BACKSTAGE
August 24, 2006
By Leonard Jacobs
Something about his appearance in the film The Aristocrats suggested that Billy the Mime was no ordinary mime. And he’s not: His self-titled show in the Fringe is racy and ribald, often radical. Note the program note: “Dreamed, conceived, written, and directed by Billy the Mime.” That’s not vanity. That’s someone reinventing an art form with a strong, peculiar talent.
Running 70 minutes, Billy the Mime selects material for each performance from a master list of sketches included in the program. At my performance, he offered some that were benign and touching, like “A Romance,” “JFK, Jr. We Hardly Knew Ye,” and “Van Gogh’s Starry Night.” Others were from the John
Waters sick-humor school: “Close to Her: Karen Carpenter,” “Terri Schiavo, Adieu,” “The Priest and the Altar Boy,” “Thomas & Sally — A Night at Monticello,” “A Day Called 9/11,” “The Abortion.” Sometimes the sketches traced an expected narrative — like Karen Carpenter’s anorexia, or the golden-boy biography of John F. Kennedy, Jr. At other times the sketches had a knife-in-the-belly quality. Watch how he sets up the battle of familial wills and dueling court cases that marked the Schiavo tragedy. Look at his slick carnal satire of Thomas Jefferson’s fling with Sally Hemmings, with commentary on slavery and racism included.
Look how deftly, how chillingly he juxtaposes the terrorists’ actions with the fates of the World Trade Center workers on a terrible September day.
Don’t bother analyzing Billy the Mime’s technical skills — they’re simply superb. His body control — and ability to generate narrative using it — is an mprobable gift. What really distinguishes him is how far into controversial realms he’s willing to go — like the trajectory of the priest and altar boy sketch. You keep thinking he won’t go there, but there he goes. The dreamer is also a wordless wonder.
Presented by BH Productions as part of the New York International Fringe Festival at the Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal St., NYC.