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From Vivian's review
Jun 15, 2014
The Catalyst Comedy Club is located at the Boston Button Factory at 50 Melcher Street, which does not have a Yelp Profile at the time of this review. Neither did Boston's Unscripted Musical Project (B.U.M.P.), which is what I came to see. But I was feeling lazy and so I didn't start up a profile for either. I don't head over to the Seaport District much, particularly at night, but it was a short walk from South Station, and gave me the chance to check out Flour for dinner beforehand. Alternatively, Blue Dragon is right there on the corner of Melcher Street and A Street, bordering the same No Restaurant Parking as the Boston Button Factory. According to a gentleman I met, the nearby metered spot turned into permit parking after hours but there's $8 parking a short walk away at the Gillette lot - I think he meant the parking lot at 284 A Street. Looks like it is cash only and $5 on weekends. Some facts about the space - it is a raw space that they filled with folding chairs, there are stairs leading down into the space and a step to the single restroom, so take care if you are able bodied, and if you are not, I'm not sure you can get yourself into this basement space; doors open a half hour before show time; seating is general seating (aka first come first served); BYOB (within reason). A focus of the Catalyst Comedy Club is to enable local comedians to develop their talent locally, which is cool, and so, as such, there was an opening act before the BUMP feature act. And thus, my review moves on from the Catalyst Comedy Club to the performance... According to the introduction, the opening act had won a competition. I found that hard to believe, though I will admit that I did laugh out loud once. As I walked towards South Station with a couple after the show, I found them to be in agreement, so it wasn't just me. We did, however, enjoy BUMP's opening (and closing) production of "Superman's Underpants" as suggested by a boy located in the front row with his mom and siblings, and created on the spot with multiple acts and songs, with heroes and villains, with love and conflict and cats. Lots of cats. Sure, there was no finesse to the show, but that is to be expected, given the premise, though a few pauses were starting to get awkward. Through both performances, however, I noticed a theme of joking about disliking kids, which I found to be rather in poor taste given the three children seated right there, in the first row on the left. It was approximately half hour opening act, 1 hour BUMP. For more info: www.bumpcomedy.com. www.theatreinboston.com/theatre/boston-button-factory/8 read more












