Bricken Sparacino is an award winning/nominated performer, writer and director. She is also a bright, confident woman who has been involved in theatre for most of her life. To watch her work is to watch an artist with a powerful command of her talents. I have seen her ability to transform a space, as well as her own persona, as she captivates and connects intimately with an audience, provoking a wide range of meaningful responses to her performances.

Bricken’s latest show I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me! is running April 7,8,9 at HorseTrade’s Under St. Marks Theatre in NYC. Using humor, story telling, honesty and a little bit of rock and roll, Bricken shares the battles she has fought, the mountains she has climbed, and the licks she has endured! I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me! was chosen as part of the Frigid Festival ‘11 and is “a very brave, honest, funny, endearing show.” – Amy E. Witting, aWe Creative.

Whenever I see Bricken perform, I am always left with a gift – laughter, lingering tears, revived memories, profound thoughts – sometimes all at once. It never ceases to amaze me. And Bricken makes it seem so effortless. Her quick wit, gentle eyes, and sweet smile are disarming; her ease comes from years of hard work doing what she loves. I was so happy to have the opportunity to meet up with Bricken as she prepares for her upcoming shows, and to interview her about her life as an artist.

Michelle: You have been involved with theatre your whole life. Do you come from an artistic family background? How supportive were your parents in your decision to become a performer, director, and writer?

Bricken: I am very lucky; my parents never once questioned my interest in theater. I was in my first play around 3rd grade and wrote a play about the same time. It was pretty clear there was nothing else I really wanted to do with my time. My mom said that when I was born, I looked up and posed for a photo my dad was taking, and that I was “on the stage” ever since. My father was an artist, my grandmother was a ballerina, so I think I got my creativity from the two of them.

I think the biggest example of my parents supporting me was just that they let me move to New York. I remember the day I moved, my mom watched me get on the plane and cried and cried. I’m an only child and it was the hardest thing in the world for her to let me get on that plane. But she never said “no, that’s a bad idea.” She and my father said “great, go to New York … we’ll support you … what do you need?” I didn’t appreciate it at the time. I sure do now.

You’ve mentioned how you first started in theatre as a litterbug in a kid’s show about cleaning up the environment, and now you work in the zoo doing children’s theatre about keeping the environment clean. What did being involved in children’s theater give to you as a child, and what does it give to you now, as an adult?

I grew up working with a group called “The Santa Clara Junior Theater.” This was children and teens working on plays. I now work at my day job with adults performing for children. When I was a child we worked on all different kinds of plays and our focus was on being the best we could be. I learned a lot about myself, how to make friends, how to lead, how to be creative.

The focus of what I do now is about educating those who are watching, which is a much less self involved thing. We go into schools all over NY and the tri-state area. We hope we entertain and leave the students with hopeful messages about the world around them and their future. An unexpected result with some schools, especially inner city schools, is that the children meet a group of adults who they probably wouldn’t on their own and learn that these adults care about them and what they think. I always try to tell the students they are smart and have wonderful ideas and questions. You see their faces light up and you know you have done a little bit to help.

March is Women’s History Month. What does it mean to you to be a performer, director, and writer from the standpoint of being a woman? How have perceptions of you as female affected you as you have grown into yourself as a woman?

Well, it is hard working in theatre and not noticing that there is a divide between the amount of woman directors and writers who reach success and the amount of male directors and writers who reach success. I try not to dwell on the statistics, as they are rather disappointing, but to lead by example. I do what I do and do my best. Have I ever had problems as a female director? Yes. Does it make me mad when some one doesn’t listen to my direction or rolls their eyes at me in a way that makes it clear that they are not listening to me because I am a woman? Yes. What do I do? Never work with that person again. I try to gather positive people around me. If I see something I say something!

Growing up I had (and still do) wonderful woman role models that taught me not to let your gender stop your dreams. My mother is City Manager of a pretty good size city. My grandmother was a ballerina. They taught me from a young age to be myself and follow my dreams. My mother told me when I was young that if I ever got married I shouldn’t feel like I had to change my name. She never wanted to change her name, but when she got married it was unheard of to keep your “maiden” name, so she was bullied into taking my father’s name. When I got married, I didn’t even think about it. I kept my name. If you think about it, just the term “maiden name” is ridiculous.

You live and work with your husband, Michael Birch, and it appears you have a special, synergistic relationship. “I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me!” is produced by Birch and Bricken Productions, and you have directed his popular “One Man Hamlet.” Can you talk a bit about your relationship as artists?

I have a wonderful working relationship with my husband Michael. But I don’t recommend what we do for everyone who is in a long term relationship with another creative person. We have written together, performed together, I have directed him, he has directed me, we produce together. But it took awhile to work out the kinks. You have to have off times and rules. Like when you are falling asleep, don’t wake the other person up with “Oh, I just thought of the perfect song to start the show out with!” or “Oh, I just remembered what line you forgot”. It can lead to sleepless nights and fights.

We remember it is a job and just like any other job you have to have a lunch break, so to speak. It took time to learn the right way to talk about things we don’t agree on with out hurting each other’s feelings. But we are pretty good about it now. We still have little clashes, but considering we work together at the zoo as well as everything else, they are few and far between. It might be crazy, but it makes for a lot of fun wonderful times.

You ran the 10:17 Comedy Night for several years at the Gershwin Hotel, and you’ve workshopped parts of your show at different places as it has unfolded. How important do you think it is for other artists to be part of something where work is often in progress, growing, and being tested in front of an audience?

Having an open forum to practice your art is one of the most important things going on out there for performers. Creating art in a vacuum is not easy. How would you know if you are on to something if you just perform for yourself in the shower? (though I sometimes get great ideas when I am in the shower!) I wish there were even more outlets for new work. Every time I have workshopped in front of an audience, whatever it is, it gets better. You also get ideas from the way people respond after. The old saying practice makes better is really true. And to practice in front of an audience is a real luxury.

For many years, you have been involved with the Midtown Theatre Festival and the Frigid Festival. What are your experiences with this process, and how festivals and other resources support performers, directors, and writers in the community?

I have been a part of many of our New York “festivals” and they really have become the next step in creativity. First, it helps to have a weekly or monthly show that allows you to try new material and works in progress. Then, once you have created your show, you can select one of the yearly festivals to debut the new piece. Self producing is very hard, time consuming, and costly. Being a part of a festival can take a lot of the burden of self producing off of the artist’s shoulders. Having a space ready for you, lights and sound ready, a box office person, ticket sales, publicity etc. is a real perk of the festival world.  Also often you get a couple of reviews, which can further promote your show.

My current show I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me! was helped and supported by ArtEffects Workshop Reading, Manhattan TheaterSource’s PlayGround workshop for new plays, HorseTrade Theater Group, and performing at Penny’s Open Mic. These groups and shows all stand up for new plays. If anyone out there is looking for a place to start something new, I recommend all of these resources. I also want to mention Martin Denton and nytheatre.com; www.nytheater.com really promotes independent theatre, giving it just as much attention as it does the Broadway theater world.

