No Justice for This Working Man!

It's funnier than Hairspray. It attracts more late-night fans than Rocky Horror. The music is better than Cats.

But like its predecessors in the cult entertainment world, Get a New Job, Joe Blunsten!'s campy spontaneity has attracted a devoted following. As the fourth episode, "Romantic Christmas Special," begins, directors Elijah F. Aron '92-'93 and Paul N. Gailiunas '92 toss candy into the 70 people that have arrived for the 10 p.m. show in the Adams House Private Dining Room. The crowd goes wild.

Their excitement has mounted after waiting in a half-hour line that stretched out the door of Adams House C-Entry. Now inside, the audience ferociously hisses at every mention of the evil Tycoon and claps for the "very" Suspicious Neighbor.

They are not, however, quite ready for tonight's season-ending shocker: Peppermint Blunsten (Joe's daughter) has fallen in love with--you guessed it--the evil Tycoon.

The faithful audience won't stand for it.

"No, Peppermint, don't do it!" someone shouts. That's the last thing I would have expected," laments another, shaking his head."

In Get a New Job, Joe Blunsten! tradition, the audience groans in sympathy after, on top of all this, Joe gets rejected by an unemployment agency--again.

As the show ends, they are ready once again to cheer Joe's familiar last line: "There is no justice for the working man."

Aztec Sun Gods and Himalayan Rescues

The show's appeal is undeniable. "It's about Joe Blunsten--a good, honest family man who has one fatal flaw: he can't hold onto a job," says Gailiunas. And, if you haven't guessed already, the show has a socialist bent. "There's always a strict dichotomy between the evil Tycoon and the working man," adds Aron.

The two directors, who have been roommates for two years, met during their Orientation Week at the introductory meeting for the Subterranean Review, the now-defunct socialist magazine.

And what started out as a political interest has developed into something that neither of them would have expected back then.

"It's become a little bit of a cult thing," admits Aron.

The plot line follows a consistent structure, just like a regular sit-com. Every episode, Joe has a new job that seems guaranteed, but, within five minutes, he manages to lose it. Blunsten returns home where success surrounds him: his wife, Marcie, is a slick newscaster. His daughter, Peppermint, gets promoted every week in her job at Taco Parade: first to Golden Sombrero, then to Aztec Sun God and finally, to CEO. Even his pet, Yipper, wins fame and glory as a rescue dog in the Himalayas.

'Capitalist Bullshit'

Despite its silliness, Get a New Job, Joe Blunsten's socialist theme is not entirely lost on the audience. "It exposes the American Capitalist myth for the bullshit it really is," says Josh S. Byard '93. "Joe Blunsten, by using the genre of the situation comedy, subverts the entire value system for which it stands." Or, as Gailiunas simply states, "The point is, a lot of money doesn't make you into a nice person."

Aron and Gailiunas have avoided taking themselves too seriously. "The acting style is John Waters. The plot is so ridiculous that the actors can really be puppets to it," says Gailiunas.

But the directors unmistakably have a theory underlying their spontaneity. "People aren't used to comic theater enough to know what to laugh at," Aron says, explaining why they chose to parody a television show. "A sitcom format can draw on pieces of television culture that people are used to, so they know when to expect the climax and laugh lines."

"I really don't think that theater can portray reality very well any more," adds Aron. "People can't suspend disbelief. I like to push that and make it more melodramatic and cartoony and big. That's something you can do in theater more than in film or T.V."

The set typifies Aron's philosophy: cartoon-like, fluorescent pink and yellow "B"s cover the Blunsten family couch and copious moneybags litter the office of the Tycoon, played by Thomas M. Lauderdale '92.

Aron and Gailiunas decided to create a musical sitcom after staging the well-received musical Daisy, a full-length political satire, last year. "Daisy didn't take us that long to write, and it was frustrating that it took so long to produce," says Aron. The two wanted to emphasize creativity without worrying about perfection.

"If you can't put on a professional show anyway, you might as well do something innovative and fresh that people of our generation will get," says Aron.

Their technique has succeeded with the audience. "It's one of the most apt parodies of sitcoms. People talk about how stupid sitcoms are, but this actually does something about it," says Byard.

And Joe Blunsten has even managed to out-sitcom television sitcoms: Rob C. Scalise '93 arrived at Adams 40 minutes before the show started, missing his other "T.V." favorite, Beverly Hills, 90210.

Spontaneity the Key

The production process facilitates Joe Blunsten's light-hearted tone: After Aron and Gailiunas discuss the plot for two days, Aron writes the script in 24 hours. Then "Paul writes music like that," says Aron, snapping his fingers. "He always has songs in his head." The cast receives the script on Friday, memorizes lines over the weekend and begins 2-hour, nightly rehearsals on Monday for a Thursday night show.

Alex E. Marashian '92, who plays Joe Blunsten, believes the rehearsal process works. "In a good episode, we have a lot of spontaneous flair. I figure out so many of my gestures when I'm on stage."

"Elijah wants Joe Blunsten to be semi-spontaneous, that's why rehearsal is so short," says Charles D. Guerrero '93, who has guest-starred in several episodes. "It's hard, because the things they write are so hilarious that you don't ever want to change them."

Aron and Gailiunas outdo each other in praising their producer, cast and crew.

The cast, in turn, is equally enthusiastic. "Paul and Elijah are great to work with," says Tanya S.J. Selvaratnam '93. "Also, there's so little comedy at Harvard. I forfeited common casting at HRDC because I knew I wanted to do this. Harvard theater is so jaded, but this is fresh."

Marashian agrees. "It's hell every other week and it's a big high twice in two hours. I feel like Al Bundy on acid."

He Knows All the Words

Although Aron and Gailiunas deliver a political message, their main goal is to have fun. And the crowd, as well as the actors, do just that.

"I know all the words to the Joe Blunsten song," says Byard.

"Joe Blunsten is better than sex," claims Maya Nedkarni '92, who plays Peppermint Blunsten.

Some offer more sophisticated praise. "It's more fresh and experimental than most drama at Harvard," said Mary M. Mitchell '92. "A lot of Harvard experimental theater ends up being selfconsciously avant-garde."

Although most of the cast and audience hails from Adams House, Gailiunas says, "We didn't want [the show] to be an Adams House thing. We avoid Adams House in-jokes."

"It's taken a little bit of time for word of mouth to get around, but I've heard talk of it in my house," says Daryl C. Norcott '94, who trekked from Cabot to see Get a New Job, Joe Blunsten.

Unfortunately, the fourth episode may have been the last. "We may do a reunion episode next term, but [the show] has run its course, with people writing theses," says Marashian.

In the meantime, the fans who get their triweekly fix while missing their other favorite sitcoms, escaping homework or getting an early start on their weekend will have to wait.

But, as Selvaratnam comments, whether it is truly over, or not, Joe Blunsten will always be "the kind of thing that in 10 years people will look back and think, 'that was really cool.'"