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A talented trio breathes new life into pot humor.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The narrow, winding staircase that descends into the subterranean theater at off-Broadway's venerable Actors' Playhouse goes a bit deeper underground these days.
At the bottom, the new three-man comedy "The Marijuana-Logues" is emitting an air that is slightly subversive and laughter-inducing.
Comedians Arj Barker, Doug Benson and Tony Camin parody Eve Ensler's hit, "Vagina Monologues," with fast-moving stories, sketches and observations about the life of a pot smoker. They begin the show by unashamedly and lovingly repeating the m-word in express resistance to societal taboos and drug laws.
The actors, all seasoned stand-up comics, have the appearance of passive revolutionaries -- shoeless and dressed entirely in black except for thick white athletic socks. Besides scoffing at the illegality of their subject, the men defy basic conventions of stand-up by performing from high stools and reading their material from bulky black binders.
Seamless flow
One monologue flows seamlessly into the next under the direction of Jim Millan, best known for his work on the television series "The Kids in the Hall."
The topic has been well-hashed over by many comedians, though maybe never quite to this extent. Some of the material does seem familiar. There are the proverbial jokes ending in cookie-dough ice cream punch lines or truncated by feigned short-term memory loss, as well as a George Carlinesque list of common, and not so common, marijuana synonyms.
But this talented and complementary trio breathes new life into pot humor. The inventive writing includes a sketch on things pot would say if it could speak, Camin's rationalizations for smoking so much and Barker's "herb-an" poetry jam. Barker also puts on an irresistibly funny British accent to take us back in time 300 years to attend a wild "Bach concert."
Disclaimer
The show comes with the disclaimer that it doesn't intend to glorify drug use but rather to bring to light the funny peculiarities of "cannabis culture." At the outset, the performers explain the monologues are based on countless interviews with stoners of all denominations, allowing themselves a certain theoretical distance from the characters they portray.