If you love laughing along with the “Mystery Science Theater 3000” team as they bash on bad B-movies, wait until you see them in person.
Host Jonah Ray and his sarcastic robot pals are hitting the road this summer for the “Watch Out For Snakes!” live tour, which kicks off at the Shubert Theatre in Boston on July 6. Fans of the recently revived cult classic series will get a chance to watch the awful 1962 horror flick “Eegah” as the MST3K crew rips it to shreds with their off the cuff jokes. The event will also feature plenty of silly sketches and even a bit of audience participation.
We caught up with the 34-year-old comic to get the lowdown on the live tour.
You guys are taking MST3K on the road for the first time this summer. What should fans expect?
Just a good time, really. It’s going to be like an episode live. There’s going to be a pre-show with [co-star] Rebecca Hanson, and [creator] Joel Hodgson will be there taking questions. Once we get to the show, there’s going to be sketches and video elements for the songs. It’s going to be a nice, big, fun time.
Do you do a lot of preparation before ripping on these movies, or is it more off the cuff?
We don’t want to leave anything to chance and hope that our comedic good graces will help us with coming up with stuff. We want it to be a good, solid show. We’ve been writing these just like we would an episode. Me and the writers got together, watched through it and wrote our jokes. With live, sometimes you can flub a line and it turns into something else like it would in any live theater situation. Things could go wrong.
From Jerry Seinfeld to Mark Hamill, the show’s return featured a ton of awesome guest stars. Do you have any favorite guests or moments from the new season?
The person I was really excited to work with was Elliott Kalan, who is the head writer. I’ve been a huge fan of his for his work with Jon Stewart on “The Daily Show” and also his podcast. Getting to work with him on the writing process and kind of perform with him was great. As far as the celebrity stuff, getting to meet Mark Hamill was crazy. Another cool element was my old boss from when I was working on “The Soup,” Joel McHale; when he came to set, that was a lot of fun. I was in between some takes, I heard he was in his dressing room, so I went over in my jumpsuit. I was like, “Hey man good to see you. Pretty crazy right? I worked on your show, now you’re appearing on my show.” His response was, “Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s also crazy that they couldn’t get you a jumpsuit that fit.”
B-movies are obviously a big part of the show. Do you have a favorite bad flick that you enjoy watching?
First off, you’re being very nice to these movies by calling them B-movies. These are S-movies, I think. My favorite bad movie, it’s hard to say because it’s hard to say it’s a bad movie when you get enjoyment out of it. As far as a movie that’s not artistically regarded, I will always watch “Die Hard with a Vengeance,” the third “Die Hard.” I’m a big fan of that movie.
If you go:
July 6, 7 p.m., Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St., Boston, $39.50+, bochcenter.org
