Performance Art Is Politics

The night before the nationwide rallies, the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles held a midnight comedy show. Hosted by UCB troupe member James Adomian, the show was a collection of original works making light of the controversy while at the same time invigorating everyone for the protests ahead. The over two hours of sketches were punctuated by special guest performers Steve Agee of The Sarah Silverman Program and Janeane Garafalo.

Garafalo was the anticipated guest star of the evening.

Agee had forgotten his notes but said that people who are disgusted by thinking of what gay people do in bed, have clearly not seen him going at it.

These two straight actresses decided to imagine what it would be like if they were a gay couple. They were demure and retreating as they told the audience they would give it a go and they had no idea what would happen. Then they fell into a dead silence and their faces were full of resentment as one pretended to make coffee and the other bitterly read the paper. Then they would burst into an incomprehensible screaming matches that ended with one of them screaming louder and longer some outrageous back story like, "your sister doesn't need to know what we do in bed!" After another long pause they would burst into another tirade all. This sketch was one of the highlights of the evening as both girls committed fully to it, it was the perfect length, and it ended on the right note as they instantly dropped their anger and said in sugar sweet voices, "love yoooouuuuu."

Another of the more clever sketches, this one imagined the future when the Religious Right was proven correct and people were allowed to marry anything. This man brought his new fiancee, a toaster, to meet his friends. Of course in the middle of it he gets a strange call and turns angrily to the toaster to say, "Lego my Eggo? What do you know about this?" After a huge fight he mock trips over the toaster prompting his friends to accuse it of domestic violence.

Though Adomian, the evening's host, spent most of the night in a powder blue jacket and jeans, he emerged at one point in full (though purposefully half-hearted) drag. The sketch, a jaded drag queen, who was clearly on many substances and had clearly done one too many drag shows, had the audience roaring and at the same time incredibly disturbed.