The print., March 11, 1981, Page 6, Image 6

Andy Byron:
country satire
By R.W. Greene
Of The Print
Imagine the dulcet har­
monies of Crosby, Stills and
Nash singing the chorus from
“Helplessly Hoping” on their
first album. Got it? Now replace
those lyrics with the following:
We are one deoderant/We are
two economical sizes/We are
three fragrances/We are for-
oor/Your pits.
No, it’s not the outtakes from a
Chevy Chase nightmare, not
even 15-year old Firesign
Theater on KRLA. It’s just part
of the abysmally funny talents
of Andy Byron who played his
band Monday noon in the
Frisbee pit.
Byron is a genial young
man with an incredible sholck
of red hair, a guitar player
about seven years in the
business. Although his current
band’s lineup of bass, electric
guitar and giant cowboy hat
has been together only for
three weeks, they are already
in the middle of a month-long
tour of Northwest colleges.
It is difficult to describe exact­
ly what Byron does. It’s a sort
of mishmash of country­
western, redneck tunes,
satirical rock and tongue-in-
cheek lampooning. Byron and
band played a number of songs
straight ahead, among them
Michael Murphey’s “Cosmic
Cowboy” and Steve Good­
man’s “Men Who Love
Women,” and these had a
definite charm to them—but
the comedy was, by far, the
more interesting.
Besides CS and N for Soft
and Dri, the band also pulled
off Neil Young for Coca Cola,
John Denver for Sominex, and
both the Stones and the
Beatles advertising McDonald’s
(“Lady McDonald/French fries
at your feet...”). They also
managed to pull off an
agreeably tasteless number
Andy Byron dreams of ‘red-hot women’ and ‘ice-cold beef.’
about Claudine Longet and
Spider Sabich.
Byron is from Sherman
Oaks, Calif. < where he has
played the folkie/bar scene for
a number of years. But he has
grown tired of the bar scene,
where, he says, “you have to
fight
for
everybody’s
attention,” and has found the
college circuit to be a good
change. The people are at least
partially alert, “and they’re
much more receptive.”
Although his schedule this
week includes OIT and SOSC,
he says that he still has a lot of •
dead time, a situation he plans
to correct as he gains more ex­
perience on, the college circuit.
Comedy graced with direction, style, pace, wit
By J. Dana Haynes
Of The Print
Last week, Director Jenny
Mahali.launched her second
on-campus show of the year,
“Play It Again, Sam.”
“Sam” is a Woody Allen
play, and one graced with a
script so good, one would have
to try to be bad in it. And this
rendering was quite good.
This comedy is about Allen
Felix, a vintage Woody Allen
character. He is short, Jewish,
insecure, soul-searching and
lousy, with women. When the
show opens, Felix (Rod
Ragsdale) has just gone
through a divorce and is stuck
in the all-too-common position
of trying to start over. To help
survive, Felix, (who writes
reviews for a movie fanzine)
conjures up the imaginary im­
age of his hero, Humphrey
Bogart. Then, with the help of
his best friends, Dick (Sean
Carlson) and Linda (Tina
Riggs) Christie, Felix enters the
nether-world of singles bars
and blind dates. With the aid of
his bogus Bogart’s strong-
silent-type advice, Felix makes
a concentrated, and hilarious
effort to become a lady killer.
The shining lights in “Sam”
are Felix’s ex-wife, Nancy,
Felix’s blind date, Sharon
Lake, and Vanessa, a Spanish
coquette. These three ladies
are played for pure laughs, and
spice up the show that other­
wise has a tendency to slow
down. Incidentally, Nancy,
Sharon and Vanessa are all
played by Amy DeVour.
This' is DeVour’s second
show in McLoughlin Hall. She
worked withsDirector Mahali in -
last term’s production of Ten­
nessee Williams’ “The Glass
Menagerie.” Amy played the
crippled sister, Laura. There,
DeVour often looked nervous s
or unsure of herself. It ap­
peared that Williams’ heavy,
dramatic script was ill-suited to
her style.
