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Slash Coleman Has Big Matzo Balls is weird. Weird. But that’s because Slashtipher J. Coleman is weird.
The one-man play is a representation of the playwright-actor-jazz pianist-author-comedian-painter’s Jewish, eccentric, and quick mind. It is a collection of one-liners and songs, audience participation and balls-to-the-wind gimmicks.
Actually, the play is about Slash—he changed his name from Jeffrey after his Bar Mitzvah to include two letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the name his grandfather, who survived the Holocaust, assumed at Ellis Island—and his Jewish identity as a “halfy,” that is, a half Jew. Slash assumes a Jeff Foxworthy demeanor to explain: What’s a halfy? “If your Passover is ruined because you run out of ketchup, you’re a halfy.” Then what’s a Jew? “If you ever had a layover at LaGuardia, you’re in the tribe.”
He channels his family identity and uses the Holocaust as a symbol of alienation, as he seeks his “other triangle,” a reference to the yellow Star of David that Jews wore beginning in 1941. Eventually, he gives birth to a giant matzo ball, which is itself a “halfy.”
Continually poking fun at Jewish institutions and members of the audience, our hero eventually discovers his other triangle when he finds he and his matzo ball progeny are sufficiently Jewish.
And oddly enough, even though it takes 20 minutes to get warmed up, even though at least two couples walked out mid-performance, even though at times you cringe at the feeling that the oft-stuttering Slash might forget his next line, the hour flies by—the play works.
It works because above all the adjectives and comedic-references the play recalls, it stands primarily as a successful merger of personal narrative and plot; the frills of costume changes and punning are central to the play, but they are not the play.
Mostly, the play works because Slash has the chutzpah—the balls—to stand on stage and deliver his self, in all its unorthodox glory, with confidence and self-belief. By the end, you can't help but become a loyal follower.
Slash plays through this weekend at Warehouse Theater. More information on location and how to buy tickets can be found here.
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Darn, this is the other Jewish Slash. Not the one that wuz in Guns N' Roses.
I was one of the couples that walked out. It was utterly awful. The whole "Triangle" bit he tried was just lost on me and my wife.
Also, he kept trying to get people on stage that DID NOT want to go onstage. He was playing a very cold crowd and he got incredibly obnoxious not realizing it.
By the end I couldn't stop laughing and walked out a big Slash fan.
Maybe the show got better when you left. Actually, that must be it.
It was awkward, fumbling and the only people I saw laughing were two friends he had in the front row (actually, one looked like a girl I went on a couple dates with, but who knows if it was actually her).
I'm the king of bad Jew jokes and making every effort to make my faith seem ridiculous. His show was just unfunny. Fairy GodJewMother? Did I mention it was unoriginal too?
You didn't even see the whole show! It came together in the end, I almost peed from laughing so hard, and - again - I'm so glad you and your snarky ass left so that I could enjoy myself.
Yes, because me sitting there silently hating the show really prevented you from enjoying. Why are you taking so personally some criticism that's not directed at you specifically?
That's like saying you like Panic at the Disco, then me saying how much they suck, and then you take the criticism like I called you a crackwhore.
Grow the f**k up.
fight! fight! fight!
I actually loved the show and have seen it three times - once in Richmond where it opened and twice at the fringe. I loved it for the same reason that I loved Borat....more so even.
I've seen up to 14 people walk out at once calling Coleman an anti-semite, but anytime you're dealing with religion it's going to get touchy.
As an artist, Coleman continues to break the rules with his artform. He took a story about his friends death at last year's fringe (which was basically the bridging of the Jewish religion and the Pentecostal religion) and it's now airing as a national PBS special.
With this show, he presents the idea of the Jewish closet, which is something that is very prevalent amongst the world as a whole, in a way that makes the issue very accessible to Jews and non-jews alike. Israel consists of more non-practicing, self-denying Jews than religious Jews, did you forget that this is the silent Holocaust?
In addition, his mom is a Holocaust survivor as well as the majority of his family. Did any of you get this? These guys play by a totally different set of rules.... can you imagine what that was like for a second from your cushy Jewish suburban upbringing? Most of these guys just disappear and fulfill the 614th commandment, much like I suppose many of you who walked out would like Slash to do.
Jews hating Jews that's all the world needs to solve our problems.
