Martians and Superheroes and Nazis, Oh My!: 'Adventure Hour' Thrills Sell-Out Largo Crowd

Photo by Jonathan Reilly

Nathan Fillion strikes his best heroic pose as Annie Savage looks on

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Fearless superheroes battling feathered evildoers, male Martians having their egg sacs (!) violated by their disgusted compadres, and pint-sized sidekicks being brainwashed by Nazi vamps to assassinate President Roosevelt, all in an evening's entertainment for the intrepid cast of the Thrilling Adventure Hour series, now in its fourth month at Largo after a successful run at the much-smaller M Bar since 2005. The live, mock-vintage radio serial - co-written by the fantastically talented team of Acker & Blacker and boasting an impressive cast of regulars in addition to excellent guest stars for each month's installment -- delivered what few would argue was one of their best shows to date last Saturday night in front of a beyond-sold out crowd. (A goodly-sized group of hopefuls were turned away at the door, a first for the show in the larger Largo digs.) Lending name power to the show on this month were Kids in the Hall legend Dave Foley; Freaks & Geeks vets Linda Cardellini and Martin Starr; Web Soup and Nerdist.com honcho Chris Hardwick; Heroes and Alias vet David Anders (who was a surprise addition); and Castle star Nathan Fillion, whose ginormous fan base from his days in the captain's seat on Firefly no doubt contributed a bit to the rush for tickets. (An especially fervent fan sent Fillion flowers at the theater earlier in the day. "I never get flowers," Hardwick joked before the show, "although a guy once gave me a firewall as a present.")

Photo by Jonathan Reilly

Martin Starr and Linda Cardellini: Superhero sidekicks

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Photo by Jonathan Reilly

Chris Hardwick gets his feathers ruffled

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As nostalgic trips go, Thrilling Adventure Hour is great, packed with broad, clever characterizations and perfectly-pitched serial shenanigans, bracketed with classic sponsor pitches (WorkJuice coffee and Patriot brand cigarettes, they're all you need to get through the day!) and more singalong perfection (courtesy of the excellent Andy Paley Orchestra) than you can shake a stick at. As straight-up comedy, it's head-spinningly hilarious. Actor Marc Evan Jackson, whose main role is as the title character in "Sparks Nevada: Marshal on Mars," effuses "Acker and Blacker are amazing. It's a crime that they are not famous because, as you just witnessed, it was a solid hour and a half of... four laughs a page? A crazy ratio." Truth.

Photo by Jonathan Reilly

Marc Evan Jackson: He IS Sparks Nevada, Marshall on Mars!

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For almost five years at M Bar, the show packed the room, and the teeny, tiny stage, with its enormous cast and sizeable band, plus a sound effects engineer, until it simply demanded a bigger venue. "[At] M Bar, one of the lovely things is the energy is right in your face, and you can smell what they're eating," Jackson explains. "But more people wanted to see the show at one time than M Bar can accommodate... We don't know of a room in town that is two-times-M Bar that is willing to give up their Saturday night rather than be a club. When the crowds grew, it became Friday and Saturday night, and the energy that you witnessed tonight, if we tried to harness that a second time then it wasn't the same. Just schedule-wise, too, especially with this caliber of talent, people are shooting movies and television. It's hard to be able [to secure the guest cast] two nights in a row, super hard."

Photo by Jonathan Reilly

Paget Brewster: Clearly up to no good

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Paget Brewster, currently a regular on Criminal Minds and one of the cast's regular leading ladies, agrees. "I liked it [at M Bar] 'cause it was kinda ghetto, and it was like 'Yeah, get it done!' And we were able to hang out with people, there was no backstage and it was kinda great. But now we can have a chance to have mics and more people, and a bigger orchestra. And honestly I'm a little surprised that the audience is so ebullient. I really was afraid that if we were on a stage, with a riser and slightly removed, that they won't feel like they're with us. But I've never seen a crowd like [tonight], that was bananas."