
An annual April Fool’s Day tradition comes to Missouri for the first (and last) time… THE SURPRISE TOUR (2011) feat. legendary punk performance art ensemble The Best Thing Ever
April 1 : 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
The Best Thing Ever is a “Legendary punk performance art ensemble” composed of Noah Britton, Alex Billig, and Jen Page. Their tours included 2006’s The Bathroom Tour, where the band performed exclusively in bathrooms around New England, 2010’s Animals Tour,
where the band performed exclusively for animals at venues including the Prospect Park Zoo, the New York City Aquarium, and BARCC dog shelter in Brooklyn, NY, and 2007’s Surprise Tour, a three-week trek across the U.S., consisting entirely of unplanned concerts at venues including Waffle House, The Barbed Wire Museum, and a hair salon.
The complete 74 minute documentary, THE SURPRISE TOUR, screens every April 1 in a different U.S. state. States covered so far are NY, MA, PA, WA, OH, Canada, CO, CA, RI, HI, New Mexico, North Dakota, Alaska, and Montana. Jeffrey Lewis provided narration throughout the documentary, which was partially edited by Benny Safdie. The film is not viewable any other time, any other way.
This is not an April’s Fool’s joke. It is being screened on April Fool’s day because the film is in the spirit of April Fool’s Day. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY MISSOURI SCREENING EVER.
Noah Britton has gone on to great success as a member of Asperger’s Are Us, the first comedy troupe of autistic people, who starred in their own hit self-titled documentary in 2016 on Netflix, and a much better and less popular HBO docuseries in 2019. The Surprise Tour focuses partly on how autism affected him throughout the tour.
Theater Policies
- All seats are first-come, first-served.
- The theater opens 30 minutes prior to showtime, except for “Happy Hour” events and pre-shows when the theater opens at the listed start time.
- All ages are welcome at Arkadin except for Drinkolas Cage events, which are restricted to 21+. We follow the MPAA rating guidelines for all other films.
- Tickets can be purchased using the BUY TICKETS link above. Upon ordering, you will receive a confirmation email from Square. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the show at the concession counter.
- If you’ve purchased advance tickets, when you arrive, please give your name at the concession counter to check in.
- Tickets are returnable by sending a request through the contact form located on our About Us page prior to showtime.
- When an event is sold out, we reserve the right to release open seats to customers on the waitlist. If you have a pre-purchased ticket and arrive late and there is no seat for you, your ticket will be refunded.
- All screenings are held in our indoor theater unless indicated otherwise in the event description above.
- Please respect your fellow movie-goers by remaining quiet and refraining from using your cell phone throughout the screening.