If you're not familiar with Guy Maggio, you definitely need to be. Though he's an improviser from way back, he's been on a long hiatus, doing random rare shows, mostly as a technical improviser, and most recently on stage at Thunderdome.
Last night he joined Anomaly Orange as their guest monologist, and he proved that he doesn't even need anyone on stage with him to be hold the audience transfixed. Guy is a master storyteller, and (nothing against AO), I could have listened to him talk all night. He spoke truthfully and from the heart, and did it in such a way that he made his listeners feel as though they had been with him, in his past. One audience member said, "All his stories were so relatable."
Add to this that he happens to be kind, personable, and fun in real life, and you've got yourself the whole package.
I hesitate to add this next part in the fear that it will taint what is an honest opinion with perceived promotion, except the post feels incomplete without telling folks when and where they can see Guy perform... I've been lucky enough to have Guy spend some of his precious time to join the group "One," which will debut here at the Roving Imp on July 31 at 9pm. It's not often you see someone with Guy's stage presence and charisma... and you definitely have to support that kind of actor.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
This is the kind of performance that I love -- that make me laugh and cry often at the same time...Unexpected and ridiculous truths of life shown honestly... shared experience and vibrant moments. Guy set up Anomaly with bittersweet adolescent memories that almost everyone could relate to. Anomaly creatively, and without resorting to 'teenage' stereotypes, made the funny... with the perfect 'shared experience' of odd Facebook reconnections with HS folks... as the tag line. This is real now and is the fabric of emotional experiences.
ReplyDeleteWhat I loved and hated about being a teenager is that everything is so NOW, so important, so victorious, or so potentially disastrous. Teaching allows me to see this behavior in all of its glorious and annoying manifestations!
Performance allows us to open, though hopefully not in destructive Strasbergian way, those places to play with them for entertainment granting perspective on the lovely, crazy, challenging, and ridiculous facets of our natures.
Improv performance is immediate and, inherently, surprising, and perennially NOW... perhaps the only kind of performance that comes from that which we are (our minds and bodies and imaginations) and returns to the collective ether from which it came.
Guy and Anomaly gracefully proved once again that 'The Truth is Funny." Do we laugh not to cry? Maybe both sometimes.... as illustrated by the improvised tragedy on Friday night!
Either way I was thoroughly entertained... so it worked!
After one of the monologues, I wanted to hug Guy instead of doing a scene. It was that powerful.
ReplyDelete(hands over mouth like blushing anime schoolgirl): *Tee-hee!* Me so blush-y! :^D
ReplyDeleteHonestly, though, the experience of watching AO take my random ramblings and re-interpret them into such smart and funny scenes was such a privilege and honor. I'm thrilled to have done it, and I'm touched and humbled by the kind words everyone's had to offer.
Oh yeah, and I can't wait until my lovely wife, Martha, and I have the opportunity to do this together in the next few months!
sorry i missed it. can't wait to see it or be apart of it. it really is an awesome format. ao rocked westport a few weeks ago. kudos to all. guy, denton, ao and armando (of course).
ReplyDeleteOooh, lovefest! Shannon, Guy, and Martha, and John of course, you're all so dear to me - thank you for being so supportive!
ReplyDelete