Sketch comedy has become a popular late night/weeknight addition to our
local small theater scene. Now gay and lesbian theatergoers have their very
own sketch troupe, the funny gang of eight who call themselves The Gay
Mafia. Their latest hour of outrageous skits is cleverly entitled Nu-Queer Winter,
and while not at the level of Saturday Night Live and Mad TV, these out
performers have put together a fun 60 minutes of comedic (and very adult)
entertainment.

The prudish are therefore advised to skip over the following sketch highlights.
They include:

•        The Dr. Ted Show, with creator/director Mike Player as Ted Haggard, now
a talk show host, cured (in just three weeks) of his homosexuality thanks to
Sylvain Learning Centers!

•        Poncho and caftan wearing lesbians taking center stage in Menses
Minstrels. Starr Ahrens, Nancy Kissam, and Diana Yanez on guitar sing “Spiritual
Juices” and celebrate their simultaneous periods.  “We started menstruating
on our first date!” brags one, while another declares, “I’m so excited that I just
may start menstruating now!”

•        Sergio’s Place, which imagines an America with Dennis Kucinich  (Kissam)
as President, performing the first White House wedding of two Korean War
vets.  (Allie Rivenbank appears in this one as a character dubbed Party Nurse.)

•        Kissam as limbless Margaret Tremont Forrester, seated atop a child’s red
wagon and addressing the Oral Roberts University class of 2008. “You’re
probably wondering, was it a horrible accident?  Was it the work of natives?”

•        Kurt Hall down in gay-unfriendly Florida  on his last day in class as The
Music Teacher. “Remember when I told you that I had a husband and that
was okay?  Well, your parents didn’t agree.”

•        Mike Player, Mark Rakow, and Alex Garner as Straight Guys Who Have
Sex With Men.  “Sometimes the only way to stay warm on an oil rig is to have
anal intercourse,” confesses Player.

•        Hot bodded Garner shining in a pair of solo skits, first as The Gay Mariachi,
gaily adorned in a tight tanktop, short shorts, and sombrero, and later as Gay
Presidential Candidate (and WeHo City Councilman) Jack Belvedere, who
declares, “I don’t have the benefit of being a black man, and I don’t have
the benefit of being a white woman … but I do have the benefit of being a
white man!”

•        Starr Ahrens and Kissam as vapid valley girls in Oh My God! (One of them
saw a cute boy who turned out to be a girl, and now tells the other, “I’m
going to have to learn to muff dive!”)

•        Funky Fag Hag, starring Hall as LISP, the gay rapper (“F-A-G to the H-A-
G”) and Yanez as his Fag Hag sidekick.

Though a couple of the Gay Mafia seemed a bit shaky with their lines at
tonight's performance, perhaps due to not having done the show since pre-
Christmas, Nu-Queer Winter is, overall, an entertaining addition to the sketch
comedy scene, and one that will be especially welcomed by gay and lesbian
audiences. (Straight but not narrow folk will likely have a good time as well.)

Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood.  Wednesdays through
January 23 @ 8:00.
For tickets or additional information, please call (323) 634-2820 or visit
www.thegaymafia.net

--Steven Stanley
     January 9, 2008