The Complications of Purchasing a Poodle Pillow

For the inaugural show of her current residency at The Steve Allen Theater, I was joined by writer David Pardue, who wrote the following review. Get tickets for the indefinite run of this delightful show here.

Mary Lynn Rajskub's show at the Steve Allen Theater is called "The Complications of Purchasing a Poodle Pillow" and she's in residence every Sunday for the rest of April. According to the management at The Steve, the show is ostensibly a platform for Mary Lynn to riff on whatever the heck she feels like; whether or not this means it's a one woman show, or whether there will be other performers on future dates, is not clear.

On Easter Sunday, the first night of the run, it was definitely a one-woman show. And as there was little mention of the titular Poodle Pillow, I'm as clueless on the subject of purchasing one as ever before. Perhaps they need to show title to Tangent, or even better, Diversion, as this describes Rajskub's enjoyable freeform style of monologue very accurately.

Rajskub started off by mentioning (without clarification) that Easter always reminds her of The Police. She invited an audience member on stage to sing a karaoke version of "Every Breath You Take." Appropriately, in her performance, the "you" of the song became Jesus prior to the resurrection (' Since you're gone, Jesus, I've been lost without a trace'). The unknown audience member more than held his own, and even harmonized with Rajskub now and then.

With the opening Easter hymn out of the way, she then launched into a story about going to the Independent Spirit Awards and endlessly circling, trying to find parking. Perhaps the premise of the story doesn't seem all that fruitful a topic, but somehow in all her tangents and digressions, Rajskub ended up summing up the history of her entire career. "I started out in performance art," she noted. "Then I started making fun of performance art, and then I ended up in comedy." Her friend brought her out to LA, hooked her up with a manager at a time when she was so new to the business she didn't really know what managers did. Nowadays, as she put it, she's gone "Hollywood" and has a whole team -- managers, agents, stylists, publicists, etc. "Someone who warms my socks," she added. "By hand."

And now that friend was with her in her car, still trying to get to the awards show, still trying to find parking. Suddenly she's recognized as a "TV superstar" and parking magically materializes for her. "There's my girl!" winks the parking attendant at her, opening a space.

She mentioned how surreal the whole awards show was – going into paparazzi mode on cue, being paired up with Cuba Gooding, Jr. for a publicity photo for no reason in particular, and smooth-talking with Cuba ("is it pronounced 'Cooba?'" she questions) despite never having met him before, nor really knowing why she was being photographed with him in the first place.

Success as a television superhero has changed her life, and has put her into some situations even more unusual than chumming around with Cuba Gooding, Jr. – anyone who's seen her performance for Microsoft can attest to that.

But the next story she tells topped them all. She was invited to participate in a conference run by the Heritage Foundation entitled: "24 and Terrorism: Fact, Fiction, or Does it Matter?" Rajskub reported the title (it's f'reals, believe it or not) to a disbelieving crowd with a scream of anguish.

Soon enough she found herself in Washington DC, talking in chambers with Clarence Thomas. She described her brain as floating away from her body due to the surreality of it all; and that the subject of her conversation with a supreme court justice was, of all things, her art, and why (in her words) it "looks kind of like the art of a retarded adult."

When it was time for the panel, she found herself being introduced by Rush Limbaugh. Then she found herself being kissed by Rush Limbaugh. On the lips. The pictures of the kiss made news around the world. "Chloe and Rush Limbaugh are dating!" she crowed. It led her to imagine what it would be like if he really was her boyfriend.

Rajskub is at ease about political affiliations; it's everyone around her who gets up in arms about the implications of the show she's on. She reported a phone call she got from an ex who was less than happy with the photo he saw in his local paper. "When he kissed you, did you feel him sucking your soul out of your mouth?" he asked.

The other stories she told on Easter night demonstrated similar attempts on her part to be open-minded and go with whatever experience is offered to her. She described how her attempt to connect with herself on a yogic weekend retreat got foiled by the pesky knowledge that her bank account was overdrawn. And then she related how not being asked out by the cool guy in school ended up in trying to please a guy she didn't even like by consenting to a threesome.

And if that seems hard to follow, believe me when I say that on the night it also involved Rajskub duct-taping herself in the same fashion as this. The premise was different, but the taping bit was the same. So maybe the last diversion ended up going somewhere planned, and the threesome story was just a means to an end. Much like 24, it's hard to separate fact from fiction and in the end, does it really matter? The sell-out crowd was entertained, and gave her a well-deserved ovation at the end of the show.

