Reality bites (Comedy)

Radcliffe & Minotauk Falls by Daniel and Steven Shehori, with Paul Bates, Sandy Jobin-Bevans, Jack Mosshammer, Pat Kelly, Jane Luk, Matt Reid and Alec Duke. Presented by the Shehori Bros at Clinton's Tavern (693 Bloor West). July 5-6 and July 11-13 at 9:30 pm, July 7 at 5:30 pm, July 14 at 5:30 pm.

If you think reality tv has gone too far and sitcoms have run their course, then Daniel and Steven Shehori have a couple of shows for you.

Their comic double bill, Radcliffe & Minotauk Falls, features two plays that cleverly send up three kinds of TV shows.

The first, Radcliffe, concerns a reality-based show called Hotel California, set in a high-security prison. Ten contestants Ð who, as in the song, can check out any time Ð try to outwit one another and win $1 million as the last inmate standing.

The Survivor-meets-Oz scenario is so popular that the show's producers create a spinoff called Big House Improv, featuring three prison inmates in a sort of Whose Lineup Is It Anyway?

Minotauk Falls sees the same cast starring in the 100th episode of a lame sitcom about two brothers who run a small-town restaurant.

'They're ridiculous premises, but you could see them happening, says Daniel. 'Minotauk Falls could be on the Family Network, and we're not far off from a reality show where people go to prison. I personally would watch prisoners doing improv.

The brothers have a love/hate relationship with TV. The Minotauk Falls sequence hauls out every anniversary show clichŽ and even flashes back to the show's pilot episode, where a key character is played by a different actor entirely.

'When we previewed that idea in an earlier version, we were surprised how many people got it, says Steven. 'I guess there's a shared understanding of the niceties of TV production.

The pair couldn't have assembled a funnier cast, including Second City alumni Jack Mosshammer, Sandy Jobin-Bevans and Paul Bates (who just quit the mainstage cast), as well as Pat Kelly (who's just joined the mainstage) and SC teacher Jane Luk.

These are some of the city's top improvisers, but the brothers let only a few unscripted lines into the script. That's not counting the show's genuine improv sequence, which will be different each night.

'Pat, Paul and Sandy are going tobe prison inmates improvising with-in the restrictions of their characters and the rules of this reality world," says Steven. "It's very exploitative, and that's one of ourpoints. What happens when you take one exploitative show and cram it next to another?"