A part of the Eleventh Annual Midtown International Theatre Festival, “What Makes You Think I Want to Talk to You?” leaves the audience wonder what they have just seen: a poor production, or a well-staged bad talk show where jokes are not funny, that features a host that is not backed up by a professional crew and guests that speak about things which only bother them, all the while not listening to the host, or seeing the sour faces on the idly sitting audience.
In the beginning of the show, you’d bet it’s the former, but by the end you start wondering if it’s the latter.
But is it worth your time to ponder throughout?
To answer this question, first try to figure out what you are expecting a one man comedy show to be. If you would like to see a great actor transforming into dissimilar characters, then this is what you get. However, if you are ready to laugh until your stomach aches, then this is not the kind of play you need to see.
Martin Joseph, who has written and performed the play, clearly has a gift for acting. During the short show time, he is capable of transforming into a variety of people, such as an attractive host with high self-esteem, a well-paid hooker, a teenager who lacks confidence and speaks to his toy, a rapper who actively promotes his upcoming CD and finally, an old man who just loves to chat. As he does it brilliantly, the audience members admire his ability to walk on high heels and trim hair falling on his forehead when he pretends to be a woman, believe that he is a late-coming spectator when he sits among them dressed like a 13-year-old boy and sympathize with him when he tries to save his ruined show.
In the meantime, the breaks that allow him to change his clothes and become the next person are filled in with video advertisement on the wall and his assistant’s talking, which is good because there is no awkward silence and some of the assistant’s jokes are funny. Besides, the reality of a talk show is truly re-created, with all those ads we usually are irritated by.
Why do they have to appear every five minutes? Well, in Joseph’s talk show they served, at least, a very good purpose.
In addition to this, the host often addresses the audience, even when he appears on the wall in a video, interviewing a guest he plays in front of them. Viewers are encouraged to ask questions and talk about themselves. As a remedy for shy ones, there are cards with prepared questions the assistant, Scotty, happily gives away. It may be the idea of a talk show where the host tries to control the flow of the conversation; however, it looks quite weird.
Another thing that disturbs the audience is a bad crew behind the scenes. Not only do they laugh at jokes the audience doesn’t, as it happens in boring comedy shows, they also forget or “forget†to switch to another image where they should. At the end, the screen on the wall shows the angry host yelling at his assistants behind the scenes, complaining that everything went wrong, so by the time the audience is eager to go home, they finally understand that the show was not bad; it was meant to be messed up.
Or maybe, it comes from expectations of failure, uncertainty about the jokes’, the host’s and the play’s success. This is the dilemma that does not benefit the show in the least.
With his friendly, outgoing and marvelous personality and tremendous acting skills, Joseph’s abilities are more suited for performing, as this one man show lacks the type of story that truly captivates. An example of a great idea that lacks the polish and pizzaz to be pulled off effectively, this performance doesn’t make you think about laughing, it makes you think about what could have been done to make it better.
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