Many thanks and hugs to Bricken for sharing wine, sangria, and laughter with me at a downtown bar on a Tuesday night, and for sharing some of her thoughts and experiences with “The Happiest Medium.” If you enjoyed reading about Bricken, you do not want to miss the special three day showing of “I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me!”, April 7,8,9 at Under St. Marks Theatre in NYC,  presented by HorseTrade and produced by Birch and Bricken productions.

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I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me!

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More about Bricken!

• Bricken Sparacino was one of nytheatre.com’s “People of the Year ‘08.” Under her direction, Chris Harcum’s American Badass (Frigid ’08) was selected to be in a collection of “best of” and is now published. Other nominated/winning shows include Those Whistling Lads (Planet Connections and MITF) and Pizza Man (MITF). She was nominated for “Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Musical” for her portrayal of her original comedy character Cherry On Top (Planet Connections).
• As a comedy powerhouse, Bricken performed, co-wrote, produced, and directed numerous original works including Comedy Period, All About The Comedy (1 &2), Alien Sympathizer Henry Platt Is Missing, American Treacle for the Midtown Theater Festival as well as the wildly successful 10:17 Comedy Night, which ran every Saturday night for 3 years at the Gershwin Hotel. Bricken’s short play Are We Freaks and her one person storytelling show I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me! were chosen as part of the Frigid Festival ’09 and the Frigid Festival ’11, respectively.
• Upcoming plans for Bricken include turning her short plays Pointy the Starfish and Are We Freaks into full-length plays, and directing Emleigh Wolf’s The Terrible Manpain of Umberto MacDougal for the mini Frigid in Summer, 2011.
• To find out more about what Bricken is up to, check out her website www.bricken.org

Related Posts:

• Death: It Happens – Still Daddy’s Girl (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• Death, It Happens: A Girl’s Guide To Death – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)
• I’m Not Sure I Like The Way You Licked Me – She Takes A Lickin’ And Keeps On: Bricken
• FRIGID New York Festival 2011 – Five Questions For: I’m Not Sure I Like the Way You Licked Me!
• Outskirts of Eden: 10 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2016 FRIGID NEW YORK FESTIVAL)

These women of the arts hail from different disciplines, but they all have an indomitable spirit and a luminescent spark that makes them amazing human beings who are out there every day, doing amazing work.

Today we continue our series with Penny Pollak. I picked this photo above ‘specially for her: “DON’T let your woman announcer be too agressive.  She will antagonize all men, and many women.  She must, however, speak with authority, either form experience or special knowledge of the product.  A woman announcer is always a hazardous risk and few can please all viewers.” (snicker.)

If you’re part of the downtown NYC scene and an emerging artist (or a seasoned artist who just needs a comfortable place to work through some new material) then chances are you know Penny Pollak best as the producer and host of “Penny’s Open Mic“.  Yes, Penny is the ringleader – but she’s so much more. Ms. Pollak welcomes the crowd, sets the tone, supplies the rules (there are very few, but they matter) and keeps the night humming along at a solid pace.  You only need to attend one of these open mics to find yourself hooked.

Hearing each performer refer to Penny’s Open Mic as “Home” before they launch into their own song, story, routine or reverie is to understand that you’ve walked into a sacred space where magic happens week after week  - and while regulars count on the rituals and habits the truth of it is – no two nights are ever the same.  And therein lies the reason people come back time and again.  To rediscover the joy of the first time – every time.

Penny Pollak herself is a gifted actress, a talented writer, but most of all, an all encompassing spirit that moves artists every week to dig deep and hone their craft, share their heart, and sharpen their skills.  The world could use a million more like her, but for now I’m grateful that the one Penny Pollak we’ve been alotted  this time around has been put straight in my path.  I’m honored to showcase her here :

Talk to me about being a woman who does what you do- just overall.

Honestly, I don’t think about it that often. My parents did a really good job raising me to be completely independent; supporting the idea that I could be anything I wanted. But of course the world doesn’t work that way and I still find myself surprised and offended by the double standards and the simple language difference. For example, a man who is in charge and exerts his authority is strong and just doing his job whereas a woman who does the same thing is a diva, a cold princess or just a bitch. I’m very lucky that the men who surround my shows and projects don’t see the world that way, and when I work I feel I’m treated as an equal. But the inequality is so ingrained into our society — and the fight is far from over — which is why I’m delighted you’ve made this issue a feature this month.

Are there days it makes a difference – good or bad?

These days not as much; I’m in a great place in my life now and surrounded by amazing people. The fact that I do more theater now than bartending is the biggest change. A few years ago I used to manage a bar on First Avenue for a short time which is actually where I started my open mic before I moved it to UNDER St. Marks Theater. Managing a bar I was constantly presented with those problems. By patrons as well as management. In fact that’s the reason why I quit working there. I’ve butted heads for months with the owner over the women I hired and so forth. He wanted me to base my decision on the picture they sent in rather than the resume. Oh – and I wasn’t allowed to hire men as bartenders, only barbacks. Then one day he told me to fire three of our very talented bartenders because “They weren’t hot enough”. That was it for me, not only did I quit but I told everyone who worked there. Everyone quit immediately and in protest we all stayed in the bar all night drinking his booze until he came in the next morning apologized and begged us ALL to take our jobs back. It was a small triumph but it felt pretty good at the time.

Are there barriers you fought against in the past that are now becoming easier?

As writers we are taught to above all, write what we know. I am a woman, so my writing reflects that. There have been a few instances where a piece I think is universal and human has been remarked as being ‘woman’s issues’ and ‘Men just can’t connect.’ There may be some truth to that but I think it’s just a lazy way of thinking. My play No Traveler (which will be in the Winnipeg Fringe Festival this summer) addresses themes such as suicide, abuse, self-destruction and control brought together in a very dark humorous way. I think our society allows woman to connect more freely to these subjects but they really do touch everyone in some way, male or female. As I’ve taken it around to different festivals and countries I was very excited to receive those responses. One goal I’d like to achieve with my writing is to express that ‘woman’s issues’ are actually human issues and affect everyone.

Oh, and one more thing about Penny?  My dad is completely smitten with her.

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More about Penny:

“PENNY POLLAK earns major points for her creativity in her dark and fascinating No Traveler” (stagebuzz.com)
No Traveler a comedy about suicide written and performed by Pollak received glowing reviews in this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival and NYC Frigid Festival. She recently starred in Broken Dog Legs a one-woman play by Emily Conbere.

For almost three years now she has hosted and produced Penny’s Open Mic, (featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Backstage.com, NY Press and Time Out NY) a weekly show at UNDER St. Marks Theater dedicated to supporting artists of every kind to experiment and workshop in a safe environment.

A past resident of Horse Trade Theater Company she has produced and performed in just about every performance venue, bar and street corner in the east village since she moved here in 2007. She graduated with a degree in Theater and a minor in Sociology. After graduation she studied at the TVI London theater intensive program at Rose Bruford College, UK. She was nominated for Best Actress in this year’s Strawberry Festival and has won awards for her writing as well as been featured in a number of readings in NYC.

