JEWISH JOURNAL - STEVEN ALAN GREEN

I'm Too Fat for This Show

ITFFTS opens with the vibrant panicky actress/comedian Kate Huffman barreling onto stage as if she’s Lucille MaGillicuddy Ricardo, running from the kitchen screaming “Rickey!” as she comically sobs her dilemma to us: Julio, on their 5th date, wants to come over and “cook dinner”; which Kate absolutely knows, but never interferes with a suggestive wink referring to what kind of oven and indeed what kind of dinner stud Julio has in mind. She tells us flat out.

She’s panicking because, although she wouldn’t mind getting some male action, Julio bonking her by way of “cooking” has all sorts of collusion and conflicts with her sub-conscious, cleverly displayed in perfectly timed prerecorded videos of herself, in the guise of her Super-Ego, conversely advising and chiding her Id; and what’s left? The Ego, which Huffman aptly displays like a string of pearls all laid out end to end in the guise of her various incredibly deft original comical characters. Literally worthy of comparison to the great Lily Tomlin’s DeNiro-like courage and commitment, Whoopie Goldberg’s detailed dark character painting, and swift reach and recover onstage self-oops! quality of my late comedy mate, Robin Williams. In other words, the show stinks. Don’t go.

The Blind Melon video with the chubby little girl dancing in a bee costume in the field because she believes in the beauty God gave her and the lesson that little girl will eventually learn is the same lesson Kate has for all of us. If you’ve been judged all your life, mostly likely you’re gonna have to do what most people never have to do. You’re gonna have to have to choose whether or not to be a good person or a bad person. Let me tell you; Kate is that good person. How do I know? Because her created characters are uniquely ugly. Ever single one of them has a flaw or a deficit of their literal choice which not only overshadows their good points, it kills and buries them and that’s what makes them tragically funny and I’ll bet Kate knew that in the design.

Kate shows us snaps of her when she was a fat little child. Your mind whips back and forth trying to figure out: Is that photo of that sad little fat girl really the skinny, but nowhere near anorexic-looking Kate right there in front of us? For that life-size accomplishment alone, you gotta love her. But then very cruelly, just when we’re not looking, Huffman drags us by the scruff into the very ugly and desperate world of women losing weight and keeping the fat off and all the weird science and indeed religion resides, awaiting to pounce on their already vulnerable souls, on that heretofore very merry cottage lined unsuspecting Disney street.

Her bits of literally touching everyone in the audience as a demonstrative experience of her Obsessive Compulsive Behavior, followed by her eastern European doctor. A studly “brain expert”, who had me cracking up each time Huffman jumped UP in the air each time the good doctor wanted to emphasize a point. Her half noir detective inspector/half damsel-femme fatale is right out of the Carol Burnett cookbook, fully equipped with half raincoat sewn together with I’m a virgin but fuck me anyway dress.

Inspector: “Why sure, I’m a woman, ain’t I? What else are we supposed to do with our bodies besides hate them.”; then turns around and she’s the she and replies.

The most intriguing and revealing of Kate Huffman’s characters is her split-decision boxer. Touching on the subject of anorexia, the dictum of pills and vitamins, Huffman’s professional boxer challenges her with: “There is no such thing as too skinny…when you’re an actress. “We’ve Only Just Begun” from Karen Carpenter and we’re finally informed of the Kate Huffman’s crucible. She was born the year Carpenter died. Kate Huffman’s recurring real-life nightmare is also her daily prayer. “Please suction needles. Magically descend from the sky…” and….scene. Kate Huffman sums it up with: “We can still be liberated women and still be ashamed of our bodies!” A concept this writer, unfortunately, knows nothing about.

In the end, Kate’s Ego negotiates a peace treaty between her Super-Ego and her Id, in one of the most commanding one-person shows around today. She may talk a little fast, but that’s because, like her immense talents, Kate Huffman’s ideas are a plenty.

Deftly directed by Scout Durwood for The Hollywood Fringe, I’m Too Fat For This Show runs 6/18 & 6/19 @ 6pm, and 6/25 @ 4pm at The Lounge 2 Theatre 6201 Santa Monica Blvd. Los Angeles 90036