Sex Signals comedy performance forces audience to confront realities of sexual abuse

September 10, 2008
By Gary Smothers
Staff Writer

Brookens Auditorium was packed and still filling on the evening of Tuesday Sept. 2 as the comedy and lecture group Sex Signals took the stage. Out in the hall, multicolored lollipop packaged condoms were handed out along with informational pamphlets on STDs. The Women’s Center was present as well, handing out emergency whistles, pamphlets, and information. Inside, the crowd applauded as the attractive cast members Fawzia Mirza, a third year performer, and Kyle Terry, a fifth year performer, greeted them with jokes. The Sex Signals performance is an interactive show consisting of off-the-cuff, raw humor. Cast members Mirza and Terry explained the usage of such raw, yet realistic, humor as a means of allowing the topic of acquaintance rape to be broached without turning off the audience. Merely lecturing is not what they do, though they do their job well. Their brand of humor is most often well received, but there have been exceptions. Most usually the negative feedback received is by men who perceive their show as “man bashing” or “stereotyping” of men.

The show operated on the simple premise of scenario performances utilizing the existing stereotypes of gender as a tool for the dialogue. In the first scenario, a guy portrayed hilariously by Terry was trying to “hook up” with a hypothetical lonely, downtrodden student portrayed by Mirza. Terry’s interior monologue described himself as a strong, “Nubian God” who takes what he wants. Mirza’s character scoffed at his pathetic attempts, especially his audience provided pick-up line of, “What’s cookin’ good looking?” As the scenario progressed, audience members, having been urged earlier to hold aloft “Stop!” signs, raised them at the point of the male character’s taking things too far. The point of the skit, that one should stop when he or she even thinks that whatever they are doing may not be desired, was driven home as audience perspectives were different on when was too far.

www.catharsisproductions.com

At the midway point of the performance, the humor was abandoned for a hypothetical game show in which blamelessness is attempted to be proven. The game show started with the serious line, “I really didn’t rape that girl.” The audience participated by asking questions which Terry answered in the character of an acquaintance rapist in denial. After the game show, the audience posed serious questions about acquaintance rape. Through these questions it was discovered that 80% of rape victims know their attackers and that most of us are either victims or touched by the repercussions of rape to our friends or family.

The show ended as it began, with humor as well as with intelligence.