Related Posts:

• Following The Path Of Yoga
• Early Risers / Night Owls … Come With Me – Help Save UNDER St. Marks
• Brrrrrr! Temperatures Are Dipping! Must Be Time For FRIGID 2010!
• Interview With Mads Jeppesen: Somewhere In The Dark
• Mike Milazzo — Open Mike

Joe Yoga (photo by Brooke McGowan)

Every now and then an artist comes into your life whose music is so dynamic, powerful and moving that you just have to know the stories behind the songs.  When you’re lucky enough to know this artist personally, and he’s someone that you’ve always had a great time hanging out with, you’ve got no choice but to sit down in a noisy bar, buy him a drink (Arbita Turbo Dog), and find out where all this gut punching, heart wrenching, hand wringing music comes from.

Meet Joe Yoga – bass player for Kill The Band but amazing solo artist in his own right who currently has two albums in circulation.  You can download (Free!  December Only!) his first album The Dreamless Sea which is a compilation of his favorite songs from his earlier days.  Life Out East is a full album of new songs that were written over a year and it’s currently available on iTunes.

Over the course of an evening Joe  Yoga tells me how he’s able to juggle two different musical personas, how Life Out East will take you on a journey from heartbreak to healing, and even tells me a pretty funny joke.  Eventually.

Photo by Cathryn Lynne

Joe Yoga! So excited to be here with you! You’ve got two albums in circulation right now – The Dreamless Sea which is a collection of your earlier music, and Life Out East. Tell me a little about those albums.
JY: The Dreamless Sea is more or less a “greatest hits” record. I had put out four records under the name Cognition Ignition Decision . . .

Was that just you?
(Laughing) Yeah, it was just me. And it was just stuff I was making on my 4 track. It spanned from 2002 to the end of 2007 and I’d put out 4 records but they were tape only, distributed to my friends, so I culled the best out of them and used that to make The Dreamless Sea.  Life Out East is a proper album.

How long has Life Out East been in the works?
Pretty much since I put out the last Cognition Ignition Decision record, I started thinking about Life Out East and started writing the material and laying down preliminary recordings for it. So – late ’08 through the end of this year. But the bulk was written in ’09 and early 2010.

Is there anything floating around out there that isn’t on an album right now?
Oh yeah I have tons and tons of songs that I’ve recorded that I’ve never finished or that were bad recordings. So I never made them into proper recordings. I’ve been writing songs for 10 years now so there’s a lot out there.

(Laughing) So since you were just a little kid.
I think I was bigger then, but you get the idea.

Your solo sound is very different than your Kill The Band sound. Are these just two sides of a very complex musician or do you have two completely different personas when you perform?
Well, yeah, I definitely put on a different persona with Kill The Band, because Kill The Band is Kelly [Dwyer]’s project and Kelly’s music. I have some input into arrangements, and what I’m doing but we’re basically there to fulfill Kelly’s vision. So nothing that I really do creatively enters into it – almost at all. Which is fine with me – because I’ve always been in bands anyway where I was just working on other people’s material and I enjoy it. Right now it’s really my only opportunity to play bass in a band and it’s my only opportunity to work with Kelly.  And I love working with Kelly.

How long have you known each other?
We met in ’08.

Wow!
When I started coming around to Penny’s Open Mic in March or April ’08.

It seems like you’ve know each other forever.
Well, she’s like my BFF, man! Kelly and I are very different people but we do have very similar artistic wavelengths and I really appreciate and love what she does and I’d be happy to work with any project she’s involved in.

So were you a core member of Kill The Band then? Was there a Kill The Band before you?
Kelly was writing her songs on Pro Tools or whatever, and performing them solo with backing tracks. And then she got into Frigid and wanted to do a live band show and got together with the people she was working together with at the open mic- me, [Mike] Milazzo, and Bamboo [Silva]. So she put it together and we all gelled really well. I worked with Mike on a bunch of different musical projects so it just seemed like a natural fit.

To get back to your stuff now – your songs on Life Out East are really mournful.
I agree.

It’s like the kind of album I’d put on to get over a breakup. Yet every time I hang out with you, you seem really happy. How’s that?
The material for the album was written and conceived and recorded while I went through a pretty protracted break up with this girl. It was brutal – you know how people are awful to each other – so the breakup is all over this album. How I felt about it is all over the songs, a lot of the songs are about the breakup, about the relationship, how I felt coming out of it. That would explain why the album’s really mournful because it was a sad time of my life. But I, at the same time, consider myself to be a happy person. And honestly a lot of that is because I’m no longer in the breakup anymore. (laughs)

I’m happily married but that doesn’t mean that I’ve forgotten what it feels like to get my heart stomped on. I had some really bad breakups and gosh, this album took me right back to that. It’s a very evocative album and it’s very soulful.
Relationships and breakups and interpersonal connections are really easy things to write songs about.

For you! Not for everybody . . .
Well, for a song writer. I guess my task is to present it in an interesting way that will make people relate to it.

And you’re both? You’re the lyricist and the composer – you’re everything?
For my stuff? Yeah. I wrote all the music, lyrics, played all the instruments on the album. I’ve recorded albums with bands before but I was definitely going for a certain aesthetic with this album where I wanted it to be solely me and my vision. Not necessarily my “vision” – you can have a vision and have other people execute it, like a playwright, but I really wanted this to be a presentation of mine, musically.

And The Dreamless Sea too?
Yeah, that’s all me. That’s how I’ve been writing and recording for the longest time. The stuff I do at home is always me.

And is it words first, music first, or whatever comes first, first?
Pretty much whatever comes first, first. Sometimes I’ll come up with a riff or a chord progression that I really like or I’ll be playing just 2 chords and come up with a melody I really like, or some times a word or a phase and want to build a song around that and then do it.

So it really varies from song to song. But usually it’s just me fucking around on guitar or in my notebook and thinking “Hey, that would make a good song, this is something I really enjoy, this is fun to play, this would sound really good.” So I develop it.

What if you wanted to add a sound and you didn’t play it? Would you ask another musician in? Or actually – is there an instrument you don’t play?
There’s tons of stuff I don’t play. If I had access to a studio and lots of money to pay an engineer to record, and could pay musicians to appear on the album then that’s something I’d do. It’s not something I’m opposed to. It’s just very hard to coordinate when you’re not paying people and when you don’t have the money set aside to reserve space in a studio. If I’m doing it in my apartment it’s a lot easier for me to just knock it out.

But if you met a really great harmonica player . . . or musical saw player . . .
I’m fortunate to know a lot of great musicians . . . and when I had the release party I had a couple of my friends come up – Mike Milazzo and BZ Douglas, and Michelle Leona, and Christen Napier from Cutleri and Mouth from Kill The Band, among others, and I had them come up and play on individual songs and they learn the parts and that was great fun. So it’s something I want to pursue. But it’s really hard to organize – everyone’s really busy including me, and resources are scarce. But in the future, definitely.

