No, you weren’t hearing things — that was indeed yodelling ringing out of the Narragansett Casino Theater the nights of August 28th and 29th. Mostly laughter, yes, but yodelling too, as the Yodelling Millmen, a rising Rhode Island based comedy troupe, performed their semi-annual variety show featuring everything from a comedic retelling of Paul Revere's midnight ride to live music from local bands.
So why yodelling? The name comes from the surnames of founders and stars Liam Jedele (pronounced YAYD-lee, a half-slant-rhyme with yodel) and Anthony Miller (pronounced MILL-er, as it so often is). The two met while performing in a production of Sweeney Todd while attending La Salle Academy in Providence, and soon grew closer doing comedy shows their senior year.
Miller, who can be seen performing regularly at Boston’s Improv Asylum, has known an actor’s life was for him since being forcibly recruited to a middle school production of Aladdin Jr. in the role of the sultan.
“When I put on that turban for the first time at dress rehearsal in the basement of my middle school, I knew I wanted to become an actor,” says Miller. “Or maybe I just like wearing different kinds of headwear. I’m still figuring it out.”
“Our whole friendship really grew out of that shared sense of humor,” says Jedele, who recently trained as an actor in London, but previously treaded the boards of the Newport Children’s Theatre, “I don’t think my younger self would be surprised in the least that we’re doing this now. If anything, this feels like a pretty natural continuation of what we were doing back then… just hopefully a little better produced.”
Better produced indeed — taking advantage of the historic Narragansett Casino Theater, their most recent ninety-minute shows have boasted costume changes, performances by bands The Catnip Junkies and The Hopeless Romantics, and stand-up sets by comedians Brian Beaudoin and Janet McNamara. They’ve also become a family affair, with Jedele’s two younger sisters, Brooke and Scarlett, joining the show.
“I’ve been working with Liam for 23 years,” says Brooke, who recently graduated with a BFA in Actor Training from Connecticut’s Hartt School, “So it’s always been so easy to work with each other, and write and create, because we share the same passion. As a team we have so much fun in the creative process, but when the run of the show is locked, it’s game time and the main focus becomes putting on a really fantastic comedy show.”
The youngest sister, Scarlett, has no intention of entering the world of show business, instead studying Ocean Engineering at the University of Rhode Island. But when another cast-member backed out at the last minute of the troupe’s December show, she gallantly took to the stage, playing the role of co-anchor in the group’s recurring “Channel Zero News” segment that skewers headlines, but with a local twist. Think Weekend Update, but less talk of Iran and more mentions of Rocky Point State Park, much to the audience’s delight.
Another crowd-pleaser was “alphabetical improv,” where Liam and Anthony took the stage, and after taking a suggested location from the audience, improvised a scene where each performer had to begin their sentence with the subsequent letter of the alphabet. If the first line of the skit was “Apples are delicious,” a permitted follow-up may be “Because they are so crisp.”
“I really enjoyed doing alphabetical improv with Liam," says Miller, “He’s a real goofball, and also doesn’t seem to know the alphabet.”
Other sketches included a comedic re-imagining of a 1940s Hollywood producer trying to wrangle a film out of W.C. Fields and Mae West, and filmed shorts that lampooned long-running soap operas and co-workers unable to take a compliment. Additionally, both Miller and Jedele took the stage solo for stand-up sets of their own, both to uproarious laughter.
“Anthony and I may be the names at the center of it,” emphasizes Liam, but this really is a group effort. We couldn’t do any of it without these people.”
“It took many team meetings to put this show together, and many drafts and read throughs,” says Brooke, “but it was exciting to think about new characters and the ones we would want to bring back, new sketches and ideas, which bands and headliner comedians we network with and hire, and the ways we can challenge ourselves to better the Yodeling Millmen.”
As for their next show? No details have been announced yet, and with Miller, Liam, and Brooke all having booked their next performances, including a horror short film featuring performances from all three currently in post-production (and another semester of Ocean Engineering for Scarlett), the troupe has been tight-lipped when asked by fans about future engagements. Perhaps prospective audiences can take solace in these words from Miller:
“Improv has taught me that preparation is dumb, and that it’s better to just wing things — which has made many things in my life (like working on the show) much easier, but simultaneously, much harder.”
Yes and, we hope to see their return to the stage soon.
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