FUCT

June 06, 2009


I should have known when I got off of the L train and walked down a lonely road of abandoned garages and warehouses sandwiched between duplex and triplex apartments, that Cirque du Quoi?!? would not be just another sketch comedy show. It certainly made me say "quoi?" but where was this cirque, exactly? And are we in East Williamsburg, or Bushwick? Didn't matter. For the record, I think East Williamsburg was and is the home for Lady Circus, a group of female burlesque acrobats who work out of a garage space high-ceilinged "palace" called The House of Yes -- and for the past three weekends, ending Saturday, have been collaborating with raunchy sketch comedy group FUCT for this Circus of What.

Yes, FUCT. It stands for Fordham Underground Comedy Troupe, but just as well should stand for what you're thinking phonetically, because these guys (and one gal) specialize in bawdy adult humor. They love pushing boundaries, and even making audiences feel skittish. Co-founder Jon Crane told me that when FUCT performed a sketch at a festival in Chicago, an audience member wrote a letter complaining that they should have been warned "about all of the homosexual content" after seeing their sketch on "How to Kiss A Girl." FUCT used this as a source of more humor. It's as if the boys from Jackass decided to form a sketch troupe. Just check out their Wheel of Torture, for example.
But what if they ran away and joined a burlesque circus? It's a match made in Bushwick. "This is the most commercially viable thing we've done," Crane told me. After a series of black-box and outdoor productions, spending three weekends in a garage with beautiful women, performing acrobatic circus antics while showing plenty of skin (full male and female nudity is part of the show) does seem like something more than a few people would want to experience in person. The ladies from the circus certainly know their way around a trapeze, rings and silk sheets that hang from the ceiling. But the fellas have learned a few tricks or two themselves. Over the course of two hours and 17 sketches, FUCT and Lady Circus perform several routines as mimed instrumentals, dance, strip, juggle, walk on stilts, and have plenty of sex on their brains. It's not Cirque du Soleil. It's Cirque du Quoi?!? Exactly. - The Comic's Comic- Sean McCarthy

Cherry Picking: FUCT Comedy
By: Mark Peikert

Sure, laughter can make you momentarily forget about your economic woes, but schadenfreude also works wonders. So what could be better than the FUCT comedy troupe’s Wheel of Torture, in which audience members are invited to spin the titular wheel and then inflict a variety of tortures on a member of the troupe?

Opening Cherry Lane’s new theater, The Cherry Pit (formerly The Bank Street Theater), FUCT is returning back to NYC after traveling the country, garnering rave reviews and rabid fans. Interspersing improv with games, live music and dance, the eight members of the troupe (Sarah Bell, Jon Crane, Joe Galan, Tommy Galan, Brian Gillespie, Ian Lassiter, Janio Marrero, and Graham Skipper) promise a show that will make you laugh and squirm Thursday through Saturday for the rest of February. And for once during a comedy show, the squirming will be intentional on the troupe’s part. Besides, where else could you find actors willing to let an audience member use a stun gun on them?
- New York Press