Getting to a
performance nearly three hours early can be catastrophic.
When the venue is Davenport’s, that is never even an issue.The
lovely waitstaff ushered me into the back room where Tony
Rogers had just begun the evening’s performance of “Pop
Psychology,” which runs at 7:30 p.m. every Saturday in June.
Tony Rogers is,
if you will, an amalgam of Tom Cruise’s character in “Magnolia,”
Woody Allen, and John Lennon. He is giving a “seminar” on
relationships. Armed with his guitar and with the help of
(Chicago musical mainstay) Steve Kouba, Rogers pokes fun
at the seminar convention while offering relationship advice
(some of which sounds pretty good). Rogers also uses an
overhead projector and various slides as visual aids, which
may explain why he is dressed like the audio-visual club
kids we all knew in high school.
The evening begins
with questionnaires that the audience fills out, because
there are moments of audience participation and Rogers needs
a little background on the crowd. He uses some of the answers
on the questionnaires to help improvise lines for the songs
he sings.
The songs, by
the way, are hilarious - but not by way of cheap laugh.
Rogers does not sacrifice his wit (too often) because he
seems to know that these songs can stand on their own without
stooping to base levels. There is much audience participation
throughout the course of the evening - and this is one of
the bravest audiences I have ever seen. He calls them “small,
but mighty.” I call them a good-sized crowd of people who
are not afraid to have a good time.
That is the key
to the success of the show (and it will be a success): You
can’t help but laugh out loud and feel good, even when you
spot characteristics in yourself that … well … . Rogers
has a way of making everything better, even if for only
an hour or so in the back room of a bar on Milwaukee Avenue.
This is a show
that will soon outgrow the conventional venues and be forced
to travel around the world - and maybe end up on HBO. We’re
lucky to have talent like this in Chicago and we are lucky
that Davenport’s was our venue of introduction.
