Jes Tom’s Less Lonely
Tickets from $39
Cititour.com Review
One of the things I’ve learned during the still ongoing pandemic – primarily thanks to Netflix – is that the secret to great stand-up comedy is being able to both relate one’s singular experiences yet create a sense of universality that envelops your audience. In short, we need to laugh with you, not at you.
For Jes Tom, a self-described queer, trans Asian-American, that might seem like quite the parlor trick, but Tom pulls it off brilliantly in their hilarious 75-minute solo show “Less Lonely,” now at the Greenwich House Theatre. Even their explanation of the show’s title – one of the first “jokes” -- provides the kind of major laughs we don’t get enough of in theater these days.
True, the show – presented by the trans actor Elliot Page – is basically a Netflix special in a small house. But it doesn’t matter that there’s just Tom on stage, in his own, rather unusual clothes, standing against a red circle with a small table nearby holding a decorative candlestick and some water – because Tom is that funny. (Be “warned,” the show is also quite raunchy at time, so if you or your guest is the slightest bit prudish – stay home!)
Admittedly, even in New York, I imagine only a handful of people have shared all of Tom’s life experiences, such as selling Girl Scout cookies on the corner of San Francisco’s notorious Castro district. When Tom moved the Big Apple, their mother said Tom had learned enough survival skills as a Girl Scout to make it in this big, bad city. His reply: “I dunno mom, the only thing I learned in the Girl Scouts is what a glory hole is.”
Most specifically, very few of us have probably gone through four years of hormone therapy and testosterone injections, which has not only “transformed” Tom from biological female to a male-identifying person but, more importantly perhaps, changed his sexual orientation from lesbian to “gay” -- a journey that they describe with extraordinary humor and honesty. As Tom quips: “It’s like having a get out of jail free card and being like ‘Well, I’ve never tried jail. Let’s see what all the hype is about.’”
Most importantly, many of us have lived through some of Tom’s experiences, including the sudden death of a beloved grandparent, having parents you believe should have already divorced, the rejection one feels when a partner marries someone else just months after one’s break-up, and above all, the fear of dying alone (a phobia that has made many of us make very poor romantic decisions).
But there are lessons to be learned from such a life, even if it’s only been 33 years on this planet. As Tom readily confesses, reflecting on the death of their grandmother: “I realized I’ve been so obsessed thinking about the ways that I’ll die at the end of the world when really I should be thinking about the ways I’m gonna live with the time I have. And I hope when I die, which I will, that there’s love in my life. I don’t need a great apocalypse love. I’m not looking for that anymore. I just want someone to come into the room, find my body and go ‘Oh no, I loved them.’”
Pronouns and sexual identity be damned! Who cannot relate to that?
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.jestomshow.com/
Open/Close Dates
Opening 12/11/2023
Closing 1/6/2024
Theatre Info
Greenwich House Theater
27 Barrow St.
New York, NY 10014
Map
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