Kalup Linzy, Churen Trading Mess: Conversations Wit De Churen Episodes I – VII
09/05/09 6:30 p.m.
posted by: Allison Halter
On the Telephone in Conversations Wit De Churen
Kalup Linzy’s Conversations Wit De Churen is populated with a wide variety of archetypal characters: successful businesswoman who has distanced herself from her family, struggling artist, disapproving mother, frail but fiercely protective grandmother, conditionally accepted gay son, but the thread that draws them all together is the telephone. Characters spend entire episodes on the phone, the implied telephone line (though only one phone actually still has a cord; most are cordless, and finally, in the latest episodes, cellular) becomes the space in which much of the drama plays out. Conversations stack up, interrupt each other with “Hold on, I gotta beep,” and ricochet from one character to another.
While this allows Linzy to play multiple characters interacting with each other, it also allows the viewer to read the entire series as the artist’s singular, self-reflective conversation. In most of the episodes, all of the character’s voices are overdubbed by Linzy, which is done to comic effect. And yet, for all the purposefully humorous, obviously melodramatic overacting, there is a real poignancy in the conversations. Loneliness, self-doubt, regret, and longing permeate these interactions, allowing the viewer locate the emotional center of the work. Even a scene as gloriously ludicrous as Taiwan calling a phone psychic from the bubble bath, who then demands a song for inspiration (“Oh please, pretty please, with ice cream, and cherries, and nuts. And nuts. Lots of nuts”) is upon further reflection deeply moving, all the more for its superficial absurdity.
With the prevalence of the cell phone, notions of private and public conversations have shifted rapidly in a relatively short period of time. Conversations Wit De Churen implicitly acknowledges this occurrence and uses it to create an empathetic connection with the audience. These Conversations aren’t simply a formulaic comedic device, rather they present an opportunity to consider our own inner dialogue.