I never did find out about the poodle pillow, but I don't feel like I missed out on anything. In the end, she went a different, non-poodley way. The joy of MLR is in not knowing exactly where she's going to take you, but the trip will be a good one. This is why a story about trying to find parking ends up digressing into all sorts of new corners and entertaining places.

In a way, though, the wildest digression is Rajskub's career itself. From performance art, to Mr. Show to computer goddess to Rush Limbaugh back to duct-taping herself in some performance art at the Steve Allen Theatre, maybe it's all been a bunch of crazy diversions, but what a ride it's been.

Los Angeles based writer, David Pardue also writes for thecoming.org.

You can read other reviews of local comedy shows by David here,

and here.

Complications Of Buying A Poodle Pillow

Mz Rajskub recently debuted her one person show at The Comedy Central Stage.

Originally titled It Was Then That I Carried You... (a riff on the Footprints poem), the name has been changed to Complications Of Buying A Poodle Pillow.

Here's my recap of the show...

The Cast:
Carlos Rota (who, incidentally, plays the ex-husband of Mary Lynn’s character on 24) stars as Mary Lynn’s Lawyer and Coke Buddy.
Stephanie Escajeda as Terry Gross
Ex-Fiance Duncan Trussel as himself (!)
The show was directed by Ron Lynch

This was a really well put together affair. Projected visuals served to illustrate Mary Lynn’s monologues. There was a great montage of images from her trip to DC, including candid shots of the woman with Chief Justice Clarance Thomas. There are two scenes where Mary Lynn interacts directly with the images; one where we view an email to Rush Limbaugh as she writes it. In another, the audience views cell phone text messages from her lawyer in real time.

The pivotal moment in this piece was illustrated with the, now much discussed, photograph of Rush Limbaugh kissing Mary Lynn. Much of the material in this show deals with the aftermath of this photograph being published.

The scene with Trussel was especially compelling. Trussel and Mary Lynn enact a cell phone conversation between the two following the wide distribution of the Rush image. He calls out of concern and disappointment, asking her if she is dating Rush Limbaugh.

Quote:

I would rather have seen you in a three-way gang bang, that see you kissing the mouthpiece for Satan in America. -Duncan Trussel

Quote:

I'm curious, when he sucked the soul out of your body, did he replace it with maggots? -Duncan Trussel

He mirrors the criticism of those that were less disturbed that she was kissed by Rush, than that she was hanging out at a Heritage Foundation gig in the first place.

The telephone conversation between MLR and Terry Gross follows. Gross grills Mary Lynn on her politics and the Rush incident. Trussel and Gross seem to stand in for Mary Lynn’s critics; Trussel: within her peers, & Gross: among leftists at large.

Quote:

F--k you, Terry! And fuck NPR, and the horse you rode in on! -MLR

Durring the conversation with Gross, she becomes the devil's advocate and insinuates that maybe she is dating Rush. She decides to actually make this happen, and emails Rush. Later, her lawyer calls with an offer of cocaine. They go bar hopping while planning how a relationship with Limbaugh would play out in terms of development deals.

There are many details from this show that I am forgetting, but those are some highlights.
Photo by Itslikeimsayin from her set at CDR4.

Something Old, Something New

Hello Gentle Reader,

I've decided to consolidate writing on Mary Lynn Rajskub from the MLR Fan Club and Aspecialthing in the form of this blog. This will be a good place to check back to read reviews of Mary Lynn's standup, view video of her late night TV appearances, and for links to recent interviews and articles.

Here's a drunken ramble I posted on Aspecialthing that I'm giving a new home here:

A review of her 40 minute set at the UCB on 5.5.06:
Mary Lynn brought a very solid performance. My fantasy was that she would pull 40 min. of all new material out of her pocket, but that was wishful thinking. What she DID do is weave old and new bits into a more cohesive whole. This seemed to be a real transitional performance.

Old MLR: "Hey, look, I'm uncomfortable in my own skin!"

New MLR: "Yea, I'm semi-famous, and that's funny. Now what do I do with my life?"


The Guys With Feelings interview:
really informed this performance for me. In the interview she acknowledged that the "I'm Uncomfortable" theme could border on shtick if she overused it. She was physically uncomfortable, she kept pulling at her clothing (it was hot in there.) But, she had total control of her audience. She had us singing football chants and clapping for whatever she wanted, "Give it up for the guy who parked behind me, everybody!" (claps) Now that she is a TV star, she has her audience's rapt attention no matter what she does, now what does she do with it? That's the rub of where the form of her standup will lead.

