Center
Stage with
THEATRE REVIEW:
“Robert Dubac’s Male
Intellect: The 2nd Coming” – Miracle Theatre Productions at the
Lyceum Theatre
AIRDATE: JULY 4, 2008
Prepare yourself for The Second Coming – Dubac
is back! That’s Robert Dubac, the smart, funny,
perceptive, incisive, ever-searching and always-skeptical writer/comedian/
magician, who has a lot more to tell
us about males and females, Bush and Pavlov, Freud and his own
tell-it-like-it-is/no-holds-barred Uncle Bobby. His first one-man show -- part
stand-up comedy routine, part ‘Men are From Mars’ instruction manual – was
provocatively titled “The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron.” For his new show,
“Robert Dubac’s Male Intellect: The 2nd
Coming,” he spends the first act giving us the best of his last show. Which isn’t all bad., since the
best stuff is mighty good, and I liked this condensed version a whole lot
better than the other one in its entirety – though that show has toured more
than 500 American cities and ten other countries. Dubac
is already at work on the final part of his trilogy, called ‘Piss and Moan.’
But that’s another show for another day.
Right now, in “The 2nd Coming,” brought to us by Miracle
Theatre Productions, we learn once again about the male and female brain, and
the female side of the male brain, in Dubac’s eternal
and elusive pursuit of What Women Want. Once he gets men to get in touch with
their more feminine side, they can achieve a sense of Balance that allows them
to walk through the Door of Truth. And that’s where Act 2 begins, with a
hilarious diatribe on things personal, political and philosophical. Dubac relishes talking about the four things that are never supposed to be brought up in dinner-table
conversation: sex, race, politics and religion. For instance, one thing he
thinks we need is “to focus on the ‘fun’
in fundamentalism, not the ‘mental.”
And, he asks: “Do we need gay people in the military? Most
assuredly. Because when we slip it to countries like
Morphing into a slew of comical if sometimes stereotypical characters,
from a tobacco-chewing redneck to a limp-wristed metrosexual,
and periodically demonstrating his delightful sleight-of-hand, Dubac rails against our cultural hypocrisies, gleefully
skewering the media, consumerism, political correctness and the daily onslaught
of “propaganda” we’re force-fed in the name of news, fact and infotainment. His
highly amped, machine-gun delivery is an assault of its own, but of the witty,
clever, word-and-idea-drunk variety.
Be forewarned: This is not mindless humor, and it’s not for the faint of
heart. In his attempt to encourage us to think outside the box, Dubac hovers on the edge of the comfort zone. If you don’t
want your sacred cows tipped, stay home, scratch your belly and crack open a brewski. But if you’re open to this engaging,
multiple-personality wise-guy, you may laugh yourself silly, though he’ll have
you thinking all the while, and all the way home.
"Robert
Dubac’s Male
Intellect: The 2nd Coming" has been extended through July
27 at the Lyceum Theatre in
©2008 PAT LAUNER