Alicia McCarthy and Ben Smith: Artist Comedians - P.A.W. Print

When artist Alicia McCarthy debuted her comedic persona ATMJ (Alicia T. McCarthy, Jr.), the packed room gave her its unwavering attention as she explained her relationship to canine sexuality with the help of a series of charts and graphs. This was the February opening for Emily Vernon’s “HA!” group show at the Project Room, in which the ATMJ, lacking specific punchlines, spoke candidly from a stream of consciousness, finding humor in every direction. After shamelessly dancing an inimitable series of gyrations and leaving the crowd to laugh its way out of its spell, fellow west Philly artist Ben Smith told her, "That was great-- I'm going to steal that idea."

Since then, McCarthy and Smith have been moving in the same circles, appearing as comedians at art openings and other events that never required comedians, and wiping away the stain of seriousness. They performed back to back at a Padlock Gallery opening on April 30, a show curated by Smith and including drawings by both comedians. Both were also at the mic for Simulcast on May 14, an impressive multimedia show at McCarthy’s house, curated by roommate Paul Lawlor. Over the top dancing is key to the ATMJ experience, and one can expect true stories which often come from her past jobs such as expressing the anal glands of dogs at a kennel or dressing up as a pizza slice for Papa John's.

McCarthy’s act grew organically, beginning as casual storytelling to friends. She finds it challenging to extend that communication to audience members who know nothing of her philosophy. "I start things in the middle a lot, and some people miss the point. They need to know that everything should be out on the table." In other words, when the stunning red-head goes to the bathroom, she may tell you exactly what she is going to do there. McCarthy relates to comedy by being completely open. If a heckler shouted out, asking her to talk about the death of a family member, she probably could do so both compassionately and hysterically.


Ben Smith

"I feel I have been given a lot of joy in my being and I want to help people feel the way I do, to know it's okay to be a clown, to laugh at yourself." W. Benjamin Smith III comes off as a caricature of a comedian after three degrees of irony. It becomes funny that he's telling jokes and playing the part of the normal human comedian. The audience, consisting mainly of peer artists, feels like outsiders, sophisticated aliens enacting a human rite of audience/performer, and now they see that their performer is one of them, cutting open the absurdity of pop culture, replacing their frustration with laughter.

A mainstay of Smith’s act is the recitation of West Coast raps which he enunciates clearly as if at a poetry reading. The phrases are left to stand on their own and reveal their inherent silliness.

Smith also gets carried away on flights of fancy developed with disturbing levels of detail, such as his musings on the Hamburgler and other food mascots. He tells me that "contrary to the predominant belief that he is an amoral criminal, Hamburgler is actually a gentle and sadly misunderstood young man." Liberating imagination from the commercial world requires a bold creative mind. While focusing on delivering Hamburgler from slavery, Smith’s instinctive purpose goes beyond silliness.

Also a visual artist, Smith finds an audience to be a unique medium, having a mind of its own.

"Nine times out of nine," he announces, "jokes about puke and any other form of human by-product are funnier than the most carefully crafted joke on the topic of existential anxiety provoked by the modern post-religious predicament. When I told a crowd once that self-identity is subjective, they yawned and booed before I even reached the punchline."

"So I showed them how my vomit expands to encompass all of their head and neck regions to display how my interior material could well suit their exteriors." Look for McCarthy and Smith on flyers for obscure basement shows as their wit would be out of place at traditional comedy venues. Alicia McCarthy can be found as anaxeisanax@yahoo.com and Ben Smith is wben@mad.scientist.com.