Modern 'fool' shares truths at his own risk

One-man cabaret act opens tonight at Robinson Theatre

It's a hurried lunch-hour cell-phone interview, and Taylor Mac is shaking off the suggestion that his stage show comes from an "outsider" perspective.

Because he's got a much better word.

"The idea of 'outsider art' has so much angst associated with it," said Mac, whose one-man cabaret act, "The Be(a)st of Taylor Mac," opens tonight at 10 at the Emmett Robinson Theatre. "The Fool is what I'm playing with. I'm definitely part of a tradition, and what seems fresh about it is actually the oldest thing in the world."

If Mac is the Fool reimagined for the 21st century, then our new fool is an ambivalent, gender-bending, ukulele-strumming singer-songwriter with a sharp wit and a surprisingly compassionate sense of humor. This is the Fool as truth-teller in drag, in makeup and wardrobe suggesting the orphaned love-child of Dr. Frank-N-Furter and Boy George, all grown up and bravely making his way in our odd new world.

Mac, a New Yorker by choice by way of California, figures he's done the show at least 200 times, and even though it's always changing, he acknowledges that "Be(a)st" is nearing the end of its run. It was born in the politics and attitudes of the Bush era, and the country now seems anxious to pack up and move on.

But to categorize Mac's show as a gay political romp is to miss the point: Yes, politics is in the gumbo, but there is also sex, and love, and ambition, and fear. Even in Mac's "Palace of the End" piece, which juxtaposes second lady Lynne Cheney and the late Saddam Hussein, winds up being less about politics and personal repression than it is about judgmental thinking, about "how useless anti-relativism is, how useless good-and-evil is."

This is what the Fool does: She steps out of the conventions of society and tells truths in a voice "insiders" can't use. And because you dismiss the Fool as foolish, the truth arrives well-lubricated by surprise.

In Mac's case, it's the jolt of listening to someone in glam-waif attire go from flamer humor to a full-stop emotional insight in less time than it takes a laugh to fade. "The humanity," he says, "breaks through the costume."

Mac sings much of what he has to say, but the show dances across the artificial lines that separate concert and stand-up and theater, not to mention humor and tragedy.

A sometimes rude song about the things his former lovers used to do takes a detour into a sadly compassionate story about how one was emotionally abused as a child. A monologue about masturbation somehow morphs into a brutal examination of Mac's personal anxieties and failings.

Is it for everyone? No. Even Mac starts with the assumption that his audience is going to be more liberal than a general theater audience. And yes, it's going to trample all over sexual taboos that some people would rather avoid.

But that's the way he wants it.

"The trick is, when I start writing a piece, I ask myself: 'What's the No. 1 thing I don't want the audience to find out about me?' And then that's what I have to tell them in the show.

"You have to risk something personally. If you're not risking something, there's no point. To me, that's what's really fun about it."

---

Notice about comments:
The Post and Courier is pleased to offer readers the ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. The Post and Courier does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not postandcourier.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "suggest removal" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our Web site.
Full terms and conditions can be read here.

---

Comments

This article has  0 comment(s)