Bouncers
Bouncers By John Godber
Directed by Simon Needham
I.D. 10-T Productions at Art Sake Studio’s
Winter Park, FL</strong>
Damn, this is authentic. Bouncers in black tee shirts, LED flashlights, ID checks, club bands, and a rabbit hole entrance to what looks like a body shop in Winter Park’s seedy industrial district. Outside it’s chain link fences and dumpsters, inside it’s Club Zero. You’re back in clubland again – chubby women in just-a-touch-too-short skirts, suspect boob jobs, and oily men with genuine 8 carat gold chains cluster around the bar. A wide selection of NASCAR beer and Costco wine beckons as the thump thump thump of a dance floor filters thought the curtain. Inside the lights are dim, some metal chairs invite fighting more than sitting, and faux finish wall sports some damage from last nights soiree. Welcome to “Bouncers” a four man show that captures all the drama, infighting and the sexual frustration of any dance hall from Wall Street Plaza to MacDougal Street, but without the hangover or awkward YouTube videos.
The jokes fly, the characters shift like mercury, and in this sort of rapid fire ensemble piece the show stands or falls by everyone equally. Tonight it’s a hit, if a joke didn’t; work I never noticed. The bouncers and their alter egos are all tightly drawn from A Ali Flores’ slutty Spanish chica Selenea to Rowan Bousaid’s Small Man Syndrome infected Judd. Luis Poggi is the tall one with a missing wife and chip on his shoulder and Robert Walker-Branchaud uses his razor trimmed beard to effectively intimidate patrons and fellow bouncers alike. When the jokes get too intense, each bouncer offers a monolog about love, life or sexual assault, but we always end with a laugh. My favorite gag line: “spent condoms lie in the alley like dead Smurfs.” Wickedly funny, razor sharp in social observation, and timed like Bridezilla’s wedding, this is the sort of comedy that makes parking next to the toxic waste dumpsters worth the risk.
For more information on Art’s Sake Studios, check www.art-sake.com/
For more information on I.D.10-T productions visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/ID-10-t-Productions</em>