Side Note: 20% of the audience were '24' fans (as opposed to comedy fans.)
"Oh, You are a '24' fan? How the did you find this place?" -MLR to an audience member.

The tone of her standup can be 'comedy as group therapy,' which I love. It's got that, 'I'm just trying to figure it all out' vibe. Of note, she turned her rant about the duality of the Franklin Ave. Hipster into a self-reflection:

"I'm a big TV Star, but I have a bad relationship with my mother."
"I'm brilliant at Sedoku, but I'm bad at Scrabble."
"I love TV, but I love TV"

Her take on her own fame is that of the braggart and yet, at the same time humble:

"I just want to use my fame to get as many free pairs of jeans as I can."
"I still have to pick up my own dresses, you guys. They don't just deliver them to my house."


This being said, this was not my favorite night of MLR. I am a very specific type of fan; some are fans of her comedy, others, her dramatic work. I am part of a small niche that is a fan of Mary Lynn Rajskub, the Fine Artist. We look at everything she does as an extension of a Performance Art practice she started (and some would argue, ended) during her art school days.

Can I quote a recap of some standup MLR did on 8-31-05 at the UCB? I am quoting my own damn self from my wing-nut yahoo group:

Quote:

When I originally started this group I envisioned an analysis of her work in relation to her Fine Art background. This kind of discussion seemed less and less relevant as she started taking more conventional gigs ('24'). Why am I bringing this up? Last night Mary Lynn twisted my noodle by opening her set with a bit about performance art and her time in art school. This is what she said… She opened by sitting on a stool and checking her cell phone. A voice from off stage calls, "action." She holds her hands in a the form of a gun with a hyper anxious expression in her face. "Come on Jack," she says. She fires her gun, yelling "bang." The off stage voice calls, "cut." This repeats four times with variations which i am unable to articulate. She then brings a bag on stage. She presents a bowl and lays out 6 eggs on the stool, one starts to fall and she catches it and throws it in the bowl, cursing it as a "bad egg." she continues to crush each egg in a comic fashion which i am unable to articulate. She tells the audience they have just witnessed her performance piece" called "24 and punching six eggs.” She asks if anyone's heard of performance art. (claps) "Thank you, another art school student in the audience." She mentions that she got her Bachelors in Fine Art. She goes into a diatribe about art school being for losers, that the term 'art school' is an oxymoron. She describes performance art as "sculpture without walls", going into a rambling definition of performance art using plenty of artspeak, lampooning the language of art institutions. She goes on to describe a number of ridiculous performance pieces she witnessed at school: 1. a crawling overweight girl eating pats of butter off the floor. "is that art, or that girl just depressed?" -MLR She mentions this is the first performance art piece she had ever seen. 2. a girl in a black body sock who takes the elevator down one floor. She then describes how the 3 hour critique that follows starts simple then snowballs into a discussion of society. 3. a guy tapes his genitals to the side of his leg and puts on makeup. "think about the 'symbology' of that." -MLR 4. a guy who jumps from the school to a tree, from 2 stories up. "You can't begin to understand art school," she declares. 5. a girl who cracks an egg and had a cast that she sewed up with feathers. 6. a girl whose final piece was "a secret" that she would show only Mary Lynn. The girl took Mary Lynn into a closet, lit a match and said, "this is the piece." MLR thought this was a bummer, that the girl was looking for an easy grade. She lamented that the girl didn't bring a corn cob and bar of chocolate and sexually abuse her, telling her not to tell anyone. If this had happened, she predicted she may have become a lesbian. She then describes her own "brilliant piece" where she tied up one of her feet, dressed as a ballerina, with a bowl of jellybeans just outside her reach. "my husband ties me up like this, and doesn't want me to eat, to keep my ballerina's figure." She questions why she has such a deep scarring from men at such a young age.

Her performance became her own caricature, like an M.C. Escher Painting, collapsing onto itself. The bit above was my own tab of comedy acid. Mary Lynn the Comedian playing MLR the Performance Artist playing MLR the actress playing Chloe The Character. META META META-Fucktacular!!!

I had a much longer message planned in my head. Here's some notes I wrote at work, and links. I'm not close to being done blabbing but it's Cinco De Mayo, and someone's starting to drink.