My overall impression
Pam Noles’ review captures the strengths of this show and performer admirably. I caught the last performance, and the standing ovation was well-earned: LK’s insights—into our culture and into his own inner workings—are unflinching and yet delivered with a rare combination of humor, humility, and compassion.
He enters, as the lone black man, a horrifying environment—the twentieth high school class reunion of Bakersfield’s Garces High school—where he is repeatedly mistaken for the school’s lone African American of that year, the star basketball player (despite that LK is 5’4" tall). In reality, he is the spouse of a white class grad, a film producer who is A-listed as one of Bakersfield’s top 100 by Bakersfield Magazine. He leaves us, after a hour of sometimes jaw-dropping revelations, a little wiser, more accepting, appreciative, and optimistic, having laughed ourselves silly.
I’m now a fan.
And kudos to the Comedysportz venue, their comfortable patio, welcoming and professional staff, and easily accessed food and restrooms. Near the end of a long list of performances that day, this stuff matters. This was my first visit, but I’m totally in.
