- OTHER MEDIA
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- edgesanfrancisco.com March 3, 2009 (Kevin Langson)
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- There is no shortage of desperate people in the world (especially in
the midst of economic recession), and no place is more dense with American-style
depraved desperation than Los Angeles- where bloated dreams and egos make
for an amusingly distorted breed of homo sapien. Ethan, Tex, and Gabby,
the characters of sketch comedians’ Killing My Lobster’s new
full-length play Pure Shock Value, did not write the wretched rules; they
are simply struggling to keep their less-than-successful filmmaker heads
above the polluted, man-swallowing LA water.
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- It must be a cruel world when one feels compelled to breach a monogamous
longtime relationship to get ahead only to discover that the sleazy man
who one just sucked off is only an intern. Such is the truth that lies
behind Gabby’s grim face when she arrives home at the beginning of
"Pure Shock Value."
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- This sad truth (that, at least in her mind, amounts to complete defeat,
the final straw in a series of failures) does not burst forth instantaneously,
though. First, Gabby gets to toy with her endearingly buffoonish cohorts.
Ethan, the more grounded of these brothers, was supposed to propose to
Gabby that night, which adds a layer of intrigue to the night’s events.
Tex tactlessly spills the beans, and Ethan decides it doesn’t really
feel right in light of the botched meeting with the studio. Tex’s
unfaltering exuberance and resolve that his new idea for a film called
"Fisting Spielberg" can pull them out of the doldrums only exacerbates
Gabby’s dejection. She is ready to pack it up and head to Seattle
or San Francisco, which, in the minds of Hollywood hopefuls, amounts to
abandoning purpose and retreating to quaint America (Tex puts it well when
he asserts that the only reason not to exterminate the world outside LA
is that there would be no one left to watch their movies).
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- Fortunately, what this tense and daring comedy amounts to is much better
than pure shock value, though there certainly are some gasp or incredulous
laughter inducing moments along the way. The audaciously sexual tone is
established by the opening scene of interrupted masturbation and reaches
a jaw-dropping climax in the final scene. Sexual humor also colors these
characters’ interaction with the man who provides the turning point
in this story.
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- Julian Quintara is like a fictional Quentin Tarantino- a cinema renegade
admired by hip young hopefuls, such as these three. Miraculously, directly
following Gabby’s screech that it would take an act of God to redeem
them, he shows up inside their dog igloo, in hobo guise. Ethan pulls the
unconscious body indoors out of empathy. When they realize who they have
custody of, the scheming begins.
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- After much entreaty, Gabby convinces the too-ethical-for-success Ethan
to wield the compromised physical condition of this powerful insider to
their advantage. Eruptions (and a relentless erection) ensue once Julian
has a stimulant cocktail, including Viagara, in his system.
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- The obvious strengths of this production are astonishingly witty dialogue
and riotous situations. There are no more than a handful of moments in
which the writing becomes indulgent and draws attention to itself as willfully
clever. When Gabby breaks down following the revelation that the intern
she just fellated is underage, her assertion that her "soul is vomiting"
is part of what felt like the first false moment of the play.
- This moment could have been more effective if less verbose and less
impetuously portrayed by Erin Carter. Her performance of Gabby is notable
for its slightly off-kilter dazedness. She does well to portray Gabby’s
rationality and boldness when it surfaces in the script, but what is more
obvious about this performance is a hard to define insularity that exists
in spite of her frantic interaction with her partners. Regardless of whether
this is written into the character or a quirk of the actor, it makes Gabby
a very engaging character to observe, and there are only very minor conflicts
between this dazedness and the action performed.
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- The male roles seem a bit more straightforward. Justin Lamb plays Tex’s
clueless bro-ness with the vigor that this sort of comedy requires, and
Chris Yule feels perfectly natural and casual as the soft-hearted dreamer
that is Ethan. He effortlessly conjures a familiar creative type, a guy
who might be the friend of many in the audience. Overall, the only hindrance
to the extremely effective wit on display here are the rare moments that
dialogue dips into melodramatic cliché or overindulges. These fleeting
moments are nothing next to the pleasure jolt experienced while watching
these characters writhe and quip their way towards an elusive redemption.
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