“Fooling Buddha” reviewed by Carol Moore

Recommended **** I’m not quite sure how to describe First Folio’s “Fooling Buddha”.  It’s a one-man show, for sure, but it’s also a memoir filled with Buddhist truisms and a little bit of magic thrown in just for fun.  The important thing – “Fooling Buddha” has a lot of laughs.  I give it 4 Spotlights.

Sitting cross-legged on the floor wearing a suit and an enigmatic smile, David Kovac starts his show by saying “Eddie Dunn (the neighborhood bully) said I was going to hell.”   Kovac was the only Buddhist child in his school, making him a double outsider, a non-Christian nerd!

Before I go any further, I want to mention Angela Weber Miller’s gorgeous, vaguely Oriental, angular wood-paneled and filigreed set.  In addition to being gorgeous, it was functional and user-friendly.  Kovac pulled a white screen down in front of the center panel for a slide show loaded onto an old-fashioned slide carousel to project images of his home and his neighborhood in Milwaukee.                                                                            

As the only Buddhist child in his school, he needed to find a way to divert Eddie’s attention, and he did that by clowning, something that made neither his teachers nor his parents happy.  School was represented by a blackboard which replaced the white screen.  In his family kitchen (cleverly hidden inside a decorative box), Kovac plays himself, his mother and his father at the dinner table, discussing a wide range of topics from the Buddhist perspective.

When he was first taken to the House of Illusions – which immediately became his favorite place – he learned how to use magic and sleight of hand.  On one trip to the House of Illusions, which was cleverly hidden in a box covered with a gray and white screen, he donned a hat, saying that he could lose 50 IQ points by flipping up the brim!  Sleight of hand, card tricks and illusions were an integral part of his entire performance.  I loved the upside down card trick and the inverted glass of water.

“Fooling Buddha” runs through April 24^th at First Folio Theatre at the Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31^st Street and Rt. 83, Oakbrook.

Running time is 85 minutes, no intermission.

Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 pm

Sundays at 3:00 pm.

Tickets range from $29-$39.  Parking is free.  FYI (630) 986-8067 or www.firstfolio.org.

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Fooling Buddah”