Basic HTML Version
GLOBETROTTING
||
DISPATCHES
HEMISPHERESMAGAZINE.COM
•
JULY 2012
•
ILLUSTRATION BY ALEX EBEN MEYER (ANIMALS)
27
Milton Berle once called him
“Don Rickles with venom.”)
For his part, Favorito says he’s
been preparing to be an insult
comic his whole life. “I grew up
in a tough part of Boston. I was
a small kid. I had to talk my way
through the neighborhood,” he
says. “When I got into a physical
fight, I always lost.”
When a heckler interrupts
him, Favorito sharply offers
to “remove my brain so that
we can have a fair fight.”
Good-natured but pointed
jokes ricochet around the
room. Many in the audience are
repeaters, having angled for
front-row seats to increase the
likelihood of receiving abuse.
A couple of senior citizens
get the business early on. “My act
is 60 minutes long,” Favorito warns
them. “You might want to start
making your way to the exit now.”
—MICHAEL KAPLAN
Deep within the Flamingo
Las Vegas, fresh dry-cleaning
hangs on the door handle of
a grim, windowless room. A
chessboard in midgame sits
on a wooden table. Vinnie
Favorito, a fireplug of a man
with a lethal pompadour, is
going through his pre-show
ritual, which is to say, arriv-
ing some 15 minutes before
showtime—though he’s been
known to cut it so tight that he
walks right from valet parking
to the mic—and making small
talk with his business manager.
Favorito wants to know about
tonight’s ticket sales (it’s a
full house) and mentions that
he’s looking forward to an
upcoming poker tournament.
As soon as he hits the stage,
Favorito launches into his act:
singling out people from the packed
crowd and thoroughly busting their
chops. This is insult comedy at its
DISS OLD HOUSE
WORKING THE FLAMINGO
WITH AN INSULT COMIC STAR
LAS VEGAS
most classic, and—as he pivots,
scanning the room for targets—it
quickly becomes clear why Favorito
is considered the genre’s modern-
day king. (Indeed, none other than
LIVING LEGENDS
AN ARTIST RE-CREATES A POPULAR CHINESE MYTH
SHANGHAI •
Oh, that dirty rat. Once
upon a time, legend has it, China’s Jade
Emperor had all the members of the
animal kingdom race across a river; the
first 12 to finishwould be included in the
Shengxiao, the Chinese zodiac calendar,
in the order in which they placed. And
while accounts vary, most have the rat
hopping aboard the ox, jumping off at
the end and coming in first.
Perhaps because of that dubious fin-
ish, NewYork artist Duke Riley recently
saw fit to stage a rematch of sorts on
a canal on the outskirts of Shanghai.
Traditional gondolas ferried animals
representing the original top 12 (with
a few substitutions, including a large
lizard in place of the dragon), while local
opera singers at each boat’s bow belted
out praise for the contestants.
“Nocalendarswill be reset at thefinish
line, norwill any closer understanding of
thatmythical day be realized,” Riley said
before the race. “The only realizationwill
be a brief moment of divine absurdity.”
(And possibly a bit of divine justice, too,
as the rat droppedwell out of first place.)
Below, the finishing order of the 2012
contenders compared with their stand-
ings in the original race.
—SAM POLCER
HORSE
(+6)
DOG
(+4)
OX
(–0)
PIG
(+4)
MONKEY
(+6)
RABBIT
(-5)
ROOSTER
(+6)
TIGER
(-2)
RAT
(-5)