BORROWING FUNNY – Written by Matt Wexler; Directed by Mike Langworthy. Produced by Biz Schaugaard (Presented at Vintage Theatre Company, 1468 Dayton, Aurora) through September 27. Tickets available at 303-856-7830 or VintageTheatre.org.
This is a comedy “standoff” in which no one really wins. An arrogant and self-important standup comic (Tennille, played by Katy White) has deigned to grace the stage of a small bar with her presence. In doing so, she boldly uses a joke in her opening that she stole from another comic. The second (to her) less important comic (Jacey, played by Lexi Wilson) just introduced Tennille and is sitting in the audience. Jacey, instead of being proud that one of her jokes was good enough to be used by a comic higher on the ladder, blows a fuse and demands recompense of some form for the “theft.” This is a no-win situation for both. How can you possibly prove who coined the joke first? Does it fit into a story or theme that is being explored by either comic? Or a piece of a larger bit that might denote originality?
The cat fight ensues with verbal slurs and fruitless negotiations involving a third comic, the club owner, and, ultimately, the police. What evolves is a “joke off” between the two parties that fails to resolve any part of the issue. Jacey and her fellow comic are escorted off the premises; Tennille will never be invited back to that club and will have her name smeared all over the industry; the bar owner lost his headliner for the weekend and will probably end up having a hard time trying to book other comics into his club.
While Katy was a total jerk all the way through as Tennille, her character was written without an ounce of humanity. It’s hard to imagine that she could have achieved such celebrity without working equally hard to convince people – onstage or off – that she was a nice person, at least part of the time. Reliable people have told me that offstage Katy is a perfectly lovely person . . . which only serves to indicate what a truly great actress she is to create such a totally bitchy character. Nuff said!
Lexie Wilson and Darius Cade were believable as the other two “local” comics at the Club. They credibly illustrate both the art of being an actor and the different art of telling jokes. i will forever look at the comics on TV with new eyes, admiring even more their ability to create a persona and a set of observations about the crazy world we live in today. They are both competent comics and really good actors.
The cast is rounded out with Jeff Jesmer as the bar owner Reuben and Jordan Hull as the cop called to the scene to umpire the situation. Both have an easy, natural style on stage. Watching them work is like watching an advanced acting class illustrating “this is how you do it.”
A simple set that included the performance stage, the club itself, and the green room at the Club fit comfortably into the small Bond-Trimble theatre at Vintage. The group has one more weekend at Vintage; then they move downtown to the Clocktower Cabaret for October 3rd and 4th. It will be interesting to see how a comic club crowd responds to the shenanigans and the jokes.
A WOW factor of 8!!