Oil in the Alley duo improvises rock comedy at Mark’s Garage

HONOLULU—It’s a busy lunchtime at Café Bravo in Pearl City as waitresses circulate among tables full of chatting diners. Glasses and dishes clink and clatter as unknown sounds emanate from the kitchen. Sean O’Malley tunes out the noise and explains how Oil in the Alley works, giving the impression that even if his hair was on fire, he’d calmly make his point.

Oil in the Alley is a musical improv comedy duo performing at the Improvaganza comedy festival at Mark’s Garage on Thursday, September 23. The back-story of Oil in the Alley goes like this: Sean O’Malley and R. Kevin Doyle are former rock stars from the 1980s who broke up their band 17 years ago. They’ve reformed as a duo and are now doing a reunion tour. The details of the breakup and reunion change from show to show, and pretty much anything can happen.

“Whatever fiction we lay on it, it has to be possible,” explains O’Malley. “I mean, it may be implausible that we once opened for U2, but it is possible.”

The comic form differs from more traditional forms of improv in that O’Malley and Doyle interact with their audience throughout the performance, rather than taking one audience-supplied suggestion and creating a scene. By conversing with their audience, the players are free to take any part of the conversation and turn it into an improvised song.

Both players are experienced improvisers, each a member when the seminal improv group Loose Screws was founded in 1993. O’Malley and Doyle have been performing together for 17 years, and their familiarity with one another is a major advantage. They trust each other’s instincts implicitly. “We never miss each other’s cues,” says O’Malley.

The songs they perform were originally written by O’Malley, but the lyrical content of the dozen-or-so songs that they may perform varies with each performance. O’Malley is an accomplished musician, having written several original scores in theatrical productions. Doyle, he says, is possessed of “an encyclopedic knowledge of D-I-Y indie rock from the 1980s.”

Oil in the Alley has developed a loyal following since their first performance at Laughtrack Theater in late 2009. Laughtrack Artistic Director Shannon Winpenny is among their fans. “Their experience allows them to make it look easy and fun,” she says. “It’s so fluid that it can seem scripted.”

Whatever improvised songs they play, Oil in the Alley makes them sound as though they’ve been around for decades. The friendship, and at times latent hostility, that the two performers share in their stage personas is easy to believe. And it is always funny.

Oil in the Alley at Improvaganza
Thursday, September 23 at 8:00 p.m.
Arts at Marks Garage
1159 Nuuanu Avenue
$10 cover