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Welcome to my site
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MY SOLO WORK
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POINTLESS REBELLION
In March 2007, I debuted a new show about my troubled relationship with my late father, POINTLESS REBELLION. It was very much a work in progress, changing every night. My director was Albert Stern.
It had a great run as part of the first ever Frigid Festival in New York, co-produced by Horse Trade Theater Group and my old friends at the Exit Theater in San Francisco.
"Anyone who's ever wanted to learn how to be a full-time eBay seller should high-tail it down to Elisa DeCarlo's new solo show, Pointless Rebellion. She lays out the intricacies of selling her used clothes and footwear to male cross-dressers and foot fetishists across the country in all their unique glory. DeCarlo, who is no delicate flower, apparently has just the right girly clothes that closet transvestites are interested in. And, the foot enthusiasts don't just want her shoes: they want pictures of her feet, too.
But, the heart of Pointless Rebellion lies within the lifelong conflict between DeCarlo and her father, a brilliant but flawed man. [His] resume is impressive—computer genius/pioneer, former university president, education advocate—but his personal life was marred by alcoholism and manic depression, which, along with his unrequited desire to be a performer, colored every interaction with his family. Young Elisa grew up feeling insecure under the pressures of her demanding patriarch, and set out to do what he couldn't: make a go of it in show business. Despite achieving that goal, DeCarlo slowly faces the reality that she may be more her father's daughter than she ever wanted to be.
Pointless Rebellion is a fascinating look at a child's futile attempt to become the opposite of a parent...the strength of DeCarlo's story carries the day, making Pointless Rebellion both funny and moving."
www.nytheatre.com
THERE IS A PODCAST ON NYTHEATRE.COM, FEATURING ME, TOM X.CHAO, AND CHRISTEN CLIFFORD! We were all in the Frigid Festival, and for the impatient among you, I'm interviewed first! Here's the link:
http://www.nyte.org/pcast/nythpod95.mp3
The photographs of myself and my male alter ego, Big Red Berkowitz, are by me; the combination is by Dean DeCarlo of Celefex Animation.
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TOASTED
TOASTED started life as a play. It was given its first reading at the New York Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at HBO. TOASTED was a finalist for the 2000 Humana Festival of New Plays at the Actors Theater in Louisville and a finalist for the Aspen Comedy Festival.
Later, readings were held at PS NBC at HERE, and as part of Show Business newspaper's "New Discovery" series.
However, I decided eventually it would work better as a solo show. And the rest, as they say, is history. Or something. I won "Best Female Performance" and "Best of the Fringe" at the 2001 San Francisco Fringe Festival, had a sold-out run at DIVAfest in San Francisco, and the show was a smash hit at the 2004 Midtown Theater Festival, named one of the "Best of the Fest" and the run extended!
"Elisa DeCarlo regales her audience with bracing humor about an alcoholics support group, artfully shifting into a gut-wrenching story of child abuse and murder. Brightly comic, painfully brave, and ultimately, terribly tragic. "San Francisco Chronicle
“A show that is both funny and disturbing” Pacific Sun
“DeCarlo examines every side of the story in her one-woman, 30-character show. She explores the limits of confidentiality and wonders if she’s as vulturelike, now, performing the play, as the network journalists who swarmed her in New York” SF Weekly
“A great memoir well told. As many in film have discovered, email is inherently undramatic. DeCarlo’s writing, however, does a good job of bringing the transmissions to life. Despite the tale’s chilling payoffs-DeCarlo leaves all the moral ambiguities intact.” The Village Voice
In July 2006, the smash hit of the 2004 Midtown Theatre Festival returned and had a solid run at the Horse Trade Theater! Thanks so much to all who attended, and to Raven Snook for her wonderful write-up in L, as well at Time Out New York, which had it as a Recommended Pick for the entire run. And to managing director Erez Aviv, who was a sheer delight to work with.
Photo by Richard Termine
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CERVIX WITH A SMILE
My one woman musical show, CERVIX WITH A SMILE, was not only a hit July 2005 at the Sixth Midtown International Theater Festival in New York, it was a smash at the 2005 San Francisco Fringe Festival in September, winning several "Sold Out" awards and the San Francisco Bay Guardian's "Critic's Choice" Award!
