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Performer gets risqué in new act
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(Courtesy photo)
Dirty ditties: Tom Orr says his performance melds “Hello Dolly!” and Lenny Bruce. If anybody deserves the title “King Thong,” it would have to be Tom Orr. The cabaret performer unleashes his latest revue “I Feel a Thong Coming On” in a benefit event for Human Rights Watch on Thursday at the New Conservatory Theatre Center. But Orr’s satirical romp has less to do with real undergarments than delivering solid laughs. “I have a strange, I’d like to say ‘original’ world view that, I think, makes people laugh at things that we aren’t supposed to laugh at,” admits the Bay Area native. “The essence of my comedy is that you have to laugh or this stuff is going to kill you,” he says, referring to the show’s subject matter. Designed to allow audiences to “live vicariously” though Orr’s imagination, the show is filled with risqué ditties and bawdy Broadway parodies. In other words, if “Wicked,” “Oklahoma!” “Hello, Dolly!” “Gypsy,” “Funny Girl” and “Hairspray” crawled under the covers with, say, Joan Rivers and Lenny Bruce, it might resemble something that Orr gives birth to onstage. In addition to show tunes, Orr, like “Beach Blanket Babylon” before him, incorporates current events into his act. The first act for instance ends with a gay-marriage medley. Beyond the stage, the performer is an outspoken advocate in the fight against drug use in the gay community. He says he kicked a horrible meth addiction a few years ago and, in between writing songs about recovery, he contributes his energy to a variety of outreach campaigns, including the Stonewall Project and Better World Advertising’s “Resist Meth” sites. He says he loves performing in The City because it offers him a delicious range of freedom. “I know that the material is not going to change the world, but hopefully it will make people laugh,” Orr says. “And there’s nothing more delightful than 100 people roaring with laughter.” IF YOU GOTom Orr When: Opens 8 p.m. Thursday in a benefit for Human Rights Watch; continues 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays; closes Sept. 7 Where: New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco Tickets: $18 to $28 Contact: (415) 861-8972 or visit www.nctcsf.org |
