DVD REVIEW
Maria Bamford: Plan B
Rating: 2 1/2 stars (out of 5)
By Ryan P. Carey
Maria Bamford’s one woman show is not for the easily annoyed by Maria Bamford. This seems like an obvious disclaimer which can be said for any one-person show, but Bamford’s new DVD, Plan B is light on punch lines and heavy on her shrill, over-the-top voices and faces. It takes a huge Maria Bamford fan (which I consider myself to be) to really enjoy the entire DVD.
Bamford opens up by telling the audience that those who are hoping for jokes are going to be disappointed, and then proceeds to deliver an entire show of stories about her family, mostly in the context of taking a break from comedy to go live at home with her parents for a spell. Her stories re-create the idiosyncratic tendencies of her Diet-Coke chugging mom, unhealthy doctor dad, anxiety-inducing doctor sister, the family pug, and a few childhood acquaintances.
It’s definitely a get-to-know-Maria fest, as she opens up her vulnerabilities to the audience and lets us (or, one might say, forces us to) live with her ridiculous family for an hour, and at the end you feel both sorry for her and happy that she has embraced her almost unbearable roots as a source of comfort during difficult times.
There’s a particularly telling story that she gives about being at an audition reading for a part, and the casting director says, “just be yourself…” after which she proceeds to read the part naturally, and the casting directer stops her saying, “Maria, we need the character to be likeable!” It’s a funny anecdote, but it also may help explain why five-minute spots of Bamford on TV or 20 minutes on the Comedians of Comedy Tour are amazingly hilarious, but the one-woman-show format can ruin the magic. I’m not suggesting that Bamford herself is not-funny or unlikeable, but her knack for supporting the silly voices with hilarious punch lines — or, to say it the other way around, using the silly voices as support for her jokes — is lost in this DVD where three-minute impersonations of her dad and family dog snoring are effective for sharing her life’s experience, but not very entertaining and occasionally grating.
The best part about Plan B is that a hardcore Maria Bamford fan can get up close and personal with the most eccentric comedienne out there. This show is the equivalent of sitting around a campfire listening to Bamford’s personal tales of struggling in the comedy industry, retreating to her obnoxiously quirky family in Duluth, Minnesota, and subsequent triumphant return.
Ryan P. Carey, D.D.S. is a Philadelphia-based comic and senior contributing writer for STAGE TIME. Check out his blog at http://dolphindentist.blogspot.com.
