What do you get when you cross the human-hating Doctor Zaius and comedian Dana Gould? You get Doctor Z, a mash-up of Doctor Zaius from Planet of the Apes and Johnny Carson of The Tonight Show. This alternate universe Doctor Zaius is the star of a hilarious and very creative YouTube show, Hanging with Doctor Z. On April 14th, Dana Gould brought his alter ego to a live show held at the Dynasty Typewriter theater in Los Angeles.

I was very excited to see Doctor Z at this 200+ seat theater! With the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes film coming out very soon, I wanted to support any artistic endeavor that focuses on the original Apes series. I was expecting to see a live version of his YouTube show however, Gould gave us something totally different. This was a comedy vaudevillian variety show with Doctor Z as the host.

Before the show started, the audience was treated to a slide show where Doctor Z was cut and pasted into scenes from the 1966 Batman tv series, The Love Boat, Gone with the Wind, etc. Interspersed were parody ads such as “Ted Lange’s Lido Deck Moustache Mortar” and “Tor Johnson’s Liver and Onions” restaurant. As you can tell, you will find these funny if you are over 40 years old (maybe 50). Now, we were ready for the almost two-hour show.

Enter Doctor Z! He began his first set of topical jokes with how his summer plans are ruined since he normally helps O.J. Simpson look for his wife’s killer. His usual band leader, Rusty Steele, was replaced by Carmine St. Pierre, a twitchy Paul Lynde type, who appeared as if he knew he was out of place alongside his simian host with comical results. This set led into a critical and thorough breakdown of the Frank Sinatra song, “My Way.” I’ll never be able to hear that song the same way again.

Eventually, band leader Rusty Steele and his wife Cloudine show up after being sent to the airport on an unnecessary errand. Rusty then takes the stage to perform an air-drum solo of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”. As the song proceeded his pretend drum set became smaller then bigger to smaller. Great bit!

From there, Doctor Z introduced his special comic guests who did their own stand up set. Among them were Matt Braunger, Jackie Kashian, Andrea Jin, and Brian Posehn. I have to admit the only comedian I knew was Posehn from The Big Bang Theory and the first episode of The Mandalorian. Afterwards I was excited to get a selfie with the Star Wars actor who warned me to, “stay off the ice,” a reference to his uber speeder driver role in Chapter 1 of The Mandalorian.

A highlight of the show had to be Doctor Z’s takeoff of Johnny Carson‘s “Carnac the Magnificent” sketch. On The Tonight Show, Carson played Carnac, a mystic who could guess answers to unseen questions. Instead of the turban which Johnny Carson wore, Doctor Z donned the large helmet seen on the gorilla army commanders General Ursus and Urko. If you know me, you know I have an obsession with this top-heavy helmet and how it manages to stay on the head of these gorillas as they race into battle – yet the helmet never falls off. How is that possible? In the routine Dusty Steele would hand Doctor Z the envelopes to which he would tap them to his helmet and give an answer, then open the envelope to an absurd question.

Hanging with Doctor Z was an extremely entertaining experience and I was ecstatic to sit in the front row. Just seeing Doctor Zaius right in front of me was mind blowing. Having done special effects make-up, I’m always drawn to the artistry of prosthetics. I would say Gould’s make-up rivals that of what you’ve seen in the films and TV show. Gould was very much as home under the Zaius prosthetic and deserves extra accolades for doing the comedy show underneath the latex which never got in the way of his timing or delivery.

Season Three of Hanging with Doctor Z just premiered on YouTube. If you love the classic era of talk shows this is for you. He nails the style and rhythm of this 70s late night show style of Tonight with Johnny Carson and even the Joe Franklin Show. Now, Go Ape!

Follow Dana Gould on Instagram for information on upcoming shows. Listen to Dana Gould on a Talking Apes podcast episode!