AmericanTheaterWeb Original News & Reviews

Solo shows, in which performers revisit the cruelties inflicted on them in their youth, are a dime a dozen, and generally traverse similar arcs, right? Don't answer this question too quickly, or at least not until you've seen Lorenzo Pisoni and Erica Schmidt's Humor Abuse, which opened last night at Manhattan Theatre Club. In this often hilarious, and occasionally touching, show, Pisoni looks back on his youth spent in the company of his father, a clown with the Pickle Family Circus. I don't know but somehow tales of neglectful and substance abusing parents somehow begin to seem sane after hearing Pisoni describe how, when he was nine, his dad sent him to an airport, alone, with a set of moose antlers and had him try to board a plane. When the attendant (heard in voiceover in Bart Fasbender's sound design) explains, kindly, that he'll need to check them, Pisoni, imitating the younger incarnation of himself says sheepishly "I think that's the joke..."

Tales like these certainly illuminate the difficulty that Pisoni, who confesses that he's "not funny," had growing up. Theatergoers watch as he recreates the grueling sessions that he had learning how to perform a backflip for his dad. With each unsuccessful attempt, some of which leave Pisoni splayed on the floor, the voice of the elder man is heard to say "Again." To get ice cream for dessert at the dinner table, Pisoni must out do his father in double takes.

In actuality, the strikingly handsome Pisoni's perception of being "not funny" belies the fact that he can be very funny as he recreates portions of his father's routines and his own. One highlight of the show, which is performed on an essentially bare stage, outfitted with just a tattered curtain, a tall ladder and wooden chest, is a routine he developed for himself early in his career. It involves a pair of huge flippers, swimming goggles, a staple gun, and a very small bucket. As this act unfolds, chuckles do develop into gales of laughter.

As successful as this and several other extended clowning segments of "Humor" are, though, the piece's narrative as a whole disappoints. There's something rag-tag not only about the set but the arrangement of the stories that Pisoni relates, including his father's ultimate dismissal from the circus and the performer's reconciliation with the clowning tradition into which he was born. Theoretically, there's emotional potency at to be found in "Humor," but Pisoni and Schmidt, who's also directed, have yet to fully channel the anecdotes and physical humor into what could be a devastatingly funny and moving one-man show.

---- Andy Propst

Humor Abuse plays at MTC New York City Center – Stage II (131 West 55th Street). Performance schedule varies for complete information and ticketing online visit www.NYCityCenter.org or call 212-581-1212. Further information is also available online at www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com.