PERFORMANCE ART REVIEW : Albertano, Dark Bob--From Dog-Films to Stand-Up Comedy

Telling jokes, singing songs, spinning fantasy and satiric narratives aided by screen projections and soundscore collages, performance artist Linda Albertano and a strange fellow in his ‘30s who calls himself The Dark Bob offered their alternate perspectives on loose-hinged humor in a shared program Friday at Barnsdall Art Park’s Gallery Theatre.

It was inevitable that the wide-ranging purview of performance art would swing from esoterica to something more reflective of the popular culture, and it has. But who would expect stand-up comedy as the latest hook in these crossover maneuvers?

The sum total may not have amounted to more than a disjointedly amusing romp, but there were moments of interest in the program on the second weekend of a series called “New Terrain.”

Of the two-part bill, Albertano’s one-woman show, “Xenophobia,” seemed the more cohesive, thoughtful and advanced. The imposing 6-foot blonde, who looks like a high-fashion model, certainly did not lack in literary flair. Her ripostes at social hypocrisy were well aimed and she did indeed “fool around with the syntax of pop forms” provocatively.

But the generalized juvenilia and goofiness of conducting the audience in her lip-fluttering “symphony” was nearly worthy of David Letterman’s Stupid Pet Tricks. Definitely past the limits of performance art.

Staying at that same level throughout his half of the program, the Dark Bob led an aimless solo revue with a taped, alter-ego voice and a pretty funny dog movie. His songs outwore their welcome, as did the stories and self-mocking routines. How or why he merits the platform remains an unanswered question.