maria legault. obviously one of us. she knows our weaknesses, our sore points, our anxieties. but better than that, she knows how to make us laugh at ourselves. not an easy task. this ability to poke at sores, to speak the truth, to say what we all know and have agreed to not say.

the stand-up comic in front of an audience. from what i have heard, this is worse than doing performance art. this comic/audience relation relies so much more on the interaction of an audience. the comic knows if she has failed, and so does the audience. maria legault did not fail. she had us laughing. and i have to say, it felt good to have my anxieties aired out in public…cuz yeah, it is a recession and what do we think we are doing « making art? » and yes, the female performance artist is supposed to get naked and rub blood, or, er, ketchup all over her body…at least once, it’s part of the initiation process. we all know that. and yeah, i’m sore at all those guys who get grants and support from curators…but i would never say so, at least not in public.

so…she came down the stairs into the pool with her long blond locks and her sequenced black dress and was the officially sanctioned m.c. for the night. alternating between the « right and the correct, » and the « oh, my god, i am so sorry  » breakdowns. she took us through the ceremonies with great style.

and i am still smiling to myself when i re picture maria’s solution to her overdose of foie gras from the festivities of the night before…what was it called? a colonoscopy…maria on all fours with her hand gesturing the procedure of sticking a tube up her anus and having the uh..shit shoot out. you shoulda been there.

maria legault: http://www.marialegault.com