Big shorts

Local Film

Paul F. P. Pogue

The Really Really Big Show started off as something more of a Little Show, back in the day, when Matt Thompson and Andy Lang did comedy on the radio in 1998. Since that time they’ve picked up actors and sidekicks bit by bit along the way, filming comedic shorts, and forming a loosely organized troupe of 15 players along the way, ranging from a former Miss Indiana to real estate agents with no other acting experience.

By 2004 they had 20 shorts filmed, which they screened at their first Comedy Short Film Festival. This year they’ve got 15 more in the can, and they’ll be drawing from those for their second annual festival Feb. 17 at Hollywood Bar & Filmworks, 247 S. Meridian St. Doors open at 6:30; screenings begin at 7 p.m.
Thompson describes the group’s work as diverse and off-the-wall.

“One of the biggest compliments we got last year was ‘I’ve never seen anything like that,’” Thompson said. “We’ve had silent movies that come at you from out of nowhere. We try to have an off-the-wall sense of humor. We can have another movie with sexual humor and crude stuff that a totally different demographic would find funny. We’ve got a little something for everyone.”

The show will be split into two parts, with an intermission between the family-friendly and … slightly less family-friendly material.

“We try never to do anything too over the top gross-out-wise,” Thompson said. “Our main goal is to do comedy. We want people to watch it, love it and say, ‘I’ve never seen anything like it. Where in the hell do you guys come up with stuff?’ And a lot of the time it’s just sitting at a Chinese buffet talking and laughing with each other.”

For more information: www.reallyreallybigshow.com.