{"id":11180,"date":"2011-03-24T00:13:10","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T07:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=11180"},"modified":"2011-03-27T01:19:31","modified_gmt":"2011-03-27T08:19:31","slug":"hippopotam-the-true-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/?p=11180","title":{"rendered":"Hippopotam &#8211; the True Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11185\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11185\" style=\"width: 596px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/four.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11185\" title=\"four\" src=\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/four.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"396\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/four.jpg 596w, https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/four-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11185\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hippopotam onstage at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Midnight East knows you&#8217;ve heard the rumors. Sad to say, but it\u2019s true: <em><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/hipopotam.co.il\" target=\"_blank\">Hippopotam<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, that wildly funny Israeli comedy troupe, broke up and held their final performance on Purim. But just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinematheque at midnight \u2013 this fab foursome (Alon Gur Arye, Nimrod Izhar, Eyal Shindler &amp; Aviad Roter) is back together for the <em>Hippopotam Reunion Show <\/em>this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cinema.co.il\/movies\/movie.asp?movieId=6723\" target=\"_blank\">Friday, March 25, 2011 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque <\/a>at midnight, and then will take their act to Jerusalem for the first time ever, on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jer-cin.org.il\/website\/modules\/films\/film.aspx?showid=5836\" target=\"_blank\">Thursday, March 31, 2011 at 21:00 at the Jerusalem Cinematheque.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Hippopotam<\/em> are an Israeli comedy troupe that have performed on the radio, internet and in film, and have taken their show to the stage with a series of skits that are a prelude to the screening of their cult film <em>Israeli Intelligence <\/em>\u2013 a sensationally silly parody now in its 4th year of screenings at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cinematheque-audience.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-11188\" title=\"cinematheque audience\" src=\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cinematheque-audience.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"598\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cinematheque-audience.jpg 598w, https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/cinematheque-audience-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 598px) 100vw, 598px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Hippopotam \u2013 the Show <\/em>is a stage and screen performance that takes advantage of a captive audience to embark on a nonsense marathon of skits that may prove hazardous to your mental health, causing inexplicable fits of laughter. They started out on the mythological show <em>Radio Tel Aviv<\/em>, five years and an internet petition later, the group was reunited for three seasons of video skits.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_11186\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11186\" style=\"width: 596px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/alon-kid-show.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11186\" title=\"alon kid show\" src=\"http:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/alon-kid-show.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"596\" height=\"447\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/alon-kid-show.jpg 596w, https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/alon-kid-show-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 596px) 100vw, 596px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11186\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Shuali (Fox) Club - not quite for kids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Zionist Heroes is one of Hippopotam&#8217;s most popular skits:<br \/>\n<embed width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/qmZB_S6WXCQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\"><\/embed><\/p>\n<p>In 2007 they released the film <em>Israeli Intelligence<\/em>, directed by Alon Gur Arye and starring Ilan Dar, Lana Ettinger, Eli Gorenstein and Ron Shahar. The first Israeli film in the <em>Naked Gun <\/em>genre, it has acquired a cult following, with fans returning time and time again. The stage performance began as an introduction to the film, and has evolved into a real show, performed at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on Thursdays at 22:00, and Fridays at midnight.<\/p>\n<p>Serious fans &#8211; Hipofanatics &#8211; come wearing homemade T shirts, bearing flags and other objects from the skits. Each show begins with the ceremonial countdown \u2013 who is here for the first time? Second? Too many to admit in public? And at some point in the middle, audience members come up on stage to dance \u2013<em> If You Don\u2019t Dance You\u2019re A Goof.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><embed width=\"480\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/HUSp-C554EE?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0\"><\/embed><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Israeli Intelligence<\/em>, directed by Alon Gur Arye (who is also the director of the Hippopotam show) has won several international awards Best Comedy at the Dixie Festival in Atlanta, Best Director and an award for special effects at the Comedy Festival in Houston, Audience Favorite in Toronto, Best Action Film at the Action On Film Festival in Los Angeles, and an honorable mention at Mockfest Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>Tickets are 40 NIS Thursdays, 30 NIS Fridays, 20 NIS for <a href=\"http:\/\/j.mp\/hipo-face  \" target=\"_blank\">Hippopotam members<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Midnight East knows you&#8217;ve heard the rumors. Sad to say, but it\u2019s true: Hippopotam, that wildly funny Israeli comedy troupe, broke up and held their final performance on Purim. But just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cinematheque at midnight \u2013 this fab foursome (Alon Gur Arye, Nimrod Izhar, Eyal [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11180\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.midnighteast.com\/mag\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}