‘Daddy’ Roasts Burgers and Liberals : Theater: Political incorrectness is taken to ultraconservative and uproarious extremes in Jeff Wayne’s one-man play at the Icehouse Annex.
“It’s hard drinking in L.A. Everybody seems to be a recovering alcoholic.”
That’s the first hint of political incorrectness in Jeff Wayne’s outrageously funny, blue-collar one-man show, “Big Daddy’s Barbecue (It’s O.K. to Be a White Male)” at the Icehouse Annex in Pasadena.
If this second in an Annex series of solo performance pieces is any gauge, the experimental Icehouse shift from stand-up comedy to theater is off to a rousing start.
As he strides onto his patio in his “Kiss the Chef” apron, flipping a burger over the coals and drawing on a Miller, Wayne tells all of us--his back yard guests--”Hey, light up. It’s OK to smoke.”
In fact, such is his disdain for the clean-air/liberal/environmental/dolphin-loving “in my face” spotted owl fanatic that he wants you to smoke.
Later, touching the pulse of every “Falling Down” Michael Douglas wanna-be, Big Daddy, breaking into a wicked gleam, asks, “Why don’t we teach the guy at the 7-Eleven how to speak English?”
What salvages Wayne’s blitzkrieg in the shape of EveryWhiteMan, for whom he refuses to feel guilty, is his sense of irony and humor about himself. He unleashes a hilarious parody of a post L.A.-riot scene with minorities running for cover and screaming, “The white people are coming!”
He quaffs a draft, a merry twinkle in his eye, and says, “You’ve got all these people in the welfare line complaining about waiting six hours for their check. I wait 40 hours for mine, and I work for it.”
Did we say politically incorrect? In a new stretch--some might say low point--of incorrectness, our host, a mailman who quotes Ayn Rand and plays Johnny Mathis records, even satirizes the tragic and fate of paralyzed ocean liner passenger Leon Klinghoffer, the wheelchair-bound Jewish man who was hurled overboard by Arab terrorists some years back.
Al Bundy? Howard Stern? Rush Limbaugh? Wayne’s deceptively crafted, self-described “white trash from Kentucky” reduces that conservative bunch to a lounge act.
The full house on a recent night was half white and half black, and the blacks, particularly the women, howled the loudest. There’s something in Wayne’s affable bravado and his zestful delivery that finally breaks up even those who initially appear uncomfortable at such right-of-center fusillades.
Perhaps more surprising than the material, which is laced with raunchy imagery, is the director. The show, which levels a scathing eye at minorities and the homeless--not to mention homosexuals, feminists and the whole afternoon talk show gaggle of “wimps”--is directed by Ted Lange, an African-American actor and director.
Lange has shaped Wayne’s seemingly offhand performance into more of a two-act play than a stand-up routine. After the barbecue, Big Daddy relaxes in his private den, wearing a tux, waiting to take his wife to a dreaded opera. He spins Mathis platters (the big old 12-inch records), knocks off a song rendition of his beloved Noel Coward and reads from the pages of his cherished alter ego, the ultraconservative Ayn Rand.
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Of course, you wouldn’t expect a mailman to be into Rand and “Atlas Shrugged,” but then again, why not? As Big Daddy snarls that “weakness drives me crazy; I like power,” he touches a nerve in his audience, perhaps the left most of all.
The liberals in the house may be stifling their laughter a shade, but deep down they’re in sync, laughing deeply, because this guy is funny.
“Big Daddy’s Barbecue (It’s O.K. to Be a White Male),” Icehouse Annex, 26 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, Wednesday through Saturday, 8 p.m. Ends April 17. $12.50. (818) 577-1894 or (818) 577-9133. Running time: 2 hours.
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