At the Chicago Stand-Up School celebrated comedians teach students how to be funny. That’s the theory. But comedians are rivalrous and tend to see others as the enemy. When super-famous Manny Reinhardt arrives as a guest lecturer, staff and students are polarised between wanting to learn from his genius, and to prosecute him for his much-publicised problems with women. On an eventful day, several lives collide. Among the students Artie is probably too handsome for comedy, Olivia too reluctant to face her past, Phil to risk offence. On the faculty, Kruger spends too much time trying to command his father’s respect, Ashbee is tired of sleeping with white women who congratulate themselves for his Blackness, and Dorothy, the only woman on staff, is wondering how her talent is connected to her loneliness. In exquisite shifts of perspective, The Material examines life through the eyes of a band of outsiders who are trying to turn their difficulties into entertainment. Welcome to the stage, Camille Bordas, a novelist as skilful, compelling and surprising as the best stand-ups.
