If You See Something, Say Something @ Fringe
At the intersection of today's American realities and mindboggling fictional dystopia sits Mike Daisey, at a table with a glass of water and a metal briefcase (yes, the one filled with irony). His monologue performance for the Fringe Festival at Woolly Mammoth Theatre is a stellar showcase of storytelling skills, bringing the audience along a trip through the desert to Trinity, the site of the first nuclear bomb test in Los Alamos, with a narrative woven around the history and build-up of today's massive "homeland security" system.
Daisey has already made a name for himself as an exceptional monologist, most recently performing the well-received How Theater Failed America in New York this past spring. If You See Something, Say Something, Daisey's Fringe offering, like Theater, draws on his own experiences and interests. His childhood fascination with the Bomb and the endless fear-mongering during the Cold War, his trip to Trinity, and reading Shame, the memoir of Sam Cohen, one of the men who built the Bomb, coalesce into a scathing and hilarious critique of today's War on Terror.
While it's easy to fall into cliche Jay Leno-esque jokes when discussing the absurdity of taking your shoes off at the airport, Daisey's comedic grace never dips that low, leaving the audience in gut-busting laughter with the residual "gawd this is so fucked up" feeling that permeates the entire show. And rather than playing the liberal "elitist" whining about how our civil liberties are being trampled on and Dick Cheney is evil, he is convincingly the "average" American who might feel a civic duty to attempt to read the Patriot Act, except his "eyes slide right off the page," and is "fundamentally, a coward." Of course this average American, using only "the magical power of Google," is able to wipe out just about every fear-based myth served to us by the government over the past seven years.
Not only will If You See Something entertain you, but even the educated cynic of government power will walk away having learned something. Daisey's quick wit is always sitting atop a mountain of historical facts, and his monologue touches everything from the Founding Fathers (and who knew George Washington said "Fuck You!!" so much?), to President Eisenhower's cautions against a standing army, to the Rand Corporation's discovery that the more terrible they described the world state, the more power they got, right up to the FISA bill and friggin' taser bracelets. Daisey will also enlighten you about American Kryptonite, the greatest junk shop in the world (pictured above), and how the worst burger ever is not only dry and bland, but will probably irradiate you to death.
Though the show is fairly long for a solo performance (close to two hours), you'll hardly feel it, as Daisey keeps you captivated with his weaving narrative and brilliant insights, in this -- dare we be cliche -- must-see offering from Fringe.
If You See Something, Say Something has seven more performances at Woolly Mammoth Theatre, starting tonight at 8 p.m., through July 20. Purchase tickets online.