March 1, 2017, at Bier Baron:
Lenses, Sword Fights, Break-Ups, and Pranks
A sold-out crowd of faithful fans and prospective converts made their way to Dupont Circle’s Bier Baron Tavern for the March 2017 installment of the hottest storytelling-interrogation show on the planet, Perfect Liars Club. And even before the show’s recognizable theme played over the PA, before host Cara Foran took the stage, and long before the audience was treated to an amusing set of four suspicious yarns from the night’s storytellers, everyone in attendance was pondering the same question -- was Perfect Liars Club history going to be made that night?
After going a woeful 2 for 18 over the course of 2016, Perfect Liars Club audiences started off the year by going 2 for 2, successfully identifying the liar at the January and February shows. Were they going to make it three in a row — a feat thought unimaginable not long ago? The only thing standing between the audience and that amazing feat was the storytellers. And, per usual, the storytellers had something to say:
Did Colin travel to an estate sale with the sole intent of swindling an astronomer’s widow out of a priceless telescope mirror?
Did Mike live out his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-fantasies by choreographing a fight scene with a martial arts master during a video shoot in Japan?
Did Chelsea’s budding romance immediately flame out when she learned that her new girlfriend had actually stalked her for two years prior?
Did Amy, the goth kid from central Florida with a summer job stuffing envelopes, partake in a workplace prank gone-too-far?
With pride and bragging rights on the line, the March audience yielded an endless supply of thoughtful and penetrating questions, including:
Considering the size and weight of the alleged telescope mirror, how did Colin and his pal successfully transport it upon purchase?
What alleged martial arts expert would allow inexperienced Mike to handle a dangerous samurai sword?
In a city as big as D.C., how did Chelsea and her girlfriend cross paths for two years before they officially met each other?
If Amy lived and worked in Central Florida, how did she make the claim that she was only 20-minutes away from the beach?
What began as a two-way race between Mike and Colin, the two storytellers deemed least trustworthy by the audience’s reaction, quickly descended into a four-way dead heat, as the crowd’s probing questions continued to chip away at the credibility of all the storytellers on stage. A fact made only more apparent by the evening's’ vote, which saw the highest vote getter best the lowest vote getter by a mere 4 votes.
Had the audience achieved Perfect Liars Club greatness? Did it spot the liar for a record third time in a row?
As the tabletop drumroll crescendoed and the audience grew dizzy with anticipation and excitement, a grinning Colin slowly sauntered to the center of the stage to the cacophonous sounds of shrieks and howls. His tale of telescopic mirror marauding was far from fact and his adept answers to audience asks had spared him the shame of being deemed a “Hopeless Liar.”
And the audience? They were a mere three votes away from keeping their perfect 2017 record intact. But it was not to be. So as one streak comes to an end, another streak begins. Or does it?
