To say I was “pleasantly surprised” by Slash Coleman‘s solo show Big Plastic Heroes currently playing at UNDER St. Marks as part of the FRIGID Festival is an understatement.  All signs pointed to this show being a raucous, self-aggrandizing narcissistic sausage-fest devoted to testosterone-ladened cultural touchstones and overblown Americana.  After all, the artwork for the show features Coleman not only as Evel Knievel, but as the Bicentennial edition of Knievel, bedecked in red white and true-blue … superhero cape included.  He’s even clutching a football helmet.  Yes, the show I expected to see was vastly different than the one which actually unfolded before me.  Within the first few minutes “pleasantly surprised” was overtaken by “completely mesmerized”.  From there, it only got better.

Writer and performer Slash Coleman is a born storyteller – he has a way of not only captivating his audience but virtually hypnotizing them as his style and cadence allows his story to spring up around him as if by magic.  Using no props, no sound effects, and only very subtle lighting cues Coleman seems to need nothing more than his chair and his voice to support his tale.

So what about the outfit?  Is this truly a story about Evel Kinevel?  Yes.  Of course it is.  Or rather, Kinevel forms the base-note for a series of events which Coleman relates – a time harking back to his childhood.  During the day 8 year old Coleman lived in a world consumed by the Bicentennial, preparing emotionally for the big jump his hero intends to make.  At night he gives himself over to innocent but romantic dreams where he is really old (13) and his 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Autumnbright is really young (12) and all signs point to him becoming her hero.

The story does not take a straightforward path — there are offshoots and byways; one moment we are with Coleman in his dream, pursuing the errant beach ball of his beloved (There was the breath of a beautiful girl inside that ball!) the next moment we are transported to the Moulin Rouge and it is 1937.  In between these jumps we are given snapshots of the people who populate his world. We meet his French mother who kept her Jewish roots in the closet, his Southern dad who made sculptures which consisted of a mash up of taxidermy and bread, his neighbors who hailed from Israel and kissed everyone on the lips (I counted 163 kisses before we got to the table!).  Coleman embodies them all, speaking their language for us, whether it’s the “intelligent but unintelligible” droning of Mr. Mermelstein or the strange clicks and pops his “circus freak” twin sisters used as they hid behind their idioglossia.

Coleman voices (and embodies) all these characters convincingly and seamlessly – moving effortlessly from deep southern twang when emulating his Virginian Dad to husky French when becoming his maternal grandfather.  He also does an admirable Howard Cosell.

But, good as they are,  it’s not the vocal calisthenics which grab you as you lean forward in your seat, captivated by this story.  It’s the charismatic way that Coleman is simultaneously humble yet self-assured.  He is more of a story-teller than an actor, and the cosy layout of UNDER St. Marks, which lends itself to the solo-show in general, services Coleman’s in particular.  He is a modern day Homer — no doubt had he lived thousands of years ago he would be holding crowds transfixed by firelight in a similar fashion.

Slash Coleman’s story ends not so much with a period or an exclamation point as with a comma – much like the comma-shaped mark that he traces along the surface of his X-Ray, the glowing reminder of his Gladiator moment when he went head to, well, jaw with a dog and received 144 stitches, a permanent tooth mark in his skull, and the opportunity to finally hold hands with Mrs. Autumnbright as she escorts him throughout the days after his accident.  The comma, he tells himself, is there to remind him to keep adding to his dreams … one after the other.  It’s a moment that is pure and honest.

At the end of Big Plastic Heroes I felt like I’d only just settled in, and could have sat through many more stories.   But I treasure that comma, for it means many more stories to come.

I went in expecting one thing – I left with quite another.  A hero.  A big  plastic hero.

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

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• Love In The Time Of Chlamydia: Love And War Stories (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• I Married A Nun! – And That’s Just The Beginning … (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Big Plastic Heroes: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Why So Much Shame?: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
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Five Questions. Five Answers. And One Big Decision: Rock, Paper, Or Scissors?

