Devil’s advocate dishes in “˜The Worst of Eric Bogosian’
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 4, 2002 9:00 p.m.
 UCLA Performing Arts Actor Eric
Bogosian‘s one act play, "The Worst of Eric Bogosian," is
coming to the UCLA Freud Playhouse Feb. 6-9.
By Kelly Haigh
Daily Bruin Contributor
Brazen solo performance artist Eric Bogosian has created a
revolutionary new brand of musical theater.
Now, don’t look so disappointed. His efforts are strictly
devoid of flashy, fluffy showstoppers, and he certainly
doesn’t solicit Rodgers or Hammerstein when he needs a
muse.
Bogosian prefers to gain inspiration from the likes of Iggy Pop
and System of a Down.
“I’m not a musician, (but) I wanted to get the kind
of energy on stage in theater that I could feel when I saw a band
playing and they were sort of throwing themselves around,”
Bogosian said during a phone interview from his office in New York.
“I think there’s a kind of a punk thing, of things
being rude and crude, self-deprecating but kind of smart, that has
always inspired me. That’s the kind of stuff I want to
make.”
And that’s the kind of stuff he’ll be serving up at
the Freud Playhouse from Feb. 6-9 as a part of UCLA Live’s
ongoing Solo Festival.
Bogosian appreciates the entrepreneurial nature of music and
other artistic forms, and he says that he strives to bring that
spirit to his own work.
“Solo (performance) allows you to take your destiny into
your own hands if you have it in you to make something,” he
said.
Bogosian describes his own performance style as unabated, funny,
and fast-paced, a combination which may catch some audience members
off guard. His shows also come complete with titillating warnings
about impending adult language and themes.
“I tend to be kind of aggressive on stage, and my sense of
humor is a bit dark. It’s a little different than the more
user-friendly, monologue-type shows out there,” Bogosian
said.
Timid patrons may want to catch the next carousel out of
town.
Bogosian has been touring “The Worst of Eric
Bogosian” around the country for several months. Naturally,
it’s an amalgamation of several of his previous solo shows,
hand-picked by Bogosian from his two decades of work. The chosen
pieces come primarily from his more recent off-Broadway hits
“Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll,” “Pounding Nails in
the Floor With My Forehead,” and “Wake Up and Smell the
Coffee.”
Though he admits to being tired of airports and hotel rooms and
touring in general, Bogosian is glad to be making a stop in Los
Angeles and is looking forward to playing to a college crowd.
“It’s an energized kind of audience, and also an
audience that’s got an attention level where they want to try
and figure out a show,” he said.
Bogosian values shows that require some degree of figuring out;
he is understandably disappointed by most of the pieces currently
floating around in his chosen genre.
“When (theater) is good, it’s just an incredibly
exciting forum. And yet, weirdly, the majority of the people in the
theater are squares,” he said. “I really don’t
care to hear people’s autobiographical stuff about how they
grew up and why they overeat. I just don’t find it that
interesting.”
Bogosian’s writing style is laced with irony; he manages
to stir up a healthy amount of controversy through his works.
“I always play devil’s advocate. If I was going to
do a piece about nuclear war, I wouldn’t say we
shouldn’t have nuclear war. I would say we should have
nuclear war, that it would be really good for all the animals that
are going extinct in Africa if we all just blew ourselves to
pieces. That’s the way I would write it,” Bogosian
said. “In general … I do something that’s the
opposite of the way you’d think it would go, which I find a
lot funnier and more interesting.”
So how does Bogosian know when he has created a solid solo
piece, something that has both the energetic impact of music and
the verbal, thematic impact of theater? According to Bogosian,
it’s when language becomes secondary.
“If somebody came to the theater and didn’t speak
English, would they still want to watch the show? And I’ve
done that, I’ve played in front of people who don’t
speak English. In fact, it’s more likely somebody will walk
out when they understand what I’m saying,” Bogosian
said.
In addition to his “Worst Of” performances, Bogosian
will be giving a free lecture for students tonight at 6 p.m. at
UCLA’s Freud Playhouse. He says that he will address the
creation of the characters he plays in his solo shows, as well as
anything else that he’s experienced during his extensive and
varied career.
“I can talk about movies or I can talk about TV or I can
talk about plays,” Bogosian said. “It’s fun just
to talk about the way it all works, because it does all work
together”¦ But when I talk, I’m really boring. When I
perform, I’m really fun and exciting.”
THEATER: “The Worst of Eric
Bogosian” runs Feb. 6-9 at 8 p.m. at UCLA’s Freud
Playhouse. Tickets are $35; student tickets are $14. For more
information or to buy tickets, call (310) 825-2101.