"A packed house roaring with laughter" Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle
"DeCarlo looks like a demure homemaker who's destroyed more homes than she's made. A sharp satirist and a skilled actor." Robert Avila, San Francisco Bay Guardian
CERVIX WITH A SMILE New York Reviews, July 2005:
'DeCarlo, a rubber-faced comedian with wide eyes and a broad smile, takes on both sexes in "Cervix." One of her most complete transformations is into a redneck man, Big Red Berkowitz, who finds himself having to explain why he was discovered stark naked in the okapi cage at a local zoo. DeCarlo immerses herself in the character, generating both laughs and a modicum of pity.'
Andy Propst, Backstage
'It's not too early to consider both sides of what will probably be the most heated debate to emerge from this year's Midtown International Theatre Festival: First, is Elisa DeCarlo ready for musical theatre? Second, is musical theatre ready for Elisa DeCarlo?
This twisted spectacle will only be a jaw-dropping surprise to those who didn't see DeCarlo's one-woman show in last year's MITF, TOASTED. Anyone who saw TOASTED is aware that DeCarlo's way with a story - in both the writing and the delivery - is entirely her own, and the bases are always loaded even when you're not sure who's up at bat. But to say that the material in CERVIX WITH A SMILE runs the gamut is to not understand what the word "gamut" truly means. When DeCarlo has the right material, she really has the right stuff.'
Matthew Murray, Talkinbroadway.com
'DeCarlo is a formidable presence with an offbeat sense of humor and a downtown gift for broad characterization.'
Bob Ost, Tru Online.com
Photo by Richard Termine
And I do happen to own a pair of brass knuckles. So there.
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SIZE MATTERS, 1998
Westbeth Theater Center, New York
"Any woman with enough chutzpah to write a rap entitled 'Mama Said Don't Eat That' is a woman after our own hearts. And that's just what Elisa DeCarlo does in her show, 'Size Matters.' This one-woman rant with musical punctuation comically tells her tale of diets, support groups, family, and love. She gives us a life, a philosophy, and a cast of characters all in one big wonderful show--all done by one special woman. I giggled and wiped away tears." Wickham Boyle, Mode Magazine
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BABY, WON'T YOU SHAVE MY LEGS
Ran for more than six months at Rose's Turn Cabaret, NY
Winner, 1992 Cabaret Hotline Achievement Awards
"Best Comedienne" & "Best Male Impersonator"
"Ms. DeCarlo dishes up pointed humor with a dark side, angst comedy that is both provocative and funny." William Campbell, Hype
"The most creative talent in comedy seen in these parts in several years. She is on the cutting edge every show." S.V. Hamstra, Cabaret Hotline
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I had done a lot of cabaret, but in the mid-90s I decided to do my first non-musical solo show, I LOVE DRUGS. It premiered at Surf Reality in 1994. The following year it was named "Best of the San Francisco Fringe" in 1995, and is still one of the top ticket sellers ever in that festival. In 1997 I performed it at the Chopin Theater in Chicago, where the "Chicago Reader" named it "Critic's Choice." It was also one of the headlining shows at the FIRST New York International Fringe Festival in 1997.
I LOVE DRUGS is the story of one family going through a very stressful Christmas, each one addicted to something, be it alcohol, drugs, rage, or sex.
"Comedic artistry...Many, if not most performance artists purport to take us to 'the edge'. But the difference between them and DeCarlo is that, once she has them there, she actually has something interesting to say about the situation. And, in terms of sheer acting, DeCarlo is quite gifted. Her rendition, for example, of the quiet, beatific bliss of a workaholic computer jock writing software makes its point movingly." John Michael Koroly, NY Fringe Propaganda
"Though solo performers are a dime a gross these days, this hasn't translated into a surplus of great shows. That's why Elisa DeCarlo's bracingly honest one-woman tragicomedy is such a treat. One woman plays all the members in an extended dysfunctional family--DeCarlo avoids the easy laughs and instead potrays each character with a vivid realism usually found in larger cast dramas. The funny thing is, for all her raw intensity, DeCarlo's still hilarious." Jack Helbig, "Critic's Choice", Chicago Reader
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