This pair of shows from Santa Monica Playhouse’s Binge Fringe Festival of Free Theatre were live-streamed on YouTube.
First up, Black Don’t Crack serves up a whole buffet of different comic perspectives. Miles Otway, the cheerfully rowdy MC, bounces onstage like a man fuelled entirely by vibes and iced coffee.
He corrals a Boomer, a Gen X-er, a Millennial and a Gen Z comic, in an evening billed as “spectacularly witty, funny, charismatic & thoughtfully entertaining.” Modest? Absolutely not. Accurate? Mostly!
With all those generations in one room, it’s basically a family reunion without the passive-aggressive remarks. Otway keeps the crowd buzzing with riffs on America, healthcare, and racism, before letting the performers loose.
Mz REKA barrels in first, all fire and opinions, gleefully reminding us that America stacks Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas like a festive triple-decker. She also takes a few spicy swipes at the current White House administration.
Then there’s Darrell Goss, the human antidote to hype, drifting in with a wonderfully dry set about being named after his dad – Jr and all – plus religion, spelling woes, and the general absurdity of life.
Zuleika Moreno ups the sarcasm quotient with sharp jabs about money, health and sex, delivered with the energy of someone who already knows she’s right.
A surprise drop-in from rising Canadian comic Andrew Searles adds vibrant commentary on language and old-school child-rearing.
Finally, headliner Jeff Keller is assured and crowd-pleasing with his anecdotal schtick and easy charm.
The title nods to the saying “Black don’t crack,” and fittingly, the show never does either: it’s brisk, varied, and never once sags.
4 stars.
The Advocate is ‘a very early draft’, staged reading written and directed by Zach Ring.
When Barney ‘Rose’ Rosenfeld, a failing actor working in insurance, swallows his principles and joins a scam to fleece a wealthy real estate developer, Lillian, the scene is set for a showdown.
Although Barney is severely dyslexic, his producer friend Tucker passes him off as an expert script reader, but there’s a catch.
With adult themes and a central conceit surely informed by the bad taste in the core of The Producers, The Advocate is already very funny and benefits from the committed cast of Rob Nagle, William Duffy Reina Guthrie, Clarissa Park, and Hilary Kang Oglesby.
Teasing nepotism, religion, ambition, protection and more, this play offers an askance peek into the film industry and how even the worst ideas can gain traction.
3 stars. I’d love to see a finished version of this.