{"id":14818,"date":"2014-10-21T09:04:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T16:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=14818"},"modified":"2014-10-21T09:04:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T16:04:09","slug":"ex-disney-workers-one-man-memoirs-ignite-laughter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/ex-disney-workers-one-man-memoirs-ignite-laughter\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Disney worker\u2019s one-man memoirs ignite laughter"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Woody’s [rating: 5]<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I may be decades late sliding down a hole with Alice for a twisted tea party with the Mad Hatter and White Rabbit, but I\u2019m okay with that.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because I finally got to see Trevor Allen slip into a time warp and re-create his ultra-high energy, one-man backstage view about those and other Disney characters.<\/p>\n

The title of \u201cWorking for the Mouse\u201d \u2014 now onstage at the Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma \u2014 is, in my estimation, bland.<\/p>\n

Pedestrian.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Trevor Allen dons the Mickey ears he never got to wear as a Disney worker. Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p><\/div>\n

Allen\u2019s 75-minute is neither.<\/p>\n

Rather, it\u2019s the funniest employee expos\u00e9 since \u201cSantaLand Diaries,\u201d David Sedaris\u2019 celebrity-making 1992 NPR essay about being an elf at Macy\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s primary aim is to get laughs, not bash Disney.<\/p>\n

His actual work at the Magic Kingdom, dating to the \u201880s, was at times no laughing matter, however.<\/p>\n

Being inside a Pluto head and suit, for example, might mean toiling in a 110-degree sweatbox. And Disney had stringent rules to adhere to \u2014 lest suspension or firing lie just around the corner at the Happiest Place on Earth.<\/p>\n

But Disneyland wage-slaves, whose daily well-being required transcending the child\u2019s fantasy world, invented a countering set of directives, including one injury-avoiding biggie:<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t let the kids get in back of you.<\/p>\n

The monologist\/performer, who\u2019s effectively directed by Nancy Carlin, remembers that his dream of a being a boy who didn\u2019t want to grow up \u201cseemed attainable\u201d \u2014 despite the Peter Pan role he aspired to fill staying out of reach.<\/p>\n

Allen, whose boyish physicality can be breathtaking, recounts his side-splitting memoirs with touches of reverence and nostalgia \u2014 in his own 45-year-old voice, in squeaky character simulations, and in the cadences of antique Big Names (Ed Wynn and Jimmy Steward the funniest and most quickly recognizable).<\/p>\n

His succinct word-portraits can be devastating.<\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t help but smile as he told of the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks setting off car alarms throughout the neighborhood, of his costumed head falling off when he tripped over a sprinkler, and of guys thinking Cinderella and Snow White were hot but him not having \u201cthe heart to tell them those two were only hot for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever one\u2019s caveats about drugs and sex, I found it impossible not<\/em> to laugh aloud as Allen honed in on 300 mostly strangers jamming a luau (including the mental image of Pinocchio doing lines of cocaine in a guest bathroom) \u2014 or seven dwarfs and three little pigs having \u201csome kind of orgy. Nobody should see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was easy, too, to watch his amusing discomfort showing all brightly colored characters being \u201ca compass for Mickey \u2014 we always<\/em> knew where that damned mouse was.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as sharing his delight in graduating from suited \u201crookie\u201d to a character who didn\u2019t wear a mask.<\/p>\n

Because \u201cWorking for the Mouse\u201d flips back the calendar, don\u2019t expect any topical references. No Lady Gaga imitations. No dancing like Hugh Jackman with retractable claws.<\/p>\n

Be prepared, instead, to hear lines like the somewhat blasphemous: \u201cWhat Would Walt Do?\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s show, which years ago was voted best of the San Francisco Fringe Festival and played to sold-out audiences in San Francisco and Berkeley, offers his audiences vast insights into \u201cthe right way, the wrong way and the Disney way.\u201d<\/p>\n

That last way led right to my funnybone.<\/p>\n

Only one more performance of \u201cWorking for the Mouse\u201d remains at the Cinnabar Theater, 2222 Petaluma Blvd. N., at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26. Tickets: $20 in advance, $25 at the door. Information: www.cinnabartheater.org<\/a> or (707) 763-8920. Another one-man show: Brian Copeland\u2019s \u201cThe Jewelry Box: A Genuine Christmas Story,\u201d Nov. 30. Other special evenings: (Sam) Misner and (Megan) Smith performing roots music Nov. 2, and \u201cMy Raunchy Valentine,\u201d with Sandy & Richard Riccardi, Feb.8.<\/em><\/p>\n

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