my tired broke ass pontificating slapstick funk

haven't seen a play this enjoyable in a long time. euijoon kim, the writer of this play truly exemplifies modern day asian american males stuck in a funk. in his daily life, he encounters frustrations with his over-demanding parents & sibling, irritating neighbors, bitchy girls at the korean cafe, lame ass video store clerks and not to mention, unemployment. i was fortunate enough to see the play with euijoon himself actually portraying the main charater, eric (it's usually portrayed by john cho - asian actor in American Pie and other works). euijoon has perfected the "i don't give a shit" slouch and his facial expressions were superb.

the play begins with eric relieving himself in a korean cafe restroom and in comes a girl, karen, who couldn't wait for the girls room due to its abnormally long lines. even at their first encounter, it was all downhill but somehow they made an impression in each other's minds, even though karen had a no good son of a bitch boyfriend named brad (whom you'll never see in the play).

he continues to think about her and eventually runs into her again, along with her buddy jackie, at the video store. it was very familiar to watch their non-chalant attitudes toward each other - while all the time, they were interested in some sort of way. eric has a very funny korean american wanna be black friend named, xman. Xman is portrayed by art chudabala and what a magnificent actor he is. he brings to life the reality of the character with his speech, body language and dress.

because of the aforementioned chance encounter the two groups begin to interact with one another and we begin to see their lives unfold. i sat there in the audience relating to much of what the characters go through.

karen is constantly stressed with her so-called relationship with her player-boyfriend brad, jackie never seems to have anyone interested in her - being the loud mouth brash talker she is, x-man has to constantly put up this macho image that people expect of him and eric is just plain depressed about life since it seems to be leading nowhere. there are a few other secondary characters that add color to the play, such as jay (the nerdy friend all of us have) & julian (the actor friend).

there isn't really a particular plot to this story but rather an unveiling of a person's life as we catch glimpses into their thoughts and lives through their interactions with others. eric's neighbor is a 10 year old little girl who constantly leaves fuzzy slippers for him since her dog chews up his pair daily. she in a sense brings him to come to terms with his existence and the importance he plays in the lives of others. the ending has eric returning back to skateboarding - something he stopped doing after his back accident. i suppose in this way, he is facing his fears and realizes that there is hope in his life.

i really enjoyed it tremendously, not because of the profanity involved, but of the reality of the characters and how each one of us has some component of them in our lives. i must say though the male actors were a bit better than their female counterparts. the actress portraying jackie (alexis mao) was a bit difficult to understand because of her rapid fire speech and high pitched voice - also she didn't fit into her character as realistic as i would have liked. karen (kerry higuchi) was pretty good and although she's not a beauty or anything, it was more realistic that way.

there's still time to go see it this weekend if you missed it. hmm, maybe i'll be there again. :)