Last night, Ledcat and I stayed up very late to go see John McIntire's show at a new season of Late Night Cabaret at Theater Square. It was a fun evening with lots of snark and wonderful off the cuff comments. And in the great Pittsburgh tradition, the panel on sexism and racism included three straight white guys (with the host) and one straight black guy. No women. No women (including me to be fair) even asked a question. One woman did some heckling from the audience. I think we know how that discussion came down.
Actually, the conversation was thoughtful and the lone Republican was a very good sport (and very, very smart). I could listen to Chris Potter and Tony Norman agree with each other all evening. It would be great if they added a woman for the November performance. I nominate Maria from 2 PJs.
The most magnificent moment from the entire evening was Gab Bonesso's performance. I love her to pieces and think she's hysterical and edgy and brilliant. Last night, she transcended her comfort zone and demonstrated the potential to do amazing political comedy. She gave a layered performance that drew on her underground comedy themes with a deft political twist. I'm not all suggesting she should abandon her stoner fanbase (relax, shlubs), but she clearly has the talent to walk through the abortion-joke gasp to find that one single a ha moment of humor and observation. I cannot aptly descibe that type of comedy, but I did read about it in Rolling Stone. I wanted to stand up and cheer, because she did not "tone down" her stuff last night ... she went in a different provacative direction. That's the talent of a woman who has stuff to say.
John did a good job with her first venture into cabaret and, hopefully, we'll see more of this. I like smart comedy.
