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The Mads Are Back (or simply The Mads) is a live riffing project featuring former Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast members and writers Trace Beaulieu and Frank Conniff.[1] Though they are billed as "The Mads", they do not appear in character as Dr. Clayton Forrester and TV's Frank.

Trace and Frank began riffing together in early 2015, formalizing the partnership in October, 2015 with a tumblr account, Facebook page, and a web site. They have performed in live venues across the country, riffing old movies in the traditional MST3K style. The films being riffed are not typically announced to attendees ahead of time.

All of the jokes used in the show are generated by Frank and Trace, with occasional improvisations. They do not have additional writers.

Beaulieu and Conniff have discussed the pleasant time they've had on tour on their movie podcast Movie Sign with the Mads.

On January 25th 2018, The Mads Are Back show at the Alamo Draft House in New York City featured an in-person appearance by Kim Cattrall, who introduced a riffing of The Tingler.

The show experienced a hiatus during 2019 when Frank Conniff had some health concerns. Touring eventually resumed after Frank recovered.

In 2020, live performances were suspended due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. A series of paid live-streaming events took place starting in July. The producer for these events is Chris Gersbeck, with Frank Conniff booking the special guests. The first several events featured films that had previously been riffed in a live stage show, with some new material. Eventually, the livestream events began to use films that had not been used in live shows. At the conclusion of each event, the Mads and their producer announce the date and (in most cases) the content for the next event.

In February of 2021, The Mads launched a YouTube channel that hosts several of the shorts they have riffed. It was announced that previous livestream events will eventually become available through this channel as well.

Streaming Shows[]

While individual Mads shows aren't numbered, they were later divided into "Seasons", each of which is roughly 1 year long.

Season One[]

Season Two[]

Season Three[]

Season Four[]

Other Known Riffed Movies[]

Appearances with RiffTrax[]

Trace and Frank have made a few appearances for RiffTrax, where they have riffed on shorts, which were subsequently used in their A Night of Shorts live stream.

See Also[]

External Links[]

References[]

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