Big Plastic Heroes

Company: Plastic Thunder

What happens when you try to be your idol? Award-winning PBS special storyteller, Slash Coleman, and SexyNurd writer and performer, auGi, share the answer in their comical and painfully true double feature, Big Plastic Heroes.

Show Times:

• Fri 2/24 @ 6:00pm
• Sat 2/25 @ 2:30pm
• Wed 2/29 @ 10:30pm
• Thu 3/1 @ 10:30pm
• Sat 3/3 @ 5:30pm
• Sun 3/4 @ 2:30pm

Answers by Slash Coleman

(Writer/Performer)

Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
That’s some title. How did you come up with it – and what does it mean?
Slash: I think most of us Gen X-ers have reached a nostalgic point in our lives. Now, instead of being embarrassed by the things that populated our childhood worlds, we’ve come to accept them as cool (probably because the rest of the world has embraced these things too). With my little miniature Evel Knievel figurine and his plastic motorcycle I spent hours alone in my room emulating my real-life hero. Hence the title – Big Plastic Heroes.

Diánna Martin’s Question
If you were going to invite five people, anyone from past and present, to see your FRIGID show – who would you invite and why?
Slash:
Evel Knievel because….well, the show is about him.
The four members of KISS (Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley, and Peter Criss) because the soundtrack to my bicentennial world during which the show takes place was created by the album “Destroyer.”

Antonio Minino’s Question
What is the biggest sacrifice you’ve ever made for your Art and was it worth it?
Slash:Oh gosh, how humbling is it to have to move back into your parents houses when you’re almost 40 so you can pay off the debt you incurred from renting a 1,200 sq ft art studio and the subsequent debt from the graduate writing program that you got kicked out of?

Geoffrey Paddy Johnson’s Question
Was there any unexpected discovery made during the development of this production and, if so, can you share it?
Slash:I ask people to leave their cell phones on during the show so they can tweet, update their Facebook status and take photos. Although I expected the experience to be liberating, most audience members shut their phones off. Go figure.

Michelle Augello-Page’s Question
What do you hope the audience receives from the experience of seeing this show?
Slash:I hope it re-popularizes the white man perm. Seriously, after seeing my show I hope audience members will take the time to look at the word “hero” differently and begin to recognize the hero within themselves and the everyday heroes all around us.

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH

THM Bonus Question – We’re serious this year!
In the THM virtual Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH which FRIGID Show do you take on? And what do you throw?

Slash:We, the Big Plastic Heroes of the World, take on STRIPPER LESBIANS with Paper because…. because plastic and paper cuts go together like butter and motorcycle ramps (I know, it doesn’t make any sense).

What are you talking about, Slash?  It makes perfect sense!  Especially in the world of Frigid where Big Plastic Heroes and Stripper Lesbians can virtually gather to play a game where the penalty is Deaaaaath!  So, right now you’re Paper.   You were challenged by Love in the Time of Chlamydia who threw ROCK.  So that’s a WIN!  Looks like you’re the HERO of that round!
Thanks Big Plastic Heroes for participating in The Happiest Medium’s FRIGID New York Festival 2012 Q&A. And for playing our game! You’re officially PAPER in any and all challenges. You may win again, you may not – who knows! This is how it works in the crazy world of the Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament of DEAAAAATH!

For the rest of you don’t forget to check out Big Plastic Heroes!

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The 2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL will run February 22-March 4 at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (85 East 4th Street between 2nd Ave and Bowery) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place between 1st Ave and Ave A). Tickets to all shows may be purchased online at www.FRIGIDnewyork.info or by calling Smarttix at 212-868-4444.

Related Posts:

• Big Plastic Heroes: Good Things Come In Big Plastic Packages (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• ‘Til Love Do Us Part: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Drowning Ophelia: A New Rock Musical – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• The Terrible Manpain Of Umberto MacDougal: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• BLIND TO HAPPINESS: 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)