Celebrity Autobiography uses Celebrities’ Own Words to Great Comedic Effect

We all could use a laugh these days. That only partially explains the sold-out performance of Celebrity Autobiography on Saturday, March 4th at Landmark on Main Street’s Jeanne Rimsky theater. The rest of the explanation is surely due to a stellar, and well-known cast, including Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats and Dogs), Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid), Jennifer Tilly (Bullets Over Broadway), and co-creators of Celebrity Autobiography, Eugene Pack and Dayle Reyfel.

The premise was simple – The results were not. The idea is that actors would read portions of celebrity autobiographies. The autobiographies were not written to be humorous, but somehow, when excerpted by a comedic actor the passages became hilarious.

One of the creators, Eugene Pack, introduced the show and reminded the audience that every word they would hear was from an actual celebrity autobiography… in the celebrity’s own words. First up was Ralph Macchio, reading an excerpt from David Hasslehoff’s “Don’t Hassle the Hoff.” (Yes, many of these autobiographies had titles as ridiculous as this one.)

The actors, singly or in groups, took the stage to read from the autobiographies. We heard from Kris Jenner (by Jennifer Tilly), Susan Lucci (hysterically portrayed by Mario Cantone) and Little House on the Prairie star, Melissa Gilbert (read by Janeane Garofolo). We heard about how Dolly Parton (read by Dayle Reyfel) keeps her weight in check by just chewing food without swallowing it, for example. The excerpts themselves were funny but the delivery is what really made the show a treat. We were treated to the poetry of Suzanne Somers (yes, she apparently wrote a book of poetry), and the musings of Ivanka Trump.

But by far the best part of the show were the mashups, which were excerpts from several (sometimes related, sometimes unrelated) autobiographies that several cast members performed together. The first was a musical mashup, featuring the words of Ricky Martin, Beyonce, Dolly Parton, and Michael Buble. The juxtaposition of the excerpts was brilliantly done, making them funnier together than they would have been alone. The second mashup was sports-related, and had me in tears from laughing so hard at Mario Cantone’s hilarious (and sexualized) reading of Tiger Woods' description of how he putts, along with the words of Arnold Schwartzenegger, Joe Namath, and Kate Hudson. A two-actor exploration of the relationship (you may not have even known there was one) between Liza Minelli and Geraldo Rivera was both funny and enlightening. But it was the last and most complex mashup, including all cast members, that really showed how this medium could shine. Reading from several different autobiographies, the cast examined the complicated and intertwined relationships of Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, Mike Todd, Eddie Fisher, and Richard Burton. Truly amazing.

Landmark’s next comedy performance is Ladies of Laughter on May 20th. Don’t miss Landmark’s next musical performance by the talented multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Sarah Jarosz, with special guest 10 String Symphony, next Friday, March 17th. For more information on these and upcoming shows, visit www.landmarkonmainstreet.org.

Photo Credit - Carole McDonald.