Concert Choir performs at Monday night concert.
Page 6
But Woody Allen’s snappy
patter, fast-paced humor and
bright, imaginative characters
seem perfectly suited to
DeVour’s style.-AU three of her
characters are lively and ef­
fervescent; She brings forth
three entirely different
characters, each with her own
charisma and idiosyncrasies
(although, granted: the third
character is comprised of one
30-sécond monologue).
The lead female role, Linda
Christie, is portrayed convinc­
ingly by Tina Riggs. Her
character is Felix’s alter ego;
equally insecure and equally
searching .< Tina’s performance
is even and* steady, and she
shows a definite interest in Lin­
da’s welfare. One could easily
belive that Tina cares about her
character’s problems. It shows
iri her performance.
- Quite unfortunately, the one
true weak link in the show is
Felix, the lead character. Rod
Ragsdale has obviously had a
great deal of experience on
stage, and his maturity and tim­
ing are a bonus. But his
delivery lacks. Felix’s very first
line teeters on the brink of
tears, and maintains that level
in a high-pitched whine that
lasts throughout the final
scene. By the end of act one,
Felix’s voice begins to wear on
one’s nerves.
But Ragsdale partially
redeems his vocal faults with
fairly good delivery. His perfor­
mance is not disastrous, but it
does distract from the apprecia­
tion of the show.
The only other major
character is Dick Christie,
played by Sean Carlson. Like
DeVour, Carlson was in the fall
term’s “The Glass Menagerie.”
And like DeVour, Carlson
seems a great deal more com­
fortable with light comedy.
Christie is a workaholic, and
Carlson plays him with
humorous, if uninspired,
charm'.
The main catalyst of the plot
is, of course, Bogey. Joe -
Schneck plays the imaginary
Hollywood character to a “T,”
understating his “macho”
chauvanism perfectly. At one
point, Bogart/Schenck tells
Felix/Ragsdale that he’d never
met a “dame” who didn’t
understand, a slap in theface.
Yet, it would .be easy to play
Bogey for laughs, using “kid,” 1
or “blue eyes” every other line,
and broadening the character
into a star. But here, Mahali’s
experience as an actress and
(more importantly) a director
shines through. Understate­
ment in an amateur perfor­
mance is a rariety and a joy.
All told, “Play Jt Again,
Sam’” was a thoroughly
delightful show. For those who
were unfortunate enough to
miss it, Mahali and crew will
take it on the road to Cannon
Beach, March 26, 27, and 28.
DeWolfe presents three greats
Some of the greatest films
ever made will be projected
next term in the last of the
three-part series on great direc­
tors. First on Ford, then on
Huston, the last in the trio will
focus on films made by
Howard Hawks, Stanley
Kubrick, and Sam-Peckinpah,
three of America’s pivotal
directors.
Each director focused his
films on violence, either direct­
ly or indirectly. Of the three,
Howard Hawks has mastered
the most genres. A narrative
and psychological craftsman,
Hawks essentially believed in-
the faith and trust one human
being extended to another. He
also maintained that man
should test his toughness in ac­
tion, and yet retain a sense of
humanity about it.
Stanley Kubrick likes to trap
his characters in an insane
situation and then watch them
evolve from that. Again, many
of Kubrick’s films dealt with
violent situations such as the in­
sanity of war, nuclear war,
organized crime, isolation, and
cultural suffocation.
Sam Peckinpah looked at
the demise of the Western spirit
arid man’s inevitability of
violence. Peckinpah has focus­
ed most often on the war film
and the Western, where
violence most occurs.
The film schedule includes
“Red River,” “The Wild
Bunch,” “Only Angels Have
Wings,” '“Ride the High Coun­
try,” “Paths of Glory,” “Dr.
Strangelove,” and “The Bio
Sleep.”
The class, headed by Fred
DeWolfe and Ted Mahar, is
taught Monday from 6:30 to
9:30 p.m. As necessary, a $10
fee is required in order to get
these films.
Clackamas Community College