POP MUSIC REVIEW : Penn and Banks Fool Around

Like many a bouncing baby-boomer, Steven Banks, star of the “Steven Banks Home Entertainment Center” one-man play, and Penn Jillette, one half of the Penn & Teller magic team, wanna be R*O*C*S*T*A*R*S Sort of. After all, these guys would never stoop so low as to play their fantasies straight.

The dynamic duo played a very hip late set on Monday at the Santa Monica Improv, where their threw-the-looking-glass approach to rock yielded an ode to the thrift-shop mode called “Dead People’s Clothes,” a white middle-class blues about backyard barbecues, and “Give Peace a Chance” as a Pizza Hut jingle.

Augmented by three backing musicians, guitarist-singer Banks and bassist-singer Jillette slaughtered sacred cows with such high-caliber satirical numbers as “Party Like It’s 1992,” a windy, Springstone-headed monologue, and the mordant “Rock ‘n’ Roll Will Never Die (But Rock ‘n’ Rollers Do).”

Elsewhere, Penn’s day-job partner, Teller, sat in for a passionately deadpan vocal on a mellowdramatic tune, and a pairing of “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Sympathy for the Devil” followed Penn’s “interpretation” of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” They also did an Elvis medley (Presley and Costello), and Banks delivered a note-perfect rendition of Little Roger & the Goosebumps’ classic “Stairway to Heaven/Gilligan’s Island” mind-meld.

The last 40 minutes went to audience requests, which degenerated into some serious time-killing. What we had here was two cool guys who like to mess around in front of their friends--only most of us don’t have access to a club that will charge people money for the privilege of seeing it.