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Jay Johnson "The Two and Only" - Maggers - 11-26-2006
I saw the extraordinary Jay Johnson on Broadway last night in his one man show, "The Two and Only." Sadly, it's closing tonight, not because the show isn't marvelous, but apparently because it wasn't marketed well enough. They just didn't fill the seats.
I'm writing about it because if Johnson should take his show on the road to your town, do whatever you can to see it.
Some of you may remember Jay Johnson and Bob from "Soap," the ground-breaking 70's TV sitcom. Johnson played the ventriloquist whose dummy (a word he won't use for his wooden partners), Bob, was supposed to be his alter ego. He knew the writers of the show were nuts and knew nothing about ventriloquism when he read the script and saw "Bob" as the same for his dummy. No ventriloquist would give his partner a name that began and ended with plosives, sounds that require the lips to move.
The show is a history of ventriloquism, Johnson's personal history in ventriloquism, hilarious bits with his puppets and partners, and the most extraordinary display of ventriloquism that I will ever see. I just did not expect to be blown away by this show. He was so funny, so adept, so witty and wise, and so damn good, that I just had to let you know.
It's a shame the show is closing. If you go to the show's website,
http://www.thetwoandonly.com
you'll see Johnson's blogs. He wrote how hard it was to do the show knowing that it's closing tonight. I'm honored I got to see him working so well under such duress.