If Slash gave birth to a matzoh ball since his mother is Jewish...Then damn...the matzoh ball is halachally Jewish.
*scratches head*
Thats why I walked out of that show.
I don't like it when people walk out of shows and then think they're an expert on why it sucked (if it did). You didn't even see it!
That's why it's touchy. I think walking out of a show is immature. Deal with that.
Oh you got me good! Cause I'm really interested in wasting my short life on something I find no value in.
And if you hadn't noticed, we walked out during one of his costume changes. We had the heart to wait for that, at least.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. I got the Holocaust angle, but the survivor or child of survivor bit is so played out. It's unoriginal and obnoxious to bring it out unless it's truly relevant to the story. Bouncing around like an idiot, having a matzah ball for a baby and making audience members uncomfortable doesn't fit that bill.
You say, "Suburban Jewish upbringing" and yet you know nothing about me. I'm well aware of the "Jewish closet" because I lived in the Richmond area like Slash and experienced a lot of the same things he did. What I didn't experience was the idiocy I saw onstage. Actually we went to the same college too, where I was maybe one of 10 Jews amongst 9000 people. Maybe I missed out on some great humor evolutionary event or didn't do enough drugs, but either way, I'm okay with that.
The comments on Slash's personal blog confirm what you fail to see. Thanks to Slash, the "sort of Jews" are coming out of their own personal closets in droves thanks to his Matzo Ball shows. For once, someone is rearranging the rules when it comes to organized religion - (synagogues and churches are experiencing incredible drop offs in terms of attendance because what's been working in the past to bring people in has completely lost it's effect) and he's making it cool to look at religion outside the box... and he's making people mad enough (only Jews so far as I can tell) mad enough to walk out of shows as well.
What many Slash-haters also fail to see are the important and close ties his script has to the Kaballah.... which most of the world is unfamiliar with, except when they'd heard about it from Madonna.
When I sat down to talk with the playwright, I was pleased to see that behind the simple facade of his gimmicks was a story complete with symbols - including those of the matzo ball and the matzo ball super cock - that were translated directly from the Kaballah... in fact much of the story is so lifted right from the text that it could almost be considered plagiarism. For those of us who are familiar with the text (I am an orthodox rabbi)it was completely obvious.
Had he booked the show as a translation of such, his effect would have been minimal.
For those who are still naysayers, I would recommend you do your homework first, keep your personal judgments to your selves and head to block buster and rent some Mel Brooks who does much more than "bounce around like an idiot."
That's been cool for a while as long as I've been alive. It's nothing new.
I think what you're focusing on is the content, not the performance, which is sort of important when you're paying for it. If you want to use all these "think outside the box" type of concepts, more power to you. But Slash A) did not connect with his audience, B) made some of them incredibly uncomfortable and C) used "umm" and "uhh" more times than I've ever seen onstage, professional or amateur. On point B, you're not getting through to your audience if they walk out. The concept that if someone doesn't like an artist's message can go f**k themselves is crap and if an artist really wants to be heard, maybe they should make themselves more accessible. Otherwise, their message gets lost and nothing gets accomplished.
On top of being a formerly-mohawked Jew who thinks outside the box more than you think and is critical of his own peoples' apathy as well, I am well versed in theatre, dramaturgy and the arts. I've worked for 5 different theatres in DC, several of whom do "edgy" work. I can't imagine any of them doing a show this poorly conceived or executed.
The fact that my wife and I walked out wasn't entirely due to the material - it was how it was presented and performed. Slash's portrayal was obnoxious and annoying and we felt our time would be better spent getting a beer with friends.
I understand people think stuff sucks. That's cool. If you think the show sucks, more power to you. I think plenty of stuff sucks at the fringe. I've sat through plenty of stuff in fringes (and school too) where I was like WTF, I will never get this hour of my life back. It sucks.
However, if you had stayed for the end, Slash did take himself out of character and explain to the audience very directly why he stuttered so much and bumbled words and said uhhhh and ummm and why he didn't connect with the audience and why he didn't include a more personal narrative as part of the storyline.... it was all scripted that way which I think makes him brilliant. I loved everything else in the play, but I thought this part sucked the most.
That's the number one rule in the theater, I don't want to see a show about a show. WTF? As for me, I left at the end. I only lost a very important 10 minutes of my life, which I will never get back.