Let’s make a little footnote – hey everybody: if you’re interested in playing with Joe Yoga . . . get in touch!
Definitely! I would love to put a band together.

So who are your musical influences? I know it’s a cliche – but I want to know who helped you find your sound.
It really runs the gamut. I’m influenced by everything from Delta Blues to classical music. I started really writing songs when I got heavily into Velvet Underground. I really like Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, The Pixies, Neil Young and The Band and Mission of Burma and Steely Dan.

There’s a band out of Boston called Hallelujah The Hills that I really love. They’re kinda new, they’re trying to break out.  I’m big fans of theirs and just hearing a few of their albums, they really influenced my songwriting.

Really? Wow – that’s nice to hear . . .
Yeah . . .

It’s nice when new artists are influencing other artists.
I saw them randomly at some free show on Sound Fix. They put on, to this day, one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I bought the album at their show and absolutely fell in love.

(Laughing) That’s terrific!
They’ve given me some advice. It’s nice to see a band that’s doing it – touring, has the record deal and is making it happen.

Well, you’re making it happen too! So, as far as your album, I have some favorites. Is it okay to have favorites?
I think it’s natural. . .

These are the ones I liked the best so these are the ones I wanted to know about on Life Out East which I’ve listened to a bunch now. I love “Bad Hero” and “Gone” and “Queen Bee” . . . “Small Hands” is just aching and “Tell The Wind” sounds like it has this amazing story behind it. Tell me about those songs – what are their stories?
“Bad Hero” was inspired by a book I was reading about an archetype – the old aging hero passing the torch on to the next generation of heroes, and the one young woman who’s conflicted about whether or not she wants to be the hero . . . whether or not she thought she’d make a good hero . . . this whole idea of: how do we become who we are, and how do we fit into other’s idea of ourselves? With the breakup coloring the whole album, it was very “well this person wants me to be a certain way and I can’t do that”.

“Gone” is another fairly standard breakup song about the distances between two people and how, after the breakup scene you see them and, where you would have left together before, you now go your separate ways. It talks about the distances between two people and how that’s kinda sad.

“Queen Bee” is a straight up love song, and I don’t think I write a lot of straight up love songs – but that was one where I was just inspired to.

“Small Hands” is a devastatingly personal song and deliberately cryptic about a friend of mine. I think the song speaks for itself.

Don’t tell me any more about it then, I understand.
And “Tell the Wind” is (I don’t know if it comes across) is very sarcastic. Someone who puffs out their chest and claims that they’ll do this and you kinda respond by saying “Tell the wind. Don’t tell me, just do it”. And that was inspired by a specific conversation I had with my girlfriend at the time. We had had this fight and I came home drunk at 2 in the morning and I picked up the guitar and wrote the song right there — and that doesn’t happen a lot for me. But I was really feeling it that night and it all came out in pretty much one shot.

You can really feel that – there’s only one word – Epic. It’s like this big epic story. There’s this huge emotion behind it.
Yeah – it’s something that doesn’t really happen for me. I was going over it “you say you might / you say it’s fine” . . . and I laid it down with the vocal that night. The next morning I re-recorded it.

I can’t wait to go back and listen to the song again! I love knowing this now!
There’s a line “so tell the wind” and that’s kinda my superficial and petty emotion but it totally worked for what I was going for.

And who is Cody in the final song? It sounds very personal. (My husband, Stephen, thinks Cody is a dog – like old Yeller. I do not think this).
It’s funny, I did another interview and they were like “I think Cody is a person” . But Cody is the city is Cody, Wyoming.

Oh, how funny! Well there you go.
I went out West, summer of ‘09. I’d been out to Oregon and Washington, but this was my first real trip to the high desert – the plains, Utah, Mormon country. The person I was with, she wanted to go to Cody because that was where she was born and spent the first 10 years of her life and she’d wanted to see how it had changed and so I’d gone along for the ride.

Here was this city of Cody which had found it’s niche as a tourist town, living off its history and it had stayed that way, contrasting with New York City which is just never the same city twice. There’s a famous quote – “New York City will be a great city if they ever finish it”. I hope they never stop building New York City. New York is not the kind of place that will find a thing and stick with it. It will always be changing and evolving and that’s the kind of place I want to live. It was also built out of this idea – to tie in to the break up, but also thematically to the album – this is about coming back to New York City and the idea that you don’t really see something fully without time and distance.

(Laughs) Yeah. Oh, yeah.
You have to be removed from it physically to see it from the out side. Because when you’re inside all you see is buildings. But when you’re out side you can see a skyline and you get perspective on it. With time, it gives you the sense to see it emotionally. You’re going to get a different view of a breakup emotionally. A year later you will see it completely differently.

You’re outside of it just the way you’re outside of a city coming home to it. And when you’re outside of a relationship, good or bad, you definitely have a different perspective on it. And it can make you re-think things you felt, you can learn about yourself and why you were feeling those things.

“I was so angry!” But a year later, now that I was thinking about if for so long, and being removed from it – now I know why I was so angry. Why I couldn’t articulate it at the time . . . that’s the theme that runs through the whole album: To see something unique you need time and distance to heal.

That’s really profound!
That’s why I put it last, because I feel like that sums up everything I’m agonizing about over the course of the album – I start off sorta sarcastic, then it’s fast songs, then I’m in it, then the second half it’s me stepping back and I’m sorting it out, then everything blew up and now I’m seeing where things land and by the end of the album I’m kinda out of it and I can see the tea leaves so to speak – I can read it much better.

I can’t wait to go back and listen to it again with all this new perspective! So then what’s the one song you love to perform – that makes you feel amazing every time you play it?
Definitely there’s a few – I love to perform Panic Attack especially if I’m in the mood for it. And when I nail that song I feel like I’ve done something right. Cheater is a great song because it’s a strong combo of something that’s really good for my voice and good for my playing style so I almost always nail that song when I play it.

Small Hands – I can always really get into – it seems like whenever I play that it always shuts the crowd up. And I always feel like that allows me to get really deep into it. The deeper I can get into a song, the more I can give the audience to listen to. And also No Wings. I love that chorus and I love the way I’ve arranged it when I play it live.

Speaking of you playing live – where can people come see you perform next?
I have 2 big shows, the first is A Very Yoga Christmas – at Under St. Marks which is my annual Christmas show (this is the 3rd annual). I’ll be playing with my band COACH . . . it’s me and my friend Andrea Tarka on drums, me playing bass. We call ourselves the greatest drum and bass band in the world. And the greatest rock and roll band of all time!

We play once a year because the world can’t handle it more than once a year. We play every year at Yoga Christmas. We’ve settled into a nice groove with that. That’s gonna be great – everyone’s gonna be there . . . Michelle Leona, Eric Clark, Ceili Clemens, The Odortones, John Murdock, Tim Warner, Jon Savoy, Jen Perney, Mr. Marbar, Mike Ogletree, The Sisters Rock, Penny Pollak, Natalie Underwood, and Umberto MacDougal.

It’s fun music and the 2nd half is the cream of the crop of solo performers of the downtown scene. That’s gonna be something really special.

