METROSEXUAL PANIC
Straight Up-With a Twist
Written by Paul Strolli

REVIEWED BY LAWRENCE BOMMER - Contributing writer

"The world is a cruel place when you're a straight guy with good taste and a great eye for color." That's the running, galloping and sometimes limping joke behind Paul Strolli's one-man gig. In this example of what I call self-help stand-up, the 39-year-old former Chicagoan comes to terms with his lavender demons. A big hit in his Los Angeles home, "Straight Up With a Twist" was inspired by a casual remark from his wife Monica: "You're like this gay friend I can have sex with."

Thunderstruck by this rather left-handed compliment, Strolli also discovered his entertainment niche. Much like the lifestyle arguments pursued in "Defending the Caveman" and "The Male Intellect: An Oxymoron," he examines the plight of "men who know the wrong things" and who tell friends, "Don't call my house during Monday Night Football...that's when I vacuum." He calls them "Renaissance Geeks."

Over the next 90 minutes Strolli exposes his past as a gangly, girly boy with a "painfully Muppet-like face" who was so anal he wiped his ass with origami. He recreates his chain-smoking, hard-boiled German mother, a fag hag who comes to terms with a straight son who was never "supposed to be so sensitive," who knows nothing about power tools but can perfectly fold a fitted sheet. She founded MAPHO (Mothers and Aunts Who Would Have Preferred Homosexual Offspring): "I had three kids-one of each." In hilarious contrast, Strolli's Italian father glumly copes with his son's chronic interest in color-coordinating Little League uniforms. Also exhibited are the swaggering older brother, unaware of his own "manufactured manliness," an acting teacher trying to cope with this "homodyslexual," and a frazzled psychiatrist who refers to Strolli's multiple disorders as "The Mercedes."

A highlight of this gender-blending slice of laughter is Strolli's display of follies from his wardrobe (there was no queer eye for this straight guy), including such offenses as a still-screaming dashiki (that triggered instant torture in junior high school), as well as a parachute jumpsuit and Member's Only jacket. The quiz show "It's All Geek To Me" employs audience members to answer questions from categories that reveal Strolli's relentlessly unmanly priorities.

No question, the Felix Ungers and Frasier Cranes of the world deserve their show. Strolli, who reportedly catered his own intervention, delivers some delightful "support humor."