RENTED MOVIES
What can be more uncomfortable than sitting in a darkened theater, captive to the pathetic ramblings of a fourth-rate stand-up comic? Lawrence Steger, in his one-man performance piece, Rented Movies, intentionally places his audience in such a situation. But where Steger’s rent-a-comic bombs, the piece succeeds. This is a tender and powerfully sad look at a gay man’s attempt to find humor and affection in a world as indifferent and passionless as a cheap porno magazine.
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Steger’s comic can’t even seem to get to the theater on time. The music starts and a spotlight hits stage left, announcing The Star’s entrance. Then the music abruptly stops and the sound man, in the middle of a beer, shouts, “Are you ready, Larry?” From somewhere in the other room is heard, “Yeah, almost. I’m in the middle of a piss!” And things hardly get better. Once he finally makes it into the spotlight, dressed in a black tuxedo and wearing white face paint reminiscent of the emcee in Cabaret, he proceeds to tell a string of nonjokes. “I went down to the subway, and I went through the entrance/exit!” He stops and does a wide-eyed take to the audience, hoping to solicit riotous laughter. Instead he’s met with dead silence.
Yet despite its faults, Rented Movies held together remarkably well. Most striking about the piece was its exploitation of “routines.” Not only does Steger perform a hackneyed comedy routine, he also delineates his central character’s routine, melancholy existence. Making love is here akin to following instructions. The participants cannot see one another. They drop all pretense of sociability and act on brute instinct. This notion is elegantly evoked as Steger, who has exchanged his tux for a tough-guy leather jacket, hangs by his knees from the rafters. He describes the sexual act as a violent mutual murder. And once the act is finished, the participants move on as if nothing had happened, riding the endless subway that metaphorically runs throughout Rented Movies.
