Tom Lenk has had plenty of success in the acting business as a
costar on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” He’s also
had plenty of support from fans, and, at one point in his career,
he had freakishly skinny arms.
Before attending UCLA’s theater program and then becoming
Andrew Wells on “Buffy,” Lenk had both a modeling
career and quite an ego. But perhaps the most important thing Lenk
has to offer is a pleasantly sardonic sense of humor about his
rocky road to semi-stardom. The young actor has recently taken up
Hollywood’s Acme Comedy Theatre and has decided to turn his
wisdom, woes and anecdotes into a concise but effective one-man
show.
With simple keyboard accompaniment and a low-budget stage set,
Lenk’s “Will You Be My Special Friend?” models
TV’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” as he
moves through a series of themes and stories of growing up, with a
little help from a few surprise guests.
While the show is sometimes a little unprofessional, these
slipups are obviously intentional and add to the show’s
relaxed tone. Some of Lenk’s show is clearly geared toward
personal friends and family who will undoubtedly fill a portion of
the small theater, providing the show with an intimate
atmosphere.
Lenk shares hysterical pictures and creepy fan mail, among other
things. Before acting in Los Angeles, Lenk was a high school
student in Westlake Village, where he enjoyed tons of self-promoted
media attention as a young actor and director.
In another hysterical section of his show, Lenk discusses the
touching, if odd, behavior of his parents, showing pictures of his
father’s bizarre hobbies and sharing his mother’s
charming poetry.
Different people come on and off the set to shake things up once
in a while, but generally, Lenk is funniest on his own. The
character of his elderly superintendent, for example, played by
Patty Wortham, comes off as forced and slightly unnecessary,
despite her few comedic moments.
Tom also spends a significant portion of his show reading
comments from audacious teenage girls, who rated him on
Alloy.com’s “Crush of the Week.” While the
comments are often hilarious, the segment itself gets a little
tedious as he continues to read nasty and deriding notes about
himself.
Still, the show’s interesting insight into the austere
Hollywood world makes it intriguing for those of us on the outside.
Visits from fellow actors and funny comments about Internet egos
keep the show interesting, and its duration of just over an hour is
the perfect time for a brief visit with a one-hit wonder.
Ultimately, the show’s informal format and Lenk’s
natural charisma help to forgive its small kinks and sections of
overindulgence. Lenk has a down-to-earth personality and a dynamic
stage presence to match it, and the show becomes both a powerful
story of a man’s most awkward moments and an intimate
encounter with an artist. Although Lenk’s life has lead him
to a career that few are privileged to enjoy, his moments of
adolescence, disappointment and joy are so well expressed that they
are impossible not to relate to.
-Alexis Matsui