Durst Case Scenario
Will Durst
 |
| Will Durst |
In early summer 2016, Will Durst -- political comedian
extraordinaire and a San Francisco Treat if there were ever one – took The
Marsh stage by storm in a one-person show entitled Elect to Laugh in which he skewered one-by-one all the many, many
candidates then running for president in both parties. Even then, the missteps, lies, and hair of
Donald Trump dominated his jabbing monologue as he opined, “How can you parody
a parody?” Well, 235 (and counting) days
after the inauguration that was the largest ever in attendance (according to
Donald but not in line with actual photographs), Will Durst is back at The
Marsh in his newest show, Durst Case
Scenario. He is still using that same line about Trump being a parody; but he
is now adding that for him as a political comedian, “He’s pure gold, fool’s
gold.” “He’s done for political comedy
what medical marijuana did for Cheetos.”
During his forty or so years in the comic clubs of San
Francisco and beyond, Will Durst has remained consistently animated in his hand-waving
approach, bombastic in his sudden bursts, loyal to his use of an overhead
projector, and willing to lambast any and all members of the political arena –
no matter the party or the politics.
However, Donald Trump is clearly a whole new game for Will (“I feel like
a jackal feeding on the carcass of democracy”).
For Durst Case Scenario, the
comedian has taken off his customary jacket and tie in order engage his
audience in mere street clothes. With
renewed vigor, vehemence, and immense lung power, he blasts through the crazy,
bizarre, and altogether scary daily (hourly?) screw-ups and mess-ups of this
newest president, the 45th.
His observations, mimics, overhead slides, and rants keep
the audience howling in laughter with little time to pause for breath (his or
theirs). As he always says to a San
Francisco audience, “You are my target audience; you are people who read, or
you know someone who reads.” But even
though we are all laughing at his rapid-fire of quips and jokes about Trump and
his White House troop of mostly white people with lots of money, he admits an
issue about his current jokes, “Republicans don’t think they’re funny; and
Democrats don’t think they’re jokes.”
For anyone at last summer’s show, there are a number of
jokes and too many of his overhead slides that are repeats; and some events
that took place way back then are related as if no one would have heard of them
yet (like Trump’s making fun of a disabled reporter, which occurred in last
year’s campaign). His announced focus on
Trump deviates often as he fills in with everything from a few “dirty jokes” to
re-visiting some of the primaries of last year (again, mostly re-treads from
his 2016 show).
Still, even for any of us seeing both shows, he is correct
when he says of this current show, “People need this ... They’re seeking
community ... “I’m shepherding people through their PTSD.” And by the sound of the roaring guffaws, it
is clear he has provided the pabulum this audience so desperately needs at this
moment in time.
But there is an underlying, darker tone this year in this
rants and raves with a more ominous feel to it than there was fifteen months
ago. He is speaking for more than just
himself when he says we are all working our way through a new version of
Kübler-Ross’s Five Stages of Grieving.
He is voicing for many in this very blue-state audience as he notes we
have moved through the first four stages of “Denial, Denial, Denial, and
Denial” to the final stage, “Fucked.” With
that, he goes into a final funny but telling tirade of “I don’t care
anymore.”
Fortunately after admitting such things as “every meal I now
order extra gluten” and “I now go swimming forty minutes after eating ... I
don’t even wait an hour,” he does provide a serious coda to the evening. In a number of final charges, he urges the
audience to “Resist” – daily and in every way possible. After all, he is the self-pronounced canary
in the mine; and this comedian who has spent his entire career in a running
commentary about the politics around him is now most definitely worried.
Rating: 4 E
Durst Case Scenario
continues in an extended run through November 21, 2017, Tuesdays, 8 p.m. at The
Marsh, San Francisco, main
stage, 1062 Valencia Street. Tickets are
available at http://themarsh.org or by calling 415-282-3055 Monday – Friday, 1 – 4 p.m.
Photo by Pat Johnson
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