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Review
Circumcise Me
Theatres at 45 Bleecker Street
November 15, 2009
Morgan Wycks
mwycks@nyconstage.org
Circumcise Me is a
stand-up routine written and performed by Yisrael Campbell. Raised Catholic, Mr.
Campbell converted to Judaism after a brief life of addiction to alcohol and
drugs. One could interpret his immeasurable need to find a way of leading a
better, good and wholesome life as salvation from the dangers of his addictions
and the emptiness those addictions engender, but I think it was more about his
immeasurable need to belong to a community. One of course could say there are
easier ways to meet that need but therein lies the humor of Mr. Campbell's
raison de theatre. There is also a certain kind of, albeit small, duplicity. One
begins to question Mr. Campbell's origins particularly when he gives his punch
lines a polished Borscht Belt delivery that arrives innately. Still, who am I to
argue about this man's obvious happiness with his chosen faith? It has given him
a wife and children and an extended family that he deeply cares about.
Though one-person shows are often about a journey, not unlike the film from
which this piece gets its title riff ("Supersize Me"), this work is more about
the jokes. And don't let the title give you pause. There are plenty of laughs if
you like this sort of thing.
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