Only at a fringe festival could you find a one-man show about finding yourself and love through the power of performing amputations.  “Out of the Loop” kicked off last night at Addison’s WaterTower Theatre and I chose to see Chop written and performed by Brad McEntire.

The set is comprised of two large sideshow banners, a table with a few hidden props and a chair.  When Mr. McEntire enters, it is with the uncomfortable air of showy nervousness.  The framing device is we are at some sort of meeting.  He assures us that he doesn’t judge us and then goes on to give us a life story, literally.  Apparently, whatever meeting we are attending, it’s full of very patient people.  At the end of the show, we find out that we are all interested in having him chop off one of our limbs.  Why we would be willing to listen to his life story when we are wanting a limb lopped off is unclear.

The play is full of these contradictions. The first half is spent on how the main character supposedly has no ambition and how little he’s made of himself.  Unfortunately, as a performance, it is all ambition.  Every image or situation he describes is subsequently or simultaneously acted or gestured into being. That’s a lot of effort to prove that he has no drive.  Another aspect of the conflicted nature was in the text itself: he earned an education through correspondence and claims there was nothing remarkable about his scholarly efforts but, he references Einstein poetically and employs plenty of references to mythology.  It doesn’t seem to jive with a lackadaisical loser who loves temp work.

Given a full audience at something like the Improv, Chop might prove a more viable vehicle but in the Stone Cottage with half a dozen in attendance, it seems over-eager.  The rhythm of set up-joke, set up-joke was so dense, we didn’t get to know the main character until late in the play when he begins to date a girl — the one who gets him into this fetish.  From there to the end, we get to see someone challenged by love in a unique way.  The question of what you would do for love may be gruesomely specific in this case but the universal is still there.  Could you break out of your image of yourself for the love of another?  It may be just as hard and just as challenging as chopping off a limb.

I was once introduced to a late middle-aged man and woman.  She seemed restrained while he was all smiles and jokes.  ALL smiles and jokes.  I felt as though he was auditioning.  He kept going regardless of my reaction as if to say that I wasn’t allowed not to like him.  He wasn’t going to give me the chance not to.  I realized what was going on.  They were on a date.  A first date.  All I could think was—he’s not going to get the part.  The great pity is that he would have gotten farther by performing less and listening more.   But sometimes less is harder than more.