Scott Capurro

Edinburgh festival
Comedy
Edinburgh festival rapid review: Scott Capurro
Belly Laugh, Underbelly, Edinburgh

Leo Benedictus
guardian.co.uk, Monday August 11 2008 14:16 BST
Article history
Time: 9.15pm

Scott Capurro
Goes Deeper
Belly Laugh, Underbelly, Edinburgh
Until August 11, 13-18, 20-24
Box office:
0844-545 8252
Venue website
Capacity: 150. 80% full at the beginning, 60% by the end.

The theme: All that’s sacred. Let me consult my notes … erm … cancer, the prophet Muhammad, paedophilia, fisting, abortion, the word “nigger”, Madeleine McCann, Aids, Catholicism, anal rape … That enough for you? Even so, it does not begin to convey the depth and range of offence that Capurro sets out to cause. The 45-year-old San Franciscan’s graphic one-liners and camp, high-speed delivery are like the finely calibrated instruments of a consultant sociopath. And he can enrage an unsuspecting punter in less than 30 seconds – like the army medic, returned from Iraq, who had to listen to an explanation of why all the men he had treated should have been left to die. It was like watching someone trying to commit suicide by lynching. Little wonder all the front row seats were empty. “You cowards!” Capurro shrieked when he first came in.

High point: Danger. Only in a Capurro gig do you realise how childish and tame all the other supposedly transgressive standups on the circuit really are. Some of his remarks, about the Qur’an in particular, do seem inadvisably brave. And yet he is no bigot. Whenever he criticizes the behaviour of a group of people there is at least a superficial case to be made – even if it involves trampling on the assumption that some groups of people should be above criticism, at least from him. Deep down we are all racists, sexists and generalisers of one kind or another, is Capurro’s basic and provocative argument, so stop being such a hypocrite about it.

Weak spot: With all the walkouts and heckling he brings upon himself, it must be almost impossible for a Capurro gig to go according to plan. Which is particularly problematic this year as his show, Goes Deeper, clearly has a fairly serious plan to stick to, involving his relationship with his current boyfriend. Whatever Capurro had in mind, however, it did not come off. In fact it was smashed into a mound of twisted wreckage by the self-adoring heckles of a drunken Dutch girl, who finally had to be removed by security. He dealt with the problem fairly well, considering, but a good portion of the show was ruined, and his wider purpose sidetracked beyond repair.

Audience participation: Sharp intakes of breath, continuous heckles, the mass departure of one entire row in protest at Capurro’s McCann material. Some laughter.

Comic equation: Larry Grayson x (Lenny Bruce + Chris Rock)

Mark out of 10: 7, even though it was a disaster.

Put this on your poster: Warning! Contains strong language, sexual imagery, extreme blasphemy, racial terms, sustained personal abuse and scenes of cruelty to children that all viewers may find distressing.

Show type: Edinburgh Fringe 2008
Scott Capurro Goes Deeper
Description Review Comments
Show Rating: 5 STARS
Scott Capurro has been positively goading people to walk out of his shows – and, true enough, they’ve been leaving in their droves. It begs the question why; he’s been doing this bitter, brutally odious humour from the viewpoint of a narcissistic, predatory gay man since being nominated as the Perrier newcomer in 1994. Anyone taking even the most cursory glance at what show they’re buying tickets for should be all-too aware of what atrocities to expect.

But when every other comic seems to be dumping a rape gag into their set as a shortcut to acquiring some phoney measure of ‘offensive’ cool, maybe the word’s losing its meaning. Capurro, however, is on a level of viciously uninhibited nastiness all of his own.

He’s a man for whom bad taste means wearing white socks, not lines like: ‘Why shouldn’t I rape my black nigger?’ which he drops casually into the monologue. The I-Spy book of kneejerk shock subjects are certainly covered: Madelaine McCann, Aids, Mohammed, Jill Dando, the Holocaust, Josef Fritzl and, erm, Alan Carr. You’ll hear jokes about al of them this festival, but rarely, if ever as uncompromisingly extreme as the acidic Capurro pushes them. It is impossible to overstate the enormity of his material.

