Jon Bennett never set out explore the deepest recesses of the human condition with his comedy show Pretending Things Are A Cock. But the show is a provocative, painfully hysterical commentary on society’s obsession with dick jokes.
Pretending Things Are A Cock, which is part of this year’s Zoofest comedy festival, centers around the mother of all dick jokes: holding vaguely dick-shaped things at crotch level and snapping photos to show all your friends and have a laugh. It never gets old and we’ve all done it.
Bennett was taken by surprise when this most enjoyable of pastimes took on a life of its own and catapulted the humble dick joke to epic, worldwide conquest. No monument is left untouched. No object, however misshapen, is safe from becoming the butt of this joke.
Many years and hundreds of photos later, Bennett has curated the best of his collection into the show. The photos are brought to life with his incredibly engrossing storytelling. The storyline meanders through tales from his childhood, growing up with his dick-obsessed bully of a brother to lifelong bonds forged in moments of desperation on his travels.
Pretending Things Are A Cock is one man’s quest to understand his own preoccupation with pretending phallic objects are his dick. But it’s something that is so relatable it unifies us all. The cock in all its various forms is forever hilarious, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or maturity level.
* Photos by Chris Zacchia
Pretending Things Are A Cock is showing tonight, July 17 at Katacombes at 11:30 p.m. See the Zoofest website for more info.
