New York Neo-Futurists

This show was hilarious and weird and parts made me (and the audience) a little teary-​eyed and hushed, and some made us laugh out loud. I can see how it wouldn’t be certain people’s cup of tea, but it’s definitely mine, and I have a low tolerance for pretentious fake art.

One of my favorite shows in the city. Always new and exciting, and the audience gets into it.
The venue is intimate, which is perfect for the type of show that they put on.

I’m going to be realistic here. When I left Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind, all I could think was «wow, that was something else». Initially, I did not know if this was a positively or negatively charged thought. I had no idea what to think or feel… which I suppose is part of the point. My opinion in a nutshell: this is just something else.
Where to start? Well, the motto here is: «If you’ve seen the play once, YOU’VE SEEN THE PLAY ONCE!». By this I mean that every show is different. Like, literally every show. Which is pretty damn impressive. Say what you will about the writing, but the fact that they’re constantly creating new material is not to be ignored. The only constant is the format (at the most basic sense) — 30 plays in 60 minutes. So, while I’ll give them props for constantly creating new material, they’re really just coming up with 30 ideas and elaborating on each of them for two minutes each. So unless you’re incredibly adept at analyzing super experimental and chaotic theater, I’d say it’s near impossible to find a common thread. Other than the fact that each «play» touches on/​responds to issues/​themes that currently face humankind (with an emphasis on millennials).
AUDIENCE WARNING: You may be invited to participate. As you walk into the theater, they’ll ask for your name — upon hearing it, they come up with a new name for you (mine was «Unabashed»), write it on a name tag, and that’s your name for the hour. My row happened to be picked on a fair amount during the show, the highlight being that my friend was asked to write the number of the next «play» that she wanted to see on the female actor’s, er, chest region.
I won’t say much else about the viewing experience — you should go and form your own opinions. What I will say, from a more removed perspective, is that these «plays» really run the gamut in terms of subject material. A lot of it is humorous (or performed in a comedic way), but there are definitely some more somber moments. Obviously each audience member will have his or her own experience here, but I’m going to posit that not all of this is meant to make you laugh. So my advice would be to stay present and observe your reactions to what you’re seeing. And the nice thing is, if you don’t like one of the «plays», it will be over in two minutes.
Additional details:
–KGB Bar is located in the same building as the theater. I won’t bluntly say that debauchery is encouraged, but you certainly will not be dissuaded from generously letting the spirits flow pre-​show
–If you wait to buy tickets at the theater instead of buying them online in advance, you’ll receive a plastic «serviceman» to hold onto until they let people in. It’s cheaper to do it this way, but I’m not sure if it guarantees you entry (purchasing tix online does give you that guarantee). So your choice. In any case, you’re invited to hang out upstairs at KGB or right outside until they open the doors, at which point they’ll make a very loud announcement instructing you to get in line.
–FREE ENTRY DURING YOUR BIRTHDAY MONTH. I’M BORN IN OCTOBER SO I DID NOT HAVE TO PAY A SINGLE PENNY. WIN. If you happen to go during the other 11 months of the year, entry is $ 13 + the roll of a six-​sided die.

fun, entertaining, experimental. Totally recommend it.

This show isn’t for the audience its for the performers, who seem to relish their craft and simply love bellowing out pathetic cliched lines while the drunk audience suffers from their egos. The total lack of enjoyment in the crowd seems to hardly worry those on stages
This is everything that can possibly be wrong about experimental theatre. It’s terrible writing, poorly thought out scenes, no artistic merit wrapped up with ample charisma and vast egos. It’s a nightmare.
At best the audience is enthused and drunk at worst angry, scared and totally bemused.
Only go to see it as a good example of theatre gone wrong.

Too much light makes the baby go blind was so boring, and so stupid. This reminded me of plays I put on for my grandparents when I was 8 years old. It was completely random, unorganized, not funny, and seemingly meaningless. It was just a bunch of random bad acting that was not entertaining at all. Also, can someone please tell me the point of the name tags? It would have been fun if they actually used the names they gave everyone in the show somehow. Just giving you a name for the sake of it, just added to the random stupidity of this whole thing. Wish I could have my $ 20 back. I was even more disappointed when I found out I could have paid less to see this, but even at $ 10 I still would have felt ripped off.
P. S. If you need to be drunk to enjoy a play, then it must not be that enjoyable.

I wasn’t excited to see this show. In fact, while I was waiting for the show to begin I lamented the fact that I had not doubled down on booze before the start of the show. Once the show started I was entertained and thought almost all of the 2 min plays were good. The great thing about this format is even if the play you’re watching is not great, give it 60 seconds and you’ll be watching something else. All four people in my group enjoyed the show.

