"Tidy and engaging"

No, not me -- the show! That's according to the Chicago Reader, at least.

The review came out today and I honestly was about to vomit in my mouth on the way to pick it up. There's a bookstore three miles from my place that gets the paper (it's a weekly) hours earlier than most other places in town. So I went down there to get it, came back, typed it up (it doesn't go online until tonight or tomorrow), and e-mailed and posted it all over the Internet world.

I was really worried they'd have something particularly savage to say about the show, as they very often do about others, so I was actually hoping toward the end for a merely tepid, mediocre review. But I got more -- so much more:

THE ONE-EYED CAT AND OTHER TALES OF NEED -- This tidy, engaging little collection of one-acts from Danger Boy Productions comes courtesy of writer Rob Biesenbach and director Rob Chambers, Second City guys both. Like Biesenbach's scripts, the acting is occasionally workmanlike but admirably honest and unmannered. Jack McCabe and Spencer Wawak, the oldest and youngest in the ensemble, fare best in scenes driven by generational conflict, while Jonathan Beran and Cameron Jappe are most adept with lighter, Durang-meets-Python stuff. There's a faint familiarity to all the scenarios, but only The Ledge, a two-suicides-meet-cute bit, feels completely played out. And as directed by Chambers, Jappe and Catherina Kusch make even that one go down easy -- so to speak. -- Brian Nemtusak

It's funny that The Ledge was his least favorite -- audiences have seemed to respond really strongly to that one in particular. And I suppose it can be interpreted as a tad condescending in places -- "little one-acts" and "occasionally workmanlike." But hell, I'll take "engaging" and "admirably honest and unmannered" any day! Very interesting word choice indeed, considering I wrote this about them just a few weeks ago: "I'd like to think there's a unique point of view. And some true, honest moments. That they're at least compelling and hold the audience's attention."

Now I can breathe. If I have the energy, I will create little labels with quotes from the review and stick them on the posters that are up around town.