HOMELY PLANET

Well, we performed BABO-PALOOZA! this weekend, our sketch comedy show, and the response was massive. We sold out both nights, and the crowds were boisterous and participatory. It was a big hit, unlike anything ever done by expats in this country before, but we did have our share of detractors.

For the record, tons of people showed up and the repsonse we got was OVERWHELMINGLY positive. But we did have haters - some who just thought it sucked - and others who were completely offended, even to the point of calling us racists. All except one chose to voice their discontent through anonymous internet posts. But good comedy always offends, and we took on both foreigners and the locals. The show was a succession of sketches written by different writers, so a certain unevenness was to be expected. But we goT laughs all night long. It was a good time.

As I said, most people, Korean and Western, loved it. But we were loathed by some, so let me open it up now.

The most vocal hater was my friend Stu. And to his credit, he just was only offended because he thought the thing just wasn't funny. To see his take, click here I can live with Stu's critique, because he was at least honest and up front enough to call something out that he thought was crap. He made his opinion known during the running of the show, so fair enough. Stu rules and the fact that he hated my show plays no bearing in my opinion of him.

It gets nastier here, though, in that a couple of anonymous haters make some ridiculous claims, such as drug dealing during the show. The only drug getting pushed was shitty beer, and if that's a crime, then mea culpa. I never go to this site but, was made aware of the thread, so I thought it only proper to include it here. The comments here carry some serious vitriol, but nonetheless, I will put them up for pubic consideration.

The other running thread is at good 'ol pusan web. In fact, things got so bad that they shut down almost all of the forums. I have no idea what was being said, but terrible things are said there everyday, so it must have been a few degrees beyond the pale.

We did two shows to uber-packed laughing crowds, of mainly foreigners but some Koreans, most of whom really enjoyed it. As we live in Korea, which is a society sensitive to foreign comment, we were concerned about doing this show in the first place. But we decided to go with it, despite vigorous internal debate about many of the sketches. But in the end it's comedy, and if you don't think it was funny, fine. That can only be an artistic failure on our part. But to accuse us of racism is another thing. We live here, and I will say that we love it here, but we feel free to poke fun in a forward way, and if you are too sensitive to roll with that, then sorry. This was not a hate-filled show - in fact, those who accuse us of that are most likely dealing with some hate of their own, and choose to anonymously exorcise it on internet forums.

For those of you back home who may be scratching your heads. This was nothing compared to an old "Piece of Meat Theatre" gig.

At least we got people talking. The worst sort of performance is of the disposable kind, the sort that elicits NO response.