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By Jack Saunders
The fifth annual USU Gay and Lesbian Film festival, Pridefest, was brought to a close Saturday night with live performance of Frank DeCaro. DeCaro, best known for his seven-year stint as a film critic of Comedy Central's The Daily Show, rocked the not-so-packed TSC auditorium and created, none other, than a "fabulous" night to remember. Pridefest spokesperson Cy Martz started the show off with some very funny, but slightly raunchy "gay" humor during his 10-minute opening act. Martz poked fun at The Anniversary Inn, calling it a "bathhouse for breeders," and reminisced about his Catholic upbringing. "I wasn't molested once growing up as a Catholic, and I was an altar boy and everything," Martz said. "That makes me wonder, 'What's wrong with me?'" After Martz's performance, a five-minute parody clip, mocking E's True Hollywood Story, humorously introduced DeCaro. The laugh-out-loud documentary-farce poked fun at gay stereotypes, by comically detailing DeCaro's life chuck-full of them. "I couldn't fit in at school growing up," DeCaro's voice-over said."It's difficult when you're so fabulous." The dramatic, deep-voiced narrator talked of DeCaro's Hollywood fame, and his personal "style in the industry" "It was known as bitchiness." The funniest mockery of DeCaro's life as portrayed in the clip was a drug-like addiction battle with concession-stand candy, where he was forced to seek help at the Betty White Clinic. The real DeCaro, who entered the stage to warm applause and trailing laughter talked about why he left The Daily Show. "One can only wait for Jon Stewart (Daily Show host) to leave his wife for so long," DeCaro said with a smile DeCaro who describes himself as "gay for pay," spent the next hour talking of past and future projects, showing clips from The Daily Show and organizing his note cards. DeCaro's humor often flew down various tangents and he seemed to be unsure of where he was (in his performance) according to where he should be. But the outlandish scatter-brained, inner-monologue moments were funny to watch. "Oh, where was I going with that," he repeatedly said to himself. DeCaro showed nine segments from The Daily Show's "Out at the Movies with Frank DeCaro" where he's famous for finding gay sub-texts in mainstream movies. The nine clips left the audience screaming with laughter and were definitely the highlight of DeCaro's performance. His raunchy, witty, gay-innuendo comments gave each film an almost obvious, why-didn't-I-see-it-before homosexual slant. In Disney's Tarzan, the big, strong, masculine male ape finally accepts Tarzan into his pack with a firm and bold, "I said he could stay that doesn't make him my son." "Ladies and gentlemen," DeCaro says as if he were introducing someone, "my father." DeCaro's clips ranged from Star Wars, Episode One to Gladiator and evenThe Exorcist. Each segment was rich and lush with DeCaro's funny critiques, and some overly baked with his alarming one-line quips. "I haven't seen a bed shake that much since I bought Top Gun on DVD," DeCaro says after showing an eerie scene from The Exorcist. After the "fabulous" show (as said by many who attended) I caught up with DeCaro for a quick Q&A (really quick, like two questions. He had a lot of fans waiting to talk to him) DeCaro, a New York resident said he was excited to come to Utah (his first time here) and was happy with the turnout. "But more importantly," he said, "I love the enthusiasm. It's more about enthusiasm than numbers anyway." The audience certainly was enthusiastic. And it appears they have a lot to be enthusiastic about. DeCaro's performance just ended the most "successful festival ever," according to Pridefest's organizers. And according to me -- it was just, well -- fabulous.
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