‘Beyond Words’ Review: When the Words Matter More

You’d expect a one-man show by a man like Bill Bowers, with a long and successful career as a mime, to be a whimsical, fantastical adventure, which induces smiles from the second it starts to the second it ends.

What you get instead is an emotionally charged one-man show that is more of a coming of age tale about a man who can finally be himself in society.

However, after listening to him talk for 75 minutes, you get the idea that he was always himself. It was society that needed to catch up to him instead.

While you’ll laugh at times, in the end, “Beyond Words” is Bowers’ way of telling the world that he can now get married, join the armed forces [if he wanted] without hiding anything and have the family he always wanted. His life has been a journey; an incredibly entertaining one filled with curveballs. Stereotypes are easily broken in his world, but at times, secrets are still prevalent. That, in the end, is Bowers’ gift to the audience. Expect the unexpected in this performance and in your life. You’ll get it.

Listening to Bowers chat is the best part of the show. He’s a charmer. With a big smile and a warm heart, he discusses his childhood and his travels all over the country. In between these chats, he performs skits in mime. While these are moderately interesting, they tend to drag. The one scene that has him at a carnival is confusing to follow, while the one involving the teen that was beaten and hung was difficult to process. It’s understandable that it is in the performance, due to Bowers’ feelings about the need for acceptance and tolerance in the LGBT community, but considering how exceptionally positive he is over the course of the show, he didn’t need this skit to further prove his point.

After the second or third skit, it’s easy to get impatient. You want to listen to him tell the next part of his story. The reality of his life is ultimately so much more interesting than the mime. It’s impossible to say that he isn’t talented in this area, as his facial expressions alone make them worthwhile, but overall, there’s something lacking in them. The fact that they often don’t logically connect to his monologues doesn’t help the experience either.

A brilliant ending to the show saves things though. It ties all of his experiences together and reinforces his main idea: love life and it’ll love you back. The conclusion is so strong that it makes it worthwhile to keep an open mind after a few segments snag a bit.

Had this been just a one-man show with Bowers’ discussing his life, it could have been one of the best Off-Off Broadway productions this fall. The weaker mime elements withstanding, the show is still an enjoyable one, but a bit too abstract at times to fully deliver Bowers’ true message.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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