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Fred being acosted by an unidentified fan outside the green room on the set of "Win Ben Steins's Money." What are you waiting for? Buy a ticket already. |
*It Could Have Been a Wonderful Life Bannam Place Theater,
50A Bannam Pl; 986-4607. Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through Dec 30. $15-18.
Fred Raker's 25-in-one-man show charts the despair of aspiring Jewish
comedian Phil Resnick, who winds up pigeonholed on public television
while the life he could have had goes to an Anglo American-ized
colleague, the host of TV's What's Up with That, America? The
crisis provokes a little divine intervention by Phil's guardian angel,
Jack Benny. Based on Raker's own brush with stardom as well as the Capra
classic, this very funny solo performance cleverly weaves Jewish identity
and self-doubt into nothing less than a wonderful 75 minutes. A gifted
mimic and comedy writer, Raker has created characterizations that are
a treat from beginning to end. Director Kimberly Richards, with fine
comic instincts of her own, seems a perfect collaborator. And while
the premise plays with the "foreignness" of a Jewish version
of the all-American Christmas movie, there are only a few lines that
might escape the goyim in the audience. In fact, the familiar Yiddishisms
coming from the likes of Benny, Woody Allen, Jackie Mason ? those
who've made Jewish humor a national inheritance ? amply demonstrate
the catholic appeal of this self-styled "Hanukkah classic."
(Avila)
"Calling all out of work actors, comedians, magicians and other
down-on-their-luck entertainment nobodies! Failure Phil Resnick feels your
pain and even worse, his guardian angel is Jack Benny. Come laugh away your
own success problems as you follow the hysterically amusing story of a
depressed comedian who finds out what life would have been like had he stayed
in Hollywood."
"Jack Benny is having a hard time pleasing the folks in "Jewish Heaven." To
get his own star status back on track, he's given a quest: become a guardian
angel to failed standup comedian Phil Resnick, who's spending an inordinate
amount of energy denying his Jewishness to arrogant Hollywood illusion-makers
rather than working in show biz.""Inspired by the film classic "It's a Wonderful Life" as well as the meandering of Raker's own life in and out of show business, Resnick, under Benny's watchful eye, will eventually come to grips with his Jewish identity, his family, and his career. Along the way we'll meet all the old show business greats: Woody Allen, Jackie Mason and Johnny Carson among them. All of them will be played by Fred Raker--25 memorable characters in all."
"This is an energetic and hilarious show. Raker's impersonations are spot-on,
and he transitions seamlessly from personality to personality without missing
a beat; not even on opening night.
Besides having shared the standup spotlight with the likes of Jerry Seinfeld
and Paul Reiser, Raker also spent some time writing for the Johnny Carson
show."
"The Bannam theater is an intimate place. A few rows of seats line two sides
of a square corner stage. If you want to have a unique and inexpensive
theatrical experience complete with free cookies, a laugh or so a minute, and
a plot that engages you--why not give them a call."
So I was justifiably (but needlessly) wary of It Could Have Been a
Wonderful Life, the latest production at the Phoenix Theatre. This is
a comedy, a hilarious 70-minute romp written and acted by Fred Raker,
an impressionist from the old school, meaning he might not have a
Christopher Walken but look out for his Jack Benny. You'll be seeing
a lot of Benny in this one-man show, as well as Jackie Mason, Phyllis
Diller, and about 20 others, including Woody Allen hosting a nature
program, John Wayne talking Yiddish, and Maxwell Smart working as a
mohel (the guy who performs Jewish circumcisions).
If you haven't yet guessed, this Wonderful Life is not about saving a
bank.
The show centers around Phil Resnick, a comic working dead rooms in
Syracuse, N.Y. He heads for Hollywood after some questionable
fatherly advice: Don't act too Jewish; be like Jack Benny. Hollywood
hands Phil his head. He returns to Syracuse, scrapes together a
career as a D-list celebrity on public television, and becomes
miserable.
Jack Benny, meanwhile, is up in "Jewish heaven," working his own dead
rooms in a cursed nightclub act, where everybody shouts out his punch
lines, driving him crazy. Benny (real name: Benjamin Kubelsky), who
in real life did Christmas specials on TV and radio, gets a chance to
regain his Jewish star status if he becomes Phil's guardian angel. He
agrees, and shows Phil how a life in Hollywood spent suppressing his
Jewishness would have worked out for him.
As you've probably guessed, this Wonderful Life is not about
Christmas, either.
Raker says he got the idea for the show when Jerry Seinfeld and Paul
Reiser started showing up in his dreams, which sounds like the start
of a bad joke until you realize that Raker used to hang out with the
comics. You guessed it: Raker wrote the play about himself. He, too,
knocked around D-list Hollywood for a bit, performing stand-up,
writing pilots, and acting in sitcoms you don't remember. He even
landed a dream job penning jokes for Johnny Carson, who could launch
a comic's career by waving him to the Tonight Show couch after his
routine. Raker never got the wave, and has spent the last 15 years in
San Francisco, writing corporate video scripts and advertising copy
while raising a family. It Could Have Been a Wonderful Life is his
return to show biz, and from the looks of it, he won't be leaving
again anytime soon.
- sanfrancisco.guide@about.com
"His celebrity send-ups are particularly funny, and Raker proves himself to be
an expert impressionist. His riff on Woody Allen as the host of a nature show
called, "Wild Rabbis" was hilarious as was his take on a Yiddish-speaking
John Wayne."
- Northern California Jewish Bulletin
"Raker is a gifted mimic and performer."
- SF Examiner
I'm not much for holiday entertainment. I skirt productions touting
dancing sugarplums, velveteen rabbits, and little girls playing with
matches. Choirs leave me cold. If I happen to know a few characters
from It's a Wonderful Life, it's only because I watched it on the
installment plan, a few minutes per year, contingent upon a direct
order from any senior relatives on the couch.
- SF Weekly