It’s relentless, too. Capurro speaks 19 to the dozen, presenting one viciously evil image after another. There is no escape from the intensity of its unpleasantness; it can feels like the stand-up equivalent of the Clockwork Orange aversion therapy film.

Yet accept the ferocious, corrosive material in the provocative spirit it’s intended, and it is brilliantly, shockingly funny. So far beyond the pale that the only reaction to laugh, partly out of discomfort, partly out of the sheer audacity of it all.

This is grade-A, pure hardcore comedy, mind, not for the casual dabbler. But if you’ve gone through the gateway comics who cut their offence with whimsy and tomfoolery, and feel you’re ready for something much, much stronger, Capurro is your man. Much of the show concerns itself with graphic descriptions of gay sex, of course, but by the end of the hour pretty much every sacred cow you can think of has been turned into beefburgers.

He makes this material as palatable as it’s ever going to be by his exaggerated persona. There’s a subtle playfulness behind it all, and he’s just such a ridiculously offensive caricature of empty promiscuity, self-centred bitchiness and unadulterated unpleasantness, you shouldn’t really be taking any of it that seriously.

This particular show feels like the triumphant culmination of the evil he’s been peddling for the past 14-odd years, combined with an honest glimpse into the realities of his life. It can’t be stressed enough that this show isn’t for everyone, but if you suspect you’ll like it, you’ll probably love it.

Reviewed by: Steve Bennett

When can I see this show?

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Wednesday 13th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Thursday 14th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Friday 15th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Saturday 16th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Sunday 17th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Monday 18th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Wednesday 20th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Thursday 21st Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Friday 22nd Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Saturday 23rd Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

When: 21:15 to 22:15 - Sunday 24th Aug, ‘08
Venue: Underbelly
Prices: £6 to £11.50
Show: Scott Capurro Goes Deeper

The theatre is very intimate, it’s almost like an Edinburgh Fringe venue, which is sweet. And very warm. The UK ignores air conditioning, like it’s Black Magic. The play’s writing is good, I think, and I’m kind of loving playing this character. He’s an aging playwright using sex for approval, so the research was rough. But oddly, he feels familiar. I haven’t been on a legitimate (my mother’s word) theatrical stage in a very long time, and doing someone else’s writing felt awkward and foreign at first. But now it’s like a vacation. I just show up at work, do my bit and the show ends at 9 pm. The audience response has been very supportive and all my friends have liked the play. It’s all quite different from a comedy gig, where I fight my self-imposed, neurotic battles, stumbling from gig to gig, until i wander home, exhausted. Now i have a drink in the pub after, giggling with actors and sipping white wine. It’s sort of classy. Posh. Almost like the grown up job I’ve been looking for.

From The Times
May 29, 2008
F***ing Men at Finborough 4 STARS
Tim Teeman

It’s a hard sell, imagining the Finborough’s postage stamp-sized stage to be a whirligig of locations in which a group of New York gay men sleep with and seduce one another; each encounter subtly, sometimes radically, changing their lives. But under Phil Willmott’s direction, the stage manages to convince as sauna, hotel room, house and apartment. Each encounter in Joe DiPietro’s play (it is a contemporary take on La Ronde) is all too plausible and, given that only half the actors are American, all the accents are pretty faultless too.

Half the fun is watching who ends up with whom. Both the prostitute John (Shai Metuki) and the handsome lecturer Marco (Chris Polick) encounter the closeted beefcake soldier Steve (Nicholas Keith) whose anguished outpourings in a sauna may – depending on your sexual tastes – occupy you less than his six-pack.

DiPietro is interested in how gay men have sex, meet for sex, use sex, and trade in sex. One couple, played by Morgan James and Timothy Lone, love each other but cheat on the quiet. What use is monogamy, one of them wonders – and while you may be swayed by his argument you believe their mutual devotion is for real. The bombastic title doesn’t match the tone of the play, which is more wordy and thoughtful than violent and shocking.

