Press Clippings

UNITARD: ABSURDIST GAY HUMOR, NEW YORK CITY STYLE South End News, March 7, 2002 By Bill Eisele Theatre Correspondent Fed up with the whole singles scene, a gay men steps onto the stage and announces that he's dating his inner boyfriend. "I was so blocked and bloated, I didn't realize where the true boyfriend was," he explains, wagging a self-affirming at himself. The comedians who populate "Unitard," a gay-themed comedy cabaret at the Boston Center for the Arts, leave no group un-skewered in their blistering snapshots of the modern dating scene, subcultures of sexuality and the ways people treat each other, reagrdless of sexual orientation. Michael Albo, Nora Burns and David Ilku are three New York-based comedians who have transplanted their act to the Boston theatre scene for a few weeks with the help of the Theater Offensive, a local-based presenter of queer theatre. The humor in this show lurches from slapstick, to broad satire, to pointed sendups of gay archetypes, earning multiple bellylaughs along the way. And these actors are not afraid to throw a little satiric acid at the very gay audience that pays to see their shows. In addition to the man with the inner boyfriend, "Unitard" pokes fun at a lesbian mother who regrets her decision to adopt a Chinese infant girl, yearning instead to the trendier "inner-city crack baby". Ilku plays a frivolous socialite hunting for celebritites in a trendy Manhattan lounge. Albo also does a vapid turn as "the gay friend whose life is so much better than yours." Some of these stereotypes hit their targets, others draw shamelessly from previous comedy routines. Ilku's gay socialite smacks of the chain-smoking monologues Scott Thompson tried to perform on "Kids in the Hall," and his flamboyant flutist from the Renaissance Faire cavorts around the stage like an Austin Powers clone (at several points in "Unitard," Ilku seems to be channeling a Mike Myers' solo performance). Any feelings of deja vu, however, won't prevent audiences from enjoying these dazzling performances in their own right. While many of the acts in this show are not gay-specific in content, its performers clearly enjoy taking shots at the readily identifiable homo-cliches that populate our cultural landscape. The Black Box Theatre proves to be an idealsetting for the shenanigans of "Unitard." Audience members sit at small, candle-lit tables surrounding the stage. Any closer and we would've been in the performers' laps. Time and again, The Theater Offensive proves itself adroit at shoehorning talented acts into tight quarters, treating their audiences to an up-close-and-personal performance. Of the three actors in "Unitard," Albo unleashes the nuttiest rogue's gallery. In addition to the "interior boyfriend," his takes on queek cybergeeks, shopaholics and chatty cluqueens are all sharply drawn and wickedly funny. Albo also earned the loudest applause of the evening with a poker-faced dance number that combines his own mores with those of Britney Spears and the boyband cavalcade. It doesn't hurt his comic routine that Albo, with his scruffy beard and lanky frame, looks like the unmentioned lovechild of Sandra Bernhard and Jesus, or that he can twist his rubbery body into any number of bizarre, pretselly shapes. Even the way he rolls his eyes is funny, and his various on-stage personae sparkled with singular inventiveness. Burns is at her funniest when she's moaning on a sex line for codependent lesbians or delivering a searing monologue as a shameless public relations executive. She also draws strong laughs for her protrayal of a pregnant Connecticut mother who pats her belly. surveys the audience and smugly announces "I'm better than you." For his part, Ilku also delivers as a caffeine-rattled counter clerk at Starbucks Coffee and an angry white man in a bra. All of these comedians bring healthy resumes to their team efforts. In addition to performing, Albo has also written for "The New York Times Magazine," "Out" and "The Village Voice." Burns is a veteran stand-up performer who works with the comedy group "The Nellie Olesons," and Ilku has popped up on such TV shows as "Spin City" and "The Cosby Show," as well as the Comedy Central network. Their experience is obvious in their seamless performances, pitch-perfect deliveries and uncanny ability to assume any number of comic identities. "Unitard" plays everything for laughs and rarely chisels beneath the surface of the sex-obsessed, consumer-driven, looks-conscious urban gay lifestyle. In that regard, its aspirations seem lower than some of the other comedy acts The Theater Offensive has introduced to the Boston scene in recent years. Is there humor beyond stereotypes? Certainly. But "Unitard" sticks to well-trodden, outlandish impersonations, succeeding hilariously on that front. "Unitard" performs Thursdays through Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 7pm. Tickets are $22. For reservations, please call 617-426-2787.

AOL ANYWHERE / BOSTON March 7, 2002 UNITARD Black Box Theatre Have you ever stood in line behind an inquisitive, obsessive dieter? Been chagrined by transgressors of cellphone etiquette? Questioned the latest haute couture fashion trend? Rolled your eyes at the absurdity of yet another mass email? These are only some of the signs of our times that are mercilessly skewered in "Unitard," an evening of madcap skits and ranting monologues done in the style of "Saturday Night Live". Three New York-based comics (Nora Burns, David Ilku and Michael Albo) launch cynicism and media skepticism into orbits of hilarity as they introduce us tpo a motley crew of satirical personalities. We meet the Secretary of Defense of Celebrities, a diabolically turbo charged "Starchucks" coffee clerk, a man on a date with his "inner boyfriend" and a self-righteous pregnant woman. Their societal stew of highbrow and lowbrow pop culture jabs feels like Eric Bogosian meets Jameame Garofalo meets Monty Python. -- Liza Weisstuch

