In this one-person, multi-character comedy, Peterson Toscano finds humor in the oddest places–cancer, climate change, and even childhood trauma. What is so funny about broken bodies? Perhaps it is how we respond to them whether it be through denial, the quest for miracle cures, or doing the impossible. This is a play about facing our fears big and small.
Hilarious, heartbreaking, revealing, and energetic, this play offers laughs and hope in the greatest times of need as we face the biggest challenges. With the help of his comic creations, Marvin Bloom and Dr. Meadows, Peterson takes his audience for a ride back into the past, forward to the future, and deep into resources we never know exist until we need them most.
Wanna know how to face an apocalypse with humor, hope, and humanity? Check out Peterson’s newest, boldest comedy.
Poster design for October 15, 2014 premiere at Susquehanna University
Listen to an public radio interview of Peterson talking about the play: WVIA ArtScene with Erika Funke
Read about the music and the research behind the play. Also, check out The art of vulnerability: One-man show uses personal experience as exploration by Hannah Wilson writing for Mesa University Criterion.
The show is hilarious, deeply moving, whimsical, and thought-provoking--a rare combination in performance art!
I saw Peterson performed a new play called "Does this Apocalypse Make Me Look Fat?" at Creating Change that really touches on the intersections of body image, body positivity, bodily shame, and the ways in which climate change and marginalization disproportionately impacts some bodies more than others. It is one of the most powerful performances I have experienced and for me really spoke to shame, trauma, and healing through vulnerability and community.
Toscano's excellent theater chops morph characters and identities in that world-changing way only performance allows. His writing and philosophy educate and loosen the tightest knots of queer and religious entanglements. But it's his heart, which his engaging presence radiates, that will pull you in, warm you up, and leave you pleading for an encore.
Peterson came to the twin cities and led the interfaith community in a dynamic and engaging theatrical and comedic evening. The subject of climate change can be overwhelming. Through Peterson's gifted lead we found ourselves laughing together and imagining what's possible.
What a powerful, hilarious, important work about broken bodies large and small, human resourcefulness in the face of dire situations, hope, vulnerability, and SO MUCHMORE! I would recommend this play with the highest recommendation possible.
Alternately witty, pithy, funny, and poignant, Does This Apocalypse Make Me Look Fat? is a one person, multi-character comic meditation about broken bodies and the complicated relationship we have with them.
Ingeniously framed, hilariously timed, and sensitively executed, half humor, half compassion, this one-man show will shock and delight you.
(featured image painting: Kevin by Ed Paschike)