The comedian Scott Capurro is Sammy, a screenwriter who can’t believe his luck when a secretly gay Hollywood star, Brandon (Guy Fearn), comes on strong. Capurro plays Sammy astutely, half for laughs and half not, and his exposure of Brandon in the press leads to the actor’s off-stage confession on the talk-show host Donald’s (Patrick Poletti) show. In turn, Donald is frozen by the death of an old lover and employs John for sex.

Di Pietro’s conclusion – gay love and desire are jolly complex and not easily defined – is wittily conveyed. And if that message doesn’t drive you wild, the lack of clothing just might.

Box office: 0844 8471652. To Jun 7 2008

Scott Capurro, Udderbelly, Brighton, May 14
By Seth Ewin

Scott Capurro takes no prisoners

Scott Capurro – Laughtershock
Unlike Josef Fritzl, Scott Capurro takes no prisoners, however he does give the Fritzl family some abuse, along with Maddie, Anne Frank and just about any other supposed no-go area you care to mention. The US comedian is on the warpath, only unlike his home country there is a method in his madness. The real target is liberal guilt and what he sees as an unhealthy obsession with insignificant events (in the wider scheme of things), which, he’d say, includes the missing Madeleine. Amidst material eye-poppingly offensive and painfully funny, the venom-tongued comic turned his devilish gaze on Maximus, a hetero in the second row - Capurro didn’t hesitate to describe what he wanted to do to him. Half clown, half demon, his destruction of a heckler was terrifying.
Udderbelly, 14 May, 10:30pm, £14.00 (£12.00), fringe pp 20.
tw rating 5/5
[se]
*****

From me: I did enjoy performing this show, Brighton is a hot bed of middle class, white, suburban extremism, and the audience seemed enthusiastic, even for such a late hour (1030) on a week night. But I was tired, my guard was down, and when a relatively mild heckler implied that all Americans are war mongering cunts - at least, that’s what I heard - I kind of lost my mind. For about 10 minutes. Now, I enjoyed the vitriol, it was purging, but I wasn’t sure what the crowd ‘felt’, like, as I’ve realized, I care. The thing is, an exchange of ideas is great, if someone out there wants to bark back their thoughts, their well-considered thoughts, I’m thrilled. But ‘feelings’? Fuck off, frankly. I’m not your therapist or babysitter or mommy, so if you feel hurt by what I say or if you feel cornered or saddened or, horror of all horrors, ‘offended’, then buy a ticket to the Hay Festival and wank off over your dead Father’s memory. Ideas are arguable. Feelings are disastrous.
After all, I’m working. And when I’m stage, I’m an autocracy. A crumbling, fading autocracy, but one with a bull horn, so no one wins when the whinging begins.
I am SO looking forward to doing this show in Edinburgh. I get to argue for 4 weeks. Hallalujah! I wonder if I’ll be shot before, or after, Obama. First one assassinated gets the biggest casket. Wasn’t MLK buried in a plastic bag?
scott xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

COMEDY

“Scott Capurro’s Dirty Gift”

Scott Capurro, a gay comedian from Daly City, probably gets his inspiration elsewhere. He is a world traveler and somehow manages to make trite subjects like mothers, hotel rooms, gangs, and being heckled seem freshly funny. When Christmas — the least funny day of the year — is two days gone, you can finally say the f-word again without checking behind you for your precociously sailor-mouthed young cousin or your selectively keen-eared great-aunt. And Capurro, a master of deadpan comedy and a professional in the fields of gut-busting hilarity and subtle wit, will let the vulgarities fly. He’ll make you feel like yourself again — your fucked-up, cynical, hedonistic, perfectly well-balanced self. (Amy Glasenapp)

And I say, hurrah!!! (that part is actually me, saying that, to myself. and to you.)