BAY WINDOWS September 26, 2002 READY TO CROSS OVER: 'Unitard' takes up where it left off the last time the troupe was in Boston, by Robert Nesti If and when there's a gay cable network let's hope that those behind it asre smart enough to give "Unitard," the edgy New York-based comedy trio, their own program. Certainly all three of its members Mike Albo, David Ilku and Nora Burns--are ready for prime-time (or a slot on "Saturday Night Live"). But why wait until them when you can catch their latest show "Unitard: Now More Than Ever"--at the Boston Center for the Arts this weekend. As they proved last winter when they came to town (also under the auspices of the THEATER OFFENSIVE) they can be wonderfully on-target satirists of urban life, both gay and, to a lesser degree, straight. And the good news is that this show boasts all new material--a dozen-or-so skits that show each performer off to his or her best advantage. Some of it may seem familiar as they recycle some of the funniest aspects of their earlier show. In the previous show, Burns played a pregnant woman who boasts of her superiority to everyone; here, with equal skill, she plays a new Mom meeting an old work colleague whom she all but dismisses as she plays with her baby. There's also a sense of "deejay-vu" about one of Albo's best routines, where he plays a man meeting an old boyfriend at a party whose conversation reeks of a passive-aggression dynamic. "He looks like you," he tells his ex about someone at the party, "except he's younger and things are going really well with his career." Ilku is especially funny as a 35-year-old gay man who hangs around with a 16-year-old girl and as a seemingly sincere guy attempting to connect with another man at a bar, only to reveal that he's pushing a product. ("Soon it's going to be your favorite Alco-pop alternative.") Perhaps because they tried out the material in Provincetown this past summer some of the material is skewered to the resort culture. One sketch has Ilku play a kitschy guesthouse owner hiring a young hustler as an anniversary gift for him and his lover. In another, Burns plays a club kid on the dance floor who offers a deadly commentary on those around him: "If those are washboard abs, he's left a few loads of laundry on the line." She's also especially good as a self-described fag hag attempting to bond with a new guy: "Will you be my David Guest and I'll be your Liza?" Albo saves his best bit for last--a parody of a dance performance piece that involves a bathtub and bottled water that's priceless; but so is virtually all of Unitard's work.

BAY WINDOWS Arts Plus March 7, 2002 THE VERY DEFINITION OF EDGE Black Box Theater is littered with the sacred cows this comedic trio brilliantly brings down by Robert Nesti At the onset of their hilarious show, the three members of "Unitard" come through the audience each promoting their one-person show, skewering everyone from David Drake to Karen Finley to Lily Tomlin in the process. "I call my answering machine from my cell phone from the stage and ask the audience to leave a message," says one. "I sit in a bathtub filled with yams exploring my Hungarian heritage," says another. And the trio--Michael Albo, Nora Burns, and David Ilku--are so good at this that you may never think of solo performance artists in the same way again. Coming from New York where they've played in a number of downtown venues over the past year, the three are sharp satirists in the Mike Nichols-Elaine May tradition. And in this breezy, 70-minute show take on a variety of contemporary topics and view them through their distinctive (and very gay) sensibilities. Each comes from a different performance background: Albo is a solo theater artist and writer, whose first novel, "Hornito: My Lie Life" (HarperCollins) was published last fall. Burns is best known for being part of the comic quartet "the Nellie Olesons": and David Ilku is one-half of the drag duo "The Dueling Bankheads." I have no idea what brought them together, but it was a smart move--if a gay cable network ever happens, they deserve their own late-night comedy show. In fact, Comedy Central should give them a look--they'd be perfect after Primetime Glick. Under the direction of Roland Tec, their skits and monologues are nearly always on-target, taking recognizable urban types and situations and lampooning them with a wonderful sense of irony. Take, for instance, Burns as an upscale Urban Mon, the kind you may bump into in an upscale shop on Newbury Street. Speaking with a privileged smugness, she announces "I'm having a baby...and that makes me better than you," before running through a litany of snobbish reasons why. Lesbian mothers also get sent up in another skit where she plays an adopting mother obsessed with the status of her child. It was both very funny and unexpectedly un-p.c., and made for the only moment in the show when there was a sense of unease in the audience's response. Albo's comedy is more on the personal level; that is, making fun of relationships and dating. In one routine he plays a man who is dating himself and whose hilarious description of his personal epiphany makes droll fun of 12-step jargon. In another he plays a self-obsessed actor who dismisses his friend with this passive-aggressive manner. "I just did another voiceover. You should try it. It's hard to get into but you should try it," he tells him. In another he appears with his arm filled with shopping bags from upscale shops to berate the new economic reality. "Where did you go, big fat, flush economy?" he asks, while longing for what he calls the Enron illusion of wealth. "Gay people embraced shopping so that shopping and gay became the same thing," he observes. But by far his most ingenious bit is his take on an MTV video in which he plays a dancer backing up a singer like Jennifer Lopez, running through a Debbie Allen-like dance routine. The character actor Ilku is much more the character actor of the troupe, taking on a more eclectic group of contemporary types. In one he's the kind of European lounge lizard you might find on "Sex and the City," who puts down his friends with acidic comments. ("Your travel agent called about your ego trip. You're overbooked.") In another he hits a note of recognition as an angry Starbucks employee, while in a third he does a funny take on actor Jackie Chan promoting his workout video in which "vogueing" gets mispronounced as "wogueing." Burns takes on a variety of media types, from a junkie talk show hostess to a Dr. Laura-type with a know-it-all attitude to her audience, both gay and straight. One of her most memorable skits has her playing a tough-as-nails New York publicist whose shark-like attitude pushes the limits of taste. At one point she says that Muhammad Ali is changing his name back to Cassius Clay "for obvious reason"; at another she says that she has good news for her client Father Geoghan--she's signed a book deal for him with Disney. If edgy humor's what you want, then look no further than "Unitard."