FRINGE 2019, a RANT: Boomer monologue reveals entire obnoxious generation

Posted on August 18, 2019 By Derek Owen Entertainment, Front Slider, Theatre

Tomatoes Tried To Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life

Stage 2 (Big Rock Backstage Theatre)

Boomers unite – your 2019 fringe play is ready, not just for your viewing enjoyment, but to reinforce everything you’ve been told about the world!

Clearly enough of them saw this one coming a mile away as they nearly sold the place out when I was there. On the surface, that’s a really positive sign. American-turned-Canadian Keith Alessi, in sharing the tale of his life, is an engaging and charismatic performer who has crafted a performance as easily likeable as he is. Which is what makes it very difficult, albeit necessary, to pan his work.

On the surface, it’s easy to see why so many people like this piece – and most of those people are over 55. Therein lies the problem. The piece wraps itself in and glorifies the ideology of the Boomer generation. You know the ethics: I am only responsible for myself. I’m to blame if I don’t succeed in life, and (its equally false corollary), I deserved success because I believe I earned it, no matter how many people I stepped on in the process of elevating myself.

This may be what the Boomer generation believes, but for anyone who reads a news article online during a free moment knows, this just isn’t how the world works. Nor did it ever work like this, but an entire generation of mostly white North Americans sure wanted to believe it was true, didn’t they? The reality, of course, which is never spoken to due to its inherently prosaic nature: I (insert name here) fluked it out by being born at arguably the greatest time in recorded history … you know, the days of yore when (again, mostly white) people could move up the social ladder thru sheer will and hard work.

Alessi credits none of his success to factors outside of his control, and viewers should not be surprised. Culturally, North Americans of the Boomer and early Gen-x era were thoroughly and completely indoctrinated by these ideas, ideas now that are playing a bigger role in destroying the planet and degrading society than anyone wants to admit. But back in the day, all the tropes about “I’m OK, you’re OK” sure made all of life’s struggles go down easier, didn’t they?

Relics of Boomer ideology pop up constantly throughout this performance, and read like a dog-earred copy of a self-help book written in 1975 – like the part where he tells cancer he’s going to live in the face of a poor diagnosis (is that really how it works?). Or talking without much depth about his own emotional issues (granted, men of all generations are bad at this one). Or shilling for Norman Vincent Peale harder than a gospel preacher at a tent revival in a bit about mastering your environment via an unrelenting, uncompromising commitment to self development (had he been there, John Calvin would have been smiling and telling everyone “that’s my boy!”). And, probably the most prominent black eye the Boomer generation deserves: making fundamental errors of attribution regarding the origins of the success and/or failure of themselves and others, best illustrated in an aside about his father at the end. Coming across as equal parts glib and judgy, Alessi shares “pity” for his father’s “failure” to realize his “self,” without giving any consideration whatsoever for the simple fact that, oh, maybe there were some really good reasons why his father struggled so much in life. Maybe there weren’t, but the question remains:  Why no compassion for him?

Why, that’s simple.  Because it’s a play about ME!  And in the world of ME, ME is the only person who matters, right?

And there’s the tragic rub.

The most pro-social message of the piece – that we have control over how we respond to difficult circumstances in our lives – is almost lost in amongst the self-serving din of “look at me and how great I am.” Yes, that’s great he has 52 banjos.  Yes, that’s great he has boatloads of cash from his career as a CEO. Yes, that’s great he’s in remission from cancer. I’m glad life has worked out for him. But in a world that currently circling the drain at an ever-increasing speed, it’s an irrelevant and outdated message for the children of today.

4 out of 5 if you were born before 1965

2 out of 5 for everyone else