What happens when two seasoned comedians—one with a talent for crafting characters, the other with a knack for directing them—join forces? Besides making each other laugh?
For Richard Perez and Charlie Bardey, the result is ‘I Have To Do This’, a one-man show blending pantomime, props, and multimedia. Featuring actor-comedian Perez and comedian-director Bardey, the performance will take place on Thursday, Feb. 27, at the Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art (PhilaMOCA).
Perez, an American-born comic performance artist with parents from Colombia and Peru, and podcasting, writing stand-up comedian Bardey have been friends for five years, and welcome their mutual appreciation of each other’s work as riff-heavy humorists.
“I think that we find resonance and truth in each other’s observations,” says Perez of the pair’s shared observations.
“Together, we’re really silly,” adds Bardey. “But it is purposeful silliness, and creatively fertile for our work doing our on-going sketch show (the mix of video and live performance that is ‘Charlie and Richard’s Secret Project’) and ‘I Have To Do This’. Our humor comes from each of us trying to surprise the other one.”
Perez’s jokey storytelling, multiple voices and actorly character work stems from the manner in which his parents share the tales of their upbringing in Colombia and Peru, as well as their earliest days in the United States.
“It’s funny, but as they speak, they transform, and become the people that they’re talking about,” says Perez. “They are very captivating that way…. Playing with my brothers and my friends as kids, we created our own characters, our own narratives, and I always wound up as the bad guy, the person who loses, but you’ll never catch.”
Perez started bringing his newest characters to life via Instagram, fleshing out the earliest iterations of ‘I Have To Do This’ on a daily – and occasionally bloody – basis.
“My videos on Instagram…. I don’t think that I’ve been too precious about it all,” says Perez, excusing himself for his funny, bloody mess on social media.
“Instagram is my sketchbook, a place filled with baby seeds of developing ideas and tones,” says Perez.
As a sign of emotional growth beyond their usual silliness, ‘I Have To Do This’ does tell an often obsessive story of romantic partnership, passionate sexuality and even free-falling vulnerability in its mix of stage work, stand-up, video and pantomime.
“It does sound earnest, doesn’t it,” laughs Bardey. “Richard just happens to be an unusually gifted performer.”
“It is serious at times, but mostly hysterical,” says Perez. “I filmed a bunch of stuff, some disparate vignettes, that you’ll see where someone is pretending to kiss my ear while I’m washing dishes. I got into fights with this imaginary lover while cooking – the whole show is a lot of me talking to someone who isn’t there.”
In ‘I Have To Do This’, Perez employs a meta, self-referential style of humor that playfully breaks the fourth wall, inviting the audience into the joke. The filmed scenes may seem like part of a play he’s developing—one with a strong pantomime element—but by the end, the result is poignant, revealing a deeper side to the typically lighthearted comedy duo.
“There’s really something special here,” says Bardey.
“You can project your own imagination into what is there, on stage, and isn’t there,” says Perez. “And its poignancy? Doing the show feels like a fantasy coming to life. But the fantasy of ‘I Have To Do This’, and the emotional beats throughout the show… they’re often sad, a cinematic sort-of romance and love that isn’t necessarily true.”
‘I Have To Do This’ hits the stage at PhilaMOCA, 12th and Spring Garden streets, on Thursday, Feb. 27. For information and tickets, visit philamoca.org
