Thursday, October 04, 2012
'Off the Record' satirically funny
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Pittsburgh has had a trying year, and it's not over yet. There's been the reassessment crisis and the transit crisis, headline-grabbing trials (state Sen. Jane Orie, Rep. Bill DeWeese, Jerry Sandusky, Jordan Miles), a prolonged bomb scare at the University of Pittsburgh, even a drought -- and now (shudder), the national election.
But for the 12th year in a row, the one-night phenomenon that is Off the Record (OTR) takes all these events and makes gleeful satiric hay of them, as well as raising many thousands of dollars for the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank.
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It’s stuff like this that makes me love Pittsburgh; only somewhere with as much place pride as Pittsburgh would have the audacity to collectively make fun of their problems on such a public level. The ability to laugh about hardships and conflicts is important for any society, particularly one as diverse as Pittsburgh. Even if two people disagree on a topic, laughing about its ridiculous aspects can allow them to bond over the humor of the situation, if not on the situation itself. The potential power of this event really lies in the audience. The typical theatre audience is not particularly diverse, and likely shares similar opinions on the issues facing Pittsburgh. If the event worked on attracting a more diverse audience, and focused on humor that appealed to the entire group, it could potentially use humor to create solidarity between groups that otherwise would have nothing in common.
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