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Live at the Public: Danny Hoch and His Hilarious Friends
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Danny Hoch as Stuart, a multitasking real estate tycoon
If you’re a die-hard New Yorker, you’re probably planning to skip the Thanksgiving week blockbusters. But do head to the Public Theater to see “Taking Over,” Danny Hoch’s bitingly hilarious one-man show about gentrification in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. And if you’re new to New York, or maybe a visitor—trying to figure out what this crazy town is all about—you definitely need to be there.
“Taking Over,” offers the most searing and on-target look at New York, since “Do the Right Thing,” Spike Lee’s lyrical but incinerating take on Bedford-Stuyvesant, came to movie theaters way back in 1989.
In hip-hop actor and writer Hoch's live show at the Public, you’ll meet the denizens of Williamsburg, a diverse crowd of crazies including: Robert, Francque, Marion, Kiko, Stuart, El Dispatcher and—my favorite—Launch Missiles Critical, each of whom inhabits the body of Danny Hoch as completely as a twenty-four-hour virus in mid-January.
First up is Williamsburg Community Day emcee, beer-swigging Robert, who’s half-Polish, half-Puerto Rican and 100% furious. In his thick Brooklyn accent and pugilistic style, Robert quizzes the audience about its ethnic and geographic origins and announces who’s allowed to stay and who (according to him) should leave. “California’s in the house! … Black peoples, where you at? ... Get the f**k out of here, New Hampshire!”
Robert—a born-and-bred-Williamsburger—is about to be evicted from his apartment, to make way for the high rent crowd. He cannot abide yuppies, “eating marinated, grilled squid and fig salad—who eats that s**t?” and artists, “making sculptures in the middle of the sidewalk!”
Robert will put you on edge and on notice. This isn’t going to be one of those feel good holiday shows. This isn’t thanks-for-giving. It’s thanks, but no thanks! Now that we’ve got that straight, anyone who wants to bolt, the door is that way. For the rest, you’ll be laughing, moaning and seething about these characters for a long time.
The folks who populate Hock’s Williamsburg are locked in head-to-head combat—it’s a culture war and a class war, but most all, it’s a war of wits and witticisms. For every disgruntled character from the ‘hood, like Robert, there’s a grinning newcomer like Franque, the French real estate broker, who tells prospective condo buyers that the new, gentrified neighborhood is so much better than the old one because, “Before, everyone was depressed…because there was no shopping!” (Big, winning smile.)
Marion, a long-time resident and a middle-aged black woman, sits on her stoop, sipping coffee and gossiping with the neighbors about the new folks or the “resident tourists” as she calls them. “I’m trying to figure out which ones are really rich but dress poor—which ones are middle class but dress poor—and which ones are from a trailer park but dress poor so they can pass for rich!” she says.
Despite Marion’s powerful presence, none of the newcomers to Williamsburg ever seem to notice her. When she walks into an elegant French bakery where almond croissants sell for $4 a piece, the sales staff and patrons stare straight through her. “I don’t exist,” she explains to her friend later. And since she is invisible to these newcomers, she is able to take croissants off the counter and leave without paying—small recompense for an overwhelming put-down…but still a delicious revenge.
One of the most wrenching characters is Kiko, fresh out of the slammer, after being locked up for 15 years. Now he’s back home with his mom. “See that lady in the window? That’s my mother right there. She’s scared to go outside still, from the crack epidemic in the 80s,” he tells a guy on the street, who’s part of a movie crew, shooting on his block.
Kiko’s eager for a job and desperate for somebody to talk to. “Need a security guard? I’ll protect you!” he offers hopefully.
But there’s no answer. The movie guy’s busy with his cell phone. Kiko waits patiently, then tries again--what about a carpet cutter? “They taught me carpet cutting in prison—but everything around here is hardwood floors now.”
Still no answer. “How about somebody to carry all those water bottles you got stacked over there? You don’t even need to pay me, man. I’ll do it for free. Just let me move the waters around from here to there!”
As the film guy continues to ignore him, Kiko becomes increasingly distraught and bug-eyed, until suddenly he snaps and starts shouting—a mistake he regrets, seconds later.
Then there’s Stuart, a real estate tycoon dressed in workout clothes, who’s big on multitasking. He’s training with his yoga instructor, rolling around on a big purple ball and shouting instructions to his assistant, while being interviewed by a reporter. “It’s an insurgent neighborhood,” he tells her…then quickly corrects himself, “I mean resurgent.”
And there’s El Dispatcher, a fast-talking Dominican guy, who sits in front of a microphone, ordering around the crew of Puerto Rican, Ecuadoran and Mexican cab drivers that works for him.
“59, 59, 59! Where are you 59?” he shouts in rapid fire Spanish. (Subtitles appear over his head.) He sucks up to his white clients, and to his drivers preaches a quirky form of deference. “We have the privilege of serving these dumb, drunk, white kids…vampires…or whatever they are!”
The names he’s given his children? Ashley and Justin. And he forbids them to speak Spanish, of course.
Funniest of all is a revolutionary hip-hop artist named Launch Missiles Critical, who stomps around in fatigues and ammo, accusing people who haven’t read Noam Chomsky of being queer. For all his macho swagger, Launch is reduced to performing at the New Age Galapagos Art Space, since all the street corners in Williamsburg have been usurped by French cafes. “Sunday night is the Post-It literature series,” he announces with gravitas, “and the Low-Fat Milk Dance Company.”
Although “Taking Over” chooses the gentrification wars of Williamsburg, Brooklyn as its subject, the show is also about something bigger and more insidious. It’s about invisibility and the process that renders people irrelevant to those around them. Maybe we laugh so hard over Robert, Marion, Kiko and Launch Missiles Critical because deep down we know the same thing could happen to us someday. It doesn’t take much to become poor enough, old enough or simply un-trendy enough to turn into a ghost in New York City, or anywhere in America.
With his in-your-face comedy, Hoch knows just how to counter that. His characters demand to be seen. There’s no way in hell you’re going to erase me and my friends! he wants us to know. And once we take a look at those faces, the battle is half won.
Writer Ralph Ellison, who first named the problem in his classic 1952 novel, “Invisible Man,” implicitly offered the solution when he said, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”
“Taking Over” will make you laugh painfully hard and open your eyes—at the same time. Thanks to Hoch, everyone's a little further down the path toward visibility now.
Taking Over is at the Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC 10003. 212-539-8500
Performances run until December 21. Tickets: full price $60-$70. Students $25. Rush tickets $20. (Check the Public's website for dates, times and ticket details.)
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