>>PREVIEW
THE ROAD TO RUDE
Runs January 16 to 18
The Rude Pundit
High Performance Rodeo
Big Secret Theatre (Epcor Centre)
As the ambivalent masses convulse in a spasm of tinsel and wrapping paper, Lee Papa spends his last week before Christmas planning nobler pursuits – political revolution. The Thirteen Colonies. The Bolsheviks. The Weathermen. He will join their ranks soon. Not just through planning and the will of the people. Papa’s revolution requires blowup dolls. Lots and lots of blowup dolls.
"The most disturbing blowup dolls are the midget ones, because they just look like children," remarks Papa. "Children with hairy vaginas."
To avoid trouble at customs, he arranges his army of dolls and accompanying accessories as innocently as possible. The faces of high-powered Republicans glued onto the dolls probably don’t help. Still, as the backdrop to his one-man show, The Road to Rude, Papa wants to ensure Calgary audiences get the full effect at this year’s High Performance Rodeo.
Not that an errant dildo could stop him. Over 10,000 readers check his blog at rudepundit.blogspot.com a day and his caustic rants against President Bush and his administration have pushed him to the forefront of the blogosphere. He has earned the ire of many Republicans, especially Anne Coulter, while earning praise from the left, including comedian John Hodgman. At a time when many blogs become books, Papa takes the good fight to the stage. The curtains and spotlights do nothing to tame his vitriol.
"I had 10 people walk out of a reading of this show in Tennessee," says Papa. "The first group walked out when I brought up Jesus and another after I was done describing this graphic gay sex scene."
Let the other political commentators be polite. As the Rude Pundit, his words threaten violence. His show isn’t shock for shock’s sake, it’s a clarion cry to the masses to get that chicken wing out of their god damn maw and wake the fuck up.
"I actually think obscenity and pornography are cathartic," says Papa. "It drags politicians and media people down into the gutter, so we can deal with this on a human basis. Let’s not pretend we’re anything more than dirty human beings and have a street fight. I get this sense of impending doom. Crime rates are rising and torture films are popular, society is reacting with a kind of revulsion, but it’s not articulated. That doesn’t add up to any kind of active rebellion."
A show with President Bush’s face on a blowup doll and rape fantasies involving Dick Cheney isn’t meant to convince the other side. This is strictly preaching to the choir, for those who will hallelujah every imaginary hip thrust into the familiar clench of the Vice President’s anus. As Bush’s imperial march in Iraq continues unabated, though, it seems vital now to convince and convert the other side. Papa doesn’t see it like that.
"Preaching to the choir is a pretty important thing," he says. "The congregation needs to laugh, applaud and do stuff with people who believe what they believe. So often we watch TV or read and get outraged alone. I went to a protest last year, one of the marches against the war in New York. I met this old man on the subway who said he had been alone thinking about this and it was great to know other people felt the same way. I’m not saying my show has that kind of force, but liberals are allowed to get angry and laugh."
Papa looks forward to bringing his liberal rage across the border into the conservative hotbed of Alberta. He welcomes the challenge, but remembers why he’s coming.
"My first job is comedy and then to cause the riot afterward." |
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