Frenetic, creative & ambitious. Not every skit hits home but the majority will and it’s definitely worth it.

I was invited to this show last night by a friend. I knew nothing of this group when I paid $ 25 for the ticket. My mistake. New York theater can be a crap shoot and this one was definitely crap.
This group simply doesn’t have the acting and comedy chops for such an ambitious format. I was curious to see how it would be pulled off, but I’ve seen lots of improv and lots of theater and unfortunately, this group is not very good at either.
The pacing was frenetic, which I typically like, but for this show, the erratic bookending of each of the 25 bits was not enough to support the lack of solid writing, acting and improv.
I suspect a lot of the audience were friends of the performers, between the ages of 21 and 26 … and drunk. Or, they simply have low standards when it comes to NYC off off Broadway theater. They seemed to really enjoy screaming out the numbers that dictated the next scene and didn’t mind when the next scene again disappointed.
The third scene had two of the performers doing four shots in a mildy funny table scene. I heard one of the other actors say, «Oh, it’s going to be one of those shows.» Big mistake, my friends! You can’t do a 1.5 hour show drunk, you just can’t. Even if it’s part of your «writing» you really cheat your audience.
Halfway through the show, the group did a rap sequence which totally bombed. If you are going to do a 2 minute rap to music with choreographed dancing that is NOT improvised, it needs to KILL! It needs to be tight! I felt embarrassed for them it was so bad. I’m talking 5^th grade school play bad.
It makes me sad to say that the women were unimpressive, especially the one who does the smoking bit and admitted to having «body issues» during an audience energy killing «dangers of smoking» rant. She had no stage presence or charisma and actually looked pained and stressed in between the bits.
The one bright spot was the guy that did the SNL and salsa sketches. He seemed to be the only one that gave 100 percent to each bit and his sketches were smart and funny. I’d see him again, just not with this group.
Bravo for doing your thing, Neo Futurists. I’ve done my share of shitty shows, too, so I applaud that you are at least «out there, doing it.» But for $ 25, you need to do much, much better.
Unilocalers, if you are looking for great improv and acting, go see Centralia or Improvised Shakespeare. They are brilliant.

Great off off broadway show. Always changing

My friends and I came here on a weekend trip to NY and I bought tickets in advance (I was afraid that they would sell out!). Everyone had to stand in a line that wove throughout the building to grab a seat in the ‘theater’ — I thought that this was a fire hazard as you have two lines going up/​down on these narrow stairs. I was really excited for this play as it seemed to have great reviews and it was something unique to do in the city. However, I was extremely disappointed. The organization of the whole show seemed to be in complete disarray, and you can tell that the actors didn’t know what to do next — I get improv, but, this was anything but. There were very long gaps and there was a lack of flow to the show. We could only stand to stay for 10 minutes (in which we were able to see about 8 skits) tops as it was just screaming, telling jokes that weren’t funny, and a forced tie-​in with current events that was not delivered properly — I can usually find humor in everything, but this show was just not for me at all! There were audience members who were laughing and seemed to be having a great time (but, then again, most of them had drinks in their hand!). We had to walk out. The show was about $ 25, and I felt as if it was a complete waste of $ :(
+not funny at all T_​_​_​T

Fortunately, it is inexpensive. Sadly, and clearly, the worst night of theater my wife and I ever saw. We see a lot of Off-​Off Broadway shows and a lot of experimental shows, revues, etc, so were not seeking Broadway polish, sitcom material, etc.
The cast is hardworking, but they simply lack writing skills – their one minute skits (which they pompously refer to as «plays») are neither quality drama nor funny. They waste half their 60 minutes on the tired device of having the audience yell out which numbered skit to do next. This impresses the below 25’s in the audience as innovative and daring and psyches them up as they battle to yell their choice out first (although these same people probably mock those who yell to be picked on «The Price Is Right» or scream at TV refs to call fouls).
I have seen beginner Improv classes come up with consistently much better material. As new skits are constantly added to their mix, it is theoretically possible we just saw an unrepresentative sampling – but after watching over 40 mediocre bits, had no reason to think the next 40 would be good.

