Maureen Langan may be the daughter of a New York City garbageman but she refuses to let that get her down. Get it? Refuse?
Her show starts out like that, a little slow, with a Joan Rivers sensibility, as she trashes the Kardashians for what seems like no reason -- I mean, do we really have to hear about them anymore?
Well, yes. Once Langan gets warmed up, her show picks us up and makes us howl. And Kim Kardashian is part of the story. Langan is a natural comedienne who you like so much you can't wait to hear more. G'head, just talk. Tell us about the Kardashians, your dad, your mom, anything, fine. Just don't stop.
A book and movie deal for Kim Kardashian, all because she did a sex tape? It's worth knowing that that really happened, just to hear Maureen Langan talk about it: "A vagina is a canal that is supposed to lead to her uterus, not to a book and movie deal."
We love her father and mother too, though we're glad they were hers, not ours. Langan has a lot of guts to repeat some of the things her father said, but after the first shock his quips just get funnier and funnier. We love the "Top Jew" (her dad's request for the best doctor at Columbia Presbyterian) and Langan's hilarious description of the semi-colon (with perhaps a small apology to Viktor Borge).
Her mom, Irish to the core, ends up sympathetic, though she doesn't start out that way. There is a terrific set piece where Langan herself, as a thirteen year old trapped in front of three hospital doctors with clipboards on their laps, struggles to keep herself from 'fessing up to the family's dysfunction, or as her Mom would say, "Don't you go airing our dirty laundry."
We love Maureen Langan. Go check out the garbage guy's little girl. You'll love her too.
RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG
The San Francisco Theater Blog's Award Division is happy to award Maureen Langan's "Daughter of a Garbageman" Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise. She is as funny as the best of the Marsh's long list of excellent solo performers, and only needs to tighten things up a bit. (A little less heading for the water bottle after every punch line, for example.)
The Bangle of Praise is for her wonderful line: "If Stephen Hawking is the smartest man in the world, how do we know? Who is checking his work?"
Maureen Langan: "Daughter of a Garbageman"
The Marsh
1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco
Through March 25
$20-$35 (sliding scale)
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