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The Business
Times Ms
Chaplin |
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| Blonde
goes with black, grins US comedian Karen Loftus, all in noir from
Kate Spade bag to Gucci belt. The colour works well to contrast, not
just her tresses but also her personality. Sunny despite the rain-drenched
day, her conversation is punctuated by spontaneous peals of laughter,
a crisp snap of fingers, the theatrical gesture or a flung on accent.
Ms Loftus, in her 30s, is in town to perform her one-woman comedy show. She's looking forward to every minute, unlike her last time here as part of the 2001 Comedy Festival. Then, she was a tad unsure of the response. "A friend of mine who performed here warned me that Singaporeans would enjoy me but wouldn't laugh." This happily proved to be untrue, so here she is, back for more laughs with the international tour of American Woman. Ms Loftus grew up with nouns like 'woman/Irish/Catholic' attached to the self-defining "I am " statement; like many Americans, Sept 11 was a watershed moment in emphasising her 'Americanness'. Though in Ms Loftus' case it was more a question of refining an epiphany already experienced in Ireland. With her Irish lineage, she had thought performing in an Irish stage would provide a sense of homecoming' instead the experience served to underscore how American she was. American Woman is a show where she explores this American persona, and the stereotyping, labels and preconceptions that go with it. It derives from her travels to different countries - "there's a wee thing of Singapore in here" - and is full of funny stories and characters. "It's based on something more organic (than newspaper articles), on the people I meet, the stories I hear, my experiences," she observes. Ms Loftus writes all her own material. A fellow passenger on a flight was amazed to see her work on a script, but as she says: "I'd be daft to go onstage for an hour and three-quarters without one." While American Woman doesn't change from country to country, it's often refined - a whole chunk of Spanish humour will be dropped in Singapore, for example, because it is language-based (Ms Loftus speaks conversational Spanish). Though her educational background is business, Ms Loftus took a variety of acting courses in NY and LA. She displayed a flair for the comic even when reading a serious part, and the standup comedy circuit was an obvious calling. Five years ago she got into the spirit of the "clown", a funny, tragic and very physical figure as played by comedians like Chaplin. This changed her comedy routine. "The clown bares his soul - now I could play the buffoon, be in on the laugh, be physical," says the lady, who loves physical activity. She does everything from boxing to aerobics, but keeps up with her yoga and running even on tour. The tour can be death to a social life but she compensates by having several circles of friends wherever she goes in LA, NY, London, Spain. It's like she has a number of lives, though in practice it means "keeping up with a lot of e-mail." Ms Loftus likes people, the heckling of crowds, the ripostes and banter during her show. The audience response is what allows her to build her comedic structure, like a jazz improvisation that develops its own rhythm and life. It's the ability to be in the moment and make that moment razor sharp. After all, that earns both laughs and respect from an audience. She plays for laughs, but "I'm constantly working on the business side". You have to learn your chops on the comedy circuit, she explains, but the real creative satisfaction and lucrative edge happens when you develop your own show and it proceeds to acquire a life of its own. American Woman is Ms Loftus' first internationally touring one-woman show, but she's also working on a book version of it, a TV series developed around the type of character she plays and is talking to designers about T-shirts and merchandising. Karen Loftus may be at the early stages of the comedic climb to being a "multimedia mega house", but she has a fair idea what the top could look like. |
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