Oh, and this is lifted from Chortle.co.uk, a UK comedy website that’s favored within this biz we call show. And after some producers read this, it will be more clear why I never get work in Disney films. Enjoy. xxx

Scott Capurro is brutally uncompromising in his attitude, defiantly challenging audiences to accept him for what he is, however unpalatable that may be.

Because what he is happens to be is an intolerant, self-centred, snidey, sarcastic, arrogant venomous man, who cannot disguise his contempt for humanity. He doesn’t like the world, and makes no concession to make the world like him. He speaks as his embittered mind finds, no matter what the consequences.

Yet while these may not be admirable qualities in real life, they certainly work in his favour as a comic. He is attitude personified, spitting out the unsayable, with the almost inevitable howls of protest bouncing off his bulletproof exterior.

Be in no doubt this rancorous gay San Franciscan is a shock comic, revelling in the reaction his barbed comments receive. Nothing is off-limits, be it bad-taste asides about Madeleine McCann, crude sexual references, or the ultimate taboo: seemingly racist gags. He wants to prick at the predominantly middle-class, liberal sensibilities of comedy club audiences, and will be as confrontational as it takes to do it.

With any act that trades on offensive material, there needs to be a trust between comic and audience about the true intentions of the material, but Capurro blurs that line. There’s no obvious ironic wink, just an unrelenting tsunami of insensitive, acrimonious, unpleasantness.

Many audiences don’t take to this at all, and his unyielding stance can drive a gig into the ground, given how difficult he can be to watch, even if you do see where he’s coming from. On the other hand, if you are seeking comedy with genuine edge, he’ll give it – as long as you are prepared to accept the consequences of being bombarded with gags you probably didn’t really want to hear.

Sometimes Capurro’s desire to shock overwhelms the comedy, leaving just vicious spite and no punchlines. But when he hits is stride, with a tirade of brutally savage jokes delivered with razor-sharp timing, the effect is guiltily enjoyable. You’ll go to hell for this, but at least you’ll go down laughing.

Date of review: Dec 2007

This appeared in the Glasgow Herald last weekend…

Among the big-name comics playing Scotland this weekend, Scott Capurro is cruder than Frank Skinner, bitchier than the Grumpy Old Women, less discreet than Alan Carr, skinnier even than Mark Watson and has corresponded with more convicted killers than Ardal O’Hanlon. Seemingly driven by spite, bitterness and Viagra, the provocative San Franciscan is currently upsetting liberal sensibilities with his acidic opinions on the Maddie media coverage. A perennial Glasgay! turn, Capurro has appeared in Star Wars, graphically champions dwarf copulation and has just been handed a Royal sex blackmail scandal. What more could you want? He plays the Edinburgh Stand on Tuesday.

And then, this appeared in The List…

Scott brings his ‘Premature Gift’ show over to The Burgh after treating Glasgay! to his sense of humour. Not for the easily offended. Or quite hard to offend. Everyone else will adore the little bitch.

I know they’re both short paragraphs, but I liked them and thought they were worth putting on the site. This isn’t part of the mentions. This is me, writing about the brevity of them. I’m kind of bored and very tired, I was up rolling around on the floor of a gay sauna. Pot and viagra make me needy. And funnier, apparently. Or bitter. Or something.
Back to London tomorrow. Thank God. Although in this cold, coffee is better. Especially if the beans are seriously burned. xx

So a couple of weeks ago I’m doing my schtick, and some dickhead stands up and demands I stop, etc. In Bath of all places. Usually they’re very well-behaved there, it’s posh, and they’re white and worried. But I think I was rattling on and on about the Muslims, as one does. Isn’t that what they want, the radicals, with all their attention-seeking missles? Anyway, this big dumb fuck gets nervous I suppose, and very concerned about a lot of people he’ll never ever meet or even piss on really, and he yelps that he finds me offensive, blah blah blah and eventually his girlfriend yanks him out of the club. I don’t know what he thought I’d do. Stop? Yeah, right. I just let him dig his own hole. He went home to beat his fists into a wall, and I stayed on stage and told more nasty gags. I love it when I win.
When I heard from the booker that the show had been reviewed, I choked on my fancy metaphors, but when I read the article by Melissa Blease, I found it sharp and brave and I think it represents a large element of my work quite well.
I’m posting this so when you come to see me this Saturday at the Machester Comedy Festival, you’ll know what to expect. This way, your dumb ass boyfriend might not embarrass you. Or maybe he will, which, frankly, makes for better comedy.

