Straight Up With a Twist

Paul Stroili’s award-winning one-man show, Straight Up With a Twist, a humorous take on the “metrosexual/Renaissance Geek” trend, makes its Chicago debut.

The show looks at what it’s like to be a heterosexual man who does not know the first thing about power tools, but can perfectly fold a fitted sheet. Author Paul Stroili plays eight characters in the production, each struggling to understand this self-proclaimed ‘Renaissance Geek’ who says, “Don’t call my house during Monday Night Football? that’s when I vacuum.”

First performed in 1999, years before the term “metrosexual” entered the public eye, Straight Up has been embraced by audiences on both coasts, selling out performances in LA and on throughout New England. The show was named by the Orange County Register as one of the Top Ten Theater Events of the Year in Southern California. In addition, it received an OC Weekly Award and was nominated for two LA Weekly Awards: Best Solo Performance of the Year for Paul Stroili and Best Direction for original director, Bill Penton.