March 4, POST-Daisey Does Delicious

This guy is pretty amazing. First of all he seems to come from where normal people come from. The regions. That he said theater in Seattle sucks was pretty amazing. Over recent years, theater people all over have scuttled about to other regions thinking, oh Seattle is where the work is, Dallas is where the work is, Chicago is where the work is, and even I used to think theater opportunities MUST ABOUND in Seattle. But in recent months I'm hearing theaters there are shutting down left and right. So I guess I won't move to the West Coast; we seem to be doing better than other parts of the country, knock on wood and prayers sent up.

Okay, Mike Daisey. A great one man presentation, at once spontaneous, seemingly extemporaneous, and yet exquisitely well controlled, except when he deliberately let go. He worked from a few hand-scribbled pages,using PT Barnum as a leaping off point, then with each turn of that familiar striped yellow paper, took off into his own life experiences: hilarious, complex, sometimes scary, sometimes almost uncomfortably sexual, which virtually always, always tied us right back to the PT Barnum story. And it's not just that he went back to the Barnum story, but that each of his personal stories seem to somehow reflect the lie, the hoax, the humbug, the trick, the SUCKING in of audiences into the performers world. It always wrapped up.

His performance style was addictive. I'd heard it was almost completely
extemporaneous....so when he began with something that seemed more stylized, more presentational, I started to wonder....but I realized it was his way of grabbing our attention. I think he controls and times steadies himself with his use of fingers and forearms. Was that directed or is that what he does to create beats, moments, arcs for himself within the (un)script?

I'm always so impressed with those actor/performers who can so completely relax with an audience, just BE there with them. Does the fourth wall exist for them or not? Are they just having a big one-sided conversation with a couple hundred (or in the larger cases of, you know, Robin Williams, Eddie Izzard, a couple THOUSand?) people? How do they DO that?

And educational! Who knew that PT Barnum contributed so much to the growth of the arts in the U.S.? Is Granbury Opera House there because of PT?

Am looking forward to more. More commentary on theater, more of his effortless (albeit the sweaty forehead wipes, would that the rest of us could do THAT in the middle of a show) expounding on who we are, us Americans, what draws us in, what makes us tingle, what makes us want more.