…But the evening belonged to Scott Capurro – a whippet thin, razor tongued acid queen with an on-stage persona as venomous as a viper, specialising in brutally honest, fully frank observations on chattering class taboos. No subject - from Maddie to Muslims, Catholics to the clitoris, paedophilia, racism and bombing Iran - is sacred. The unease in the room is often palpable; the punchlines hit so hard you can almost taste the blood that oozes from Capurro’s victims, many of whom are unsuspecting audience members who dare to sit within easy reach of the predator. One such punter vocalises his appalled protest; more fool the man who takes on the Wicked Witch of the West Coast and expects to leave with his red shoes intact. “It’s always the middle class white liberals, isn’t it?” Capurro sneers, in his wake. “He’s gone home to beat his wife up”. Meanwhile, those of us strong enough to stay the course were richly rewarded, our illicit guilty pleasure buttons pushed to the limits. We climaxed when a finger puppet show explored the dynamics of a new gay relationship, from giggling along with “I wuv you, kissy kissy” to wriggling apprehensively as the desolate sobs that emanate from “I’m going to fuck you ‘til you bleed” filled the room. Distasteful? Come on, bitch – you know you want it.
FIVE STARS

Wed, August 22, 2007
Standup and shout
Yuk yuk’s plays host to lineup of gay comics

By ANN MARIE MCQUEEN, SUN MEDIA
Wed, August 22, 2007
Standup and shout
Yuk yuk’s plays host to lineup of gay comics

Scott Capurro doesn’t hesitate when asked about possibly closeted Hollywood celebrities who are frequently the target of gay rumours.

The 44-year-old gay San Francisco comic, who headlines Ottawa Yuk Yuk’s 3rd Annual Laugh Out Proud weekend starting tomorrow, says show business is full of people putting on a straight face for their public.

“I think it’s pathetic and sad, but you know, show business, as an adult, it’s like drama in high school: Who’s attracted to it? All the queers, you know what I mean?” he says. “So many famous actors in interviews and radio shows and stuff, they’re all gay men. (Many) women in comedy in America, they’re all lesbians, too.”

Capurro says just like in pro sports, while their colleagues in the industry might be aware of their same-sex orientation, fans of big, closeted stars are not.

“The thing is, I’ve never dealt with it, because I’ve always been out. I don’t understand it. I don’t understand the stress and the tension people put themselves through just so they can make a movie,” he says. “But I do think there’s a lot of money at stake, and whenever there’s a lot of money at stake, then people start faking it.”

Capurro doesn’t see the point of trying to force celebrities out of the closet either, like gossip blogger Perez Hilton did with singer Lance Bass and actor Neil Patrick Harris. He just doesn’t buy the argument it will change anything, or inspire any youngsters struggling to accept and announce their own sexuality.

“Has it mattered?” he says. “Don’t the fag-haters still hate the fags?”

Capurro points to his mother, who despite being supportive of her openly gay son and remaining close friends with a gay ex-husband, still can’t bring herself to ask if he is dating anyone.

“She’s fine. But she still talks to me like, ‘Honey, have you made any new friends?’ ”

Capurro thinks the only thing that will truly bring about a general acceptance and understanding is time — decades of it.

“I think it’s a generational thing. I think older people have to die first,” he says, with a little laugh. “Sorry, I do.”

