A Tale of Two Terrors: Zombie Joe Offers Up Variants of ‘Urban Death’ (REVIEW)

Celebrating its 30th year as the homespun nexus of horror, comedy, and burlesque, this North Hollywood institution is back with the latest installment of its flagship event. While for many, a titillating, terrifying night spent in the black box on Lankershim Boulevard is a long established annual tradition, I admit that this was my first time attending a Zombie Joe show for the most anemic nonreason there is: “I didn’t think it was my kind of thing.” But as I was greeted warmly on the sidewalk by the theater’s eponymous, gregarious impresario with the obvious energy of someone who has chosen to do this for decades because he loves it and the people who love it as well, I was disarmed enough to remind myself to keep an open mind see what the experience offered. It was this sense of approaching the macabre with mirth that lent the entire evening its spirit, beginning before I had even entered the space.

Armed with only a small blacklight flashlight pressed into my somewhat steady hand I plunged into a twisting, narrow maze of black plastic, managing to illuminate the arrows that pointed me towards some new fright with each turn of a corner. Before finally navigating my way out I flinched, I laughed, I gasped, I wrinkled my nose in disgust, and lingered as long as crowd control would allow in order to take in each unique maze-dweller. Though the darkness was intense, the light of my blue torch was enough to marvel at the costumes, makeup, the variety and inventiveness of each station’s concept and the gusto with which each performer gleefully embodied their role; whether they were meant to be slyly cheeky, truly terrifying, or, as most often seems to be the case within these walls, somewhere in between. All of this, I would come to find, would serve as the perfect structural prelude for the performance still to come.

The show itself is best described as a string of short, wordless, unconnected vignettes. A small, tireless troupe of performers embodies several characters throughout the sequence, necessitating quick costume changes and, at times, cleaning. I’ll admit it was shorter than I anticipated; my count was a little under twenty tableaus performed in as many minutes. I was later told that in earlier iterations the show has been much longer while still operating within the same format, with as many as fifty scenarios in a single sitting; the presence of the entry maze was explained as the trade off for this slimmed-down edition.

The economy of visual storytelling needed to convey a concept and elicit a reaction in such a short amount of time without the benefit of dialogue demands tremendous commitment from the performers and inventiveness from the directors. Each scene delivers a kind of primal gut punch, a knee jerk reflex test of the most honest, immediate reaction from the audience before quickly moving on to the next premise. Some vignettes have more fully formed concepts/points of view than others, but they all make you feel something. There were a couple that employed truly head scratching stage trickey, perhaps some well masked acrobatics, puppetry, or something else entirely aided by the appropriately spooky lighting that felt truly otherworldly and alarming in the best possible way. Still others depicted scenes of total realism, asking the audience to live in the stark anguish of another person. And then there were some that simply demanded laughter for either the cleverness or sheer audacity of what was done. Some comic, some vulgar, some visually arresting, painfully real, stomach churning, sexy, but always surprising. Ultimately a bit like the maze that led me there; even when sitting still, the blackouts signal the end of one horror as they move you closer to the next, leaving you in darkness to anticipate what is still to come.

The laughs, gasps, and hollering cheers from the crowd gave the night a truly communal feel, fueling the performers’ go-for-broke boldness with appreciative, raucous energy that carried over into the final moments. When the house lights came up, the room was abuzz with people excitedly discussing what they had just seen and comparing notes on which scene had “got them.” As we slowly filed out the way we came, we were confronted by an entirely new collection of spooks and frights populating the maze on our reverse course back to the beginning.

THE FAMILY FRIENDLY VERSION

While normally a separately ticketed event running on a parallel schedule throughout the season, the relatively new Family Friendly edition was playing immediately after a quick turnover, and while it may raise some eyebrows to imagine how a company known for its bloody vulgarity could mount a show recommended for children eight and up and still call it Urban Death, it was watching both of these shows in succession that truly made me see the real essence of what Zombie Joe’s Underground is all about.

Once again I entered the maze, and while I was handed another flashlight to help me find my way through, I immediately noticed that this time there were actual lights illuminating the maze itself; still dim enough to be atmospheric, but far from the pitch black unknown I had braved earlier. Gone were the gory, startling, risque creatures who had been lurking inside only moments earlier. Now there were only friendly, amusing, but still visually bizarre entities greeting me along my journey, projecting just enough edge to make me look over my shoulder as I passed in case this was all some kind of trick.

Structurally the show is exactly the same as its X-Rated counterpart, but the material is (almost) entirely new, fully embracing the kind of juvenile clowning and unselfconscious silliness that would obviously appeal to a younger audience. As the vignettes progress they do become creepier, more intentionally unnerving, but nothing that a parent would find objectionable. As a child of the 90’s reared by the gross-out absurdism of classic Nickelodeon and the envelope-pushing light terror that often crept into the kids movies of that time, I think children’s entertainment should have a rough edge or two. Just dangerous enough to add a little idiosyncratic texture to a worldview still being formed. Interestingly, the last three vignettes featured are exact restagings of some of the tamer offerings from the adult show, suggesting an escalation that carries the young audiences right to the brink of the scarier, grown-up world they are one day doomed to inhabit before pulling them back to the curated safety of another age appropriate, refreshed walk through the maze. While I recommend both, just make sure you’re mindful of which ticket you’re buying.

What struck me most was ultimately how similar the two shows were. Not in content, but in spirit. To see these same performers tackle this off-kilter, still seriously bizarre but ultimately harmless children’s fare with the same mischievous zeal with which I had seen them an hour earlier simulate sex acts and murder was, frankly, charming. Almost sweet. That this company puts just as much effort, creativity, and commitment into both sets of performances shows that it isn’t about the shock factor for shock’s sake, but a genuine desire to entertain, regardless of the intensity level. Urban Death embodies the often overlooked tenet that being scared like this is supposed to be fun.

Take away the bare chests and buckets of faux bodily fluids and you’re still left with a group of playful, committed storytellers who derive obvious joy and pride from what they do. This is bolstered by a community that revels in being provoked by whatever lies in wait around the next corner. As I traveled for the fourth time that night through the maze, finding yet another fresh collection of benign oddities and friendly horrors to greet me on my way back to the sidewalk where Zombie Joe was waiting with a bowl of Halloween candy and a genial word of thanks to everyone for coming, I couldn’t help but smile and think, regardless of how it’s dressed (or undressed) up, this should be everyone’s kind of thing.

Urban Death: Tour of Terror [Adult and “Family Friendly” versions] plays at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theatre, 4850 Lankershim in North Hollywood. Tickets are $20 through October 31st 2022.

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