In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.
~ The most well-known saying by Warhol
Let’s face it. As odd and freakish-looking as artist Andy Warhol was, he remains a grand staple in pop art. Who would have thought that Brillo boxes and a huge painting of Campbell’s Tomato Soup would become grand pieces of Americana. He was good at promoting pop art. Taking a simple everyday product and making it more famous than anticipated. He had his hand in everything: photography, painting, film, theater, writing all forms of art. And then, he was shot by writer Valerie Solanos in 1968, wounding him and art critic Mario Amaya. An ugly situation all the way around. The production doesn’t go that deep into the man’s life. Instead, every line are quips said by Warhol compiled by actor and director Ezra Buzzington. Talk about dedication! There’s about nearly 200 sayings from the late icon said throughout his decadent lifestyle. The kicker is to make sense of something that doesn’t make sense in a normal conversation. Like this one about pennies:
I hate pennies. I wish they’d stop making them altogether.
I would never save them. I don’t have the time.
I like to say in stores: “Oh, forget it, keep those pennies. They make my French wallet too heavy.”
Change can get to be a burden.
But it can also come in very handy when you have no money.
You hunt for it. You can look under the bed, you go through all the coat pockets, saying: Maybe I left a quarter there…or there!
The conversation starts off talking about coins but refers about life. Eventually the aphorisms make some type of sense. The actors are already submerged in Warholism and act it out with class and style. Krista Conti plays the bad-ass-in-your-face Female Beauty. Dressed in a sexy little black dress, with matching heels and sun glasses, she has a verbal battle match with adages said by the Male Beauty (also looking handsome in all black, Will McMichael). They go back and forth trying to outwit the other.
Beautiful people are sometimes more prone to keep you waiting than plain people are, because there’s a big-time differential between beautiful and plain.
Also, beauties know that most people will wait for them, so they’re not panicked when they’re late, so they get even later.
Then by the time they arrive, they’ve usually gotten to feel guilty, so then to make up for being late they get really sweet, and being really sweet makes them more beautiful.
Absolutely perfect, fractured poetry. The stunning blonde does an flawless move by swinging one leg over the chair the way an ice-skater does a double axel. She and McMichael make the perfect couple. Think of Brad Pitt and Angela Jolie in Mr.& Mrs.Smith (2005). The speech is rapid quick-fire about beauty, money and life. Doing an excellent job as well are Doreen Lee Jones and Miles Berman, Female Superstar and Male Superstar, respectively. At the helm of this madness is Kara Emry who plays Andy Warhol. Again, dressed in all black she its alone at a table with a white 35 mm camera commenting on what surrounds her. Emry is the center of this melting pot of Warholisms. She stays calm and collected in her orbit, probably contemplating her next move or perhaps recalling what her mother, Julia Warhola told Andy, “Don’t be pushy but let everyone know you are around.” This play won’t be around much longer so get to stepping and enjoy everything Warhola!
Andy: The Red-Nosed Warhola plays Friday, September 29th and Saturday September 30th at 7:30 p.m., playing at the LA-LA Land Art Gallery, located at 6450 Santa Monica Blvd. in Los Angeles. For ticket reservation, log on to www.lalalandgallery.com or www.hff17.com/4782