March 20, 2004 By TOM SIME / Dallas Morning News

"Frivocative" is the hybrid term Bootstraps Comedy Theater uses to describe its debut, an odd pairing of the frivolous and the provocative. What a fun word fame! One could also call the double feature -- a silly vaudeville-style revue followed by Steve Martin's enigmatic one-act WASP -- "siligmatic." Or "ha-ha-huh?"

OK, back to work. Actually, both pieces are pretty silly, but the opener, Ricardo Ricardo and the Green Card Gang Do Dallas!, written by company co-founder and director Matt Lyle with music by Alan Nielsen, is more pure. It's a funny round of impolite songs and sketches led by Brian Patrick Hathaway as "irresistible, irrepressible, irresponsible" emcee Ricardo Ricardo.

The characters also include a powerlifter, "Boris the Really Strong" (Sally Fiorello); French chanteuse FiFi LaFayette (Stacie Barra); nutty Dr. I.M. Aquack (Brian Witkowicz); and pianist Lester Q. Lester (Les Geiter). They begin the show with a musical prayer to the theater gods, "Don't Let Us Suck."

And they didn't; the gods were merciful for Thursday's opening. All the players showed a flair fo sketch comedy, as did Mr. Lyle as writer and director.

...Somehow the pratfalls up front come off as the "lowhiger" art.