I Likes to Have Funz

“I’m feeling especially faggoty tonight,” announces Jonny McGovern in his new solo show I Likes to Have Funz. Clad in a bright pink T-shirt and blue jeans, McGovern possesses a manic energy and a raunchy sense of humor. Some of the comedian’s funniest lines are too obscene to repeat in a review, but they certainly score points with a live audience.

I Likes to Have Funz is more of a glorified stand-up routine than a cohesive solo play, as the writer-performer tells four different tales about his life in New York City. The first and lengthiest of these chronicles his adventures as a nanny charged with looking after two young boys, ages 5 and 7. McGovern had no previous childcare experience but did have a number of “neurotic actress friends with a lot of time on their hands” to provide him with false references. Charming and witty, the performer relates his interactions with the boys in a frank but surprisingly tender fashion. (He tells us that the kids were not very concerned about his sexual orientation but were impressed by his video game skills.)

The second story details McGovern’s battle with rats in his former Williamsburg apartment, while the succeding tale is about his career as a party promoter and his 21-year-old boyfriend’s search for a new apartment. McGovern ends the evening with a short anecdote about living in Harlem and the recognition he received there after appearing on The Ricki Lake Show.

McGovern is an appealing and charismatic storyteller; the hilarious tales that he spins touch upon interesting intersections of race, class, and sexuality. Unfortunately, he doesn’t really address these issues in any serious way, and he has adopted a “ghetto” manner of speaking that borders on blaxploitation. In the mouth of a 6’4″ white gay male, this verbal affectation is potentially offensive yet also funny due to its incongruity.

As McGovern talks of his life, we do learn a little about his perspective on race. For example, he discusses living in Harlem and doing the “whitey walk,” which basically consists of looking at his watch and pretending to ignore the homophobic comments addressed to him by some of the African-Americans in his neighborhood. (He immediately flips the situation and says that he sometimes likes to be out, loud, and proud, kissing his boyfriend in public regardless of what others may think.) There’s also a very funny moment in McGovern’s first tale where he talks about going to pick the kids up from school, and being the sole “white gay babysitter” amongst “a hundred Jamaican nannies.”

Under the direction of Courtney Munch, McGovern paces the narrow stage of the Ace of Clubs theater, speaking his monologues into a microphone. The transitions between the writer-performer’s stories seem a bit awkward; a dramaturg might have helped smooth out the narration and make the show cohere as an artistic product. Still, this is funny stuff. With a little more tweaking and focus, I Likes to Have Funz could be even more effective.