Exploraphoria: A Retrospective

When I say Gar­rett, you say Buss. That’s the ral­ly­ing cry that’s kicked off every Explo­rapho­ria since the begin­ning. Sad­ly, Buss’s lon­grun­ning exper­i­men­tal show­case is com­ing to an end. After near­ly six whole years of being a ring­leader for uncon­ven­tion­al com­e­dy in Austin, Buss is pack­ing up his cir­cus and his cor­duroy suit to head west. The Fall­out The­ater will chant ​“Buss” one last time before it becomes a house­hold name in Hollywood.

“I real­ly think LA is in a very inter­est­ing posi­tion com­e­dy wise,” Buss says. He name checks venues like the Elysian The­ater, Lyric Hype­r­i­on and Dynasty Type­writer as spaces for inven­tive, alter­na­tive com­e­dy. The ​“clown boom” as Buss puts it has swept the city; in its radius is a broad shock­wave of char­ac­ter bits, comedic game shows, and gen­er­al off-kil­ter fun­ny busi­ness that falls direct­ly in line with the cre­ative free­dom Buss fos­tered here in Austin. Buss’s own alt-com­e­dy exhi­bi­tion is sure to find a nice home in LA. ​“I think Explo­rapho­ria could cer­tain­ly give comics a place to try out their strange new stuff, and it can give LA audi­ences a lit­tle taste of Texas-bred exper­i­men­tal comedy.

Explo­rapho­ria has been a rock for per­form­ers since it went by a dif­fer­ent name and even before Buss was at the helm. Before there was Explo­rapho­ria, there was Sand­box. Buss made his mark as a reg­u­lar on what was basi­cal­ly the same show with a dif­fer­ent coat of paint and a dif­fer­ent host. When Rob Gagnon left he found in Buss the per­fect heir to the throne. On August 20^th, 2019, Sand­box became the show we know and love today as Buss’s own. Almost. Explo­ratori­um under­went a slight name change after being issued a cease and desist from an iden­ti­cal­ly-named muse­um in San Fran­cis­co. Buss was already mak­ing waves on the west coast.

After the pan­dem­ic halt­ed Explorato­ri­um just 7 months into its run, Explo­rapho­ria rose in its place in late 2021. Buss recalls this peri­od as being espe­cial­ly fruit­ful. ​“Explo­rapho­ria real­ly hit its stride in this era,” Buss says. ​“We had our first sold-out show in Novem­ber.” With the name change Buss made addi­tions to the show which bol­stered its suc­cess. Tem­po Tantrums and Pro­nounced Zed became the house improv troupes that opened and closed every show respec­tive­ly. Buss also devised the per­fect half­time show for atten­dees; throw a ping pong ball through the win­dow on stage and choose from two of Buss’s ​“rid­dles” and you’re award­ed one select dol­lar store prize. Acts that would become recur­ring ones debuted as well, such as Neil Dorsey’s music, the sketch­es of Rob­bie Kee, and the improv duo Jack and the Beanstalker.

Some acts born out of Explo­rapho­ria got spin-offs. Tem­po Tantrums even­tu­al­ly got their own slot at Fall­out to per­form ful­ly-impro­vised musi­cals. Pro­nounced Zed test­ed dif­fer­ent improv games of their own design before set­tling on the every-sug­ges­tion marathon that would become Buck­et List. Between that and shock­ing each oth­er with tasers, they made a good call on which gim­mick could safe­ly last a full hour. That’s not to men­tion the char­ac­ters Buss him­self por­trayed that would find their way into his one-man extrav­a­gan­za Dad­dy Strong Legs.

Explo­rapho­ria was a test­ing ground for inno­va­tion and a free-to-fail launch­pad for new ideas. Comics played with the form. Char­ac­ters recit­ed mono­logues. Wern­er Her­zog (played by Ron Lech­ler) lulled Buss to sleep onstage with a read­ing of Good­night Moon. Pete Par­sons took audi­ences on a tour of the world with his pig pup­pet Oliv­er. Gabe Cortez did a kick­flip on stage with man­nequin heads affixed to his cos­tume. Bri­an­na Hud­dock became a ​“freaky grem­lin”. A very hand­some Homer Simp­son did standup for an ador­ing crowd. Com­e­dy Wham’s own Valerie Lopez and her son per­formed a sketch togeth­er on the very first Explorato­ri­um, a pre­mière show that also saw an attempt­ed back­flip on stage. As Buss said once upon a time: ​“if it’s weird, if it’s wild, if it’s legal­ly com­e­dy, then you can see it at Exploraphoria”.

Don’t miss your last chance ever to see Explo­rapho­ria on June 17^th at the Fall­out The­ater. And for a final good­bye, don’t miss One Last Show w/​Gar­rett Buss & Co. on June 22^nd.