Mike Daisey

Mike Daisey

Mike Daisey

P.T. Barnum

Bertolt Brecht

Nikola Tesla

L. Ron Hubbard

  

9th Annual Out of the Loop Fringe Festival

Presented by WaterTower Theatre

March 4 - 14

at Addison Theatre Centre
15650 Addison Road
Addison, TX 75001
972-450-6232

$60 for festival pass; $5-$15 per show

Various times

Monologist Mike Daisey makes his North Texas debut at the Out of the Loop Fringe Festival with four works from his Great Men of Genius series, as well as his controversial How Theatre Failed America. We'll be reviewing each of them, and adding new reviews to this file. You can view the schedule of his performances below the reviews.

►GREAT MEN OF GENIUS: P.T. BARNUM

Howdy, fans. Welcome to March Madness.

Yeah, yeah. The Out of the Loop Fringe Festival is about theater, music, dance and art—not college hoops. Yet there was merry madness in the air Thursday on Addison Centre Theatre's main stage when Mike Daisey launched the festival's theater segment with a boisterous appreciation of P.T. Barnum, one of four "Great Men of Genius" the actor and monologist is paying tribute to this year.

Meanwhile, don't let the "mad" metaphor mislead you. Daisey is capable of warp-speed ranting when his passion for his subject or his memory of a long ago Maine State Fair overwhelms him. But he's the sanest person you're likely to see on stage during the festival.

Daisey is short and beefy, like a linebacker gone pleasantly to seed. His delivery is almost preacherly at times, and he could be cast as Rush Limbaugh. It's fascinating to watch him work, as guided by the subtle-but-sure hand of director Jean-Michele Gregory, seated at a spare wooden table with notes he seldom consults.

But how much P.T. Barnum information do we need? We know he was a master showman and promoter of acts such as Tom Thumb and assorted physical freaks. Daisey delivers the whole Barnum load, and it's thoroughly enjoyable. It turns out Barnum did not say "A sucker is born every minute" but rather "People like to be humbugged." Daisey follows that revelation with a lively parsing of the word "humbug."

The actor's digressions from his main theme are as entertaining as the Barnum lore. In particular: His love/hate affair with Star Trek is a stand-alone monologue, as is his recounting of a bachelor/bachelorette party that may one day alter forever those twin social travesties.

— Perry Stewart

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►GREAT MEN OF GENIUS: BERTOLT BRECHT

If an hour-and-a half of a monologue about revered and studied playwright Bertolt Brecht doesn't exactly sound like a fun-filled evening of theater—except maybe to die-hard theater geeks and Brecht theorists (a breed of which there are apparently more than you might expect)—rest assured that Daisey's monologue on this topic defied expectations. It was performed Friday night as the second installment in his Great Men of Genius series.

Daisey's goal with this series is to shed light on a certain type of ego-driven, insanely brilliant men. In his Brecht piece, he hits highlights of the man's remarkable career, beginning with his growing up in a rural German town and becoming a hipster who was always surrounded by women in Berlin, where he decided that he do better than than the crappy plays he was seeing on stages. It was the first and last time in history, Daisey muses, that someone said "I can write a better play"—and did. After making a name for himself with Baal, his popularity grew, but he had to start fleeing the Nazis as they expanded across Europe. During this time he wrote the important works from his canon. He then spent time in Hollywood, writing scenes for movies (all of which are recognizable as his because there's always a "gathering crowd" in those scenes), and finally being recognized as a "national hero" in his homeland.

It's history interspersed with remarkable insight, but what's fascinating about this monologue is that Brecht's story is peppered with tidbits from Daisey's life. Somehow, he makes his personal sidetracks an integral part of the story: The give-and-take of a marriage in which both partners careers are entangled (his wife is his director/collaborator Jean-Michele Gregory); his anger-fueled freedom-of-speech stunt at a "small liberal micro-Ivy League college"; and a college professor who was such a Brecht geek that he created a show caleld The Brecht Dialogues, in which Daisey appeared.

Daisey, working from notes and never over-thinking or sounding memorized, delivers it all with the fervor of the very best and most riveting slam-poets. He draws the audience in, never losing the connection between storyteller and listener.

That's something that doesn't happen enough, even with the most rigorously scripted, memorized and rehearsed works and performers.

— Mark Lowry

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►GREAT MEN OF GENIUS: NIKOLA TESLA

Of the quartet of Great Men of Genius that spellbinder monologist Mike Daisey lionized at this year's Out of the Loop Festival, the mystery man was Nikola Tesla. That name ought to have household-word status. Daisey explained why, then went on to explain why Tesla isn't known by more than a handful of scientists.

Tesla was a Serbian-born inventor of enormous genius and eccentricity. For every invention of merit, he turned out a goofy one. But he is responsible for electricity as we know and use it. While his rival, Thomas Edison, was comitted to the flickery and dangerous direct current method, Tesla was pushing alternate current, which was safer and brighter. Tesla also anticipated radio and radar.

But he also came up with a "death ray," and claimed to have communicated with residents of other planets. He cured Mark Twain's chronic constipation, but he was given to impromptu somersaults in the middle of formal dinner parties. And, unlike Edison, Tesla was a rotten businessman.

As in earlier monologues, Daisey interspersed biographical data on the subject with anecdotes from his personal life—in this case his childhood in the Maine hamlet of Ft. Kent, which would seem to be on the short list of most boring places on the planet.

At age 10, before he turned to acting, little Michael was a science geek. Who knew? The actor tied this era deftly to a parade of mad scientist imitations inspired by comic books and B-movies.
 
There was a lot of science in this piece. But Daisey and director Jean-Michele Gregory never lost sight of the entertainment factor. That constant heightens anticipation of Monday night's monologue, How Theater Failed America.

— Perry Stewart

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►GREAT MEN OF GENIUS: L. RON HUBBARD

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Here's the schedule for the remainder of Daisey's Loop performances:

• How Theatre Failed America. Followed by a panel discussion with Daisey, WaterTower Producing Artistic Director Terry Martin, Dallas Theater Center Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty and local actress Denise Lee. The discussion will be moderated by KERA critic and reporter Jerome Weeks. 7:30 p.m., March 8
• Also, set your DVRs for this week of Think on KERA, on which Daisey is the guest. It airs at 7:30 p.m., Friday, March 5, on KERA/Channel 13. Or you can watch the video and read Jerome Weeks' story here.