Written and
Performed by PAT CANDARAS
www.patcandaras.com
Ground Floor
Theatre
312 W. 11 St.
(Bet. Hudson & Greenwich)
Tickets: (212)
279-4488, (888) FringeNYC or
www.fringenyc.org
8/9 @ 10:45 PM,
8/12 @ 7 PM, 8/13 @ 3 PM
8/14 @ 5:30 PM,
8/17 @12:15 PM
8/21 @ 5:30 PM,
8/23 @ 10 PM
Directed by RUSTY
OWEN
Stage Manager
DARCY J. CONROY
Venue Director
MARIE JUDITH JOSEPH
Publicity OPR/ORIGLIO
PUBLIC RELATIONS, Richard Hillman
Pat Candaras would not have known that her entry in this
year’s Fringe Festival, PANIC IS NOT A DISORDER, while waxing
humorously on her on her own neuroses, exacerbated in a post-9/11 New York
City, would also prove to be prophetic.
As Ms. Candaras, also known affectionately as
Grandmotherfucker, made jabs at the state of homeland security and the
efficacy of purchasing duct tape and plastic (8/12 performance), how could
she have known that within a mere two days her observations about the
country’s lack o preparedness would become globally recognizable in the form
of the Black Out of 2003. So, she may just have something here. In a day
where we rely on computers, lights, refrigeration, and bright overhead
lighting, and when the mere touch of a button can wreak havoc, is it okay to
say that PANIC IS NOT A DISORDER, and to mean it?
Pat has a point. Ashcroft has us eyeing the masses for
suspicious persons. We are kept busy with orders to stockpile tape and
plastic. Does anyone really have confidence in the ability of the
authorities to protect us, let along to act in our best interests? Just look
at California, and any seasoned New Yorker, regardless of upbringing, will
shout Oy Vey without batting an eye.
Digression aside, PANIC IS NOT A DISORDER, and
creator/performer Pat Candaras are quite funny. In fact, with some timely
updates added, this installment of Ms. Candaras’ stand-up can still be best
described by my own impressions of her 2002 GRANDMOTHERFUCKER
(below). My advice? See her. You will realize how very normal we all are!
…She was a hit at the
2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Now Pat Candaras has come home to the
Big Apple to delight audiences with her particular brand of
observational comedy in a show that’s all her own, GRANDMOTHERFUCKER.
Full of revelations about her life as one of
seventeen children, as one of a woman who has wed twice, had three
children, become a grandmother, and through it all kept a sense of humor
as well as a libido, Ms. Candaras’ show is packed with the sort of
self-deprecating, if humorous observations that characterize much of
successful stand-up comedy. The big shift here, really, is the author of
our evening. Not your usual suspect out there on the comedy circuit,
especially with the sort of material the title GRANDMOTHERFUCKER
inherently implies, Pat Candaras comes across like your average,
neurotic New Yorker.
Like most folks these days, she throws in the now
gallows humor about the 9/11 aftermath, with the requisite jokes about
reporting suspicious folks, and the like. That is not the focus of this
event, however. It really is Ms. Candaras’ opportunity to convey her
observations about authority, life, dating and parenthood based on her
own lifetime of hands-on experience.
Quite a delight to her captive audience, I should
expect Pat Candaras and GRANDMOTHERFUCKER to do well. She is,
after all, stand-up that’s all grown up.
- Kessa De Santis -