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Latest items? Unedited? Fringe Report Uncut
Paul Provenza in Myth America
Verdict: Powerful and seditious political comedy
Edinburgh - Gilded Balloon - August 03
Can there be such a thing as a good American? On rainy days watching World War Two films, there's the game of spotting the good German. But when Germans were the world's monsters, they didn't give a stuff what anyone thought of them. Now that America is the world's pariah, its citizens react in different ways to being hated: puzzlement, indifference, or the route being explored by Paul Provenza. But, does that make him a good American?
Tonight it's so hot the ushers are pouring water for the audience. Paul Provenza brings onstage a giant electric fan, which he aims unselfishly at the crowd, a thoughtful gesture. In a few seconds he's beginning, like the crowd, to run with sweat. And picking an extended fight with non-smokers in the audience (in the cradle city of Calvinism, puritans aren't hard to find) as he lights up, exhales, and attacks the loss of the rights of the individual in America.
'I'm here to apologise as an American for my government', he says. 'It's not so much a show, more a cry for help. We need your help. I'm here to foment a violent overthrow of our government'. But first, there's the question of our Prime Minister Blair. After all, as Provenza points out, they didn't elect their President Bush, whereas there were those in the UK who voted for PM Blair.
Provenza explains he's travelled extensively, subverting the often-cited lack of Americans with passports. He mentions Ireland, Germany, Amsterdam, and the indignities Americans now endure to board aircraft ('Do not leave any Arabs unattended'). 'Americans are now having to take their shoes off to get on a plane' he says, in a routine about US airport security measures. He explains eloquently the loss of the individual's human rights, and the erosion of the free speech ('No Jokes') that was promised by the American's First Amendment to their constitution.
Paul Provenza delivers a sketch ridiculing Arabs planning to fly into the World Trade Centre, with the promise of death and virgins - but exactly how many, and how re-usably? He explains that he used to be a catholic, and ridicules the Catholic Church's perceived approval of priests who interfere sexually with boys.
He's an impressive figure onstage: a very handsome man, he's tall, muscular and sexy, his long-fingered hands and body constantly in motion to underscore a point. He's extremely smart in jeans, cropped hair, a khaki sports shirt which, like everyone else's shirt tonight, starts dry and quickly runs with sweat, and trainers. And that in a way is his point - if a man who looks like a well-educated American college graduate is worried about his country, America may be approaching its first encounter with self-examination.
So, can there be such a thing as a good American? Paul Provenza's caustic, analytical (and extremely funny) look at what's wrong in the home of Coca Cola will undoubtedly be disliked in America ('Most of this show, in America, qualifies me for sedition').
But some may argue that the perception of the world draws little distinction between American presidents (when President Clinton was accused of fellatio, he bombed Iraq; when accused of rape, he conducted the terror-bombing of Yugoslavia), and focuses on the single-minded selfishness of Americans themselves.
Paul Provenza's subtlety of delivery, fierce intellect and engaging, self-deprecating, funny and powerful set, suggests that he's just the man his country now needs.
END
John Park
reviewed Saturday 9 August 03 / Edinburgh / Gilded Balloon
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012
www.fringereport.com
