Will Ferrell, Chad Smith Host Silly, Surreal Drum-Off Sequel in L.A.
As generous and ridiculous as its title, Will Ferrell and Chad Smith‘s Red Hot Benefit Comedy + Music Show & Quinceanera was ostensibly a night to raise money for worthy causes. But over two-and-a-half hours, and with considerable help from their famous friends, the movie star and the Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer followed up their bizarre 2014 Tonight Show drum-off with a delightful event that felt both loose and surprisingly well-paced. Taking place at the venerable Shrine Auditorium – just across the street from the University of Southern California, where Ferrell went to college – Friday’s benefit also felt like a hometown show for a beloved local comic and a band whose particular mixture of sun-baked funk and beach-bum alt-rock is quintessentially Los Angeles.
Not bad for a night that started with a group of female modern dancers on a bare stage elegantly moving in unison to Adele’s “Hello” – only to be joined by the clownish Ferrell in a ludicrously curve-hugging black unitard. It’s a classic Ferrell bit – his pudgy frame both absurd and strangely balletic – but the actor’s commitment to his straight-faced dance set the tone for an evening in which comics and musicians delivered condensed sets with a relaxed but professional focus.
Addressing the adoring crowd after his dance, Ferrell deadpanned, “When I put on my unitard today, I looked in the mirror, and I realized … I’m not quite in unitard shape yet.” Nobody in the audience minded, perfectly happy to watch Ferrell play MC as he brought out stand-ups like Roy Wood Jr. and Jim Gaffigan, musical acts such as Devo and even two of his grade-school sons to tell corny, sophomoric jokes they’d written. (All of them were about squirrels, and the punch lines always involved nuts.)
Repeatedly during the evening, a whimsical air dominated, as if Ferrell and Smith understood how unlikely it was that what began as a fictional feud between them because of how much they look alike – which had seemingly culminated with their Tonight Show battle – had morphed into a fundraiser stuffed with celebrities who just enjoyed hanging out with one another.
Ferrell’s charity was Cancer for College, which gives scholarships to cancer survivors, while Smith selected the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a nonprofit founded by bandmate Flea that promotes music education. But although Ferrell made a modest plea for audience members to text in order to bid on auction items, the night’s philanthropic tone was mostly felt in the warm, all-ages performances. Perhaps because there were kids in attendance, not a swear word was heard. The closest the benefit got to being edgy was Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman talking about his vibrating butt plug and performing a love ballad to Siri on acoustic guitar that grew increasingly sad and desperate: “Siri, was the government behind 9/11?”