Fire Without Ire

By T. E. K.

In this one-man show, Dick Shawn is a manic human pinwheel spinning off a shower of satiric comic sparks that shine more often than they scald. One feels that Shawn intended it just that way. Actors understandably abhor comparisons, but at times Shawn seems al most like a Lenny Bruce without the dirty words, and without the smoldering self-destructive ire.

Like Bruce, Shawn clearly relishes casual irreverence, pungent social commentary and the hatpin thrust that punctures hypocrisy and pomposity. Unlike Bruce, he has reached middle age, where rebel wit is seasoned by rueful, earned wisdom and the brashness of the ego is burnished with the sense of common humanity.

While acting the stand-up comic, Shawn explores the naked vulnerability of the comic and the increasingly arduous task of being funny. He can range nimbly, and with surprising freshness, from Watergate to liberated women to the generational gap: "You cannot fool the young people any more, not only here but all over the world -- that's why it's difficult to find a good kamikaze pilot today." Maybe an apter analogy than Bruce is to call Shawn a Will Rogers without the lasso.

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