Review: Burning Man Redux

Critic’s Pick

Tommy Nugent has come to Burning Man Redux after nearly 20 years of preaching, orating or creating theater. It would take that much public speaking — and life experience — to allow someone to be so utterly comfortable standing in front of a group of strangers and telling in full detail the happy, sad and surreal chapters of his life. Make no mistake: As with last year’s Tommy Nugent’s The Show, Burning Man Redux walks a fine line. Is it theater or motivational speaking? Is it stand-up comedy or an indoor busk act? The accurate answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

Fringe vet and Detroit native (although he adoringly calls Cincinnati a second home), Nugent built Redux, his third solo performance piece, around his return trip to the annual Burning Man festival in Nevada. His first venture there resulted in his first performance piece, after a life-changing epiphany in the desert. Surely, he figured when planning his trek, a return trip could at least inspire a good Fringe-worthy script. The truth is, it does.

Like a Fringe version of Garrison Keillor, Nugent is really just a good storyteller. So the meat and most satisfying moments of the show are when he simply spins tales. He talked of his early years as a “child of God,” and how that led him to start an inner-city faith community in Detroit. His childhood descriptions of the concept of hell should poke the funny bone of any lifelong Christian in the audience. That whole threat of burning for an eternity in hell circled back in his life, time and again. After a particularly painful life episode, however, he made the decision to abandon religion entirely.

That led to his first Burning Man trip, where he grimly came to grips with his own mortality. Without religion as his safety net, death suddenly was a very lonely prospect. The morbidity of the first trip almost necessitated a return. This time, he would find enlightenment, possibly in a bowl of cereal.

Nugent does a nice job of interweaving details of the circus atmosphere of the Burning Man festival — Cheez Whiz nipple lady, for starters — with the profound emotional experience he was going through at the time. And that’s very much what he does best: Without pretension and without trying too hard, he simply invites the audience into his head. His aw-shucks personality keeps things light and loose, and the demons he tackles keep things meaningful. That’s the major difference between the Tommy Nugent productions of this year and last. Last year was a little too introspective without enough of his trademark casual banter.

For Fringe 2008, Nugent makes it look easy and fun. To that end, the hyper-theatrical tricks that open and close the show (involving razor blade and balloon “sword” swallowing — I’m not kidding) are almost completely unnecessary. They and his opening prayer are sort of cheap gimmicks compared to when he lets go and gets real. It’s only then that he burns down the house.

— Rodger Pille

Comments

[Phillip Markou]

Reverend Nugent certainly spins a tale and keeps one entertained...Fringe at it's finest.