OPM

You know you're in trouble when a stand-up's first line is, "We live an age of bullshit," and then she begins to kind of rant about Starbucks. The "things everyone knows about" age of comedy has been eclipsed. The only Starbuck I care about is the one who used to be a man and is now supposed to be dead. Niche is in. Narrow your focus.

As a prelude to OPM, I saw two one-woman shows on Monday. The first comic attempted to make up for her opening dance act by becoming increasingly vulgar and flirting with the gay men in the front row. As Margaret Cho has proven, gay audiences love to hear about how disgusting a vagina can be. Seeing an opening, she plowed into it repeatedly for 30 minutes. "OMG! Labia? What's up with that? What are those two flaps of skin for?"

It's Halloween. The barriers between this world and the next are thin. Allow me to consult Douglas Adams on this.

Douglas Adams: "Those flaps of skin are what forms the line on a man's scrotum. Get over it. And while I have your attention, The Hitchhiker's Guide has this to say about opening for a mostly Asian-American comedy troupe. 'Comparing a woman's pubic hair to a Chinese dude's beard and making it talk with a pidgin accent...what solar system does Canada exist in again? Ah, yes, the '80s.' As for the '80s, it has this to say. 'Mostly racist.'"

The second act was all about a tweaked out, beefy Tinkerbell. I'll give her credit, in our post Simpsons, Shrek, Family Guy world, the material was played out, but the actress was good. I could have lived without ever seeing a cross between "Look what I can do!" guy from Mad TV and "Superstar!" girl from SNL, but some things, like one-woman shows, just aren't for me. I prefer my one-woman shows to involve at least two men on opposite points of entry.

OPM closed out the night. Full disclosure, I can't offer an unbiased opinion. One of the performers is an old friend of mine, and Deborah S. Craig made a freakin' hot drunk Britney Spears. Normally I might balk at mocking Spears' recent VMA performance by changing the lyrics of "Gimme More" to "Gimme S'mores", but if Craig wants to wear hot pants and get covered in chocolate, then I can't say I was s'mortified.

As I mentioned above, I think there's an exclusionary modifier to humor. The less people who get the joke, the funnier it is. When OPM wasn't lampooning celebrities, they did perform some more subtle bits, and I enjoyed them. I expected a bit more bite overall, but "Interracial Relations" was clever, and I laughed throughout "Wrong Medicine" even though I didn't know anything about Amy Winewho. Apparently, she doesn't want to go to rehab.

I think "Appa Knows Best" could be a stand-out skit if it played more with of the cliches of Korean dramas. It went over well with the audience as a whole, but if there had been a guy in it wearing two scarves, glasses, and an orange wig, it would have rocked. The group definitely has potential, and coming from an arrogant, overly-critical bastard like me, that's a firm endorsement.

Scores follow.

First Act: When someone's bio says they're a clown, this is not a descriptive adjective. They are part clown.

Second Act: My wife put it best. "I didn't come here to see a play."

OPM: A good time was had by even me. A worthy opponent.