If you want to see comedy in Austin, you have two main options.
You can head down to Sixth Street where you’ll find a lot of standup shows. Setup. Punchline. One performer at a time.
Or you can go to an improv club like Fallout Theater, where comedy is collaborative, more theatrical and experimental.
Every month, Fallout hosts “Did I Win?,” a show where the truth is stranger than fiction.
“It’s a game show you would never want to get pulled onto,” co-host and creator Trenton Bradley said.
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Trenton Bradley hosts “Did I Win?,” a game show that’s part comedy, part immersive theater. He and co-creator, Austin Apostle, try out new games or segments during every show.
On “Did I Win?,” audience members get called up to play games that make no sense.
“The game can be anything from a ‘Deal or No Deal’ kind of parody,” Bradley said, “or something as wacky as ‘Give Somebody a Haircut.’”
Bradley and Austin Apostle have hosted “Did I Win?” for two years. They try out new games or segments at every show.
“Not all of our bits go well,” Bradley said. “We did this show last year where we couldn’t even watch it because it went so badly.”
Once they had somebody come on stage and reach into a box. They were told to identify an item without looking at it. In the first round, the item was a wig. Round two, it was a fake spider.
“The third round was a mousetrap,” Bradley said.
When it snapped shut on the contestant’s hand, everyone in the theater was stunned except for Bradley and Apostle. The contestant was not a paying audience member. He was a plant.
“He knew that a mousetrap was going to close on his hand,” Bradley said, “but he played it off so well that people came up to us and were like, ‘That is not funny.’”
Isak Kotecki for KUT News
Austin Apostle works the soundboard during the show last month. He created “Did I Win?” with Bradley two years ago.
Every month, Bradley and Apostle recruit local standup comics to be random people in the crowd. Their segments go sideways.
None of this is ever explained to the audience.
“They know it’s a game show, but they don’t know what that game show entails,” Bradley said.
“Did I Win?” blurs reality in a way that makes it impossible for the audience to make sense of what they’re looking at at any given moment.
“You don’t know what’s going to happen. You can’t expect anything,” attendee Bo Banducci said before a recent show. “I’m excited about it.”
Comedian Austen Silver was lingering in the lobby. He was one of the night’s plants.
“They’re going to get me to name celebrity feet,” he said, “but I only know the women’s feet.”
Silver wasn’t wearing a costume and didn’t change his voice for the role – so a good portion of the audience might leave thinking he’s a creep.
“I’ve been humiliated so much just as a regular comic that it’s very hard to insult me,” he said.
Moments later, the audience filed into the theater and the show started. Bradley and Apostle tossed jello shots into the crowd.
“I’ve been sober for six years,” Bradley said onstage. “Should I relapse tonight?”
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An audience member must guess the name of the person on screen behind him by asking the audience yes or no questions.
The crowd roared and chaos commenced. The first game of the evening was “Guess Who? Epstein Files Edition.”
Chris, a real audience member, was brought onstage as the first contestant. He had to identify a person on screen behind him by asking the audience yes or no questions.
For the next game, Bradley called up comedian Demi Chang. She had to fight a trash can.
“I’ve never been in a fight,” she said.
Bradley pulled out a midsized plastic can and placed it on the floor.
“Fight! Fight! fight!” everybody cheered.
Without hesitating, Chang kicked the can off the stage. She threw up her arms in victory and the crowd erupted. Then came round two.
“Bring it on!” Chang shouted.
The bell rang and a man wearing a trash can with arm and leg holes cut out stormed into the theater. He stomped onstage and cornered Chang.
Bradley didn’t care; he shoved her back into the middle of the stage.
“Fight the trash can!” he scolded. “You’re losing the game!”
Finally, Chang forfeited and headed back to her seat. The crowd didn’t seem to notice that any of this was staged. At Bradley’s instruction, the entire room booed Chang.
“The trash can wins!” he yelled. “The trash can wins!”
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Comedian Demi Chang cowers onstage as Bradley demands she fight a trash can.
The next person called on stage was Alyssa, whose challenge was to identify celebrities by photos of their feet.
“I don’t know any celebrities so this is going to be really hard,” she said.
Alyssa wasn’t lying. She couldn’t identify any celebrity feet – and neither could anybody else in the crowd. They all struggled to name LeBron James, Leonardo DiCaprio and Yoda.
Of course, the exception was Austen Silver, who identified the feet of every woman shown. He proudly shouted the names of Rita Ora, Margot Robbie, Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé immediately after their photos appeared on screen.
Silver owned his character as a female foot expert. The audience was equal parts impressed and horrified.
Eventually, though, he got them on his side.
“Feet! Feet! Feet!” they start chanting.
“Did I Win?” is part comedy, part immersive theater. The humor comes from confusion, awkward moments and segments that unravel. It’s also hosted by a maniac.
If you’re in on the joke, it’s performance art. If you’re not, it’s just a train wreck.