The Best Way to Start the New Year: End the Old One Well
I got a ticket off the waitlist at 59E59 Theaters to see this actor Jake Broder do his interpretation of underground cult stand-up satirist Lord Buckley.
Buckley, the "Hip Messiah," inhabited the persona of a faux aristocrat who riffed in this jazzy bebop scat-tongue. Apparently his voice was deeper than Jake Broder's, and no doubt he was leagues better but I was really happy that somebody decided to bring him back from the dead.
The show was staged in a tiny (quite tiny) theater, and the place was set up like a nightclub with red shaded lights hanging from long cords. The theater has a real bar (was even serving a'bunadh), and we could take drinks to the long—and cramped—tables. Two men got in a somewhat tense and overlong argument about seating, I guess, which the woman directly to the right of my ear thought was hilarious.
Broder was backed by a three-man jazz band playing piano, bass, and drums. After telling the audience, "Let's say hello to the band," he turned (in his tie and tails) and proceeded to extend a hand to each band member. "Hello, hello, hello." It was funny, even if worn. Didn't sound like Hullo, though. I wondered: Was that the faux part of the aristocrat?
He "blew" three stories, changing ordinary English into his lingo, dubbed the "Hip Semantic." The whole time he's (a white guy) speaking like a black dude. In between the long stories (we heard Jonah and the Whale, for instance), he blew a little sax, played a little piano, smoked a couple of joints, and was spelled by another actor (Irish, good) delivering "The Hip News." The pianist guy introduced it with chords of the World News Tonight (or maybe Eyewitness News, smoke got in my ears) theme.
Broder's piano playing was interesting; he sang "Georgia" and interrupted with bits of commentary about racists (which, I believe, layered the song even more deeply for people familiar with Lord Buckley's personal bio).
"The Hip News" guy put on Abe attire to deliver the Gettysburg Address. Broder translated. When he called a battle-field a "hassle-ground," my brain swooned.
Sometimes it got exhausting, all the listening. Lord Buckley inspired Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams, among others. It would have been great to have seen him for real. But Broder did his share of improvisation, so I've got to say: it felt like real theater. I think it was. I think he had me at hello.
Buckley, the "Hip Messiah," inhabited the persona of a faux aristocrat who riffed in this jazzy bebop scat-tongue. Apparently his voice was deeper than Jake Broder's, and no doubt he was leagues better but I was really happy that somebody decided to bring him back from the dead.
The show was staged in a tiny (quite tiny) theater, and the place was set up like a nightclub with red shaded lights hanging from long cords. The theater has a real bar (was even serving a'bunadh), and we could take drinks to the long—and cramped—tables. Two men got in a somewhat tense and overlong argument about seating, I guess, which the woman directly to the right of my ear thought was hilarious.
Broder was backed by a three-man jazz band playing piano, bass, and drums. After telling the audience, "Let's say hello to the band," he turned (in his tie and tails) and proceeded to extend a hand to each band member. "Hello, hello, hello." It was funny, even if worn. Didn't sound like Hullo, though. I wondered: Was that the faux part of the aristocrat?
He "blew" three stories, changing ordinary English into his lingo, dubbed the "Hip Semantic." The whole time he's (a white guy) speaking like a black dude. In between the long stories (we heard Jonah and the Whale, for instance), he blew a little sax, played a little piano, smoked a couple of joints, and was spelled by another actor (Irish, good) delivering "The Hip News." The pianist guy introduced it with chords of the World News Tonight (or maybe Eyewitness News, smoke got in my ears) theme.
Broder's piano playing was interesting; he sang "Georgia" and interrupted with bits of commentary about racists (which, I believe, layered the song even more deeply for people familiar with Lord Buckley's personal bio).
"The Hip News" guy put on Abe attire to deliver the Gettysburg Address. Broder translated. When he called a battle-field a "hassle-ground," my brain swooned.
Sometimes it got exhausting, all the listening. Lord Buckley inspired Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Robin Williams, among others. It would have been great to have seen him for real. But Broder did his share of improvisation, so I've got to say: it felt like real theater. I think it was. I think he had me at hello.
posted by Elizabeth Manus at 12:50 AM
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