My Lack of Social Life

by Bad Idea Entertainment, Norristown, PA

Review by A.J. Sage

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"You're all laughing, but I'm crying."  So goes the most common refrain from Doug Stafford's one man show 'My Lack of Social Life', a variety hour composed of equal parts juggling, purple-vest magic, and trenchantly awkward dark humor.  It's an appropriate refrain, too, as the bulk of the performance involves Stafford's attempts to reconcile his considerable store of learned skills with the sometimes heartbreaking nature of a life of display.

 

To begin with the juggling, it's beyond impressive.  Standard issue items like balls and bowling pins merely whet our appetite before Stafford delivers an entree of more breathtaking derring-do.  It may be a segment involving simple wooden blocks, though, that steals the show.

 

Juggling has an innate sense of gravity (excuse the pun) to it and this performer knows how to leverage that gravity in the best way.  We not only appreciate the physical talent - we also become immersed in wondering whether he'll ever drop something, and in this performance he didn't.

 

The magic wasn't quite so convincingly delivered as the juggling, but Stafford's best comic moments came as the result of it.  An audience participant, I also found myself holding a hilariously juvenile prop due to one of the illusions.  

 

Where the show lags is when Stafford ceases to let his body do the talking. The extended monologue weaved through the physical action not only accompanies but oftentimes eclipses that action.  And while certain parts of it (including a sobering tragic beat toward the end) offer clever insights into the performer's world, much of it involves him being self-effacing to a fault.  

 

One wonders why a showman of such talent and charm would assert such a thick layer of diffidence.

 

Having said that - go see this dude juggle.