Naomi Grossman, who plays the grotesque asylum inmate Pepper in American Horror story, has crafted a one-woman show about her history of hustling in Hollywood – on the way to cult stardom. With a funny nod to the original show, American Whore Story shows this consummate professional move at a cracking pace, with a laugh a minute.
She’s full of chutzpah and sassy American confidence, drawing the audience in with her considerable charm and side-splitting sense of humour, which evokes the wisecracks of Mae West, the over-the-top delivery of Phyllis Diller and the hilarious physical comedy of Lucille Ball (whom she impersonates later in the show).
Contrary to her title, she has never “whored” but had to work at a lot of odd jobs on her way to stardom, including driving a Red Bull van, doing singing telegrams and, most hilariously, hustling her way into a job teaching Spanish by lying to the boss that she was from Argentina. She became the most sought after teacher at the language centre with her unique approach to verb conjugation. (To buttf**k was her most popular.)
Her writing is sharply self-aware and self-deprecating, at the same time as being refreshingly honest with her revelations about her love life and biting ambition. Her first big love, a gorgeous South American with bipolar disorder, is a grand romance until, in a depressive episode he jumps off Santa Monica pier and ends up in a coma. She pulls out a ukelele and sings a song about it. ‘My Boyfriend’s in a Coma, it’s Really Serious’. Yep, she brazenly goes where others fear to tread. Eventually she has to abandon him because ambition calls and besides, ‘My perfect attendance at his bedside was lost on him’.
Eventually, after thousands of knockbacks in show biz, she triumphs and wins her role playing ‘the ugliest woman on television’ – Pepper in American Horror Story. She finds cult status and becomes a gay icon, including winning the heart of a man who turns out to be gay. When they break up, she quips, ‘I wanted to call him a c***sucker, but he would have liked that too much.’
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This one-woman show is brilliantly written and performed by a consummate professional. It is a treat to witness her deliver such an assured performance. The small audience who attended on the day ArtsHub attended were on their feet clapping and cheering at the end. American Whore Story is a great example of everything we love about Fringe. It’s a showcase of brilliant storytelling, outstanding performance and a peek into the life of a very kooky lady.
American Whore Story will be performed at the Gilded Balloon Patter House until 25 August.
