Review: Game Grumps Live

It’s no secret that we here at The Geek Lyfe are huge Game Grumps fans so when they announced their first ever Arin and Danny Game Grumps Live show at the Hollywood Improv, I had to purchase tickets. Despite spending a good chunk of change on WonderCon, which took place only days before the show, I exhausted a majority of my resources to get to LA for a few hours just

to see my favorite YouTubers.

How was Game Grumps Live?

Location

The venue was a well known comedy club called the Hollywood Improv. Various comedians have performed there from Robin Williams to Chris Rock, so they are veterans of hosting great events.

Scheduled for that night, just after Game Grumps was none other than Dane Cook himself. Even during the show, they admitted to being blown away that they shared the same stage at the same night and wanted to attend his show. The Hollywood Improv served food and drinks, both of which were of good quality and were serviced wicked fast for fair prices. The staff were kind and eager to assist with out being too distracting to the show. The room was quite large and accommodated every Game Grumps fan that attended with seating areas that were better than others. Had the show been Danny and Arin simply telling jokes, it would have been good all around but because they used a screen, it made those seated to the right of the stage difficult to see the video game action. Audio quality was crisp, projector served it’s purpose and the lighting was pretty balanced.

Gaming Performance

I was curious as to how they would perform with the transition from playing alone in a room to playing with dozens of fans watching. they’ve obviously been in front of enough people to feel comfortable but would they be able to come up with new material or revert to older jokes. The answer was both. To start, Ninja Brian opened the show by playing Mario Maker blind and had the crowd direct his movements. It was enjoyable and when the first heckler rose, Brian shut him down super fast with a swift “You, Sir, can eat a bag of dicks.”. When Danny and Arin came on stage they were excited to meet everyone. Yes, even Arin who typically looks as though thoughts of suicide run through his mind everytime he has to do a panel looked hyped to get the show rolling.

They started up a brand new Mario Maker level, exclusive to those who came to the show, and the deaths began. The crowd enjoyed the many deaths, Danny fired shots with every failed attempt, Arin’s frustration grew from acting annoyed and then became livid. Ross, who sat in the corner with Suzy, Brian, and Vernon, offered advice to Arin about various secrets. While Arin tried his best, Danny used the time to give a great show by calling his dad, Avi, and Granny Sexbang, then sang a requested song, high fived everyone in the crowd, and even played a few times to Arin’s delight.

I t felt as though we experienced “The Grumps Greatest Hits” or some small form of it. Which, don’t get me wrong, was fucking fantastic to see them live but there was really only one really special gem that made for an extraordinary event. This moment was at the end of the their gaming session and Ross, who downed a Guinness like a champ during the show, took the controller and was able to beat the stage live out of a lot of luck. Trust me, they are good actors but not that good of actors, Ross frakked up multiple times but somehow still survived to the finish. Everyone in the crowd was ecstatic when he cleared the level. He even high fived Danny and then in true Ross fashion, left Arin hanging.

Q And A

The question and answer portion was cut short by the extended gaming and the lingering, but still incredible, opening act. Only around four to six questions were asked and answered. “How does it fell to share the stage with Dane Cook”, “What was the most difficult Starbomb song to do”, “Will you play Pokken Tournament on Game Grumps?” etc. The answers I’ll keep to myself just in case they are asked by others. They answered every question with a quick joke and then went into length about the details. I do wish they were able to have a bit more Q and A because their answers were fascinating but it was a wonderful show nonetheless.

Was It Worth It?

I paid $30 for general admission which was the show and only the show and it was a two person minimum. Originally my room mate was going to go with me but backed out at the last minute. I do wish they offered single seats to cut on the cost. Despite this, I got great seats and was treated no differently than anyone else in the audience. I can not recall the price of the VIP but it was somewhere around $70 for another two person minimum? They were offered a meet and greet at the end of the show and I think a few other goodies.

I gladly paid my $30 to see them perform, however, having a two person minimum was probably the contributing factor to the tickets selling out wicked fast. I suspect the organizers had reservations about how much interest the show would get and banked on the two person min to ensure a profit. Unfortunately that meant that I, and a few others who came alone, took away the opportunity to attend Game Grumps Live from fellow fans who didn’t get to buy their tickets fast enough. I also thought that offering a last minute upgrade to VIP for an inflated price would have made them a ton of extra cash and made the dreams of so many fans come true. Heck I would have paid $100 that night to upgrade if I had the option!

It was a fantastic fucking show and I am so grateful that they even did this and I hope they continue to do this in the future!

I would also like to formally apologize to the Game Grumps for recording bits of their show. I will keep a majority to myself since I took footage to show to my room mate who was unable to attend for personal reasons The video shown in this article seemed like a once in a lifetime moment for many grumps so I thought it would be great to share it with fellow grumps.