The Confession Stand
ACME Comedy Players
The Avenue Theater
2119 E 17 Ave

Bovine Metropolis has etched a permanent laughline on the face of Cowtown Theatre. Home of The Sanscript Players, Player's Workshop West, and the critically acclaimed ACME Comedy Players, Bovine are the instigators of wicked wit, original song & dance numbers (emphasis on "original") and sketches referred to as a "Comedy Revue."

Director and owner Eric Farone, a veteran of Second City Chicago, The Improv Olympics, and Player's Workshop has leased out the theater space -- formerly known as "The Changing Scene" at 1527 Champa Street in downtown Denver -- with wife and marketing director Denise Maes. Previously run by theater icons Alfred Brooks and Maxine Munt for over 30 years, the doors will re-open as the "Bovine Metropolis Theatre" May 5.

Bovine's latest production, "The Confession Stand," consists of vignettes of fantasy life peppered with reality a la Walter Mitty. There is multi-layered subliminal humor that appeals to both the comedic challenged and the MENSA of manic.

Putting the "fun" in dysfunctional, the show's upbeat pace, frantic costume and character changes and live music by Michael J. Lansville are a marvel to behold. There are several things going on at once and this works exceptionally well, especially if one has Attention Deficit Disorder.

"The Confession Stand" opens with the individual characters coming on stage repeating a short phrase or word in some kind of demented mantra. Initially it doesn't make a lick of sense, but as the revue progresses everything begins to fall in place.

There are breaks in the storyline filled with brilliant song and dance diversions, including "Stuck In Wrestling" as two WWFers lament on their lifestyle while grappling with each other. Another number that sticks out is "Lotto," with a bunch of Georgia 12-steppers dreaming of Utopia. Also noteworthy are a pair of lesbian cowgirl lounge singers (think Indigo with a twang). There is also a spoof of a pharmaceutical product television commercial where the side affects of the medicine are worse than the disease.

Our story begins with career day at the local school with Daniel Grant as Mr. Fletcher, a CPA who actually reveres his own job. Grant has nerdism defined to an art. Later on in the show we discover his son Spleef, a whitebread Rasta charmer portrayed by newcomer Chris Berliner, is the apparent inherent to his frustrated father's business. Spleef turns out to be a closet yuppie who puts his natural acumen for weights and measures to good use in the end, switching from ganja to decimals.

The predominant and unforgettable character is Jason T. Rudofsky as Russ the rodeo clown who stalks the stage informing the audience he is not funny (which of course renders the opposite effect). His disgust with "circus" clowns is evident and it is his twisted, acidic portrayal of his profession that brings the house down.

Enter Jennefer Morris as Charlotte, a disenchanted preacher's wife who likes to hold Pampered Chef parties exhorting the multiple uses of a heated, electric ice cream scoop or butter molds, perhaps in the most innovative (if not phallic) self-serving ways.

The use of innuendo rather than straight "blue" humor serves the production well. Bovine understands the playground of the mind is a much more fun place to cavort than the sewer. When the rodeo clown and the preacher's wife meet up later in a singles bar the exchange is classic.

Last and not least (and also featured in the career day scenario) is Michelle Miracle as Maxine, a somewhat dizzy suicide hotline director who runs the operation on a spare line out of the back of a sponsor's quilt shop. She practices her very low volume suicide prevention skills on "talking people out of buying a quilt."

Into that premise comes Eric Mather as AC Jacobson III fresh from the trailer park as a distraught rural croquet champion suffering from a stunning defeat of his chief rival. He and Maxine team up over the suicide hotline and the rest is history. Mather also doubles as a bumbling history teacher who is smitten with a co-worker but slips into fantasy world at the drop of a hat. Male insecurity has never been so much fun.

Not featured in this particular production were some "famous" alumni such as Jay Stickney,the "Shagman" in Rocky's Auto commercials, and Barbara Ghering, the "Hawk" in the latest independent film release in Denver "Dragon and the Hawk" (See story on page 6). This is an excellent indication that a Bovine production is a good place to catch a rising star right here in cowtown USA. "The Confession Stand" is a treat well worth standing in line for.

"The Confession Stand" runs through July 29, Wednesdays at 7:30 PM, Sundays at 2:30 PM. Tickets are $15. For reservations, call 303-758-4722.