Review: Alec Mapa Has No! Filter! During HA! PENIS! at The Laurie Beechman Theatre

Filipino funny man and show business stalwart, Alec Mapa, had a chance to try out some new material over the weekend at the Laurie Beechman Theatre inside of West Bank Cafe on 42nd Street (Filipino-American, to be clear).  Walking into the club that so many people adore, I knew this was new material because there was a music stand on the stage.  It had been a while since I was in The Beechman, and my first thought was about how much I love this room.  It is such a warm, inviting room where I have seen some truly great cabaret, from singers to burlesque artists, from drag to comedy.  Indeed, this is where Joan Rivers used to try out her new material, which is why I recognized the New Material Music Stand that Mr. Mapa would employ for his show.  I was excited.  I love stand-up, and I love new material.  You get a chance to really see the artist at work, to see their unfiltered reaction to their audience’s unfiltered reaction.  It is like watching the painter put the oil onto the canvas or the sculptor mold the clay, only with laughs.  The only thing is that moniker: stand-up comic.  Alec Mapa is many things - an actor, an activist, a stand-up, a storyteller.  And this new show HA!  PENIS! is a storytelling show.  A hi-ho-larious, naughty, honest, vulgar, authentic, even edgy storytelling show.  The reason I say it is “even” edgy is because it isn’t SUPER edgy… anyone who has ever seen Alec Mapa in action knows, walking in the door, what they are going to get: uncensored, unfiltered, brassy, brazen Alec Mapa in all his authenticity.  At this point, Alec Mapa is a known entity, a recognized brand, a style to which we have become accustomed.  Like any good stand-up/storyteller, Maps isn’t afraid to say it… any of it.   He isn’t afraid to “go there” - and he does go there, which is part of the deliriously delicious equation that makes him a star.  And he is a star.  He is not the star he should be (one of the stories in Ha! Penis! outlines his shot at becoming a star being sidelined by a studio choice) but he is a star, which would account for the healthy sized audience he had on Friday night, there to revel in the beauty of his wicked wit, gay glory, loud laugh, and cancer story.  That’s right.  A major part of Alec Mapa’s latest storytelling show is his battle with cancer.  Spoiler alert:  he is now cancer free.

That will be the only spoiler in this review. 

Out of respect for Alec Mapa and future audiences, I will reserve all details regarding the details of the set.  I will confine myself to saying (by way of a kind of teaser) that Alec Mapa talks about cancer, his family, his youth, show business, auditions, celebrities, underwear, sex, racism, homosexuality, politics, and gym class.  He talks to the audience, he works with the audience, and he teases the audience - and they love it.  They love him, in all his Puckish, queer, honest, vulnerable, defiant, crass-y, classy, showbizzy, fabulosity - and well they should.  He is a master storyteller possessing of impressive skills as a writer (even with occasional cheats at his notes, the script is solidly in place) and gifted style as an orator - there are times when he goes off script for in-real-time comedy like the discovery of a pre-teen-year-old in the audience on Friday night, and the on-the-spot comedy that ensued would only be possible from a truly genius public speaker.  As an actor, his timing is beyond reproach, as evidenced by the sen-freaking-sational final moments of the comedy outing.  And as a personality, he is that wonderful and difficult to attain balance of larger-than-life and well-contained.  Sometimes in life there are personalities so much bigger than the rest of the world that they effectively suck all of the air out of the room and, subsequently, all of the energy out of the audience.  Not so with Alec Mapa.  Although diminutive of stature, he is a titan of personality, but he never overpowers or exhausts his audience, except for those moments when it becomes impossible to breathe because of minute after minute after minute of sustained laughter.  With this extremely personal new show, Alec Mapa demonstrates not only what stand-up comedy is, but what stand-up comedy is for.  This is the kind of storytelling that brings strangers in a darkened room together.  It is the kind of comedy that gives listeners strength and fortitude (not to mention joy) to go out and fight their own fights.  You know that thing they say about laughter being the best medicine?  Well, clearly, in his own life, that is true of Alec Mapa but it has to be said that anyone at the September 20th show who had just wrapped up a long, hard week, started their weekend on a high note, free of care, absent of woe, and determined to stay on the Ha! Penis! high, something we can all aspire to on an ongoing basis.  When Mapa and Ha! Penis! come to your town, get on that high.

Alec Mapa has a website HERE.

See shows at The Laurie Beechman or have a great meal at the West Bank Cafe, website HERE.

There is a star-studded benefit planned for October 8th to save the West Bank from closing its doors, as well as a crowdfunding campaign.  All information can be found HERE and HERE, respectively.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

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