Then I have a solo show which is Jan 11th at Sidewalk Cafe which is me for an hour, hopefully some special guests if I can wrangle them up. That’s at 9:00 pm.

Terrific! Okay, now my favorite part of the interview. Bonus question – you can tell me absolutely anything you want. Tell me a joke – give me your latest cause, recite some poetry . . . tell me what you want for your birthday. Or give me more information in case my questions weren’t thorough enough. The mic is yours!
I have a joke!

Photo by Cathryn Lynne

OH! Good good!
Why did the suicidal chicken stop in the middle of the road?

I don’t know . . .?
To get to the other side.

(dead silence) Um . . . (then uproarious laughter at the badness of the joke)
Get it? The other side?

Yes. I get it, I get it.
Get it? He’s suicidal? So he stops? So he gets hit by a car? To get to the other side?

(laughs) Oh . . . that’s ah . . . yeah yeah – wanna tell me another joke?
Wow . . . (recovers) A horse walks into a bar and the bartender says “Why the long face”?

Hahahahahahahahaha!
And the horse says “Because my alcoholism is destroying my family!”
(both dissolve in laughter)

BETTER! Much better! Well thank you Joe Yoga!

Thank you Karen!

~~~

So, if you’d like to catch Joe Yoga at his next Kill The Band gig, he’ll be at Alter Ego this Sunday the 19th, and then you can check out his solo shows mentioned above.  I’ll see you there!

Related Posts:

• Joe Yoga: Retrospective NYC Tour
• Mike Milazzo — Open Mike
• 2nd Season Mini Fridge – Tasty, Filling And Leaving Audience Wanting More! (Jun 28, 2012 – Jul 04, 2012 )
• It’s Time For Mini-Fridge Elevenses With Kill The Band – Mock Bottom Mockumental CD Release Experience!
• Early Risers / Night Owls … Come With Me – Help Save UNDER St. Marks

Leslie Goshko

Storytellers. Monologists. One-Woman Shows. The lines blur in the art forms because they are often one in the same. Sometimes the difference is subtle, and I find that sometimes it has to do with how much is taken from personal life stories. An actor (hopefully) personalizes the choices he or she makes on stage; but when you are actually sharing personal tales of your life, then you are no longer acting; you are re-living those events, and hopefully, enlightening the audience with how truly bizarre/beautiful/hilarious/tragic those events are. I found Vodka Shoes (written and performed by Leslie Goshko) to be a really beautiful piece that went beyond the story of an alcoholic father and somewhat dysfunctional family; it was about how that family survived through its love – and all the little things that kept the our narrator, Leslie Goshko, sane along the way.

The show starts off with Goshko at a keyboard piano playing a hilarious ditty about her father teaching her dirty songs while he was drunk when she was a child – oblivious to everything and heartily singing along copying her father – until mother came home. Then begins the storytelling format of the art of the monologist – narrating a tale of family, dysfunction, and heartwarming (and heartbreaking) moments throughout her upbringing. Having had a close relative who was an alcoholic, who could also be an amusing drunk when he wasn’t laying things to waste in his path, I could relate to some of the moments she was recounting. I think anyone who has had a family member who was either an addict or a far-out eccentric (her mother, a bible-thumper of the highest order whose zealotry nearly outweighed her husband’s antics, had her moments) could relate to Goshko’s tales that painted a tapestry of her life, weaving in and out of each other. I found especially endearing and yet tragic the relationship with her sibling who, after being cared for for an illness and nursed back to health, took off without looking back until years later – much to the confusion of the sister who was left behind.

Anyone entering this theatre expecting simply an evening of amusing stories of drunken fatherly antics is in for something much, much more. To begin with, as a one-woman show, we as an audience should hope (expect) to be drawn in, to feel what the character is feeling – in short, to share an event, not simply see a performance. One thing I love about the resurgence of monologist art form (you see it in Slams/contests/open mics and various venues all over town more and more) is that it allows artists to share their lives. I mean, let’s face it; who knows how much of these tales are fact or fiction? – but they are presented as a slice of their lives. From the start of Goshko’s Vodka Shoes to the very triumphant end of a young woman coming out on the other side of dysfunction a better person – mostly because of the very people that caused that dysfunction – was moving and fascinating. My only complaint was that we didn’t get more keyboard songs.

Sun Ra once said something to the effect of: “History is his story; mystery is my story. What’s your story?”  I think in this situation Goshko made sure that she was never a mystery; her life’s story is an open book. It’s what we do with that open book that remains the mystery.

~~~

Vodka Shoes has ended its run.

Related Posts:

• 4 Cents Review: Late Nights With The Boys – A Grown Up Fairy Tale (Frigid Festival 2010)
• It or Her: Madness Reigns Supreme (Frigid Festival 2010)
• Delving Into DARK WATER With Diánna Martin
• 2nd Season Mini Fridge – Tasty, Filling And Leaving Audience Wanting More! (Jun 28, 2012 – Jul 04, 2012 )
• Coyote On A Fence – FREE Staged Reading – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)

Summer Shapiro and Peter Musante | Photo credit: Misha Kutuzov

Enter a magical world where language is unnecessary and human relationships are fresh and effective – full of whimsy and enchantment – with a simple encounter between a man, a woman and a box.  With precise physical comedy and crisp clownmanship, Summer Shapiro and Peter Musante deliver a most mesmerizing performance in Legs and All, at the Frigid New York Festival.

We are first introduced to a big blue square box in the middle of the stage, from which Miss Shapiro emerges and sets the tone with a most flowery hunger (sorry kids, you have to see it to know what I’m talking about). You could say that a normal flexi-yoga person could find a way to fit in this big blue square  box (that should give you an idea of the size). After Summer leaves, out emerges a handsome Mr. Musante,  who cleverly lets us in on his most precious treasure chest, in which he keeps colorful boxes within boxes within boxes… within boxes, roaring elephants, most valuable books, manuscripts and other nick-nacks. But whose treasure box is complete without an itsy-bitsy ball? One that he has just spotted on the big blue square box. And here starts the dance between Summer Shapiro, who rightfully owns the miniature ball, and Peter Musante, who must complete his treasure.

Like a dance, Shapiro and Musante innocently get to know each other, tease each other and ultimately share not only the miniature ball, but a new found intimacy. Both performers are a delight to watch, whether they are “clowning around” outside or contorting inside the big blue square box. That’s right, now the box fits two. Rest assured these are not your birthday party scary clowns (yes, I still find clowns scary), but precise comic and physical performers who have created a genuine journey into the heart of a first encounter between two people. One of the standout moments (which is pictured above), is when the improvised picnic turns into an illusory vertical feast.

The Frigid New York Festival was officially over on Sunday, but Legs and All was one of the shows that received a well deserving extension. Adding one final performance this Friday, March 12th at 8:30pm.
You would be a fool to miss it.

