr. Delo believes this was the case. 鈥淲e decided, let鈥檚 charge $200 for tickets,鈥� he says, recounting their first live show with a straight face, 鈥漇o that only one person would come, and we could recoup our costs, and that person would be sort of this wealthy baron.鈥� (鈥榃ealthy baron鈥� was soon shortened to 鈥榃ealthy Bear鈥�). Besides the occasional live show (shows have titles like 鈥淭he Many Magnificent Machinations of the Peerless and Proper Professor Pratt鈥� and 鈥淭he World鈥檚 Shittiest Pyramid鈥�) Wealthy Bear mostly performs radio spots CKDU.
As bizarre as their sketches seem at first glance (Prometheus steals fire in order to roast marshmallows, and a vulture named Grant is assigned to his case?) there is a method to Wealthy Bear鈥檚 madness. 鈥淲e definitely have stock characters,鈥� says Mr. Purdy. 鈥淐ertain things each of us are better at doing.鈥�
鈥淚 do a lot of voices,鈥� his friend agrees. 鈥淚 do really nerdy guys.鈥�
鈥淥r mad professors.鈥�
鈥淥h, yeah 鈥� Doctor Brainstabber.鈥�
鈥淲hat sort of characters do I play?鈥� Mr. Purdy pauses and considers. 鈥淚 do, like, man-child characters. Josh kind of plays鈥� a lot of intense characters.鈥�
鈥淛osh can do this ludicrously bad Bill Cosby impression.鈥� says Mr. Delo, with reverence.
鈥淎nd a lot of the woman characters are played by either me or Pat.鈥�
'Play with cats'
There鈥檚 also a standard procedure in to the writing of a Wealthy Bear script. 鈥淯sually we kind of hang out and watch TV for a bit,鈥� says Mr. Purdy.
鈥淧lay with the cats,鈥� adds Mr. Delo.
鈥淲e had a lot of cat sketches for a while.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檝e kind of moved away from cats, a bit.鈥�
After, presumably, much playing with cats and TV-watching, somebody will suggest an idea for a sketch鈥攖he more outlandish, the better. When I ask for an example of such an idea, Mr. Delo blurts out, 鈥淲hat if the whole world was a spaghetti world?鈥�
Mr. Purdy muses about the possibilities of a spaghetti world. 鈥淭here鈥檇 be an evil meatball government.鈥�
鈥淎 linguine resistance.鈥� The idea of the spaghetti world is then briefly abandoned, as Mr. Delo adds, 鈥淲e鈥檝e all seen too many movies. Stuff kind of takes on epic dimensions with us鈥� we鈥檙e like the Three Stooges, if all Three Stooges were Andy Kaufman.鈥�
鈥淎nd directed by David Lynch,鈥� Mr. Purdy says.
Do听 group members have favorite sketches? Mr. Delo admits to a soft spot for The Fraction Song. 鈥淚t was Marie Antoinette, and she was like, 鈥榣et them eat cake鈥欌�� but they had to divide the cake somehow.鈥� It鈥檚 not their only song; Mr. Delo plays both piano and guitar, and the group frequently incorporates music in various ways. 鈥淲e had this one Jonas Brothers song鈥�.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a really catchy tune,鈥� Mr. Purdy agrees.
So what鈥檚 in the future for Wealthy Bear (if one dares ask that question)? Stewart suggests we鈥檒l soon be able to catch the act in the flesh. 鈥淲e do very intermittent live shows鈥� we鈥檙e trying to do more of that.鈥�
鈥淲e want to branch out,鈥� Conor says.
In the meantime, you can catch Wealthy Bear on their Youtube channel听(I rather fancy 鈥溾��) or on .