The Critics Are Making Us Blush

It's very rare for a small comedy theater to land on a critic's radar, but Porn Minus Porn is raking in some phenomenal reviews.

The Chicago Reader highly recommends the show, writing, "Each week a cast of ten or so offer readings of two episodes from Cinemax’s soft-core series Life on Top, transcribed in stilted, preposterous glory by show creator Ben Bowman, who also acts as host. The dialogue is by turns mundane and overwrought (“I would drag my dick ten miles over hot asphalt to sniff the tire of the garbage truck that took away her panties”), the story lines impenetrable, and the sex— well, who knows? ... It’s joyous trash, and since the actors read the scripts cold, the hour feels as spontaneous as the best improv." (more)
Newcity Stage also raved about the show.  "The ensemble on stage capitalizes perfectly on the idiotic structures, non-sequiturs and gross clichés that infest porn like bedbugs infest New York City. With lines like, 'That girl was looking at you like a taco bar' or 'How much lubricant do you really need?'/ 'Why limit yourself!!?' it becomes clear that, like most things, when taken slightly out of context (or in this case, when the context/sex is taken out), porn almost becomes poetic, in the same way a pile of trash can become poetic with a black-and-white filter in some haughty Instagram feed." (more)
The Onion A.V. Club showed us major love in their Podmass series.  "The script is, as one would expect, ridiculous. What makes it incredibly funny is that, though no one is watching the show for the plot and dialogue, it truly does feel like the writers are trying their hardest to make it clever, and nothing is funnier than bad jokes. The actors who read the script are brilliant in their delivery, playing it straight and highlighting how absurd and abrupt the placement of sex scenes are in the show. ... It’s an extremely fun listen with a surprising cliffhanger ending." (more)
Porn Minus Porn has also been featured in Cusp Magazine, The Columbia Chronicle, Under the Gun Theater's news site and The Boiling Point Improv Blog.
If you've seen our show and want to share your opinion, leave a review on the Yelp page for Under the Gun Theater.