——

Legs and All

Related Posts:

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• Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women In The Arts – Spotlight On Penny Pollak
• Following The Path Of Yoga
• “Kill The Band” Knocks ‘Em Dead (Frigid Festival 2010)

No Traveler - Contemplating What Lies Beyond (Penny Pollak / photo by Rebecca Chiappone)

The opening scene of Penny Pollak’s No Traveler (directed and co-created by Samantha Jones) immediately reminded me of The Triplets of Belleville (not the movie, but the weirdly enjoyable music video by M).  Ms. Pollak, or rather her character Abigail, is having a great time dancing around her room to an equally bouncy French tune; she spends much of the song drinking wine, primping, getting frisky with a door, and setting the stage for some grand finale.  Of course, when she pulls out the straight edged razor and steps into the bucket it becomes obvious that this was all nothing but a frivolous preamble to the real task at hand … ending her life.

Once the deed is done a series of bizarre events follow, beginning with the fact that she’s wound up in some strange purgatory and can only get out if she can save enough souls who are pretty much facing the same decision she just faced.  This leads Abigail through a maze of other people’s tragic last moments and she’s expected to stop them right before they go splat or squish or doink or whatever their chosen method of suicide sounds like.  Saving them will save her, and get her out of her crazy little room of purgatory.

Much like Clarence trying to get his wings, she must show each of these people why their lives are worth living.  But unlike Clarence who got a whole movie to escort Jimmy Stewart around, Abigail just gets a few last minute interactions to sum up her charge and gather enough evidence to convince them to choose life instead of ending it all.   And frankly, sometimes the things she bears witness to just makes it even easier for her to cast her vote along with Ms.-Pill-Taker-Behind-Door-A … sometimes she just can’t help from  blathering out the truth which is … heck, if my life was as bad as all that, I’d be offing myself too.  I mean, look … I DID!

I won’t spoil the ending here except to say that it is far more satisfying than It’s A Wonderful Life, in part becuase Penny Pollak is more entertaining to watch than Jimmy Stewart (there!  I said it!), but also in part due to the fact that she doesn’t find Zuzu’s petals in her pocket in the last scene which I always found to be a bit of a cheat.

Penny Pollak (photo by Rebecca Chiappone)

No Traveler is probably one of the best produced one-woman-shows I have ever seen; the music by Mike Milazzo (yes, the very same Mike Milazzo I’d seen perform in Kill The Band one night earlier) wove its way throughout this piece and created almost another character which Ms. Pollak could interact with and lean against.

Ms. Pollak brings a physicality to her roles that make her captivating to watch; she has amazing energy and vulnerability at the same time which coats each one of her characters with a layer of authenticity that reverberated throughout her performance.  While every now and then one of her accents waivered a bit I was so drawn in by her body language and her movement that I could forgive a few questionable choices.  Ms. Pollak is an actress who can flip from funny to tragic in one scene, often in one line, and dexterity like that makes for a show that is facinating to watch.  Couple that with the fact that there are some really thoughtful themes packed into this one hour show, and you’re left with a play that will be with you for a while.

~~~

Related Posts:

• Women’s History Month: Celebrating Women In The Arts – Spotlight On Penny Pollak
• Brrrrrr! Temperatures Are Dipping! Must Be Time For FRIGID 2010!
• Lickin’ With Bricken – An Interview With Bricken Sparacino
• Following The Path Of Yoga
• Vodka Shoes Fit All Sizes (Frigid Festival 2010)

Killy Dwyer, Joe Yoga, Mike Milazzo and Bamboo Silva

I thought it was a very good sign that my latest obsession, Lady Gaga’s pulsating, driving song Teeth, was blaring as I entered Under St. Marks to get ready to see Killer Killy Dwyer’s latest offering “Kill The Band” which is not just the name of her band, but which is also the name of the show that’s part of Frigid Festival 2010.  I saw it as a good omen not just because I haven’t been able to get the song out of my head these last few weeks, but more because the song is the type of song that gets down into you and makes you bop in your seat and I figured a gal who was serving up Gaga as the appetizer must have the all-you-can-eat-buffet to back it up.  Musically speaking, of course.

Kill The Band (photo by Craig Schober)

Kill The Band is a little real, a little rehearsed, and a whole lotta rockin’ out.  If you’ve come to Under St. Marks to laugh … you’re in luck.  But if you’ve come to laugh AND to see a great live show performed by a great band, you’ve hit the trifecta (or the thing that comes before the trifecta).  Killy Dwyer, along with band-mates Mike Milazzo (on guitar), Joe Yoga (on base), and Bamboo Silva (beat-boxing) do an incredible job of balancing smart with funny with catchy (THERE’s your trifecta).  With songs like Girl Balls (I’m not your f*ckin GPS, bitch find your own way) and Clone U I was sold.  But nothing could have prepared me for the Kumbayah moment when the whole audience joined in on the chorus of Ben Kinsley (no one respects an Indian or a Jew unless they’re played by Ben Kingsley!).  Trust me, it was touching.

Aside from the songs themselves, Killy does a spot on “Dear Future Killy” note to herself from a very young “Past Killy” (To be opened 20 years in the future in March 2010) where she gushes about the wonders of Times Square (and how she will spend EVERY SINGLE NEW YEAR’S EVE THERE when she moves to New York) and notes how she will mark the passage of her career as a Broadway Actress by which Les Miserable character she is going to be playing.

With her very talented band backing her up, and playing the fall guys for many of her routines one is reminded of a sideways-world Spinal Tap where all the other band members are Derek Smalls, constantly being under appreciated.  Of course, again, it’s all in good fun and the joke’s on Killy as she’s left to work out Girl Balls against an unfinished track when she pushes her band just a little too far.

While there’s no doubt that each of the quartet serves as an invaluable member of this show, as well as this band, I must say that the addition of sound effects from the beat-boxing Bamboo Silva (both to the musical numbers as well as to some of the comedy routines) elevates this band into a whole other stratosphere.  Silva is able to bind everything together in a way I’ve never quite seen done before, and it’s an amazing thing to watch him work with these talented musicians.

The evening is outrageous, infection and raucous.  On a scale of 1 to 10, this group goes to 11.

~~~

Related Posts:

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• Mike Milazzo — Open Mike
• Early Risers / Night Owls … Come With Me – Help Save UNDER St. Marks
• Following The Path Of Yoga
• Brrrrrr! Temperatures Are Dipping! Must Be Time For FRIGID 2010!

4 Cents Review – When 2 reviewers each give their 2 cents.

LATE NIGHTS WITH THE BOYS: confessions of a leather bar chanteuse Pictured: Alex Bond in 1977

Today Diánna Martin and Karen Tortora-Lee give their 4 Cents about Late Nights With The Boys: Confessions Of A Leather Bar Chantuse which is part of this year’s Frigid Festival.

Late Nights With The Boys: Confessions Of A Leather Bar Chantuse was presented as selections read by Alex Bond and David Carson from Ms. Bond’s novel, but aside from that we both didn’t know what to expect.  The Frigid blurb promised that the reading would transport you to Dallas 1977, a magical time before HIV/AIDS, but not before ignorance and prejudice so we were eager to watch this story unfold.

