Lake Highlands H.S. Grad David Carl Channels Gary Busey as a One-Man Hamlet

Benedict Cumberbatch may be getting heavy ink for his Hamlet at London’s Barbican Theatre. But 400 miles north in Edinburgh, Lake Highlands High School grad David Carl, 34, is playing all the roles, plus one, in his hit solo comedy Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet as Performed by David Carl at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

We’ve seen it. Carl makes Busey’s madness a good match for the Prince of Denmark’s. As Polonius, the one who advises “to thine own self be true,” Busey adds “and always wear a helmet.” The tour de force performance, drenched in sweat and spittle, is batshit-nuts-hilarious. Dialogue gets drowned out by the audience roaring with laughter.

As one of the shows in the largest theater fest in the world (this summer there are 3,399 shows in more than 350 venues spread across the Scottish capital), Carl’s came into the month-long run with impressive buzz and great reviews from other festivals. The Times of London, among others, named it one of the must-see shows of this year’s Fringe. Critics have heaped four- and five-star reviews on Carl since he opened August 7 in a 150-seat space called the Underbelly, and ticket sales are strong.

Using paper dolls and finger puppets (all with versions of Busey’s image on them), plus interactive video and short diversions into scenes from Busey’s roles in Lethal Weapon, The Buddy Holly Story and other films, Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet never mocks the star. He has, after all, dealt with traumatic brain injury from a nearly fatal motorcycle wreck. He is most familiar to UK audiences as the winner of the UK version of the Big Brother reality show. Instead, Carl mocks Shakespeare, with Busey declaring some scenes in Hamlet “non-essential,” skipping to the next. (More productions should do this.)

During a break at the Fringe, Carl, 34, talked to us as himself and, for one brief, exquisite moment, as Gary Busey.
Benedict Cumberbatch may be getting heavy ink for his Hamlet at London’s Barbican Theatre. But 400 miles north in Edinburgh, Lake Highlands High School grad David Carl, 34, is playing all the roles, plus one, in his hit solo comedy<i> Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet as Performed by David Car</i>l at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. <br> <br> We’ve seen it. Carl makes Busey’s madness a good match for the Prince of Denmark’s. As Polonius, the one who advsies “to thine own self be true,” Busey adds “and always wear a helmet.” The tour de force performance, drenched in sweat and spittle, is batshit-nuts-hilarious. Dialogue gets drowned out by the audience roaring with laughter.<br> <br> As one of the shows in the largest theater fest in the world (this summer there are 3,399 shows in more than 350 venues spread across the Scottish capital), Carl’s came into the month-long run with impressive buzz and great reviews from other festivals. <i>The Times of London, </i>among others, named it one of the must-see shows of this year’s Fringe. Critics have heaped four- and five-star reviews on Carl since he opened August 7 in a 150-seat space called the Underbelly, and ticket sales are strong.<br> <br> Using paper dolls and finger puppets (all with versions of Busey’s image on them), plus interactive video and short diversions into scenes from Busey’s roles in<i> Lethal Weapon,</i> <i>The Buddy Holly Story </i>and other films, <i>Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet </i>never mocks the star. He has, after all, dealt with traumatic brain injury from a nearly fatal motorcycle wreck. He is most familiar to UK audiences as the winner of the UK version of the <i>Big Brother</i> reality show. Instead, Carl mocks Shakespeare, with Busey declaring some scenes in Hamlet “non-essential,” skipping to the next. (More productions should do this.)<br> <br> During a break at the Fringe, Carl, 34, talked to us as himself and, for one brief, exquisite moment, as Gary Busey.<br> <iframe width="860" height="483" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BBjiApNgdEM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen uk-responsive class="uk-width-1-1 uk-margin"></iframe<b>How does a guy from Lake Highlands end up in Scotland playing Gary Busey doing all the roles in Shakespeare’s greatest drama?</b><br>  It started at the Lake Highlands High School theater department, which was amazing. The teachers, Nancy Poynter [who taught there for 20 years before retirement in 2000] and Tim Johnson [a company member at Kitchen Dog Theater] treated us like adults, like we were working actors. Those that wanted to take it seriously stayed with it. At least once a month, they’d take us to plays at Kitchen Dog, Dallas Theater Center, Undermain. Incredible productions. It was risky stuff that was great to be exposed to. I went from there to a great theater program at University of Evansville [Indiana] and then got my master’s at Rutgers. I moved to New York at 25 and started taking lots of stand-up, sketch and improv classes at this place called The People’s Improv Theatre, The PIT. I realized what I liked doing was making my own work and I’ve been doing that for five years now. I made The PIT my artistic home. The mission there is “Take risks and do comedy that’s theatrical.”<br> <br> <b>You were a preacher’s kid growing up in Dallas as the son of now-retired First Presbyterian Church pastor Dr. William J. Carl III. You both share a love of solo performance then?</b><br> I grew up watching him do a one-man show every Sunday. He would preach with no notes. He would tell jokes. I watched him do a thousand sermons. The notion of getting in front of people and understanding that you need to care about what you’re saying and you need to keep people’s attention, he was very good at that. I have a respect for being the only person in the room allowed to speak.<br> <br> <b>One-Man Hamlet isn’t the first time you’ve played Gary Busey. How did you lock onto an impression of him?</b><br> About 10 years ago I was visiting my friend in LA. I gave him a sneer and he said, “You look like Jake Busey, the son.” Other people said Gary or Jake. I do impressions and I pay attention to that stuff. About five years ago another friend was trying to help cast this Gary Busey infomercial. I had done a Nick Nolte [impression] and never done a Busey, but I worked on it for a week. Then I get this audition notice for <i>Point Break Live!</i>, a live version of the movie Busey did with Keanu Reeves that ran off-Broadway. It’s really fun to play Busey. So I thought, what can I do with my own show? There’s not a lot of theater credits on Busey’s resume when you research him. He didn’t do a lot of plays. He did sketch comedy shows in the early ’70s in Tulsa. He’s originally from Baytown, Texas.<br> <br> I thought, oh, man, I bet he would be itching to do a giant theater piece. I started thinking about productions of Shakespeare – Frank Langella’s Hamlet, Alan Cumming did Macbeth by himself. I created the thing in two months and did it for SoloCom, a festival of all-new shows in New York City. Then I did the New York Fringe and it went well. The stars just aligned to do Edinburgh. It’s the most fun I’ve had doing anything.<br> <br> <b>Give us some idea how Busey performs all the characters in <i>Hamlet</i> in only 70 minutes.<br></b>Gary starts out every scene with the greatest intentions and you don’t know where he’s gonna go, but wherever he goes, he kind of resets at the beginning of the next scene. It’s got a little bit of everything I’ve always loved doing – I love to sing, love sketch comedy, love good theater. Gary is honestly trying to do the play well.<br> <br> I portray him as impulsive and childlike, but as positive as he can be. He has all this energy. Now he’s 20 years sober and doing the best he can.<br> <br> <b>Lots of Busey-isms make their way into your show, those weird acrostic word things the real Gary does.</b><br> Yes, a Busey-ism takes “revenge” and makes it “Ruining Everything Violent Elephants Never Get Even.” I’m selling my Busey-ism paintings on the street in Edinburgh for £35. Gary says in the show that for £3500, he’ll come paint your whole house.<br> <br> <b>At a performance the other day, four really drunk guys in the first row started trying to heckle you, but you shut them down, in character, and won them over at the end.</b><br> [Doing his Busey voice] Gary is always the craziest guy in the room. Everyone else is just angels in human suits.<br> <br> <i>David Carl will perform Gary Busey’s One-Man Hamlet through August 30 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.</i><br>