I don’t think anything I could write could convince you to go to or stay away from Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. I personally love it. It’s very out there in terms of pushing themes and theater structure and a show’s relationship to the audience, so if you don’t generally like theater you probably won’t like it (why would you even be considering this show in that case?). The plays, price, and cast are always changing so you could go back fairly often and see a whole new show most times. I love how much fun they have doing it, all the stories they tell where they try to connect with the audience, and all the fun experiments they do with show structure. Some of the political ones get so self-​important that they clash in context with the rest of the show, and every mini-​play I’ve seen with dicks and/​or balls in it didn’t work, so no 5^th star but very much worth going to.

Intimate space — every seat is a good seat and relatively comfortable. The actors work hard and deliver a very entertaining show. Each skit differs from the next, sometimes vastly, from pure comedy to pure tragedy and everything in between.
Too Much LIght Makes the Baby Go Blind is a multi layered emotional roller coaster and perfect for any level theater goer — from beginner to seasoned, all will enjoy this unique experience!

Amazing! Always fun and entertaining. Great show done twice a week with talented performers. Can’t go wrong with this very reasonably priced entertainment. Consistent crowd pleaser.

SO MUCH FUN!
«Too much light makes the baby go blind» is the perfect show to watch if you have slight ADD and wants to be entertained for an entire hour without a single dull moment!
Everything from the way you get a plastic soldier as «placeholder», to rolling the dice to determine your price ticket, to the show itself (30 plays, 2 minutes each) is creative, fun and high energy. The best thing is, you can watch this over and over again, because they change out plays and inject new ones, so in about a couple months’ time, all the 30 plays would be brand new!
The only criticism I do have — the cast sometimes seem to be a bit «much». I understand it is a group of people who work closely together for an extended period of time, but sometimes it just seems like they are laughing at their own private jokes rather than including the audience in it as well. Due to the unique format of the show, the distinction between the cast and the audience blurs somewhat, but they should still not forget that they are professionals, and we had paid to see them.

I love that most of the ratings are either 5 star or 1 star… you either love it or hate it, and I guess I fall into the former. This is one of the best things I’ve seen in NYC. It’s cheap theater… and given what a broadway show costs I think these folks do a pretty good job for the budget. It’s short, lively, dynamic, funny, heartfelt, political, random, trippy, whatever. I saw it last night for the second time and it was just as good as the first. I’ll do my best to go more. When you walk out of the theater you’re speechless because your mind is still busy wrapping itself around everything you just saw. Then as the minutes, hours and days go by, random bits flood back to you and make you smile. So you either get it, or you don’t, and if you don’t, well just stick to Broadway.

I’m writing this review based on seeing «Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind»
This was such a fun and interactive show! I recommend it to everyone who visits. In this show, they attempt to perform 30 two minute plays within an hour. The numbers 1 – 30 are hung up on a clothesline and after each skit, the audience yells out a number and then begins the next skit. When we went, they achieved 29 out of 30. So close!
I think the coolest part is that all of these plays are written by the Neo-​Futurists, and they write new ones every week so that you can go to multiple shows and never see the same thing twice.
I would highly recommend this, as it is a very unique «New York» experience.

I really cant believe how much this show sucked… A few times i noticed one of the chicks looking at me like «why isnt he laughing, whats his friggin problem. He looks like a snob…». I get it, im a pretty looking mf but far from a snob. I enjoy good raunchy humor. This ish was just weird. I cant describe it. My girl and i were speechless afterwards. Let me try n break it down one time for ya mind…
Let me start with their 4 star rating at this very moment 2÷1312… Something tells me these ratings will drop as time passes and more reviews are posted. 24 reviews and a 4 star rating. The show consisted of a bunch of high school band and drama class geeks. In my experience these people tend to stick together, whether it sucks or not. Kinda like how latinos always support their peoples music whether it sucks or not. My point is the high rated review are probably from their friends and themselves…
All shows are different they say… What i saw in a nut shell… Guys sucking off bananas, ball sacks w glued on eye balls, and this one chicks push up bra that i jus couldn’t get over…
Who was funny? The spanish dude and this guy that reminded me of one of the brothers in Step Brothers.
Please check out my other reviews from my NYC adventure this weekend. I did it up real big per usual.
Rozay out and jus keeping it real like i always do…

Oh my god. I LOVE love love TMLMTBGB. So much that my friend and I organize a ~monthly pilgrimage to see the show. We usually bring a group of anywhere from 5 to 15 people. And when they sell out they order PIZZA for the audience!
These guys are hilarious. And ridiculously creative. I don’t know how they come up with so many awesome plays. I love the randomness of everything — your ticket, the order of the plays, how many plays they keep week to week.
Best part. I heard about this from a This American Life episode. They were so inspired by the Neo-​Futurists that they did their own version: 20 acts in 60 minutes. Thank you, Ira Glass!