Scott Capurro: interview
From: Time Out London Magazine, January 19, 2007

California dreaming: Capurro reflects on the pandemonium he’s created
Audiences from Edinburgh to Australia have taken umbrage at Scott Capurro’s gags. ‘I think it was the masturbatory gesture while staring at Christ on the cross,’ he muses

Scott Capurro has a reputation for causing offence and upset. Back in 2000, in his show at the Edinburgh Fringe, he caused controversy with some material about the Holocaust. In Australia, one year later, there was considerable outrage when he cracked jokes on live TV about having sex with Jesus. As recently as last September the producer of a comedy show in Cape Town suggested that Capurro tone down some of his religious stuff. ‘That was like throwing down the gauntlet,’ he explains. ‘The Muslims were complaining: “Don’t mention the Koran. Just don’t do it!” So I did.’
Article continues

He’s been told that he scares people. It’s been put to him that sheer entertainment is sufficient in itself. ‘Obviously it’s not. Not enough. It’s not enough to be just a distracting clown.’ Capurro’s aims are best expressed by describing his plans for a series of ‘Laughtershocks’. ‘Hour-long monologues where, at the beginning, a question is asked and then, 55 minutes later, it’s answered.’ He’s got the first three questions lined up already: Why do gay men wanna get married anyway? Why are lesbians humourless? Why can’t black people tip? ‘As always with my act, we’ll examine the very phobias each question seems to support. Ironic, right? I’m here to prove Americans can master that last gem in the British crown.’

Capurro was born in San Francisco. He did his first paid gigs as a stand-up there in the early ’90s. ‘Then a gay comedy club opened in the city and got my first taste of being “out” on stage. I’d been closeted. Before that, I’d never told the audience, although I’m sure they could tell. My wrists have a mind all of their own. I’ll always feel my roots, professionally and personally, are in San Francisco. I spent New Year in my underpants drinking vodka in a bar full of shaved gays.’

In October, though, he moved into a flat in Bethnal Green. That’s because he spends most of his time now in the UK.

‘It’s the epicentre of stand-up,’ Capurro declares. England beckoned with increasing insistence from the moment he won the Perrier best Newcomer Award in 1994. His stand-up is more tailored to British audiences than American ones. ‘Now I own a property. My family is nice to me. They’re actually chatty and kind. Like I’m valid, and important enough to share their divorce details with, because I’ve bought a shower curtain. I’m intrigued what might happen when I buy a car, as I must, just to avoid British Rail on Sundays. Maybe my stepmother will finally reveal the location of her eldest son, who disappeared seven years ago. I liked him. He never spoke, and I think he might have been autistic, but he had an unintentionally gay moustache and big thighs. Do you see where I’m going with this? My financial prowess might lead to a reunion with the one man I’ve ever truly loved, and the only man I’ve ever chased who won’t have the physical strength to fight back.’

On Monday, at Soho Theatre, Capurro starts on a six-night run of his stand-up show ‘Yankee Dog Pig’. ‘I’m discussing slightly volatile subjects,’ he concedes. ‘I want to joke about racial hatred and martyrdom without taking a side. I want to reveal political hypocrisy. And tell a lot of dick jokes. I’m sure I’ll cover Blair. He’s an endless source of misinformation. His apology for the way Saddam was killed was a masterclass in hyperbole. Criticising the noose as cruel, after Blair has murdered so many needlessly and brutally, is both sociopathic and rather sweet, in a frightfully bloodcurdling way. But then the British government is one huge contradiction, constantly scrambling like a fallen cripple reaching for his wheelchair.’

Capurro remains unrepentant about the shit he stirs with his observations. Any further thoughts about the Australian furore? ‘I think it was the masturbatory hand gesture while staring at Christ on the cross that made those in the outback squirm. But it’s good for them, like a cold morning swim.’ Last year’s problems in Cape Town? ‘The queers hate themselves there. They’ve got AIDS up to the eyeballs and a culture that despises homo sex.’ The worldwide consternation? ‘When people pay for the show, they get a show, anal warts and all.’ He’s concerned about one thing. ‘I talk a lot about money and power because I want some. I have a mortgage now and I’m terrified everything will be taken from me and I won’t be able to make fun of who I want when I want.’