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Return to Author index Return to Title index Tusks are Optional by Mark Bernstein. (audiocassette) Ann Arbor, MI: Thegamut Publishing, 1996. 60 mins. Bernstein's tape is a wild ride of word-play, poetry, stand-up comedy, and literature based story. It starts with a cowboy poem with a twist: the cowboy is in outer space. The next piece is a Sam Spade parody that is comprised almost entirely of musical puns. The next looks at the history of sci-fi, and does so all in Spoonerisms (A Hief Bristory of Fi-Sci"). The title story is an essay by comedy writer Mark Evanier on one of his show business experiences. There is also a science fiction story dealing with travel at the speed of light, and a story about a dwarf, shunned by society, who touches everyone in an Unexpected way. As you may have gathered from this brief description, It is an eclectic recording, to say the least. It was recorded live, and the enjoyment of the audience .s evident in all of the stories. The pun and spoonerism stories required close attention, but they were fun - if you like groaners. I found them a bit long for That type of humour ( 7 md 11 minutes respectively), but Bernstein carried it off, never running out of nonsense and telling with polish and panache. The Second Story Review, Vol 3, No. 1, March 1998 |