Confessions of a Danny Hoch Fanboy
Eric Sims is the Operations Manager for the Kirk Douglas Theatre.
I’m not easily impressed by celebrity. Sure, I’ve seen Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges at Ralph’s (the same Ralph’s, weirdly enough) and William Shatner having breakfast in Santa Barbara with his grandchildren. I’ve even had the pleasure of bumping mediocre comics at Stand Up New York so Jerry Sienfeld can get some stage time in, and listening to them grumble at the bar about what a hack he is. There was something especially cool, though, about meeting Danny Hoch since his show, Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop affected me more than just about any piece of theatre I’ve ever seen and had changed the way I thought about an entire aspect of American culture. I saw the show eleven years ago, when I volunteered to usher for it at PS 122.I should mention, at this point, that I was a terrible volunteer usher. I showed up 45 minutes late while my girlfriend, who was ushering with me, diligently folded programs, straightened up the literature display, and set up folding chairs. By the time I breezed in on a cloud of slackerdom, there was nothing to do but seat people and be charming. Anyhow, the show blew my mind. Having misspent my youth as a post-modern suburban Deadhead, I never paid too much attention to hip-hop culture. Aside from knowing the words to a couple of Beastie Boys songs, it had never occurred to me to contemplate the reach and impact of this art form. Hoch perfectly captured the way in which hip-hop impacted all strata of society- spiraling outwards from the streets of the inner-city to the exurbs of Indiana.
I was particularly affected by two parallel monologues – one in which a suburban white kid imagines his Letterman interview as a famous rap star while preparing for his shift at Hardees and another in which a famous rap star is interviewed on Letterman and talks about the development of the form and the joy he discovered when he realized the breadth and scope of life beyond the inner city. The searing irony- that those on the inside could sell the fantasy of the streets to those on the outside in order to gain the freedom and opportunities that those on the outside take for granted was fascinating to me- and the way in which Hoch effortlessly embodied this concept without sacrificing the dimensionality of his characters or passing judgment on them left me, quite literally, a babbling idiot.
When I met Danny a couple of weeks ago, before his first performance of Taking Over at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, I played it cool, mentioning briefly that I liked Jails, before going over the minutia of late-seating and merchandise sales in the lobby. Meanwhile, the copy of Jails, Hospitals and Hip-Hop which my wife- who, I think has forgiven me for my crappy ushering- bought for me ten years ago, sat burning a hole in my bag as I wondered how I could get him to sign it without appearing unprofessional. After all, nobody wants to work with a fanboy- and once I cross that line, it’ll be hard to talk to him seriously about the climate control in his dressing room and the hot-water in the backstage restroom- the types of serious artistic issues I’m often asked to weigh in on. Still, I’m a fan- I can’t help it. At some point, I’m going to need to swallow my pride and ask him to sign the book- hoping it doesn’t blow all my credibility (or “cred”) as a theatre professional so that I can still talk to him sternly about out backstage visitor policy, if necessary. I just hope I remember to do it before he leaves town for points unknown and I don’t see him for another dozen years.
Photo by Kevin Berne
Tags: Fan