Karen: I really didn’t know what to expect from Late Nights With The Boys, and almost immediately I was charmed.  Didn’t you sense their warmth right away?

Diánna: Absolutely – there was something very natural and calm about Alex Bond and David Carson that affected the audience. I think the fact that they didn’t dim the house lights was interesting toward that end …

Karen: Definitely. I mean, I felt they were having a conversation with us (the audience) as much as with each other, and that sense of immediacy happened automatically.

The story begins with Anna Zander interviewing prospective autobiographer Craig to see if he would be a good fit, not only as someone who is a good enough writer to capture her story, but if he’s someone she’ll feel comfortable with so that her story will be able to come forth naturally.

Karen: First of all, I loved how Anna greeted Craig at her front door with  “Are you gay? Come on in … but only if you’re gay” because it set a tone for the piece right away.

Diánna: Yes! It did – it got everyone laughing, but it also let you know, as an audience member, kinda what you were in for … and you immediately got a sense of who her character was.

Karen: Which is so important because on first sight she’s anything but, to put it bluntly, a fag hag so it was even more endearing when she says it right up front with all her southern charm.

Diánna: Right? It really was – and it was done so simply.  Really truthful honest choices were made in the acting by both actors, so we got to see them as the people they were – and not caricatures. It would be easy to fall into that trap with this play if they were actors who were “acting”.

Karen: I agree.  I think Craig said it best when he said of Anna, “She was a great lady AND trailer trash. HOW did she do that?” Because of course you knew exactly how he meant it when he said it. It was said with love and got a great response from the audience . . .

Diánna: EXACTLY.

Karen: It showed that she was elegant AND spunky . . . that she could be wicked and had no problem bringing that side of herself out. This way, when it starts becoming revealed that this genteel southern lady was a leather bar chanteuse, it’s not so inconceivable anymore.

Diánna: Absolutely – because despite the southern belle aspect, she is more an independent woman who has these different sides to her that are all so interesting. You totally buy it and that’s even if you don’t have any idea of what you’re seeing …I went in blind about some things – and still went with it – but more on that later.

Karen: Right, you absolutely buy it, because as Anna takes you on her journey you can see the wide-eyed innocent she once was, and you can see all these defining moments that she was open too, these things that maybe other girls of  her social circle might have been shocked by and would have turned away from.

Instead, she embraced it all, and by doing so, she widened her mind, and her world, and suddenly it makes so much sense to see the woman you see before you with all her gentility and her wickedness at once.

Diánna: Yes! You see her transformation that was fed by being surrounded by people who cared about her…and despite the stigma that a lot of people, regardless of their point of view, have about homosexuality, would not be able to deal with, she was not concerned with any of that. She opened herself to it all – because it came from such a positive place.

Sitting there watching it and hearing her relive her tale reminded me of myself when I was living in St. Louis. It really took me on a trip down memory lane, and I think that’s something that really strikes a note with the audience – going back to the comfort level the actors create – because most people coming to see the play will know a little about it from the title; and in doing so, might very well have an experience of their own that is comparable – their “first time.”

Karen: It’s so true. As Anna was describing her first time in a leather bar, all wide eyed and innocent, so sweet and naive, I remembered all those days of being 18, 19, and going to gay bars here in New York City for the first time with my friends who were just coming out. It was all so different and exciting, and quite frankly, it really was much more of a bonding experience than just going to a sports bar with “regular” guys. I have nights from 20 years ago that I remember more vividly than what I did last weekend!

I think many others will be doing what we did as they watch this show – going down memory lane!

Diánna: Oh, absolutely. I think that’s what also allows for such an emotional connection between the actors and the audience. I mean, here you have two people reading mostly descriptions that are out of a novel, really, with dialogue between them, of course, but still some of that was even done in the third person. The ability for them to hold us in the palm of their hand like that was amazing – for the audience to really be there with them. And I think so much of it has to do with the fact that the audience becomes so involved because they are reliving their own experiences. I saw many heads nodding and people dabbing their eyes…I know I wasn’t the only one!

Karen: I was too! It really struck a chord, especially when she started talking about some of the sadder aspects.

Diánna:  And the descriptions – of the bar, of the people – it was all so vivid. It was amazing – and again, being done in the third person makes it so important that it was so rich in the way it painted the picture so that we would remain engaged. I have not been that affected by a reading in some time.

Karen: And I’m glad it was all inclusive, because while her joyful times were fun and funny, her journey really had tinges of sadness too. As she said, “carefree was replaced with caution and cadavers” and I think that’s the crux of this whole story. That she is not just that she was a naive girl who got some education about the leather bars and the underground gay scene of 1977.

Diánna: Absolutely!

Karen: But that she also unfortunately had to then bear witness to so much sadness, starting with seeing (or hearing about) her dear friends being gay bashed, and continuing on with watching her friends fall away one by one:  all victims of an epidemic which swept through the early 80s and claimed so many beautiful souls.

Diánna: I really appreciated the way that was laid out. The AIDS epidemic was mentioned/hinted at very early on and we knew that she had lost the myriad of friends she had lined in picture frames. And intermingled in the funny moments or the excited revelry, a small hint would be dropped again. But the main sad point, that was discussed for its own scene was the gay bashing – which was so sad, and made many of us cry in the audience; but the show, instead of taking an easy way out and going through a scene where she’s at a friend’s bedside when they’re dying of AIDS, she chose to focus on how incredible they were when they were alive – and so when they are talked about as dead, there is even so much more of a void, and it strikes home – without going over the top or getting sappy – where it could have.

Karen: That’s right. It’s one thing to talk about someone who’s dead … it’s another thing to talk about someone as if they were still alive … to see the gleam they still manage to produce in someone, to see that effect on someone makes their passing all the more poignant. It’s true. And whenever Anna spoke of her friends, you could see the years melt away, and she looked so much like a young girl again. That’s not just the power of acting. That’s the power of one person’s mark on another person, and like you say … the obviousness of that void is then just so much more heart wrenching.

David Carson and ALex Bond in DFW Fringe Festival

Diánna:  I wanted to also make note about David Carson’s performance – the same way that we saw in Alex’s face the joy and love that she had for those friends that she had lost, David had such a personalization in his love for her character. It really was just so lovely – it made me smile.

Karen: It’s so true. I think there’s a lot of nuance that would be lost without him; he’s got a tough role … he’s got to be the straight man (well, the gay straight man!) but the truth is, if this were just a one woman show I’m not so sure it would have played as well. They both come alive in each other’s company … and the story itself is so much about how people affect you and come into your life and rearrange you … that to do this piece solo wouldn’t have worked. So I agree, David does some of the hardest work in this piece, sometimes by simply letting Anna (and Alex) shine. He’s like the light that illuminates her.

Diánna: Well said – it really is a piece that makes for the characters to have a symbiotic relationship, and they do indeed feed each other, both to the actors and characters as well as the audience. Now, what is the history behind this? Is this an autobiographical tale that was a book, made into a play about a book?

