The Last of the Marx Brothers’ Writers

Jimmy Bryce, an ex-vaudevillian and comedy writer, lives in a run-down hotel in Los Angeles. As he waits for a young comic writer to arrive for comedy lessons, Bryce remembers his past life. His memory conjures up his ex-wife Alice and an original Marx Brothers-like character called Flammo or Julius Dumont. The play is studded with wild verbal and slapstick comic turns and tries to explore the world of terror and surrealism that lies on the other side of comedy. Louis Phillips invented Jimmy, and deserves full marks for it. If his play reminds us of THE SUNSHINE BOYS crossed with THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, the blend still seems fresh. This is how it feels to be trapped in your own ‘bits’ - the mind unable to beat except in gag rhythms, and nobody buys the gags anymore. -Dan Sullivan, The Los Angeles Times Here is a piece of theater you absolutely must not miss … This fine, touching, inventive, and gorgeously zany play is about - you guess it - the failure of the American dream. -Jonathan Saville, Weekly Reader (San Diego) It is strong and clever in its methodical pursuit of madness. It is studded with non sequiturs, puns, riddles, and sight-gags, running wild or worked into routines and shticks. -Charlie Farber, Los Angeles Free Press The plays is framed in an exciting, almost frenetic mixture of wild imagery and stark reality … It is a nonstop bombardment of the senses and the mind. -Bill Hagen, The San Diego Evening Tribune