It’s often said he who has the remote control has the power. Not in this living room…Take a bizarre plunge into the other side of the screen and discover why they call it “Programming.” An exciting hybrid of Radio Theatre, Live Performance and the Absurd.
Previously produced with The Seattle Fringe Festival…
Winner of the “Pick of the Fringe” Award – TheatreSeattle.comReviews
NEW REVIEW
GO KILL YOUR TELEVISION Writer-performer Jeff Gardner’s dialogue-free solo comedy packs a wealth of trenchant pop-culture satire and technical wizardry into a lightning-paced 40 minutes. A send-up of couch-potato addicts and the pitfalls of leading lives enslaved by the tube, the piece demonstrates what happens when the power of the airwaves takes over the life of an obsessive watcher. Gardner’s ingenious physical shtick and rubber face bespeak volumes about his socially isolated character. There are terrific lighting effects, and the smashing soundtrack is punctuated with iconic sounds of commercials and shows, contemporary and historical. Vicky Silva’s slam-bang direction seals the deal in Gardner’s brilliant tour de force.
-Les Spindle @ Backstage
NEW REVIEW
Kill Your Television at the Elephant Stages’ Lillian Theatre
Writer-performer Jeff Gardner’s Kill Your Televisionis a fun, no-dialogue 45-minute show about a man in his pajamas who settles in for an evening of microwave popcorn and mindless channel-surfing with his favorite stuffed monkey in his lap. We get the impression he does this a lot. Though we can’t actually see the screen, we are able to listen in on the steady stream of classic TV commercial jingles, theme songs and familiar program snippets that our protagonist watches as he flips through the channels. Until suddenly: the voice from the tube starts addressing him directly, and his frantic efforts to reassert control over the appliance by using the remote prove futile. From that point on, the character’s body and soul become possessed by the sounds and images that the TV relentlessly hurls at him, as Gardner demonstrates in an extended sequence of wacky choreography, pantomime and audience interaction. Gardner is a brilliantly expressive physical performer, and together with director Vicky Silva, he delivers a tale combining elements of The Cable Guy and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice in a manner reminiscent of Harold Lloyd or Bill Irwin, on a set straight out of a Tim Burton movie.
-Lyle Zimskind for LAist
‘Couch potatoes be warned: Television can be harmful to your health.
In “Kill Your Television,” writer-actor Jeff Gardner’s hilarious and insightful look at the insidious nature of television — when the remote is in the wrong hands, natch — the audience is taken on a journey through what quickly feels like an episode of the “Twilight Zone.”
Gardner is at the center of this solo show, presented by Quantum Theatre, as an adorable young man whose television viewing habits border on obsession.
Through great physical comedy and emotive expressions, Gardner captures and warms the audience without uttering a word.
“Kill Your Television” utilizes a multitude of snippets from popular television shows and movies as varied as “Seinfeld” and “The Wizard of Oz” to convey a culture’s love affair with the tube and the perils that come with it.
The piece melds radio theater with performance art and is definitely “must-see” TV.’
-Seattle Times
‘A show that you could have only seen in a Fringe festival. This one-man, silent riff on television and its effect on those who watch it was brilliant. Jeff Gardner combined expert physical comedy, carefully and skillfully created media and a complex and fully-realized conception. Technically, intellectually, emotionally and in terms of just pure theatrical competence, it’s a stunning, completely satisfying entertainment.’
-TheatreSeattle.com