Karen: Yes, there’s even a part in the beginning of the show where she’s talking to the man who’s about to write her book and says “lets write it in the 3rd person” and I think that’s why the play is about “someone else”.

Diánna: Ahhh…yes, that’s true. So they have written that in there so it just falls naturally.

Karen: Which is very magical in some ways, to take your life and hand it over.

Diánna: I suppose that was the decision to do it as a “reading”, instead of trying to bring it out as a staged piece – it wouldn’t have worked, trying to re-create her life as staging. The magic happened in a much subtler fashion.

Karen: Right, so unexpected. You don’t expect it to come to life as much because you’re expecting to hear someone reading a biography. Then, everything falls away and suddenly you’re transported, because the story is so powerful, and charming, and wonderful.

She really is a bit like Dorothy or Alice or … who else?

That chick in Narnia? … Going through the other side of the closet!

Diánna: Hahaha right!

Karen: Since back then everyone was still IN the closet, so the only way to understand the gay world, was to go INTO the closet!

Diánna: Very much like Alice. There is very much a fable/fairy tale thing going on – they even talk about that.

Karen: It’s nice to think that this is what Alice would be like grown up, telling her story to someone else of this time.

Diánna: All the leather and glitter; the trapeze and the world of queens, princesses . . .

Without a doubt, anyone who is interested in seeing the story of a young woman entering a world of unexpected delights and unimaginable experiences, but with a grown up twist, should then go see Late Nights With The Boys … it will transport you to a never-never-land  of fairy tales.

Related Posts:

• Vodka Shoes Fit All Sizes (Frigid Festival 2010)
• It or Her: Madness Reigns Supreme (Frigid Festival 2010)
• Delving Into DARK WATER With Diánna Martin
• Coyote On A Fence – FREE Staged Reading – 5 Things To Know About The Show Before You Go (2012 Planet Connections Festivity)
• Lickin’ With Bricken – An Interview With Bricken Sparacino

Mark Shyzer as Esther (Photo credit: Tanja-Tiziana, Double Crossed Photography)

Fishbowl starts off deceptively;  writer / performer Mark Shyzer introduces his cast of characters with such blasts of humor, and his transformations are so successful, that you might be fooled into thinking Fishbowl was written to be little more than a vanity piece in order to showcase Mr. Shyzer’s talent of reeling off bitingly funny one-liners while embodying 5 seemingly unrelated but unforgettable characters.

Soon enough as these characters cycle through, however, you begin to see that each of their monologues are really more like clues that lead you to the real story which intricately weaves such heady topics as Dark Matter, The Uncertainty Principle, and The Grand Unified Theory of Everything in between the huge laughs. By the time this Babel-in-a-Fishbowl ties all the ends together the story has become more fascinating than funny … and that’s a good thing.

Shyzer takes the stage without costumes for this production, but it’s easy enough to follow along as he moves from character to character … and as each character is revisited your understanding of each one of them deepens as  more of their back story is revealed.

First up is Esther, a 14 year old science nerd who is telling her story not to us, but to her best friend, Frank … a goldfish.  While she’s both annoyed at having to share her class project with the biggest slacker in her grade, she also admits to Frank that’s she’s secretly thrilled that this random pairing may be the start of a wonderful friendship.  As she explains to her fish … “I need some friends who aren’t outward manifestations of my antisocial tendencies.”

Next up is Frances, a disenchanted 16 year old who would rather be known by “Ravyn”.  He spends a lot of time brooding, moping, staring, thinking and contemplating.  His biggest upcoming tragedy is that he’s being told by his parents that he’s got to go to a “Birthday Party slash Barbecue slash Family Reunion slash … my wrists”.

We are also introduced to Janice, a gin soaked barfly who confides in Trevor the bartender about the daily ups and downs of what, upon first examination, seems a very pointless and superficial existence.    She talks about just having come back from a gay cruise with her gay ex-husband (“A Gay Cruise … the boat, not the scientologist”).  Her description of a certain little extra she got at the on-ship spa was so packed with clever lines that I could barely keep from replaying the very descriptive visuals that were placed in my head even days later.  To try and repeat it here wouldn’t do it justice … you’d have to hear it for yourself.

Eventually we come upon Walter who is an old man apparently on the verge of death whiling away his last days in a hospital bed and checking in every so often with his comatose roommate, George, who of course can’t answer.  He spends his time trying to come up with some meaningful last lines to speak on his deathbed in between asking George to pull his finger.

Lastly, interspersed via TV and sometimes in person we meet Carol, perky host of a TV exercise show.  But what’s going on in front of the camera is only half as interesting as what goes on when the tape stops rolling.

Fishbowl does the unexpected: brings enormous concepts of the universe down to a level of understanding that even the most scientifically challenged among us (ahem, that would be me) can understand, and delivers it all with a spoonful – no, make that a Fishbowl full – of laughter.  A definite Frigid must-see.

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Brian McManamon as Andrew

Frigid Festival has really stepped up their game this year, is what I was thinking as I descended down the stairs from the Red Room, still reeling from the one-man show It or Her by Alena Smith. The medium of madness is one that has so many artistic possibilities, and when performed well it can be a goldmine for the audience. Nuances and colors of the human condition can be given a larger leash with which to run. Nothing is as delightful, for me, as a luscious character study set into a well-told tale. This production is all that and more.

We are introduced to Andrew in the dark, admonishing some people for whispering. All we see is a flashlight beam cutting a line in the darkness. When he turns the lights on in his basement, we find a disheveled man in long johns and glasses holding court with about 30 figurines, not people, as he struggles to place them in The Ultimate Arrangement.  And so begins the audience’s love affair with this production, a black comedy about a man whose inability to relate to people causes him to turn to objects instead, and ultimately lose himself in his fantasy world. As we learn more about Andrew, from his one-sided dialogue (or is it?) with his “devilish coquettes” – the porcelain female figures that he collects – we slowly form another picture of what his life was really like before he became the creepy guy in the basement.

McManamon’s physicality was genius. He completely took control of the stage. I found myself amazed, over and over, how this man could not only create such an amazing physical life of a neurotic and over-the-top character, but also have such grace on stage to constantly move about or even break into dance, and not break a single figurine. What’s genius is not that he didn’t break one, but that he kept his emotional life going the whole time. I didn’t see an actor thinking he had to be careful to not break any props;  I saw the character thinking that he had to keep the things he loved safe. As it should be. Regarding the performance as a whole, whether the  moments were Andrew being hilariously ridiculous, or tender reflection on how he wished he had a child, the actor was always throwing himself completely in his work – and enjoying every minute. This kind of artistic joy is not lost on the audience.

Director Jessi D. Hill took care to not fall into the trap of stereotypes, nor of playing for laughs (which was not necessary with McManamon’s shrill crooning over the objects of his obsession). I enjoyed the staging; Hill brought all of the complexities of this tragic character out in the open using a minimalist space of a trunk and three fluorescent wall lights. Overall a fabulous show, with a yummy twist at the end that surprised even this reviewer. Yes, Frigid has definitely stepped it up.

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