Word: lam
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...CRITIC John Simon once called the death of Georg Buchner at the age of 24 conclusive proof of the nonexistence of God. Now God has a chance to reestablish himself: Andy Borowitz, who as president of the Lampoon bears responsibility for On the Lam...
...Lampoon is this University's very own congeries of self-styled funnymen and second-story acrobats. Apparently, the Lampoon has decided to stop publishing their delightful in-house journal, or so we must surmise. But they have turned to the theater, and the result is On the Lam, a two-hour "comedy" revue starring Chris Clemenson, Grace Shohet, Brian McCue, and Fred Barton. Now we can get the same ten laughs we used to get in ten minutes, skimming the Lampoon during a tenure on the Porcelain Throne, spread out over a full two hours in the congenial Adams House...
...making it a sullen competition for yuks, as the Lampoon has done. The resultant brand of humor, inevitably perhaps, irritates--no, it offends. And by this I don't mean to carp on racism and sexism, although I think these elements are well in evidence in On the Lam. Rather, I mean the sort of comedy that points down, from an affected stance of intellectual or cultural superiority, lacking any sort of humanism or fellow feeling, without any hint that the Lampoon itself, and its members, might be just as amenable to satiric deflation as, say, protesters at Seabrook...
Which leaves Chris Clemenson, or the real tragedy of On the Lam. Clemenson is a hugely talented actor who can trigger hysteria with any of a dozen subtle expressions or inflections. Predictably, he does not seem all that happy with his role in this show--he ends up like Olivier in any of his recent roles, desperately mugging and overacting to compensate for the script--and maybe a little resentful, a little angry with himself for getting involved in all this. Actually, it's a lot like watching Olivier host Saturday Night Live. Worse, Borowitz and his court...
Poor Patty Hearst. Kidnaped, tortured, terrorized, brainwashed, on the lam, captured, tried for bank robbery, imprisoned until sprung by presidential commutation, and now this. Engaged to marry San Francisco Policeman Bernard Shaw, a former bodyguard, on April Fools' Day, Hearst had selected a $1,000 gown by New York Designer Frank Masandrea. But last week Patty and parents abruptly chose another. It turned out that exclusive rights to posing Patty in the gown and covering the ceremony had been sold to Look magazine. Alas, United Press International, pitting ingenuity against pocketbook journalism, discovered and printed sketches of the bride...