Flatt Like Me: Obiter Dicta

In Latin and Legalese it means "an observation by a judge on a matter ... not necessary in determining the issue before the court." At Western Law, the Obiter Dicta is our class's talent show. The following is a review of sorts:

Venue:
The show was held at The Wave, Western's campus bar, which I have never been to before. Right off the bat this gave the show a casual and uniquely Western tone. Access to a bar (with REALLY cheap drinks I might add) pretty much guarantees a "receptive" audience. As one shy performer admonished the audience "I hope you've all had a lot to drink" - hoping to balance out each butterfly in her stomach with a shot of alcohol in every audience member. Either as anesthetic for the more unfortunate acts or to enhance the better ones - alcohol made the evening better.

Staging/Directing:
I've never directed anything (yet) but I've seen enough stage productions to know an amateur effort. It didn't seem like there was a full rehearsal of the show before - I guess the majority of the players, as law students, didn't really have time for it. Totally forgivable. However, there were gaps in between acts with no-one on stage. The host hadn't really prepared any banter for the gaps where he was waiting alone on stage for a slow act to get their asses on stage. Tech seemed like an afterthought. One of the bands spent longer tuning their instruments, etc then they spent on their actual set. However the video clips were amusing and the big background screen worked well.

Theme:
The theme of the evening was WMTV making Western Law versions of MTV reality shows such as Pimp my Ride, Becoming, etc. Kind of a teeny bopper theme for a law school event. Then again it is Western - a locale so partied out that US students would take their Spring Breaks here if it weren't so damn cold. The highlight was a Making the Band parody with the winners performing on stage. Very amusing.

IF there's one thing that show needed more of...

Content:
Nice mix of sketch comedy and music. I was kind of confused why a random Sarnia-based garage band of NAILS ("Not Actually In Law School') had so much stage time. In fact only one performer really had much law related content with Adam Douglas' delicious parody "Downtown Firm" (to the tune of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl") and arendition of Mr. Big's "Next to be With You" rededicated to Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverely McLaughlin. However before I rip into anybody I must give due respect to the highlights of the evening. First-years Jesse and Lisa shined with back to back Puccini arias bringing some genuine class to the event. The mid-song wardrobe change to something much skimpier during one comely dancer's act (sorry, lost the program and can' identify her at this point to give credit where it's due)actually got the guys in the audience to sit up and pay attention to her dance routine.

However, the celebrity jeopardy skit - a tradition if last year's production is any indication - blew big-time. The Saturday Night Live writers set the bar pretty low when they made the originals and this spoof injured itself doing the limbo. I have no idea how to assess the Ashley Simpson imitation (having never seen the original) but I've heard better Napoleon Dynamite and Sean Connery imitations in a grade school hallway.

Redeeming feature of the show was the Zoolander walkoff - 9 models representing all the first year's small groups, each with a video profile before they strutted their stuff. The Dean's wooden performance as a former catwalk model was priceless.

Summary: Good time but I wouldn't have sat through that if I didn't 1) know the players 2) imbibe a lot of alcohol.

Prognosis: I must direct this thing next year. I will set the bar so high that the years to follow will snap under the pressure to match my directorial debut. I will write a script this summer. How fortunate that I have no job.