Bootstraps Kicks up Laughs at the Bath House
May 19, 2005 By ELAINE LINER / The Dallas Observer
According to the new comedy TAB A, SLOT B: A NEW AGE SEXIOLOGY, now on at the Bath House Cultural Center, there are 32 distinct phases of romanitc love. The show counts down each phase as written and performed by members of the young and exuberant BOOTSTRAPS COMEDY THEATER. Their short sketches use jokes, poetry, songs (accompanied by ukulele), video, a smattering of vaudeville and an anatomically correct marionette.
To give some idea of the antic silliness of it all, phase No. 1 involves a tribute to WKRP in Cincinnati star Loni Anderson. Phase No. 6 is "Plagiarizing Shakespeare," No. 12 is "Putt-putt art) and No. 20 is "The effect of a man's attention span on a woman's saniety" (this comes sometime after the "I do" stage and features man's favorite phallic substitute, the remote.) [Johnny Sequenzia] serves as emcee. Socrates (Brian Witkowicz) offers contraceptive advice.
In the two hours of Tab A, Slot B, some of the bits go zing and others go zoing, but it averages at least one good laugh every 90 seconds. The performers' zest for joke-mongering and their willingness to make absolute fools of themselves put over even the weaker material. Lead couple Matt Lyle and Julie Reinagel are onstage every minute, bopping and flopping over each other like old-timey slapstick comics.
This troupe has a cute knack for knowing how some words fall on the ear. "Are you smoking a tampon?" [The Narrator] asks Socrates (turns out it's a nicotine inhaler). They work in "spork," "muffin" and "pants. They toss in random references to Voltaire, Mommie Dearest and The Princess Bride. Oedipus (Jeremy Whiteker) comes onstage and says, "I've had to go into Freudian analysis. Do you get the irony there?" Slide Tab A into Slot B and out comes the funny. Go see it.
