Todd Edwards is a filmmaker and comedy writer I met through our sons being at the same pre-school. He's from the midwest, where he made an indy film called Chillicothe, which went to Sundance and got a lot of attention. Todd and brother Cory then made Hoodwinked (2005), a feature length animated film which gained distribution with the Weinsteins and did big box office. Todd has since made another indy feature called Jeffy Was Here, a music video for the Hansens, he writes constantly and has several projects in the pipeline. In his spare time, or to create an outlet for his ideas outside the sometimes slow process of studio greenlighting, Todd decided to present a night of his monologues, which took place on Monday, April 9th at the Improv Lab on Melrose in Los Angeles. The event was a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Los Angeles. I thought we might see Todd do several long pieces ala Spalding Gray, but instead he curated a set of pieces by eleven talented performers, largely of his own writing. It was a variety show, almost like a radio show, revolving around the core of Todd's formidable talent.
LET'S BE FRANK opened with a musical introduction by Frank Simes, the only true Frank on the bill. Frank played amplified acoustic guitar and sang two songs, I IMAGINED YOU and TOUCH ME NOW, both examples of his power pop talent earned from 30 years in the Los Angeles music scene. It would make a nice opening to any Hollywood evening, Frank's music being so well rooted in the clubs and stages of this town, besides being freshly returned from a tour of Italy with Roger Daltrey's band. The chorus of I IMAGINED YOU has been running through my head ever since.
Next, Todd hit the stage, dressed in the 80's finery of a leather jacket with sleeves pushed up and a kamikaze headband, to tell us the story RECORDS, about a sad sack who lost his record collection to an ex-girlfriend. Deciding to re-take his collection, he stands outside her apartment with field glasses and explains the convoluted reasoning behind his predicament. The absurd honesty of the character's self-absorption is familiar to any of us who live in our heads and depend on others being "less smart" than ourselves. Stalking appeared as a theme across the evening, in the over-the-top physical comedy of Vanessa Ragland, whose FRANKIE loudly pantomimed a hussy's unelegant attempts to mate at a dance bar, and with Katie Hooten she drawled the hip-hoppish girl duo music video HEY BOY, warning a one-time lover of how she would return to fuck up his world. FRANKIE and HEY BOY, written by Ragland and Hooten, who just happens to be Todd's sister, are both Fatal Attraction nightmares. The night could have been dubbed STALKERS, a night of monologues.
Cooper Thornton did a great Marine commander in MOON ATTACK, the pep talk given to a squad of soldiers preparing to offload on the moon and fight a group of threatening aliens. Again, Edwards' non-stop twisted reasoning corners the listener at the corner of fucked-up and funny. The story is a twist to the homophobic and plays well in our era of Santorum. A simple bleak drone in the background created an appropriate doomsday vibe.
Phil Lamarr performed POET, a spoof of radical chic poetry crossed with a pop culture crash on Billy Joel's ass. His delivery was a Howl and hootin was had later on. Jeff Grace did Todd's ORIENTATION, advising the audience as a group of maternity ward babies on the dos and don'ts of joining the general population. Samm Levine and Vanessa Ragland (again!) did a spoof of the I Can't Believe It's Not Butter commercial, each trying to overreach the other on how buttery or not the darn stuff might be.
There was not an INTERMISSION. But then Todd was back in a gentile wig and light blue windbreaker for SMUT CUTTERS, his portrayal of a religious video editor on the phone assuring a client he could and would rake any improper languange, violence, nudity or sexual situations from their movies, although he might also masterbate. Tim Hooten, the evening's MC and host/representative for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, blasted us with a parody of his own doctor's visit, when he was informed of his own leukemia. Fortunately, I have drunk beers with this man and know when he's being funny. In much of the evening's work there was a thin line between humor and frightening, and thus: LET'S BE FRANK. Todd and Tim and Vanessa and Katie are Seriously Funny, to quote the title of a book on the great American comics of the 50's and 60's (George Carlin, Woody Allen, Syd Ceasar, Lennie Bruce, among others). Finally, Cristine Rose turned the night upside down with GRAND OPENING, the hilarious telephonic brainstorm of a businesswoman trying to create an unforgettable store opening and throwing the kitchen sink at the problem.
Much of Todd Edwards' work depends on his deep resources for conjuring laundry lists of absurd ideas and situations, akin perhaps to another FRANK: the great radio theaterist Joe Frank, heard for many years on Pacifica Radio. Todd put together a night of entertainment that flowed like a radio show. There were many clever musical cues. He made it look easy to put on this kind of show and I could imagine him doing it again and again. A curator of smiles to beat the shit out of cancer.
