Screaming Approach

Not many people can think as fast as comic performer Reno talks. And when she does her act, an assault of talk titled “Reno Enraged” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown Los Angeles, even the acerbic, kinetic whirlwind has trouble keeping up with herself.

Reno (her complete name on and off stage) has emerged out of New York’s network of performance art clubs and dens to become very visible. Her Los Angeles premiere comes in the wake of HBO’s broadcast of her “Reno in Rage and Rehab” and a Rolling Stone notice as one of “1989’s Hottest People.”

“A lot of people feel alienated from their environment,” she says, “but it just so happens that I’m screaming about it. If I didn’t approach things as funny, you might have known me as some killer on the rampage. I mean, up until about three years ago, I didn’t think I was going to live long. I got into a lot of trouble,” some of which she describes in her show. “I even spent time with the American Indian Movement in Oklahoma.

“I became immobilized just thinking about the world’s problems. It was about ’87 that I realized that, no matter what happened to me, life would go on. My only form of rebellion these days is not wearing a seat belt.”

Through it all, Reno was amazed that her friends stood by her. Friends, and her dog, are important to Reno. She photographed some of them for the just-released first issue of Egg magazine.

Insisting that she’s not a stand-up comic (“I don’t do 1-2-3-joke”), Reno says her act tries to blend “the personal with the political.”

Will that go over well with the Hollywood deal makers she’s currently meeting?

“We’ll see. I’d like to make my live performance more visual--for film, TV, whatever. I’ll go after people in this country’s power structure, but I don’t want to judge people before I meet them.”